Fourth of July incognito

Day 20
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Jasper, AB to Lake Louise, AB
148 miles

It was weird spending the Fourth of July outside America. We briefly contemplated keeping our ethnicity under wraps today; no one would have known we were Americans expect for our license plates and perhaps our accents, but feelings of patriotism bubbled to the surface and we went public with our allegiance, led by Emily. Sessy and she had packed Independence Day gear just in case—good thing. Several other Americans commented on our garb and wished us a happy Fourth of July. One couple from Minnesota asked Emily if they could take her picture. A larger number of folks, mostly Asians speaking in foreign tongues, gave us some very confused, and in some cases, concerned looks.

Not only was this the most low-key Fourth any of us could remember, it was also the coldest! When up on Athabasca Glacier the temperature at 12:30 PM was 45 degrees and the winds were blowing at least 40 MPH. Our thoughts were on the good people of Clarksville who were probably swimming at the River Hill pool to cool off after a sweltering Independence Day parade. We were a long way from home!

We pulled up stakes this morning and headed south on the Icefields Parkway toward Lake Louise. We can honestly say that every one of the 170 miles of that road were postcard picturesque. Our plan was to drive to Lake Louise and seek a campsite for the next two nights. Because we would be operating on a first-come, first-served basis, we knew we couldn’t dawdle too much. Therefore, we preplanned our stops and activities to keep to a schedule that would deliver us at our destination before 4 PM. The plan worked. We were able to see some beautiful sights, take two short hikes and still get a campsite, although by the time we arrived at Lake Louise Campground, there were 12 families ahead of us in line and the line grew while we waited 40 minutes to be served. In spite of the fact that this was a rainy Sunday night and that our campground has 1,500 sites, the ranger at the gate said she expected it to fill up tonight. Obviously, the Canadian Rockies are an extremely popular destination!

Our sightseeing today included several waterfalls, numerous lakes, more than 100 mountain peaks (any one of which alone would have been a legitimate basis for a national park), glaciers, animals, clouds, canyons, cold winds and rain. This was the kind of place that inspires a 12-year-old to say “Wow” and “That’s really cool!”

The highlights of the day were visits to Peyto Lake and Athabasca Glacier. Actually, seeing the glacier was simultaneously impressive and depressing. Signs posted on the moraine showed where the foot of the glacier was in years past. In spite of the fact that the glacier is sliding down hill, it is also quickly melting, the net effect of which is rapid shrinkage. If the melting continues at its current rate, Athabasca will be gone within 100 years. The foot of the glacier is today more than a mile from where it was in 1844. It was more than a hundred yards farther up the hill from where Frank last saw it in 1986. In fact, there was so much rock and dirt piled up between the “1982” sign and the glacier’s foot that you couldn’t see the glacier from the sign. Since 1885, 60% of the glacier’s volume has disappeared; that’s 350 million cubic meters of ice!

An interpretive center was built near the glacier since Frank was last there, giving the area a much more sophisticated feel than it had years ago.

We learned today that glacial runoff from Jasper and Banff flows to three oceans and is a major source of headwaters for three massive river systems: the Saskatchewan (Atlantic), the Columbia (Pacific) and the Athabasca (Arctic).

At Bow Summit, elevation 6,840 feet, we hiked up a short but very steep path to a Peyto Lake overlook. We learned that the lakes in the Icefields Region are a seemingly unnatural, semi-opaque, bluish green because the glacial water that feeds them is muddy with rocks, gravel and silt. As the streams slow down, most of the rubble is left behind except for the finest rock particles, which have the texture of baking flour. This “rock flour” scatters sunlight in the blue-green spectrum, giving the water its unusual hue.

After setting up our trailer about 100 yards from a very fast-flowing Bow River near the little hamlet of Lake Louise, we took showers and then did four loads of laundry. We ate a late chili and steamed rice dinner—good, warm, Fourth of July food—before sacking out. Daylight was still streaming through the canvass when the last of us fell asleep.