Jasper in January 2020

"Skating" on Pyramid Lake

My friend Cheryl used to tell me that a tradition began once you did something 3 times. We are now two-thirds of the way to making our ski trip to Jasper in January a tradition.

I didn't take as many photos this year as I did on our inaugural trip in 2019 (here). Mostly because it was so flippin' cold. We'd been experiencing -30 to 40 degrees C in Alberta for the few weeks prior to this trip. And while the temperature was on the rise that weekend, it was still very cold and windy on the mountain. Removing my mitten to take a photo was beyond anything I wanted to be doing that day!

We tried to go skating on Pyramid Lake on Sunday morning, but thanks to the cold temps we don't think they had cleared or maintained it for some time. So we struggled through the snow and over the bumps for one lap and called it quits. Traditions don't have to be perfect every year. That's what makes trips like these more fun!

No fear Lucas went down a Black Diamond run by accident and had a good laugh about it

LOGISTICS
I'm trying to think of what kind of information I would find helpful if planning this trip again for the first time. That way I could include it here. I don't do anything special, or get any fabulous hidden deals. And I don't really have any secret tips to share.

I will say that I have stayed in many hotels in the town of Jasper over the years, and I was really impressed with Mount Robson on our recent stay. They were the best price for the weekend, but they also offer a free breakfast and recently renovated rooms. We were put in the pet room, which worried me at first. But it turned out to be a huge asset! We were tucked away in the corner of the ground floor and our room was huge! And no carpet! (I think hotel room carpet is the grossest thing ever).

The breakfast room also shows sign of a recent renovation. We took full advantage of their free breakfast that I'm going to call "Continental Plus". They offered the standard cold items like yogurt, fruit, cereal, pastries. But they also had a few very tasty hot items! Egg and sausage patties were staples. And they served swirly french toast on Saturday and poffertjes on Sunday. The space was very clean, and they had staff on hand to refresh breakfast items and clean up after guests.

In the chalet at Marmot Basin for an afternoon snack and warm-up

PRIVILEGE
Downhill skiing is expensive. And going on a ski trip is even more so. I consider myself so lucky that I am able to share this experience with Lucas, but I also am aware that so many more people are not able to experience it. This is something that I want to continue doing with him, but I am also considering how I can make it more accessible for us and for others. We rent our skis from a local shop (literally up the street), and would buy equipment second hand if necessary. I don't know how I would enable access for more people to ski - or even if that's a thing people want - but I'm putting it out there in the world and will see what comes back from it. A big part of privilege is in recognizing that you have it, and spreading that around to others who share your privilege.

Family selfie on the hill

BELONGING
Despite this privilege, I also recognize that I don't fit in with the typical impression of a downhill skier. I don't have a snazzy ski suit or expensive goggles. All of my equipment from my poles to my helmet are rentals. And at first glance I don't appear athletic. Oh, and I'm hella slow. But I am determined to use my other privileges to help carve a space for me on the hill. Because I just love it so dang much.


FURTHER READING
My family has been traveling to Jasper National Park since before I was born. And I have been documenting my trips in many ways, for many years. You can find all of my Jasper-related blog posts here.

I rent equipment for Lucas and I from Totem Outfitters in Edmonton. Highly recommend.

I've been doing some "research" on the history of the land and the Park, and will be sharing my thoughts in an Instagram story soon. In the meantime you too can read up on some of the racist, anti-Indigenous history of Jasper and the Parks system at these links:
The Shady Past of Parks Canada: Forced out, indigenous people are making a comeback by Graeme Hamilton (National Post, 2017)
Nations of Jasper welcomed back to the Park (Fitzhugh, 2012)
Hunting in Jasper - Reconciling the National Park Idea by Kevin van Tighem (Alberta Views, 2018)
Jasper National Park - The Canadian Encyclopedia
Aseniwuche Winewak Nation
Five National Parks that honour First Nations by Hans Tammemagi (Tyee, 2012)

xo
Lisa

Our Jasper Tradition - November 2019

Jasper Tradition - November 2019 from Lisa Kercher on Vimeo

I love making longer videos of all the snippets of videos I take on our vacations. It reminds me of old school home videos from when I was a kid. Except mine have captions!

Please enjoy this piece of our adventure from November 2019 in Jasper National Park. This weekend road trip is a tradition for us. We get a cabin in town on or around Remembrane Day - November 11 in Canada. The whole point of this tradition is to do a bit of exploring, do a bit of laying around, eat snacks, and visit the cemetery. On this particular occasion we went on a hella long walk, found a train, a cemetery, some elk, and some more elk. It was frosty and amazing, and I am so proud of us.

