The journey of five mountain ranges

We learned something new today. We had been hearing about various mountains each day of our tour. What we hadn't been aware of was that we have actually been shifting between five different mountain ranges. Today, for the first time, we actually entered the Rocky Mountains. Originally the different mountain ranges had been on different tectonic plates and they crashed into each other a few million years ago and began pushing and shoving until they overlapped and began pushing up. The Rockies seem to be bigger than the other mountains so far. One of the first really big mountains in the Rockies was Mt Robson. Well, we just had to take people's word for the full size. We couldn't see the top at all.

When we got up this morning there was the lightest drizzle and moistness in the air. None of us was troubled by this. The hotels all seem to keep their airconditioning on high temperatures and so stepping out into some fresh and cooling air was delightful. The clouds were quite high so we felt that it might be grey but reasonably clear. After about half way through the morning I noticed a small cloud hovering between mountains and I thought this an interesting feature. Then they grew in number and density. Soon we were driving through clouds while it was still drizzling. Odd. By the time we got to Mt Robson, the air was still damp. It was not raining, but the clouds completely hid the top of the mountain. Apparently, this is not unusual. On two out of every five days the top of the mountain cannot be seen at all. It is so tall that it creates its own climate. Even if the rest of the region is experiencing fine weather it can be snowing on top. We took photos but they revealed very little. Just a waterfall from the recent rain and a pocket or two of snow.

We stopped at Mt Robson to have lunch. Ross decided he was going to tick something off his bucket list. He was going to eat poutine. It is a special Canadian favourite. So, while I ate a garden salad he ate deep fried chips covered in cheese curd and smothered in gravy. He really needed to eat some of the greens and I took some of his poutine. It was not as bad as I had thought, but I wouldn't want to eat it too often. Ross has decided that we could have it at home occasionally. We will have to look into where to get the cheese curds.

On our journeying today I was looking out for one particular thing. I wanted to see a beaver swamp. I thought I might have seen some the other day but they had been small and I figured they were generally bigger. Well, I had my bucket list ticked to that as well today. It took a bit of close observation and in the speed of the bus racing down the highway this was a challenge. By the time I had decided that I was definitely looking at a beaver swamp there was not sufficient time to take the photo. They are really interesting. The ground is wet because of the damming of the river and bog plants grow thickly. Sometimes it would look like solid ground but then you would see the base of the plant and it was sitting in water. It would be really dangerous to walk through it. I could not see a lodge but this is not suprising because they are often well hidden. I feel confident that I saw what I wanted to see.

Things like the beaver activity are really important for the health of the forest. When they were hunted nearly to extinction they found that water birds, plant life and the trees around the site suffered from lack of steady moisture. When beavers stopped being hunted they returned to the forest in numbers and are now back to the numbers there had been before the great decimation.

Not so the actual forest though. Apparently there is a bug that likes to eat the second layer of bark on the many of the different pines. It has taken hold in the forest. The best way to manage it is to allow fire to reduce the thickness of the forest. Secondly, at a particular time in the life cycle of the bug, severe cold will kill it off. Severe cold means temperatures 40 degrees below zero. These temperatures have not been met in the last few years. And they tell us that climate change is not real!!!? When the bug is adult, it moves to a nearby tree, burrows in and lays eggs. The larvae then eat the bark and essentially ring bark the tree. These movements can be timed to almost exact dates on the calendar, they are so predictable. They can just happen on too large a scale to manage. On one particular day a few years ago, a strong wind blew through a forested area that had the bugs in it. The bugs were in flight mode. The wind picked them up and blew them long distances away from their original site. It was so noticable that weather forecasters couldn't work out what this mass of substance was in the radar. When they realised it was the bugs they knew it was a disaster. Within twelve months they could tell that the infestation had taken hold over huge areas and that many hectares were dying. They had no idea that whole forest were dying. Whole national parks were condemned. The trees take three years to lose cohesion and they can still be harvested during this time but they can't keep up. When they are all gone, the logging industry will fail and the whole region will go into economic crisis . All because of a bug. It will take another 30 years to grow the trees back.

In another area, fires have taken hold and destroyed miles of forest. It looks a very harsh environment with only burnt trunks sticking up in the air. The balance then is a challenge. They need the fires but the fires get too big and too hot.

Mind you I have never seen so many trees. The forest is completely dense. When they talk about geting lost in a forest I could clearly understand it. I think the word "impenetrable" would be the most apt word. I could not see gaps at all at times . I kept looking for bears and moose but I couldn't see beyond the first row of trees, they were so thick.

I didn't mention morning tea time. This was at Dutch Lake where the painted turtle lives. This turtle is not noticeable from the top because it is a plain boring green colour. However, its underneath is apparently brightly coloured and each is different from the other. We didn't see any. It was too cold for them. I did see a cute cat!

Before arrriving in Jasper this evening, we called into the town and wandered around for a while. We bought one or two souvenirs and took photos of the local totem pole. It is a bit awkward, but totem poles do not belong to inland first nations. They belong to coastal peoples. We were inland. It seems everyone is in to cultural appropriation. It is a nice pole though. I bought a book on them and discovered that the saying that someone is on the bottom of the totem pole is actually the best place to be, not the worst as most people think. It is where the people can see the most and it is therefore the most significant. I shall read more because I am interested to learn about the significance of each of the regular creatures that appear on the poles.

At dinner tonight we finally sat down with the other Victorians on the tour. Well, it is probably inevitable, but Don works on Puffing Billy as a volunteer. He and his wife live in Camberwell. I expect we might actually run into these people again.

Tonight was also washing night and Ross has just come in from finishing off the clothes. Now he wants to read through this blog to make sure I have got the destinations, distances and details right. Over to him now.Read more