Farewell Canadia!

With the end of my time in Canada coming to close, I decided I would spend the month of October on a bit of a farewell tour of the place, checking out a few places I hadn't made it to yet and catching up with a few friends. My travels down the Inside Passage had brought me to Prince Rupert, in British Columbia. After being on the move so much around Alaska I ended up spending a week here to relax a little bit, and the fact they were feeding us free cookies and seafood dinners at the hostel didn't hurt. Being on the coast it was raining a lot of the time I was there, and I didn't really get up to too much. Did go on one more whale watching trip though, and that proved to be well worth it, with some of the best sighting of whales I've seen. We travelled up to a spot near the Alaskan border and spotted a family of orcas, which came right up within a few metres of the boat. Nearby there were also about 5 or 6 humpback whales hanging around too so we got to watch them for a while. The only disappointment was they all refused to breach, and as exciting as it is to watch them swimming and breathing I know they're capable of more.







Once I was feeling sufficiently relaxed it was time to hit the road again, my next stop being the fabled Prince George. Many people had told me about this place, most of them said it was a bit of a hole basically, so I was delighted to get the chance to see it for myself. Turns out it wasn't that bad. It's nothing spectacular, but with the fall colours underway pretty much the whole city is bathed in shades of yellow so it's quite pretty, and I think distracts from the fact that there's not much to look at otherwise. But at least I can say I've seen it now, although I was a bit annoyed I didn't get a chance to sample one of the cinnamon rolls there, I've heard they're pretty legendary.





From Prince George it was south to Kamloops, to quickly catch up with my friend Tom there. Could only stay one night but that was enough to catch up with him and meet his girlfriend, and debate where I should go the next day. After considering a few options I decided on Lake Louise, partly because the weather was supposed to be pretty good over there and I needed to get some work done. It kind of says something about how good my life is these days that I go to a place like Lake Louise to work. And hike of course, but there isn't much to do at night so that helps you be a bit more conscientious. The weather was magnificent as promised, and even though this was about the fifth or sixth time I've visited the place I'd never quite managed to get perfect weather there any other time, so it was great to see it like that. The snow was just starting in the Rockies so the mountains were looking great with a bit of a light dusting, but some of the trails were getting a bit icy and slippery if you went too high so I stayed pretty close to the lake. Did make it up to Lake Agnes which is in the hills beside Lake Louise, that was just starting to freeze up and looking really pretty, and also over to Moraine Lake, one of my favourite places in the Rockies.







Next it was a short ride over to Banff where I stayed with fellow Aussie Jess, who I'd met over on the east coast and went on my road trip across Newfoundland with. I got there just in time for Thanksgiving, and Jess cooked a delicious dinner of turkey with vegetables and gravy followed by chocolate tart. I contributed to festivities by fixing her computer so she could use the internet again. I ended up staying in Banff just over a week, wandering some of the familiar trails there and making it to a few new places like the Mt Norquay bald spot.





Even though I've come to know the place pretty well it still managed to surprise me, returning around dusk from a walk out by the Vermilion Lakes I was lucky to see a bull elk and his harem of females (it was rutting season). Watching him herd them along and bugling (they make a really weird squeaky sound for such an impressive animal) in the fading light was pretty special. I also heard from my Kiwi friend Victor who I'd met in Whitehorse that he was going to be passing through town, so it was good to get a bonus chance to see another friend before I left. He was on his way home so were both lamenting the fact we were on the last stretch of our trips and wondering how we'd get used to normal life again after everything we'd done.



That's a question for later though, next it was off to Nelson next to visit another friend, Sally, who I'd met a year ago in Halifax and had moved to Nelson to study Chinese medicine. Nelson's a very alternate lifestyle kind of place, and BC being famed for it's marijuana almost everyone there is stoned half the time. Or maybe not, but a lot of them look like it and if you see anyone smoking in the street it's more often a joint than a cigarette. It was highly appropriate then that the local theatre group was putting on a performance of the musical Reefer Madness, which Sally and I went to see. The show's a musical satire of a movie made back in the 1930's to warn of the evils of drugs. It was actually really funny, and the kind of production which was helped by the low-key feel of amateur theatre.



Nelson's actually quite a nice town, it has a bit more character than a lot of other small towns in the region (probably because everyone's so stoned) and quite a nice setting tucked in the hills beside Kootenay Lake. The fall colours were on show here as well which made the place look quite picturesque. I really envy the Canadians their fall but they have a lot to put up with in the winter so I guess they deserve some pretty colours beforehand. There's some quite nice architecture too with some interesting old buildings downtown and of course BOB, the Big Orange Bridge. Which is what they call their bridge, because it's well, big. And orange. And they were probably stoned when they named it.



As nice as Nelson is I'd seen Reefer Madness and what can happen if you start smoking pot - I didn't want to start selling babies or become a cannibal so figured it was time to get out of town after a few days. And I had a flight to catch in Calgary. So it was back on a Canadian Greyhound bus one last time (a trip which I'll always remember for the mouse which ran over my feet twice). Spent just one day in Calgary to do some last minute shopping and then it was time to go. It was kind of strange that even though I'd been saying my goodbyes to my friends over the past month I was still leaving my adopted home of the past year and a half with very little fanfare. It's not like I was expecting fireworks or anything, but... no I think I was expecting fireworks actually. However my flight was early in the morning so there was a quite spectacular sunrise which was almost as good as fireworks. Seeing the city bathed in golden light as we took off, with the Rocky Mountains off in the distance was certainly quite memorable and a fitting end to my time in Canada.



I've grown quite attached to the place in my time there and will miss it terribly, but I know I'll be back many times in my life, there's still a lot of places for me left to see (I'm looking at you, Nunavut). And my travels weren't quite over yet - I will admit I was happy to escape the winter, which had been following close behind me the past month and looking forward to the final leg of my North American travels, Las Vegas and the Southwest US deserts.

