Day 9 and 10 of the Canada vacation

Day 9

When: July 1, 2014
Total bear count: 2
Weather: sunny and hot, 25-29 degrees

We did not have breakfast in the motel. We did have coffee so we made our own. But today was a very special day! It is Canada day! This is celebrated by eating pancakes with each other in the morning. HW found out where in Kamloops they would make those pancakes so we went to that location which was a in a park near a tennis court. We parked our car and went to the location. In that park there was a fair from artists showing all their merchandise. In the back was a tennis court where the line started for the pancakes. We had some nice breakfast with three pancakes with maple syrup, three sausages and coffee.

With our stomach full we left Kamloops with our little Canadian flag stuck in our back door of the car we bought the day before. Our destination for today was Wells Gray provincial park. Our strategy for today was to start site seeing at the end of the park and work our way back. A good choice because we spotted a brown version of the black bear next to the road. We started at Clearwater lake where we made some lovely pictures. We had to wait for some German women though to stop swimming before I could make the shot. We then left for our next stop which wad just a bit to the south where we ate our lunch at the same lake. It was near a cafe, so that meant coffee for me and fresh juice for HW.

After lunch we walked a small trail towards Dragon’s Tongue to a bridge over a nice fall. That was a nice hike. We continued to go south and saw other places like Norm’s Eddy, Bailey’s Chute and Ray’s Farm which was already taken by nature. During the hikes we found our new nemesis for this vacation: Mosquitoes. HW and I both protected ourselves before the walk. It was hot so I probably lost my protection by sweating. I had like 20+ bites during the walks in the park.. After putting the medicine on for the bites we went for the two highlights. Helmcken and Dawson falls. Helmcken was more powerful than I remembered 13 years ago. Probably more water in July than in September. Dawson falls was just as awesome as I remembered and is still the same as the picture that my brother took and that is hanging in my living room.

After the falls we went to our lodge that we booked just outside of the park. After we had beaten down most the Mosquitoes in our room we went to the restaurant to get some beers and some pork. We had quite a shy Belgian as a waiter. The poor guy even asked us if we wanted Budweisser. We ate for more money than our room price! After dinner we called it the night quickly since we had no WIFI.

Day 10

When: July 2, 2014
Total bear count: 4
Weather: hot, 30 degrees

We started the day of with an horrible breakfast of dry bread we still had and coffee in our rooms. Today was a travel day. We left for Jasper National Park and found a bear on the road straight away! Sadly it ran away sooner than I could take a picture of it. HW also drover over a squirrel, the poor fellow. We made a stop at Spahat Falls first before leaving the park. When we arrived back in civilization we found out that our prepaid phone number we bought from Rogers does not work in the Rockies. We had to look for rooms the old fashioned way. We drove to Mt. Robson provincial park and talked to a nice lady at the visitor center who pointed us to a nice motel in Tete Jeune Cache near the river. While we drove to that motel we spotted bear number two near a camper parked alongside the road. In the panic of getting out of the car to take a picture I launched my phone on the streets and broke it’s screen.. In the motel we had WIFI we booked our room in Hinton straight away for the next day to avoid further accommodation problems.

We went back to Mt. Robson park to visit some falls near the road. They were Rear Guard Falls and Overlander Falls. We also found a geocache near the visitor center. There was also a nice trail to a lake but that was too far to do in that day. Before we went to the motel we found a geocache that was located near our place where we sleep. Back at the motel we ate at the restaurant with the best view over a river with mountains and we relaxed in the motel afterwards.