FURTHER READING
My family has been traveling to Jasper National Park since before I was born. And I have been documenting my trips in many ways, for many years. You can find all of my Jasper-related blog posts here.

xo
Lis

Jasper in January

One of my January Goals was to "Feel Joy and to Feel Challenged and go on a winter (ski) adventure in Jasper". In fact, it's been a long dream to go to "Jasper in January" with my little family, and this past month we finally did it!

I started to write out a big long post about the planning, and all the little (mundane) details, but I think I'm going to keep it short and sweet, and let the photos do most of the talking.

We spent as many hours as we could at Marmot Basin, arriving shortly after the hill opened for the day, and sliding off to our car just before the lifts closed. It was so challenging, and magnificent. I was stressed and anxious for about a minute, and then I was just so dang full of JOY for the rest of the day.

Lucas had a few tumbles, but he is not afraid, and picked himself right back up and kept going. I was so proud of him, to see how confident he was and especially when he told us how happy he felt to be on this big adventure together.

My anxiety hit a major peak right when it came time to put my skis on for the first time and go from the parking lot to the bottom of the hill. My whole blooded felt flooded with too many emotions I couldn't properly understand or manage. But I had my calm guys with me, and to say I was 100% pumped when I made it down the first run in one piece is an understatement.

Something that wasn't part of the goal, but a major dream come true nonetheless, was skating on Pyramid Lake. This lake forms a huge part of my memory, but we usually are here in the summer. To actually get to skate on it in the winter!! FAVOURITE MEMORY ALERT! You could not have wiped the giant goofy grin off of my face. 

I mean, look at how beautiful it is here! We are so (so so so so) lucky to live with this in our backyard and to be able to easily access it. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude that this is what my life looks like some days.

Dude is a much more confident (and happy) skier than skater, but he tried and that's what counts for me.

We had the best time and I can't wait to go back!

Winter Adventures in Jasper National Park from Lisa Kercher on Vimeo.

FURTHER READING
My family has been traveling to Jasper National Park since before I was born. And I have been blogging about Jasper for many years as well. All of my Jasper-related posts can be found here.

xo

Adventure on the Watchtower Trail

Our Adventure on the Watchtower Trail in Jasper National Park could easily be titled: Adventures in Mud, Mushrooms, and Squishy Boots.

Here are some photos (37 of them!) from our 10 hours on the trail. We did about 18.7 km (~11.6 miles) and were on the trail from 8:11 am to just after 6 pm. Enjoy!

[1] Fresh faced Loves ready to get on the trail. [2] First things first, let's just ford this big ol' river! But seriously, only a 100 metres or so down the trail, you have to ford the Maligne River. [3] The autumn colours are starting to show themselves in the plants on the trail. Many are still bright green, but just as many are lined with orange and red. [4] The first of many (many many many) mushroom photos I snapped on the hike. [5] Despite the slow and steady elevation gain, I was breathing heavy during this leg. [6] One of the main reasons I wanted to do this hike was to see the forest so soon after such a devastating fire. It has only been a couple of years since the forest fire up here, so the only vegetation are grasses, low shrubs, and wildflowers.  [7] This Fireweed is beautifully hot pink in bloom, but somehow the autumn colours make it just as breathtaking.

[8] The first section of the trail is through some of the burned area. It is still recent enough that all of the trees still show signs of the fire. [9] Some more than others. But people have been through to clear the trail and ensure it's safe to travel through. It's eerie, but also beautiful. [10] And then all of a sudden, as if a line was drawn, the forest is back to full force, lush and green. [11] There are lots of little creeks and streams to cross. Many have culverts built into the trail, but there are still a few that you have to cross like this. I mean, it's an official log, but it's still just a log! [12] I had read a lot about how wet and muddy this trail is, no matter what time of year you go, but we weren't fully prepared for just how wet! Dan had to change into his rain pants because he was soaked through!

[13] A pretty creek. Yep, we had to cross it! [14] Cool mushrooms! [15] Self-dubbed "Rancor Pit Mushroom" We saw a few of these guys on the trail. They like to grow together and create a SUPER MUSHROOM! [16] This mushroom was streaked with pink. (Did I mention I took a lot of photos of mushrooms?)  [17] While Dan was changing his pants, I was poking through some old scat. Now aren't you jealous you didn't come along? I found three of these hard pieces (horns perhaps) and some other small bones. [18] I also took a lot of photos of moss and lichen! There are so many amazing small worlds just off the path if you slow down enough to see them.