Glaciers, Grizzlies and Ghost Towns

Alaska. Of all the amazing places I've visited in the past 16 months of travelling, there are still few which can compare with Alaska. After the few weeks I'd spent there at the end of winter I was looking forward to seeing it in the summer and fall, which that far north starts in late August. It's about 16 hours from Whitehorse to Anchorage on the Alaska Highway, a trip which involves many long hours bouncing along roads corrugated by the yearly cycle of freeze and thaw. A lot had changed since the last time I travelled this way however, landscapes which had been stark expanses of snow were now lush and green and valleys which seemed like any other under the snow now revealed to hold enormous glaciers. And there was no dog throwing up next to me in the back seat this time which was a bonus. Even so I was pretty glad to finally reach Anchorage, not just because it's a long day sitting in a van, but after all those hours of amazing vistas it was almost too much to take in.



After 2 nights in Anchorage to catch my breath I caught the train south to Seward, on the shores of Resurrection Bay. My main purpose for coming back was one of the major draws of Alaska - glaciers. There's something like 100,000 of them in the state so you can't go too far without seeing a few. Just outside Seward is the Exit Glacier, and here I joined a Park Ranger-led hike here which climbed the hills beside the glacier to the Harding Icefields - a 1,800 square kilometre expanse of ice and snow up to 3kms deep. It's almost impossible to grasp the sheer size of it.





There's something like 40 glaciers which extend from the Icefields, many of which are tidewater glaciers which terminate in the ocean. I went on a cruise around the bay to see some of them, but apart from the glaciers themselves we also spotted just about every animal which lives in the bay, from a bunch of porpoise playfully swimming alongside the boat, to a group of 3 orcas, one of them even obliging us by breaching (although it was a fair distance away). We also came across two humpback whales and got to watch one of them feeding, as well as puffins and countless other seabirds, sea lions and of course sea otters. The glaciers themselves were stunning, and although I was hoping to see a huge chunk calve off I had to make do with just a few small pieces falling off. Although when I say 'small' I mean they were the size of cars or so.







After Seward it was back to Anchorage, where I spent a bit of time actually looking around the city itself, which is much more of a typical big city than you would perhaps expect from Alaska. But you're quickly reminded exactly where you are any time you wander along the Coastal Trail and encounter a moose, hear stories of grizzly bears wandering onto the main roads and getting hit by cars or the fact that the street vendors' hot dogs are made from reindeer (which I really took a liking to, they're pleasantly spicy, if somewhat chewy). I quite like Anchorage, with the Chugach Mountains on one side and the gorgeous sunsets over Cook Strait on the other it has a lot going for it, but you don't really go to Alaska to spend time in a big city I ended up staying longer than I would have liked. Transport options in Alaska are unfortunately somewhat limited so that meant a bit of waiting around to get transport to where I wanted to go.



And my next stop was quite literally at the end of the road, at the old Kennecott copper mine. Getting there involves another marathon trip from Anchorage, the last 100kms or so on a dirt road, to the town of McCarthy in the heart of Wrangell St-Elias National Park. Or at least to the carpark across the river from McCarthy, from where access to the town itself is by footbridge. The town has a population of about 300, and 'downtown' consists of 2 dirt streets featuring one hotel (with a backpackers' annex where I stayed, without heating or lights), one store, a gift shop, two bushplane operators and a pub. I loved it, even if I was sleeping with 3 blankets and my longjohns on. The old Kennecott township and mill complex is 7kms down the road, set in a valley which sees the junction of two huge glaciers, the Root and Kennicott (yes, the spelling's different, the township's name was a spelling mistake). The mines themselves are set high in the hills and were connected to the mill by a system of cable cars. The township had it's own hospital, schoolhouse, store, bunkhouses (both in the valley and up at the site of the mines) and the mill buildings themselves. Most of the structures are falling apart to some degree, the Parks service is restoring some and letting others decay. I went on a guided tour through the mill buildings, the Concentration Mill is the focus of the site and the largest wooden building in America. it was fascinating to see and actually much nicer inside than you'd expect looking at the exterior; it had a musty, woodwork shop kind of feel to it. It would be a striking building anywhere, but when you take into account the glacier-side setting and all the rain and mist around at the time it really was one of the most atmospheric places I've been.





I had time to see a bit more of the valley on a hike along the moraine wall beside the Root Glacier. This led to great views of the Stairway Icefall, a wall of ice hundreds of metres high where the glacier flows down a mountain side; but at the same time I was very much aware that the track was lined with brightly coloured, berry-filled bear scat every few metres pretty much so I was loudly singing my way through the Beatles back-catalogue to announce my presence (although I shut up when I had to pass a Ranger - think I scared the hell out of him when I kicked some stones and he thought I might be a bear coming up behind him - good thing he didn't pepper spray me). I would have loved to hang around McCarthy a bit longer but had to get back to Anchorage to get some work done, along with a bit more moose and sunset watching on the Coastal Trail.



Hopping on the train again it was north to Talkeetna. As you will be told often enough this town was the inspiration for the show Northern Exposure, which I personally never watched but felt obliged to pass that information on. Everybody raves about how nice it is, but I'm not really sure what the fuss is all about. I mean it's nice, it's got some interestingly quirky shops, you can get not just reindeer hot dogs but corn dogs (which are also delicious). The best thing about the town is the view you get on a clear day of Denali, at 6,194m the tallest mountain in North America and centrepiece of Denali National Park, my next stop (just so you know the mountain's also called Mt McKinley but compared to the native name, which means 'The Great One', just sounds kind of lame so I never use it).



So Denali (I'm talking about the Park now)... Damn. Just damn. The place is incredible. The fall colours were in full swing so the whole place was just a riot of colour; depending on the light it could look either ridiculously garish or ridiculously beautiful, almost otherworldly at times. The Park is huge, it covers about 24,000 square kilometres and is accessed by just one 145km road. Public vehicles can only travel on the first 24km of that, so there's a brilliant system of buses which you can use to travel the rest of the way - I travelled the entire length of the park road on the first day, and then chose the best spots to go back and visit again the next few days.







