The two hunters John and his friend Ken were off for a 12 day hunt in the wilds of the Canadian Rockies with only what they got dropped off .
The flight and landing went real smooth. John and I wished these brave hardy souls our best and good luck for harvest of their quary. I think it was a special type of sheep "stone sheep" that only resides in that area of the Rockies. The sight of the rockies were pretty special from the air. Urs plane was a gorgeous DeHavilland Turbo Otte. It had a lot of power and just seemed to sprint out right out of the water. Urs was a good pilot with good careful flying skills plus smooth landing and quick take off's. He gave us a nice flight and was generous with his conversation. This is definately a place to return to. We were told that the place was pricey but found it reasonable for the value and an exceptionally well run place with nice courtous people. John also found out in talking with Urs that he had hosted Bob Knight for fly fishing trips for several years and he was also good friends with Norm Ellenberger, a former Knight assistant coach....
As we departed we thought about all the large animals we saw the previous day, near evening and how the best viewing for wildlife was at dusk. No sooner were the words out of our mouth when around the next bend were a herd of these special mountain sheep"Stone Sheep", only found around Muncho Lake.
Real cute things with heavy wool coats and nice coloring. I think they are hard to spot against the background in the wild. On the side of the road it was not hard to spot them. About 20 miles later we encountered a small herd of caribou. 
we got lots of pictures. They were in various stages of molting their velvet. They were licking the edges of the road. John and I think it was to get minerals or salt for thir diet. We next proceded to run into a number of small herds of caribou and then a small black bear ran right across the road in front of us, hopped up on top of a 3 1/2 ft concrete guard road edge and over it in a jiffy. Not too fast for our cameras but, unfortunately too fast for the photographers. We proceeded then to see a fox, mule deer, hawks and ravens as the day warmed up in the bright blue sky.It seemed that things could not get any better and we were up for anything. No other distractions came along and we were making good time to get to our next destination of Dawson Creek at a reasonable hour. We were looking forward to getting some blog stuff done and a little extra sleep, but things don't always go as planned up here in the north. We got into Dawson Creek and every motel in town was full . That was the case for the next 100 or more miles. It seems that they are experiencing a boom in the energy exploration and production up here. Pick up trucks filled the parking lots of motels everywhere. The one positive that came out of our bad luck in Dawson City was that a very nice desk clerk at a Ramada Inn got the room for us in BeaverLodge, mapped out an easy route to guide us down to Jasper National Park, told us to stop off in Hinton before entering the park to save money, and recommended a great place to stay in Pocahontas, just inside the park boundaries called The Log Cabins.
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| Beaverlodge Motel...(better than nothin') |
The other thing we missed in the dark of nite driving was the area of the Northern Alberta Tar Sands Projects. From energy importance this is a major contribution to Canadian economy as well as the energy needs of the world. These tar sands are going to supply the BP refinery back near home in Whiting Indiana.
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Wednsday we got on the road early and made good time toward Jasper in the Canadian Rockies.
We secured a beautiful cabin suite at the place the girl recommended Pocahontas Cabin Lodge. I had a bison ribeye done to perfection and John had salmon. After enjoying a wonderful meal with a good Scotch I retired to work on the photos. Reflecting & back-tracking a bit, along the way to Jasper, we stopped in the nice city of Grande Cache. This little unheard of place is a real gem for visitors to the Canadian Rockies. The gas prices were some of the best since we entered Canada, the visitor's center was a big help and this little city has the makings of the next Aspen. From the center of the city you are surrounded by twenty peaks. They have hunting, fishing, swimming, skying, horse riding, trails galore and just a clean neat friendly place to stop or spend some time. Both John and I are anxious to get past the driving push and relax a little. The problem is the weather is too nice and there are just too many things to see and do. No time to rest or catch up. Blogs are going to be late. 
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| A little hike up Sulphur River overlook for picnic lunch |
Thursday began with a late sleep in. It seems that we lost a couple of hours due to time zone changes in the last couple days. It went from Alaskan time to Pacific and now we are on mountain time. Well anyway I enjoyed the extra time in the sack even if it was an illusion. Today started with a plane tour by our Pilot Marty at Air Jasper.
We had lunch at "The Fairmont, Jasper Park Lodge"
and we enjoyed a long walk on the Maligne Canyon trail 
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| Lyle and Lorraine gave john and a ride back to our van after a very long mostly downhill walk thru the Maligne Canyon. Both of them retired, enjoying their new found free time together. |
This can be a dangerous situtation if you get too close but everyone stayed in their cars for the most part or a safe distance. We proceeded on and viewed the lake then proceeded to return for more shots of the herd of elk. By this time the group had moved to a new location but the female elk had quite a distance from the male. You could hear his bugle loud and clear and the females promptly reformed their group to a new area. Now the scene changed a bit. A unaware cyclist road his bike on a path right thru the middle of the eight female elk. He did not have any trouble but the alertness of the elk canaged a bit. Finally the big guy came into view again and strutted with his head up and pranched around. It was a grand display of the social relationship between him, the her elk and any potential suitors. We talked a bit with Byian & Donna who had been comming up here for the last 40 years. 
This partictular elk they have been filming for 4 years now. Brian explained that his impression was that this male elk had a little larger rack last year and was mild in habit as compared to sme agressive and mean elk he has witnessed in previous years and places. He was a good observer of these kings of the forest and pretty darn knowledgable. Brian was kind enough to give us more insight on the habits of these animals as well as a few stories. The mating of the elk which we were wandering about was pretty interesting. The male only gaurds his heron and defends sometimes to the death the right to his girls. The female comes into heat in two periods in the fall. This is times for them to calf in the next summer when food is most plentiful. Well when she is good and ready, she presents herself to the male who has keep all other choices away. As brian story goes a group of people were watching this display with awh and within 15 seconds it was over, when one of the women in the group spoke up and quietly said is that all she gets. Well that quiet comment must have traveled thru the group of on lookers because Brian said it brought the house down in laughter. Brian commented in every family some one has to where the pants.It was a good day. I could keep up with Dick and Larry. Who would figure the oldest guy on the trip (that would be John) would take the gloves off and "tour & sight see till we dropped" and do it all again the next day. Its not all his fault. The skies have been sunnny and clear now for about two weeks in a row. Every day by afternoon we have to shed our coats and long sleeve shirts because of the warmth. It is just incredible and there seems to be a new adventure awaiting around every corner and with every person we meet. It is important to listen to people because the brochures and guide books would sanitize a trip like this. People around here and there have been by far the best source of information and even some inspiration on where to stop and what to visit. The picture album for this day has more of the story with captions on some of the shots.
No more blog for today, I have too many old ones to finish. I will try to assemble the pictures to tell the rest of the story......Good Night!
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