{"id":561,"date":"2015-06-24T03:57:16","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T07:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2015-07-12T15:55:22","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T19:55:22","slug":"day-24-june-24-jasper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"Day 24 (June 24): Jasper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jasper<\/p>\n<p>6,295 km<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">After a late start to the day (left Banff at 1:30) that was made later by a wrong turn I took at Lake Louise, I found myself on the Icefields Parkway headed for Jasper.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The wrong turn at Lake Louise is common: As I sipped a coffee at the visitors&#8217; centre in Golden, BC &#8212; which is where I ended up &#8212; one of the staff asked me where I was coming from. As I told her I&#8217;d made the wrong turn at Lake Louise; and would now have to go all the way back to get onto the parkway, she presented me with. A guest book; and, grinning, \u00a0asked me to sign it. Seems this is a tradition at the Golden Visitor&#8217; Centre &#8212; they get so many travellers who make the same mistake (poor sinage at Lake Louise apparently) that the collect the names.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Once I finally got onto The Icefields Parkway things began to roll a bit more smoothly (figuratively-speaking; the road was actually quite bumpy). The weather was overcast with occasional fog. I mention this because, when I stopped to take in the icefields (let&#8217;s be honest; their glaciers), there was an eery feel to the whole place&#8211;like being on another planet. Weird.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">And Jasper? It&#8217;s Banff, only to a lesser degree. Tolerable; and I spent a day there to catch my breath (and give my throttle hand a rest; I can&#8217;t use my thumb for things like holding a pen or fork or squeezing toothpaste; if you&#8217;re feeling empathetic, try wringing a washcloth for six hours)\u00a0before pushing further North. \u200e<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Beneath the glitz and glamour that comes with being a base for what I hear are some of the best ski hills in the world, Jasper is a railroad town. Boxcars are constantly shunting against a rumbling sounscape of idling locomotives<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_484\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_130443_hdr.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-484\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-484\" src=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_130443_hdr-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Jasper: stopping point for Canada's backbone\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_130443_hdr-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_130443_hdr-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_130443_hdr-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-484\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jasper: stopping point for Canada&#8217;s backbone<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_486\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125336_hdr.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-486\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-486\" src=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125336_hdr-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Symbol of another era in Jasper\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125336_hdr-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125336_hdr-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125336_hdr-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-486\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Symbol of another era in Jasper<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_485\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125839_hdr.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-485\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-485\" src=\"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125839_hdr-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Montreal is WHICH way?\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125839_hdr-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125839_hdr-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_20150625_125839_hdr-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Montreal is WHICH way?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>interrupted only by an occasional chuuussshhhh of air being expelled from pneumatic brakes. Jasper is a major stopping point along the main freight line across Canada &#8212; which, by the way is booming because it&#8217;s cheaper to ship goods from Euope to South East Asia by cutting across Canada rather than sailing down through the Panama Canal.<\/p><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The people seem more down to earth as well. Take Dennis, for example. I&#8217;ve rented his basement studio for my couple of nights here. Dennis is originally from Oakville, just outside Toronto. He&#8217;s a self-described ski bum; and came here for the skiing. A carpenter by trade, his lifestyle is low-key; kind-of zen. He built the house I&#8217;m staying in. His current contract is making and installing towel racks in the rooms of one of the local lodges. He could probably be doing better; but he seems to have found the balance that many are searching for. &#8220;The pusuit of money is stressful,&#8221; he says.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jasper 6,295 km &nbsp; After a late start to the day (left Banff at 1:30) that was made later by a wrong turn I took at Lake Louise, I found myself on the Icefields Parkway headed for Jasper. The wrong turn at Lake Louise is common: As I sipped a coffee at the visitors&#8217; centre [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}