One of the best things about the buses is that anytime you see an animal you just yell 'Stop!' and the driver will pull over for everyone to take a look. Although some people can be a bit overenthusiastic about it and will yell stop every time they see a distant speck which may or not be a grizzly bear. I mean I appreciate their enthusiasm but really, unless you can see it's actual limbs it doesn't really count as an animal sighting to me, and we saw enough animals up close that we didn't need to be wasting our time trying to decide if a distant shape was actually a bear or just a rock. Over the few days I spent in the park I managed to pick up what they call the Grand Slam, seeing moose (including a massive bull with huge antlers), something like 30 grizzly bears (mostly at a distance but some a few metres away), gray wolves, caribou and Dall Sheep, not to mention getting a good look at the mountain itself which is hidden by clouds most of the time.







I had my closest and funniest wildlife encounter in the Savage River area. I was following the trail alongside the river, moving fairly quickly so I could cover as much ground in the time I had. I was perhaps a bit too focussed on moving fast though as I completely failed to see an enormous Dall Sheep ram until I was pretty much right on top of him (although in all fairness he did have his head down and looked kind of like a bright white rock... with legs) and was somewhat startled when he suddenly looked up at me. Revealing his rather large horns. Needless to say I backed off pretty quickly but he seemed unfazed fortunately. The people behind me who'd been watching it feed from a more sensible distance (I thought they were just enjoying the scenery) thought I was a crazy person who was going to try and ride it or something and were probably disappointed not to get some Funniest Home Video footage out of it. I resolved to pay a bit more attention to my surroundings (I usually do, honest), not wanting the next 'rock' to turn out to be a grizzly.



Fortunately I didn't have to worry about anything bigger than ground squirrels the next day when I went hiking out at the Eielson Visitor Centre. This was my favourite spot in the Park. There's an awesome view of Denali itself from here (when it's visible), which is probably one of the most impressive mountains in the world. The Nepalese call Everest Chomolungma, the Goddess Mother of the World, which would have to make Denali it's Father. In fact from base to summit Denali is actually a bigger mountain (by almost 2,000m - Everest starts at a higher elevation) Although I'd seen it from here on my first day in the park, Denali wasn't out when I hiked to the top of the mountain behind the visitor centre. It's probably just as well as the view up there was incredible, if the mountain had been out as well I would quite possibly have just exploded with joy. There were times when I would turn around and catch sight of another stunning vista and I would just laugh at how utterly amazing it all was. I was getting a bit of a cold so may have been a bit tired and over-emotional.



Moving on from Denali I continued north on the train to Fairbanks. I'd met Anne-Marie at the Denali hostel who was catching the same train, and warned her not to expect too much from Fairbanks. It was a pretty bleak place to be in the winter and it looks really quite ghetto when you come in by train, even I was kind of taken aback. After showing her around Fairbank's downtown area (such as it is) we decided to be a bit touristy and try the riverboat ride which is one of the main attractions in Fairbanks. It was actually a pretty slick operation, you visit a little village and learn all sorts of stuff about traditional Alaskan life and it was quite pretty on the river, and definitely improved my opinion of Fairbanks. Both of us were keen to make it to the Arctic Circle so we took a day trip up there along the Dalton Highway. We only went to where the circle crosses the highway, so there's pretty much just a sign saying you made it, but still, it's nice to say I've been there and they gave us cake and a certificate to celebrate. As much as I would have loved to go further north and really explore some of the Arctic I just didn't have time that late in the season, so that will have to wait for another summer.





Getting back to Fairbanks we were able to enjoy the single best thing about the city - the great view it often gets of the Northern Lights. The nights were just starting to get dark enough to see them again after the summer and while we'd seen some muted lights the previous nights the sky cleared up completely and the aurora put on a fine show for us. I was entranced all over again, they really are breathtaking to watch, and it definitely helps when you only have to worry about getting cold instead of maybe losing fingers and toes.



With that as a fitting send off it was back to Whitehorse for me, just long enough to catch up with my friends there one last time and enjoy the fall colours around town before heading back to south-east Alaska this time to start heading south again. I took a bus and train from Whitehorse to Skagway, with a brief stop in the really neat little town of Carcross. The train crosses the White Pass, and was originally one of two routes used by prospectors during the Gold Rush. It's a nice trip, but much shorter than I expected - I guess after all the marathon journeys I've made over here I don't feel like I've gotten anywhere after just 4 hours.





Skagway's a pretty nice little town in a great location at the mouth of a river surrounded by tall mountains, and like most of the towns along the Inside Passage is a major stop on the cruise ship circuit. The whole cruise ship phenomena is somewhat strange - they pull up, the passengers pile out, stroll through the souvenir shops for a few hours an then disappear back onto the ships, often without really having seen anything of the places they're visiting. I know not everyone has the time to travel like I do but it doesn't seem very satisfying to me. Once they disappear back onboard though you pretty much have the towns to yourself, particularly in places like Skagway which only has a few hundred residents.



After a few days in Skagway I started my own cruise of sorts on the Marine Highway - the US ferry system which runs from Alaska all the way down to Washington state and connects many communities which can only be reached by sea or air. Sure the ships were only a third as big as the cruise ships, and the cuisine is probably pretty ordinary by comparison, but it's all the same scenery so it suited me fine, and definitely made a nice change from bus travel.



First stop for me was Juneau, the capital of Alaska, which I'd really been looking forward to Juneau but didn't enjoy as much as I'd hoped. Mainly because I had to share the hostel with a bunch of middle aged Americans who were quite frankly, completely mental, having loud discussions each night about how Obama is the anti-christ and will bring about the fall of civilization as we know it. The fact that it rained every day and I spent the whole time with damp feet didn't improve my opinion of the place. Fortunately Juneau did have one redeeming aspect - the Mendenhall Glacier on the edge of town, my first visit out there was postcard perfect. The sun finally broke through the clouds and there was a perfect rainbow hanging right beside the glacier, all reflected in Mendenhall Lake.





