Tripometer – 6070
Gas Gauge – 476.551 gal
Location – Whistlers Campground, Jasper National Park, AB, Canada
Lodging – $33 CAD
Cans of OFF – 4
Between Paul’s coughing, the dog trying to share the one small bed with us, and the 36 degree temps outside, no one got much sleep last night. We’ve grown so accustomed to sleeping in separate beds (or a king bed at home) that sleeping in such close quarters is a no-go. We’re going to set up Paul to sleep in the aisleway of the trailer tonight.
No break in the cold weather today. Temps have been hovering in the mid 50s during the day and dropping into the 30s almost every night since we arrived in the Canadian National Parks. The little furnace in the trailer has been keeping our toes from falling off in the night, but at the same time our trailer isn’t insulated and we don’t want to heat the whole forest so we keep the thermostat at its lowest setting, somewhere in the mid 40s.
Today we took a hike around the Five Lakes trail in Jasper N.P. Aside from the glut of tourists on the trail, it was a beautiful walk through a very different forest than we are used to. We’re still stunned by the clarity of the lakes and streams in the area. You may be able to tell from the image above that you can see straight to the bottom of all five lakes we walked to today. It was astonishing.
We both got a kick out of the ‘Danger: Rutting Season” rubber stamp on the campground map. The Elk rut invariably leads to bad interactions between tourists and the Elk. We just found it funny that they have a rubber stamp for it. What else does someone have a rubber stamp for that we’d find amusing? That’s probably not a healthy thing to contemplate.
We topped off the day with very expensive beers purchased in the town of Jasper. We’re not sure if it’s the tourist location or taxes but we paid $13 CAD for one six-pack of kind of crappy beer. Probably both.