Wash out or just a change of plans?
Often when you have a destination in mind you have a picture of what it will be like in your head along with how things will work out. Basically picture all the glossy sales photos of any destination and that probably sums of what you think will happen.
We rolled into Jasper on day 6. It was raining when we arrived and setup was a bit rough. Like I was saying with the nice hitch. Pulls great but it has a learning curve. Our site is level except for the first bit where the truck is. That made unhooking not hard if you know what to expect. The trailer was level but the truck was on a hill. This placed pressure on the hitch making separation difficult without knowing the trick. All we needed to do was angle the hitch and the truck slid right out. Oh well. Now we know. Only took 3 tries and an extra 30 minutes to sort out!
As you can see… Grey sky, rain. High around 55. This isn’t what the image in my mind was. But I must say that I really enjoyed the cool myst on my face after dinner tonight.
In my mind we were going to have sun and a day on the lake(s) paddle boarding. In reality we woke up and fired up the furnace to get the trailer over 60 degrees. This is a new requirement for getting out of bed to make coffee.
A new plan formed for the day after breakfast. Quick walk. Trip to Jasper to hunt for a hat and socks. Find Jasper Brew Company for lunch and beers.
We took a quick walk around camp before the rain started (day 7). It was cool and damp but an amazing place for a walk. The camp is next to a river which is quite high and moving fast. This made me nervous as I learned some time ago that the water sounds will make it hard for bear to hear you and you could sneak up on one…or worse…the other was around! No bear for us today, but we’ve been warned several times about the bear IN camp.
Jasper is a busy little town. I’m really interested in learning more about the train station and how it looks like people can rail to Jasper and spend the night in one of the many places to stay. Looks like fun.
After lunch we made the rounds around town and ended up in a farmers market. Always nice to buy local.
Our last stop for the day was Athabasca Falls. It’s a small waterfall feature where the glacier melt has cut a hole in a cliff leading down into the valley where Jasper is. What I found interesting is only Bull Trout are found above the falls. Below are 14 kinds of salmon. How did the Bull Trout make it up those falls? These waters make there way north to the Arctic Ocean.
Back at the trailer, we gave the Powerboost F150 a test and plugged the trailer into the truck. It ran the heat pumps, microwave, battery charger, and anything else that we could throw at it without an issue. “Economical” power for boondocking. Now if we can just figure out the water issues….
Even though our day had one vision in my head, I really can’t say this day was a bust. I enjoyed this no plan, plan. It goes to show that if we try to nail down our “relaxation” time with too much detail or structure, we can set ourselves up for disappointment. Take a chance to plan a day where you just bike downtown and see what happens. Maybe you’ll find a new lunch spot. Or maybe you’ll end up with some new socks with bears on them.