It was a beautiful place, and turned out to be a bit of a wildlife hotspot too. I saw my first porcupine there (that wasn't roadkill anyway) and was surprised to see how high they climb trees, they're just like really spiky koalas. I was also very excited to finally see two beavers, which I'd frankly started to think were mythical (well come on, those lodges and dams they build seem way too sophisticated for rodents). Then while I was watching the beavers a black bear wandered along and I got to watch it rummage through the undergrowth from a few metres away. It was probably the only time I wouldn't mind being that close to a bear, but they hang around the area all the time and are pretty much oblivious to people now, in fact the main job of the rangers is to keep people from crowding the bears too much.



So with my opinion of Juneau slightly restored, it was back on the Marine Highway for an overnight trip to Wrangell, an island community of about 2000. Becuase it's not on the cruise ship circuit and a lot of tourist services had finished for the season I may have been the only person actually visiting the place. It was nice to be somewhere a bit quieter and the weather was fantastic, another welcome change after Juneau. It was quite idyllic, and the highlight there was visiting Petroglyph Beach, which has rocks carved with designs by the Tlingit Indians hundreds or even thousands of years ago.





My last stop in Alaska was Ketchikan, a town known for it's many totem poles, and rain (I know the whole Inside Passage coastline is rainforest, but it does get a bit tiresome after a while). The centrepiece of town is the boardwalk-lined Ketchikan Creek, known as Creek Street, where all the buildings (souvenir shops mostly) are elevated over the water on pilings. It's quite nice, but because I'd only ever seen pictures of that part of Ketchikan before I'd always expected the town to be smaller and more rustic, but it's really just the one street unfortunately. Anyway, the creek itself was chock full of fish at the time, as the Pink Salmon were running. That of course brought a collection of seals which were after an easy lunch, they'd just cruise along and snap one up whenever they felt like it. I'd missed all the salmon runs elsewhere in Alaska so was glad to finally get to see one, and watch them jumping up waterfalls and everything.





And that was it for Alaska, one last ferry ride south took me to Prince Rupert and the beginning of my last few weeks in Canada. Despite everything I'd seen I've still barely scratched the surface of Alaska and the Yukon, it's definitely somewhere I'm going to have to get back to and really explore more thoroughly. Some other summer though.

Mountain Peaks and Pow-wows

So I last wrote when I flew from Halifax to Calgary about 2 months ago. I'd been there a few times before so my main goal was to figure out where I was going next. This is the one part of traveling which I'm really starting to get tired of, considering all the options for things to do, places to see, working out the logistics of getting there, where to stay, and so on. It means a lot of time looking at guidebooks, the internet (I don't know how people ever managed to travel before it was invented) and calendars, but once it's all figured out and I'm on the road again I'm happy. With my plan decided it was back to Canmore first - I hadn't had a chance to do any hiking on my previous visits here so was looking forward to that. As soon as I arrived I headed straight up Mt Lady McDonald (sometime in the last few years I've become a person whose idea of an afternoon stroll involves a 1200m vertical gain). It was a stunning reintroduction to the Rockies, somehow you always forget just how impressive and, well, big mountains are when you've been away from them for a while.





After a few days in Canmore, and an overnight stop in Banff I travelled up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. This is probably one of the most spectacular stretches of road in the world, so I took a tour bus up so I'd be able to stop along the way, and it also included a trip on specially designed snow coaches onto the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Icefields. It was kind of neat, if a little brief, but there's certainly a great view from up there and given my track record with ice it's nice to travel on the ice without much risk of falling on your butt.





Jasper was another place I'd never had much chance to go hiking in the summer, and it was really interesting to see the difference in places where I'd been snowshoeing or cross country skiing a few months before. After a few days hiking up and down hills and mountains, around lakes and alongside rivers my legs were in need of a bit of a break so on my last day I took the boat ride on Maligne Lake to Spirit Island again. It was something I'd already done on my first visit here a few years ago but that one spot is ridiculously picturesque and really epitomizes everything about the Rockies so I think it's always worth a visit. Was also rewarded with a sighting of a black bear mother and 2 cubs on the way back, only the second time I'd seen bears in my whole time over here. Although given the amount of time I've spent hiking alone I'm not exactly complaining.







After Jasper it was on to Kamloops, where I was really excited to attend the Kamloopa Pow-wow. A Pow-wow Native American gathering which revolves mainly around dancing competitions. Kamloops has a specially built arena for the annual event, which lasts for 3 days and attracts participants from tribes all over the plains regions of Canada and the USA. Each days' events are kicked off with the Grand Entry, a pretty impressive spectacle where all the dancers, in really elaborate, brightly coloured costumes enter and circle the arena.





After that, there's generally a series of dance competitions in different styles, traditional dances such as the grass or chicken dance (not the one you're probably thinking of), jingle dress and shawl dances for the women, and fancy dances (they're really called that, and the performers are referred to as fancy dancers which I think is great). In between each competition there are also intertribals, where anybody who feels like it can get out on the field and dance, and specials, which are usually sponsored by a particular tribe or family in honour of a particular person. I was only there for one day and it was a fantastic experience, and something I've always wanted to see so I was very glad to have made it to that.



