Friday August 23, 2024
Last night we confirmed that one of the pinnacles of Dad’s dream journey, the Icefield Parkway, was mostly closed due to extensive wildland fires in Jasper Park. We were disappointed but re-routed and went to bed with a new plan. Perhaps it was divine intervention, but when I woke in the morning, I was online confirming our route and Voila!! the Icefields Parkway had just been fully re-opened 30 minutes earlier. We were on! With breakfast in our bellies and bikes packed, we backed out of our parking spots. But No!! Someone had stolen both my wing mirrors! This makes riding more dangerous, but what’s a person to do? “Keep calm and carry on”. Off we went to Lake Louise and Banff into Kootenay National Park and ultimately the Icefields Parkway. Another stellar day of weather for our viewing pleasure of all the glaciers. While traffic flowed smoothly along the way, it was shocking how many people were travelling the Parkway. Since there were so many cars, the temptation that David usually has to pass was all but non-existent so the lack of mirrors didn’t impact me much, at first.
I lack the words to describe the colours, the scale, the awesomeness of these mountains and glaciers. This is a part of our world that is virtually untouched by man, but not unimpacted. Dad remembers coming here 30 years ago to see Columbia Icefield and was dismayed to see how it had so dramatically shrunk. But with that aside, it is still break taking. A blessing that we were not expecting ,was that just north of the Columbia Icefield all the traffic disappeared. Literally, all the cars vanished, it was eerie. I suspect that no-one knew that the Parkway had re-opened – it was like a private showing, just for us. We could stop on the road (since all the view points were still barricaded) and take as many pictures as we’d like. That carried on for probably 45 minutes, then we were off the Parkway.
At the north end of the Icefields Parkway we were faced with the devastation of this year’s massive wildland fires in Jasper National Park. We all know that the fires were big and many even expressed concern that we would be near the area, but to see the vast forests, valleys and mountain sides that are nothing but charred ground and blackened trunks gives me pause and reminds me that humans are not all knowing and powerful, we can be ruined by nature like lightning, drought, extreme wind and climate change.
As has become our habit, we waited until we knew where we expected to land before finding accommodations and we found another gem in Hinton, Alberta. Happy and tired after a day of mountain viewing, and splendid winding roads, we all slept well and were ready for the next and final day.
Saturday August 24
Today is our departure day. We decided to have a good last breakfast and planned to be on the road by 10:00. The only fault in the plan is that it is POURING RAIN! Oh well, we can’t wait it out, we have a plane to catch. Off we go in rain that is so hard, that all I can do is keep David’s taillight in sight. Thankfully its Saturday morning and there is very little traffic, so we can keep our giddy up on, as David might say. The rain stops after about 2 hours and we eventually arrive at the Honda dealer, return the Goldwing and get our luggage sorted into the bags we left behind at the dealership when we started.
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What an amazing trip! Loved following along with you even if in print & pictures ;). Look forward to catching up with you & hearing the stories! Glad everyone is back safe.