Day 6 – up to the top of whistlers

I am still not sure how this day managed to get so comprehensively away from us. perhaps we overacheived the day before? it made us play catchup on part of the journey that we would have preferred to have taken more slowly. i think it may have been breakfast. we must have taken too long. it was probably pancake day. i know i made them to tempt the girls out of bed . eventually we packed up and said goodbye to wabasso campground and went to the jasper tramway there was a bit of a wait before we could go up so it was getting to lunchtime before we took the tram up. whilst waiting we looked in the shop and bought some gifts for grandparents, and also a couple of postcards and icecreams

I loved the ride up, me, so not very good at heights it was smooth, felt safe and the most fabulous of views. there is a conductor in every cabin, and they talk about what you can see where. certainly some of the lakes we didn’t get to around jasper looked beautiful too. lovely shades of green, and we could clearly see pyramid and patricia lakes. there was also a really reall long train making its way to BC. it takes 7 mins to get to the top, and it is a fair bit colder there! we had a look at the info boards around the walkway [and realised we were at a dead end, so naughtilly went through a no entry. we then set off up the very steep trail to the summit.
We went up fairly slowly it has to be said, but i was determined to do the climb. it is steep, and actually fairly busy with lots of people going up and down and its shale and feels uncertain under feet.however, in the end the girls and dh did the final bit without me. And i think that is the thing i regret about the holiday. it was v steep and shale slippery and i started feeling v v vertiginous and quite quite dizzy. not helped by at a pause a man getting the collywobbles and going down. i tried a bit more, but let scaredness get the better of me, as t got steeper and slippier. i had done 3/4 i think at that point and had really wanted to go up more, but was feeling v dizzy and edge of the world precipice like [tho there wasn't one] so i missed going up to the final top with dh and girls, and felt i had let everyone down . i have resolved to try not to let that happen again.

they loved the top, didn’t see any hoary marmots and loved the snow – as there is a ridgeline dip with snow there to tramp through. i knew as soon as i couldn’t see them and had gone down a bit to where i felt safer that i had made the entirely wrong decision and nearly decided to follow them, but … ho hum. i did get to have a fab co versation with a singaporean lady and her daughter who now live in BC, and looking up, i did get quite far really. the views were fabulous, but it was busy with lots of people up a slippery narrow path, not the same sense of peace and tranquility. I also spotted a small route signposted easier route – sign post had been far too small on the way up!

the family returned, i said goodbye to the singaporeans and we went back down to the top station and had lunch. it was far to salty and bb wouldn’t eat hers. DH and I managed as hungrier and also resting paying loads of money to leave food we had sweet potatoes and garlic bread – v nutritious . we went down the tramway again, back to the motorhome and back into jasper for a few things before setting off for the icefields parkway.

except it didn;t happen quite like that. our cashcard got rejected, we realised we had topped up less and spent more, and due to wififreeness did a fair bit of banking on iphone, where silly swipes make passwords and tiny buttons difficult! then we needed to check it out and buy petrol. we lost the next 2 hours and therefore the moving on, so decided to spend the night at wapiti camp and leave first thing in the morning. it also rained!! how not on! The girls and i did get to tidy the motorhome though, and see a train shunting back and forth – a passenger train for a change too.

on our way back we saw a herd of deer. I wasn’t entirely sure whether they were white tailed or mule deers and they ran off into the woodland. Later i found out they were mule deer from looking at antler shapes. We got to wapiti – another great parks canada campground, cooked chilli in wraps for tea, which is always lovely, played with the girls, and SB did some journal before calling it an early night and setting the alarms for early in the morning. it was raining again, which didn’t bode well.

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