After another day chilling out and seeing a bit more of Kamloops (and luxuriating in my own hotel room for a change) it was back to Vancouver again, bringing me completely full circle from where I'd started in Canada. I'm very fond of the place, it's absolutely beautiful when the weather's as perfect as it was when I was there. I revisited some of my favourite spots, wandering along English Bay, watching the raccoons in Stanley Park and sampling the donuts from the Maple Leaf Bakery (probably the best donuts I know of anywhere in the world) and also caught up with fellow Aussie Mike from my Newfoundland road trip. We did a day trip to Bowen Island on the Western outskirts of Vancouver and hiked to the top of the island. I'm not sure why but this was one of the most physically and emotionally draining things I've done in my whole time over here (although it's probably because we got slightly lost and took the most strenuous route to the top and so used up all our water too quickly). We went through all of the mental states of hiking - from initial enthusiasm to grim determination, fatigue, exhaustion, desperation, anguish and finally degenerating into complete hysteria. We survived obviously, but only just, if we hadn't been able to fill up on soda and ice cream while waiting for the ferry I don't know if we would have lasted the 20 minute trip back to the mainland. It left me with deep mental scars for some time - we'd planned to tackle the Grouse Grind the next day, which involves over 1000 stairs, so when the third person we were meeting cancelled we almost wept with relief that we wouldn't have to go through with it.





Traumatic hiking experiences over with, it was time to hop on another plane (a refreshingly pleasant flight where they were even offering second helpings of cheesecake) to head back to Whitehorse, in the Yukon. Whitehorse is another of my favourite places in Canada, on the one hand there's the sense of the Gold Rush days you get standing by the SS Klondike sternwheeler on the banks of the Yukon River, while on the other they have a Pizza Hut, 2 Tim Hortons and you can get Tim Tams in the supermarket. Add the Northern Lights to that and if it didn't get so damn cold there in the winter it would be pretty close to perfect. My French friend Vianney is living there now so it was good to be met by familiar face at the airport. I spent most of my few days in Whitehorse frowning intently at my computer trying to figure out exactly how to tackle Alaska, which is not an easy place to get around on your own, but did find time to tag along with Vianney on a hike along the summit of Grey Mountain just outside town (it was a pleasant change to be with someone who had a car and could drive to the top of the mountain instead of having to get there the old fashioned way). The landscape of the Yukon is quite different to the rockies, while there's still some impressive mountains they're much more gentle and rounded and the overwhelming impression is of vast untouched space stretching out all around you. Which it is, really - the human population of the Yukon is about 30,000, 20,000 of them living around Whitehorse, compared to a population of about 70,000 moose.







And then it was off to Alaska again, to see what it's like with a bit less snow around, and that's a story which really deserves a separate entry.

Puffins and humpbacks and icebergs, oh my, eh

So in the last thrilling installment I was poised to return to one of my favourite parts of Canada. Catching the ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine, I arrived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. There I caught up with a new Aussie friend of mine, Jess, who's just starting her year-long visa and as something of a grizzled veteran I feel it's my duty to tell all these new arrivals a few horror stories about the winters here, just so they know what they're in for. I was glad to have a familiar face around to help me celebrate my one year anniversary of arriving in North America, and had some Nova Scotian lobster to celebrate (well a lobster roll anyway because it's cheaper and you don't have to dissect it yourself).



Yarmouth's a pretty quiet place, and I only hung around long enough to walk out to the lighthouse there. It was a long but pleasant walk through fields and fog shrouded fishing villages. While I've become quite used to my seemingly supernatural influence over the weather even I was impressed with myself when the fog which had been hanging around for the past hour or so lifted within seconds of me stopping at the lighthouse. And remained clear right up until I decided to leave. Spooky, eh.



From Yarmouth it was back to my east coast office, Halifax, probably my favourite Canadian city. I took the opportunity to broaden my knowledge of the town, which in Halifax means visiting some of the pubs I hadn't made it to last time. There was no question where I'd be the first Sunday night I was back though, I pretty much dragged a couple of girls from the hostel down to the Lower Deck with me for Signal Hill Sunday. They agreed it was a good night out, but I think were a bit freaked that I knew all the words to (and loudly joined in with) all the songs, including the local sea shanties and folk tunes. When I wasn't hitting the pubs (and learning valuable lessons about drinking with the Irish) I did find time to revisit a few of my favourite spots, and went to the Open Day at the Naval base, where we got an awesome free zodiac ride around the harbour and a short ride in an armoured transport. What with that, the jumping castles and fairy floss I was briefly tempted to join the Navy myself, but figured the real thing probably had less fairy floss and more shooting so gave it a miss.



Soon it was time for another anniversary celebration, Canada Day, and I think it was appropriate that my first Canada Day was in Vancouver while my second was on the exact opposite side as I do like the either end of the country the best. It was a very early start that day for a river running trip out at the Bay of Fundy with Matt (the guide for the Salty Bear tour around Nova Scotia I'd done last year) and some of his friends. This Bay of Fundy has the highest tides on Earth, at about 17m. When the tide flows into the Shubenacadie River it actually forces the river's flow to change direction, creating a series of short-lived rapids. So river running is something like white water rafting, but you're in a zodiac so you don't have to paddle, just hang on for dear life as you are repeatedly buffeted by cold, salty, silty water. By the last set of rapids we weren't so much riding on the waves as just plowing through them, pretty much submerged up to our waists in the now submarine zodiac. It's a lot of fun, you get to run through each set of rapids a few times and then as the tide moves further upstream you move on to the next set which is forming and afterwards they give you a steak dinner with hot chocolate, an odd combination but it works for me. After that was done it was back to Halifax for the Canada Day fireworks and the big party down at, where else, the Lower Deck, with a big group from the hostel.





With the festivities over I was off to Newfoundland, along with Jess along with Mike and Sina who'd just done a Salty Bear trip with Jess. The four of us ended up renting a car together to drive across the island and had a brilliant time, we all clicked right from the start. Before starting out though we spent a few days in the capital, St John's, a really nice city with a beautiful little harbour. We wandered around the town admiring the multi-coloured houses, visited Signal Hill (the actual geographic feature, not the band) and sampled local delicacies such as Cod Tongues. We also went out to Cape Spear, the eastern-most point of North America and from there hiked about 20ks back to the city on the East Coast Trail. The Newfoundland coastline is gorgeous, lots of dramatic rocky cliffs dotted with the occasional seabird colony, and we were even greeted by a humpback whale waving to us from the sea while we were having lunch. We thought it was anyway.