[19] After the forest, we entered Watchtower Basin. The trees opened up, and we found ourselves in this marshy, open space on the side of a river. [20] And then the sun came out, and all of the vegetation started to shimmer in the golden light. [21] Stopped for lunch on a rock wash. This one was pretty substantial - took up a large space, and many of the rocks were big! [22] They were all covered in various coloured lichen, so we knew it had been there awhile. [23] Speaking of lichen (or is this moss?) this variety was super sweet. It looked like dozens of miniature trumpets pointing to the sky. I always say hello to the fairies when I pass magical spots like this.

[24] The trail is definitely NOT obvious in many spots throughout the basin. Thankfully, someone had gone through and marked the trail with flags. They were super faded, so it wasn't a recent trek, but it was still helpful to keep us on track. [25] Combine that with the fact that at many points the "trail" was so wet, or covered in rocks, we had to take a lot of detours. It was both physically and mentally exhausting to pick our way through the basin. [26] But the views were so spectacular, it was worth the headache. What a treat to be able to see this backcountry view. [27] Rocks and mud, thick vegetation, standing water...we had to contend with all of this, which made pathfinding more difficult. [28] There is a backcountry campground out here, which is "marked" by these two yellow diamonds and a hand-made CAMP sign. What it fails to mention is that the camp is actually on the other side of a river from this sign! We spent twenty minutes wandering around this area looking for it before I pulled up some tips I found online earlier and screenshot so we could look them up on the trail. "You must ford the river to reach camp...." so we did!

[29] This view of the basin is looking back the way we came. [30] This grass is a beautiful golden colour. We wouldn't have seen it if we didn't get lost looking for the campsite! [31] This is the river we had to cross to get to the campsite. As you can see, there is no right way to cross, no clear path. You sort of just pick your way through. Dan's legs are way longer than mine, so he had a much easier time hopping from rock to rock. [32] This moss was bright red! And it's hard to tell in the photo, but the leaves are in the shape of a perfect little star. [33] Selfie at what I'm going to call our "halfway point". We stopped at the campsite to have a rest and a snack. It started raining again as soon as we got our packs off, so we found a couple of stumps to sit on under some trees. There were four tent pads in really great shape, a couple of picnic tables, and a bear pole. Oh, and a Grand Throne with a View (aka the most fancy backcountry toilet I've ever seen!). Dan took a photo of that...I'll have to see if I can get a copy!

CAN YOU SEE THE PRIDE IN MY EYES! I had just hiked about 9.5 km, and I am only halfway, and I am feeling so good about myself and my strength for having come so far.

[34] On our way back, this is a photo of us leaving the Basin. It was so much work picking our way back on the non-trail, at one point we kind of gave up trying to avoid the water and mud. I mean, I was already soaked anyway, having taken a few missteps in the various creeks we kept finding! [35] And now we enter the forest again. My knees are only just starting to cause me some trouble at this point. They got a lot of pep talks on the way down. [36] The blue sky stuck around for some of the afternoon, and added a welcome brightness. [37] I didn't take as many photos of the interesting things on the side of the trail as we were heading down. I was just too tired and wanted to get home. (aka back to the hotel and into some dry clothes). But I did have to stop a few times and catch my breath as the sun cleared the clouds and made the grass in a clearing glow, or when a particular mushroom caught my eye.

And then we crossed the river again, and then we crested a hill, and then we were walking through the parking lot. Tired, wet, absolutely thrilled.

WATCHTOWER NOTES

The trailhead is located in Jasper National Park. Access it via Maligne Road, just before you reach Medicine Lake. There is a small parking lot and a big sign. The trail is 13km one way. That is, 13km all the way to the top, and then another 13km all the way back to the parking lot. And a big part of that is up the side of a dang mountain, doing switchbacks on what I assume is a lot of elevation gain in a short distance. We (obviously) didn't complete the trail, which heads up those mountains at the side of the basin, and would have added another many hours to our day! I definitely want to go back and camp now that I know I can make it there, and then spend the next day climbing. This trail connects up with the super popular Skyline Trail. It is about 9km to the campsite.

The trail is not clearly marked in a lot of sections, so if you aren't super confident in your abilities to either find a trail or make your own, maybe skip it. Although I will say that if you are a bit adventurous and willing to try, if you follow the river you'll do just fine! Even if you just do the first two sections, and take a peek at the basin before heading back (about 6km in), it was a lovely hike. The fact that the trail isn't well marked should tell you that this is a quiet trail, so if you want to get away from the more touristy parts of the Park, I highly recommend it.

MY NOTES
I can do hard things. I can hike and climb, and ford rivers. I am so strong. This is what "almost 38" looks like.

xo
Watchtower Trail Video Highlights (September 2018) from Lisa Kercher on Vimeo.

