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  • Day 8

    Harley's and Horses

    August 3, 2017 in Canada ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Today we had a later start as activity was nearby at 9.30. So we went down to breakfast a bit later at 8. Was still busy but not as queued as yesterday. Sam witnessed some elderlies trying to put pastries and cheese into the toasting machine, until staff members screamed at them!

    Breakfast done we ambled down to the Jasper Motorcycle company about 10 minutes walk away and arrived at 9. No-one was there but a lady appeared a couple of minutes later having been out to get her coffee. We went in and did the waiver forms then wandered out for a bit until the drivers arrived. A pharmacy next door gave us chance to get something for Tash's mouth that seemed to be a bit sore. Got some mouthwash prescription then went back to the shop. Drivers Rob and Rob were there so started to kit us out. Leather chaps, bandanas, leather jackets, helmets and sunnies all provided - we all turned into scary bikers.

    Out to the bikes which were limited edition Harley's number 7 ands 13 of 15. Cost about C$60k each. Ed and Tash wanted to sit in the sidecar first as they were a bit nervous, so Sam and I were on the back. It was like sitting in a comfy armchair and very stable. We had a photo taken, then were off. The growl from the engine was brilliant. Rob told Ed and I that people would stare at us now and we were no longer tourists but tourist attractions because of the Harley's! We had opted for the ride up to Edith Caevll mountain, which I had thought needed permits to get up, but only for tourists, the bikers as a commercial enterprise could go up without. So we got a cool ride to somewhere we wouldn't normally get to.

    The road up was proper Top Gear driving road, - the guys said it must have been designed by a biker as it was perfect! Lots of switchbacks and straights in between. Bear sightings did happen, but we were not lucky again today and didn't see any. Rob pointed out a gap in the trees on a bend where a bus had brake failure and ploughed straight through. After that buses and RV's were banned from the road. We hit a slower moving car so pulled over to a viewpoint for some pics and saw some hoodoos - harder rock within softer that erodes slower and forms spiky bits.

    Went up again and stopped about 1k below the car park area for more pics. Ed and Tash wanted to swap to the back seat now and loved it. We got to the parking lot which was being redeveloped after a huge chunk of glacier fell off the mountain side a few years back into the lake underneath and caused a tsunami down the valley washing away the car park. Fortunately this was at 5.30am so no one was there. Whilst redeveloping, the numbers allowed up are restricted. We pulled over and walked a little way up the path for views of the Edith Cavell mountain and the glacier. Also Angel glacier visible, so called as looks like an angel with wings has fallen face down on the mountain.

    Then back down. Rob had some fun with Ed teasing that the popping engine was him farting! He also slowed down a few times so he could accelerate up to the speed limit - Ed loved this. He showed Ed how to say hello in biker style - 2 fingers held out sideways, which Ed did to passing motorists. No bears again on the way down and with some time left we went via Beauvert Lake and saw the local golf club - great course but pricey food in the clubhouse it seemed. We said hello to some passing girls, who both answered exactly the same things in unison - very spooky.

    Heading back to base a train was passing through town. These can be two miles long so we detoured round to pass over the railway. Rob took a detour as he said, like horses the first one back gets the best spot and he wanted to beat other Rob who had sneaked in front at the lake. We did just despite having to wait for some tourists to cross the road. Our bike was more powerful but had no reverse gear, the other one did. So Rob manually reversed in, making beep beep beep sounds as he did so. Rob talked about the massive RV's that folks travel around in and said the craziest one he had seen was towing a helicopter behind it!

    We got our kit off and said goodbye to the guys, purchasing the pictures taken. Think this was the highlight of the holiday so far, certainly for the kids. Tash wants to do it again somewhere else, not sure there is anyone offering similar but we can look.

    We had a sandwich and coffee in the cafe next door then headed back to the hotel to freshen up ahead of the horse riding. Many horsepower down to one. We headed up the 10 minute drive to Jasper Horse Riding Stables and arrived about 1.30. The place looked like an old Western Ranch and they had 30 or so horses saddled up ready to go - explained why they were flexible with the booking arrangements, they had enough horses and guides for people just to turn up and go. We were allocated horses, a little bit like the sorting hat process with Harry Potter, mine was Sonny, Sam's Sultan, Tash had Outlaw and Ed had xxxx. Our guide was an English girl from Bath called Jenny who had only been working there a couple of weeks. We set off just the 4 of us and her on a well marked trail that was a bit more maintained and wider then the last riding we did.

    The horses were well behaved and the 'eaters' had nose bags on to discourage them from munching foliage. The path climbed a bit then came out along the side of the valley, with views of the mountains around Jasper and some of the places we had been on the bikes earlier - the lake for one. Jenny gave us a few facts about the area and the trees we were in. Some of them that looked like Silver Birch were Whispering Aspen - their bark was covered in white dust which was their protection against sunburn. They also had tumour growths on them and as they are all connected with the same root system, once one gets it many of the surrounding ones will too. There were more of the pine trees with the pine beetle infection.

    The horses were very gentle to ride and it was nice in the forest as it was a bit cooler. Ed is now more confident on the horse and wouldn't be worried to do another trek after these two.

    We were out for an hour and a bit and returned to buy the photos they had taken of us and had ice creams, then headed back to the hotel. Filled up with petrol again - went straight in this time and left credit card with the folks inside. We relaxed there for a couple of hours, went in the hot tubs and I dozed on the sun loungers outside before we headed to the Fiddle River restaurant that we had rolled over our booking from the previous night. Food was good they though weren't very adaptable with dairy free options for Sam. Most of us had fish as we had had plenty of meat so far. Ed picked up his breaded fish and chips with his hands - turned out later he didn't have any cutlery as he had sent it back with the starters and didn't bother to ask for any more!

    We skipped dessert as we were full but also hoped to catch the ice cream shop open again - it was. We each had two scoops, which was too much for Ed - I had cookie dough and salted caramel, very tasty they were again.
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