Setting off on our road trip we started at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, a marine sanctuary where we took a boat trip to an island which is home to thousands of kittiwakes, murres and puffins. The murres and puffins in particular were hilarious to watch, as the boat approached they'd go whirring away across the surface of the water, barely looking as if they could lift off at all, and would often stay so low they'd smack right into any large waves. We also saw quite a few humpbacks on the way, one was pretty much right under the boat although they all refused to start breaching despite our shouted encouragement. After a brief lunch stop in a town called Hollyrood (where we had some delicious chips and gravy - the Newfies really appreciate good gravy bless 'em) we headed down to see Bird Rock at Cape St Mary's. This was on one of the southern peninsulas of the island (the whole island is pretty much a series of peninsulas really, requires a lot of driving up and down to get to the good bits) and like the name implies, is a big rock jutting up just opposite some very high cliffs. It's home to lots of gannets, and was particularly impressive shrouded in fog, only just letting you glimpse the sea far below. We spent the night in a little town called Placentia - when Mike asked at our hotel where downtown was we were given a funny look and told we were in it . So we spent the night playing pool and playing the few songs we knew on the jukebox (we may have been the first people to ever choose the theme from Disney's Aladdin).







The next morning saw us make a short detour out of our path to visit the town of Dildo. I'm sure you can figure out why. We had our statue taken with Captain Dildo the fisherman and searched in vain for a decent breakfast (Newfoundland was the first place where you couldn't be assured of finding a Tim Horton's on every corner and we were all in withdrawal by the time we found on one on day 4). We headed north to the Bonavista Peninsula, stopping at the town of Trinity and for a short hike along the Skerwink Trail (supposedly one of the best in the world according to some magazine but I've seen better). We stopped in Bonavista for the night, a beautiful fishing town with probably my favourite lighthouse in the whole world and our first iceberg sighting, which we were quite excited about. They tend to drift down past Newfoundland from the Arctic Circle throughout the spring and early summer so we were lucky to just catch the end of the season. After watching a gorgeous sunset there we spent the night at a great little B&B run by a guy called Albert and his wife, who were hilarious to talk to.









The next day saw us go back down and then up the next peninsula, passing through Terra Nova National Park on our way to Twillingate. We only stopped in the park briefly for a short hike to a place called Malady Head, relelntlessly pursued by mosquitos the whole way there and back. Twillingate, also on the north coast, was yet another stunning little fishing town set amongst rocky coves and the site of our second iceberg sighting. We took a boat out to see this one up close, kept busy on the way there trying to decipher our tour guide's thick Newfie accent (which sounds like a cross between Irish and southern US). The iceberg itself was pretty cool to see, pardon the pun, particularly seeing it in the light of sunset, sitting there bobbing away and occasionally letting out a short whipcrack sound. We got to taste a chunk we scooped out of the ocean. It tasted icy. We'd lucked out with our accommodation, staying in a few rooms at the office of an RV park (man the RV's over here are big, it was like being amongst a herd of elephants) so had our own personal kitchen to prepare a nice home cooked meal. Well the others did anyway, I was busy sorting out some of my clothes which were infused with maple syrup after bottle leaked in my bag, which left them all sticky but smelling absolutely delicious.





The next day we made it to the far west side of the island to Gros Morne National Park. That place was incredible, with glacial carved valleys and mountains situated right on the ocean. We stayed in a quiet little hostel which had only been converted from a hospital a few years ago, in fact our room pretty much still looked just like a ward, which was only slightly freaky at first. Moreso though was the rooms across the hall, which still had an extensive collection of surgical instruments sitting around, so we could have managed just about any crisis ranging from delivering a baby or conducting an appendectomy ourselves. There were more than a few references to the movie Hostel made that week too, and most of the others had quite strange dreams while there (I slept like a rock though). We were pretty keen to get out hiking straight away (that probably had a lot to do with the strange smell in our room too) so headed straight for the Baker's Brook Falls trail.

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Not only were the falls themselves quite pretty but we saw 4 moose along the trail, including 2 big bulls with a hefty set of still velvety antlers each and a mother and calf who we had to pass with a few metres of to get back to the car. I've seen quite a few moose by now (Mike and Jess were pretty much hyperventilating with excitement though) we were all glad to finally see some moose as Newfoundland has one of the most concentrated populations in the world and we hadn't seen a single one crossing the island.





Our second day in the park Sina and I decided to tackle Gros Morne mountain while Mike and Jess went sea kayaking. The hike to the 800m summit was the one I most wanted to do in the park, and while I generally keep a pretty good speed up when I'm hiking, with Sina setting the pace we were up and back in record time. The ascent includes a fun little stretch called The Gully, which is basically a scree slope of loose rocks and boulders you have to scramble up. It's not as bad as they make it sound but doesn't look like much fun when you're at the bottom looking up. The view from the top is well worth it though, particularly the view from the cliffs at the back of the mountain over 10 Mile Pond. After a frosty chocolate milkshake to celebrate we rejoined the others that afternoon for a final dinner at a nice restaurant, as the next day Mike and Sina had a marathon drive back to St John's to catch some flights. It was a very sad goodbye, even though we'd only spent a short time together we'd all bonded pretty quickly.





Jess and I decided to stay on in the Park a bit longer as there was still lots to see there, so we spent the next few days doing lots of hiking, including the Lookout Trail, a beautiful wildflower lined seaside trail called the Green Gardens and the Tablelands. These are hills made of rock from deep in the Earth's mantle. They're toxic to most plant life because of the minerals in them so are mostly bare and a delightful pumpkiny orange colour. For a bit of a change from walking we went on a boat cruise along Western Brook Pond (strangely enough they tend to call lakes ponds around there, presumably they call actual ponds puddles and so on). This is one of the most dramatic parts of the park, a long lake which used to be a fjord but it separated from the sea, so is now surrounded by steep cliffs along it's entire length except for one end. We also went sea kayaking around Bonne Bay one day, the first time I've done that. It was fun, but was windy enough to make it hard work rather than a relaxing paddle.