These Boys

Do you believe in soul mates? People who enter you lives and give you so much...open you up to new things...connect with you in a way you never thought possible.

The friendship and connection between these three boys...it has "soul mate" written all over it.

I thought that when I became a Mom that would be the pinnacle of love I would feel for another person. But I was wrong.

My nephews are so precious to me. I mean, they came from one of my Most Favourite Humans...with anything Amy makes I am 100% a Number 1 Fan.

It continues to blow me away how much I love them...and how much they love each other. This friendship will persist, even when separated by half of the world.

Photos taken in Jasper National Park, Alberta
July 2018

xo

Gravel Road Adventures

So, BFF and I went away for the weekend. He has this absolutely perfect book that shows (inaccurately, we learned) all of the back roads in Alberta. I told him to find a place in his book where we could camp, and he could drive on some new roads.



This post is PHOTO HEAVY! Consider yourself warned.

First leg is on a gravel road that runs through parts of Alberta that are heavy with coal and logging. Meaning we got to see some cool, giant dump trucks (the 6 year old boy inside of me was very excited) and also I had a panic attack for 2 hours straight.

Whitehorse Creek Provincial Recreation Area Campground. No services. All the scenery.HELLO DELILAH I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR GETTING US HERE SAFELY!

Remember how I wrote that this is essentially "coal country"? The campground is on the edge of an active coal mine, so all access is restricted and done beside this road. It was a weird combination of concerning and awesome. I contain multitudes.

The unimproved gravel road led up to this pretty cool spot above the treeline. We found some hikes online, but with no trail markers, we kind of just wandered in the SLEET for 30 minutes and then called it.

This area is historically important for its coal discoveries and activity as well. Before the Cheviot Mine opened, there were more interpretive areas (so says my coworker-friend JK). As it stands, there is still a cemetery that you can drive up to, and wander through if you are so inclined. A lot of ashes of folks from this area are scattered on the mountains. We found some up at the Cardinal Divide.

Hiking in the mountains any time of year means you need to be prepared for snow. We were prepared but not happy about it, so we turned around when the sleet started pelting us.

The views were A++.

As an "environmentalist", my insides were screaming at me with all of this development...but the adventurer was just glad for maintained roads/

I couldn't handle how babely I looked in my hiking gear, and also our neighbours are fricken HORSES PEOPLE! This is my favourite campground potentially of all times.

So...about the horses. This campground offers campsites for people who want to bring their horses. They have a little corral (or whatever they are called) at each site, and all of those spots were full all weekend. We encountered a large group on one of the trails that heads out from the campground. There were some kids on their ponies - yes, I died - and parents with beer (jealous!).

I can't remember what this trail was called. There is a distinct lack of signage in this area. We have no idea where the trail was for most of the time. Still fun.

Dan is one of my favourite humans. He is the best hiking partner for me, as he has way more experience than I do and he is totally willing to explain so many things to me. He is also very funny and hella handsome.

We stopped for snacks, and I was all like "I'm just gonna go over here and see where this path leads..." twenty minutes and exploring up a mostly dry creek bed. The rocks reminded me of something we saw in Iceland so I had to take a photo. Forever grateful for the timer on my phone.

Most of this hike was in a dry creek bed....but as I wrote before there were literally no signs so who knew where the hell we were going.

I stop for all bugs. ALL. BUGS.

Our campsite was practically on the bank of a sweet little river, creek thing. I don't think I'm a water sign, but putting my hot, swollen feet into the ice cold mountain water was so refreshing and powerful. Planning my retirement over here.

That blue bridge there is blocked off to all traffic as it leads you into the active mine site. I'm adventurous, but even I obeyed that sign.

I took this three (thick AF) books with me this weekend because I forgot how much Dan & I chat and connect on these trips. There was barely any moment to read, as we spent all weekend chatting about camping, future trips, and life and whatnot. Ummm, he's kind of my favourite.

We just sat at the fire on our stump-chairs (because we forgot to pack actual chairs) and TALKED. It was so wonderful. We made friends with our neighbour and drank a bottle of whisky and I couldn't have planned a better night.

Babes in the campground and BEARS on the trail! There was a lot of fresh signs of bear on the trail we hiked on Sunday. We clapped, and sang, and whistled, and didn't see any actual bears so it must have worked!

If you are looking for a bit of an adventure without heading into the back country, I definitely recommend this area. There are loads of lovely hikes, and fun places to explore.

xo

FURTHER READING
One of my favourite places (in the world) to explore is Jasper National Park, in Alberta. For all of my previous Jasper posts, click here.
More Adventure posts here.
Whitehorse Creek Provincial Recreation Area