But eventually it was time to get going again, we spent one night in a place called Corner Brook, after all that time in the great outdoors we need a bit of civilization in the form of a trip to the movies and then it was time to head our separate ways. Jess was off to Quebec and I headed back to Halifax via 2 bus trips and a ferry ride. I had a quiet time there, caught up on some work and some more movies - man has this been a good summer to be a nerd, what with all these superheroes and cute robots and all that. Also did some catching up with more friends, Ben and his girlfriend Vikki, who I'd met on my Salty Bear tour and also seen in Jasper and Vancouver. They came with me to say my goodbyes to Halifax at the Lower Deck. While I'm sure I'll be back one day that will probably be my last visit on this trip at least. With that out of the way (and once I saw the Dark Knight, which completely blew my mind) it was on a place all the way west to Calgary. Boy was that strange to cover so much ground in such a short time, but I've after crossing the continent 3 times overland I decided it was okay to take the easy way for a change.

So that brings me up to date. Haven't done my travel map in a while so thought I'd better get that up to date. It's starting to get a bit crowded, need to fill in some of those gaps I think.

Life is like a box of emergency chocolates, eh.

I had a moment of profound personal insight a few weeks ago, thanks to TV of course. Forrest Gump was on, at that bit where he just starts running from one side of the USA to the other, only turning back when he reaches an ocean. Given I've just completed my third crossing of the North American continent in a year I looked at it and thought, 'Hey, that's me!'. I have become Forrest Gump. Now, on the one year anniversary of my arrival in North America, I'm beginning to wonder about all the little ways I might have touched people's lives, the subtle ripples I've caused in the fabric of North American civilization which will one day have far reaching consequences. But that will be for history to deal with. Right now I'm only concerned with my travels throughout May, which took me from Portland, Oregon to the coast of Maine. I wanted to meet some friends in Chicago and Ottawa at the end of the month so I thought I'd cross the northern USA on the way.

Portland felt like the kind of city I'd imagined Seattle to be. They've got a nice downtown with a lot of old red brick buildings, and there was always something happening, like the Cinco de Mayo festival which celebrated the heritage of Mexican immigrants and had rides, mariachi bands, jumbo corn dogs and banana drinks with little umbrellas in them. Very festive. People in Portland were also surprisingly friendly, they'd smile and say hello in the street, which is so unusual for a city that size I was too startled to reply every time. Overheard a lot of conversations about drugs though, which probably explains why they're so cheerful all the time.



I also caught up with Geoff in Portland, who I met back in New Zealand in 2006. He and his girlfriend took me out to the Columbia River Gorge, just outside the city. There's heaps of waterfalls here, including the spectacular Multnomah Falls, the second highest in the US. It was a fantastic day, especially since it was early in the spring and seeing things like green plants and running water were still a novelty. Another highlight of Portland was Wahington Park, the Japanese Garden and Arboretum there are quite pretty with all the magnolias in bloom and the views of Mt Hood and Mt St Helens in the distance.







Twin Falls, Idaho, I originally chose just to have a break on the way to Wyoming, but I really enjoyed my time there. The downtown is typically small town America, a bit empty and neglected unfortunately. There's the usual strip of fast food chains, shopping malls and cheap motels (where I was staying - there were no hostels in most of the places I went in the States so spent a bit of time in budget motels, but it was nice to have my own room and TV for a change). Idaho is pretty much completely flat, farm country (famous for it's potatoes) but Twin Falls is situated on the edge of the Snake River Canyon which makes things more interesting. I hiked down into the canyon (refreshed with a free Coke from the folks in the visitors centre which I thought was mighty nice of them), along the rim and across the Perrine Bridge. This is about 500m above the river and is a major draw for basejumpers from all over the world. Most people I spoke to thought I was there to jump off it actually (especially when they found out I was Aussie), which was crazy. It was far too windy. Did make it out to Shoshone Falls though, which were well worth the long walk to get there.





Jackson, Wyoming, on the edge of Grand Teton National Park was next up. Jackson's a really Western town, with wooden boardwalks around the streets of downtown, plenty of Western style buildings and lots of people getting around in cowboy gear (I'm still really tempted to get a cowboy hat). I didn't really have much chance to get into Grand Teton unfortunately, was still a bit early in the tourist season for a lot of the transport and activities to be running. I did get a nice look at the mountains though from the National Elk Refuge, which is home to a couple of thousand elk during the winter, a lot of whom were still hanging around due to the unusually late cold weather, even got some snow around while there.







Onwards once again, to Yellowstone National Park, I stayed right on the western edge of the park in West Yellowstone, Montana, a tiny place which basically exists for people visiting or working in the park. Though there'd been a little bit of snow in Jackson I was stunned to see it piled up to over 6 feet by the side of the road, which meant it was time to dig out the longjohns and winter coat again, although not in time to stop my third cold for the year. D'oh! I only had a few days here, but went on 2 bus trips which cover most of the major highlights of the park. Didn't have much choice because surprisingly for the country's busiest national park there's no public bus or mass transit system unlike the ones in Yosemite or Denali. With my cold I wasn't in much of a mood for hiking anyway and considering a grizzly attacked a bison calf right beside one of the boardwalks in the Old Faithful area (the day after I was there) it wasn't somewhere I cared to be wandering alone. The tours turned out to be pretty good though, the first day concentrated on the geothermal areas in the southern half of the park; hot springs, mud pools, fumaroles and of course geysers including Old Faithful, and also the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is an amazing spot.







The next day we covered the northern section, the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Falls. There were heaps of wildlife sightings both days, hundreds of elk and bison - the bison in particular were great to see, they're such big, imposing creatures, I find it really sad how their numbers have been completely decimated. There were also deer, coyotes, pronghorn antelope, and finally, some bears. We saw 2 black bears, one way down in the bottom of the canyon, but another right beside the road so joined in one of the bear jams (that's where a bunch of cars stop to watch the bears, not where a bunch of bears sit around and play music) and got to watch it for quite a while, pottering around by the side of the road. They were actually the first wild bears I'd seen in a whole year over here, so was pretty happy about that, and also to have lots of other people around who I could outrun if I needed to.







Bozeman, Montana, is probably one of the nicest American towns I've been to, in one of the nicest looking states. Unlike Twin Falls they've managed to avoid having all the life sucked out of the old downtown area so it's quite a lively place. It's set in the middle of a huge valley and is ringed by distant mountains way in every direction. Were some interesting old buildings there too, old flour mills and stuff, and a really steep hike which practically killed me - will be more careful about tackling the routes which are described as 'vigorous' in future. Rapid City, South Dakota was next. It's situated between the Great Plains and the Black Hills, a gorgeous mountainous area which is where Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monuments are located. Did a day trip out there, they're both quite impressive, although there's decades of work left to be done on Crazy Horse (and I think it's a bit of a shame how much of the mountain they planning to blow up to make it) which also included a trip to a gold mine and Custer State Park, also very pretty.







I'm having a bit of a whinge in the next bit so you can skip it if you just want to hear the good stuff.

From Rapid City I was basically heading straight to Chicago. I could have caught the bus straight there but it would have been about a 24 hour trip. The Greyhound buses in the US are generally pretty full too (of very... interesting characters, it's definitely an insight into American culture) so instead of another marathon bus trip I thought I'd stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota to get a decent night's sleep, and also see the Mississippi River which runs through town. Turned out I should have just stayed on the bus because my whole experience with Minneapolis was pretty much a disaster. It started that morning, I woke up early to catch a bus which ended up leaving 6 hours after I thought it did, spent about 12 hours on the bus and didn't stop anywhere to get any real food until 10pm. Got into Mineapolis around 1:30, got a taxi to the hostel I'd booked which cost about 7 bucks. The driver said he didn't have change for a 20, I don't tip that generously so I said fine, I'll pay by credit card. He took my details, I hopped out of the cab, found the hostel reception was closed for the night and then realised I didn't get a receipt for the taxi which I had a bad feeling about, and figured I'd give up on Minneapolis so walked back to the bus station to see if there was another bus to leave. Turns out there wasn't so had to find somewhere to stay for the night, the security guard called a taxi driver friend of his though who took me to a slightly dodgy place he recommended where there was a man wandering the carpark (at about 3am) asking me if I could smell something burning. I couldn't, and wouldn't have cared if I could, finally hopped into bed for a few hours of sleep before I was up to get back to the bus station and out of town. Turns out my bad feeling was later justified as the first taxi driver took my details and had a party to the tune of about $650 before I could see what he was up to and cancel my card. Have since got a temporary new card, which works maybe half the time, and have got Visa looking into it to see if I get the money back, but don't exactly have fond memories of my visit to Minneapolis. And I never even saw the Mississippi.





Still, can't complain too much about one really bad day out of a whole year I suppose. To balance things out I did have a fantastic few days in Chicago. I caught up with my Mexican friend Priscila and her friend Juan (they make and sell robots, probably the coolest jobs in the whole world if you ask me) (and she's promised to give me one one day). Chicago's a great city, with beautiful old skyscrapers, the many bascule bridges crossing the Chicago River where it runs through the downtown and it's nicely situated on the shores of Lake Michigan. Then there's some great parks and public spaces (and a great Art Gallery, always good to see more famous paintings in person) and good nightlife too - we went to one really good bar with duelling pianos, lots of fun.







For a change of pace I flew to Ottawa next, wanted to catch up with another friend, Florence, who was one of the first people I met over here last summer in Victoria and was over here from France. It was also nice to see Ottawa in the summer rather than winter, it's quite a different place, but surprisingly low key for the national capital. Lots of good walking though, along the river or on the other side in Gatineau, Quebec, along the Rideau Canal, and a really nice market district in the downtown which is home to lots of bars too so always lively at night.





Had to decide which direction to head next from here, had originally planned to go back west but decided since I was so close I'd head east towards Newfoundland. And of course, there's the whole Forrest Gump thing where I can't stop until I reach the ocean. Anyway, thought I'd head down through New England this time, stopping by White River Junction, Vermont, which was nice enough, not particularly thrilling but I'm sure would be spectacular in the fall. Very dense forest around most of Vermont, was expecting more in the way of farms and fields. Anyway, was back to Boston, which was also quite a different experience in the summer. It was really quite warm here, 35 degrees and very humid, reminded me of summer back home but was unusual for them. I did enjoy exploring Boston a bit more, went to a baseball game with Helen, my Kiwi friend from back west, that was pretty neat to see, despite the extortionate prices for all the snacks. Also went up and saw Salem, the site of the witch trials, but was more interested in the waterfront and old houses rather than all that stuff. Lots of new age stores up there too, which I find odd given their track record.







Was getting kind of grumpy in Boston though, what with the heat, bed bug attacks (I really hate those things), really bad hayfever and troubles trying to use my temporary credit card it was a relief to get to Bar Harbor, Maine. It's a small holiday town on Mount Desert Island, most of which is protected in Acadia National Park. There's heaps of great hiking here, along the beaches and rocky coast, and through forests dotted with beautiful lakes and nice, easily hikeable mountains. Best of all, there's no bears to watch for. It was great to wander on my own all day without worrying about running into anything more dangerous than a deer or moose, which just kick rather than bite. Lovely place, thinking of getting back there later on if I can.







Think that'll do for this entry, congratulations if you made it this far. Will save my return to Nova Scotia for after I've made it up to Newfoundland next week.