Month: September 2022

Here is a collection of random summary thoughts about the trip.

• We drove a total of 8400 miles, paid a total of $3000 for gas, with an average price around $6.30, so we averaged around 17 mpg. Not bad. Diesel was $.50 to $1 more than unleaded everywhere we went.
• We stayed in a lot more campgrounds campgrounds than I expected, and did less boondocking than expected. Maybe 50/50, where I expected to do 80% boondocking. Even though boondocking options were everywhere, campgrounds were cheap (or free), nice, and mostly half empty, so toilet access often won out.
• We did a total of 15 nights in an AirBNB. It’s important to get out of the van periodically.
• I was surprised how few bears we saw. Lots of moose though.
• Mosquitos were way less of a problem than expected, and flies more of a problem. Mosquitos were really only bad the last 3 weeks of June, and small flies that liked to land on your eyes were everywhere. The head net was very useful for both.
• It seemed like it rained 2 out of every 3 days in June/July. We had been warned about this, but it did get old.
• There were a lot of Unimog-based campers with German plates. Why do the Germans like these crazy vehicles, which are completely unnecessary in Alaska? I talked to one of the owners, and they said they all ship them from Hamburg to Halifax, and it’s not that expensive to ship them.

Here are some of my favorite photos of the trip.

Thats all for now. Till the next trip….

The final ‘destination’ for the trip was Banff National Park in Alberta. We spent two nights at a campground at Lake Louise, and two nights at a campground in the town of Banff. Both campgrounds were huge and unremarkable, but well located.

The park is crowded and parking difficult, so the E-bike was very useful. I did a bike ride to Lake Louise, which I think is overrated, and to Lake Moraine, which I found amazing.

We also had cocktails at the iconic Fairmont Hotel in Banff. Expensive of course, but excellent. The coffee bean infused Negroni was exceptional.

Overall I liked Jasper a lot better than Banff, but Banff is certainly very picturesque. But it is also more touristy and Epcot center-like.

Hikes in the Banff region included the Parker Ridge Trail, (one of my favorite hikes in Canada), the Bow Glacier Falls Trail, and the C-Level Cirque hike. All are highly recommended.

The full set of photos for the week is here. There are probably too many photos for this week, but Banff is very photogenic.

After Banff we had two smokey days of driving to get Christine to Spokane to fly to New Orleans, after which I had three long driving days to Navarro California for the “Camp Deep End” music festival.

It was time to do laundry and get out of the van for a few days, so we booked an AirBNB for 5 nights in Hinton, which is about 30 minutes from the border of Jasper national park (Rooms in the town of Jasper were crazy expensive or booked). I did a day trip into Jasper from Hinton to do the Sulphur Skyline Trail followed by a soak in Miette Hot Springs. Then I went down to Jasper to grab a campsite before the labor day holiday weekend (they do labor day in Canada too). I went back and picked up Christine 2 days later–she had been enjoying the lovely sunsets in Hinton. Jasper has several smaller campgrounds that are ‘first come first served’, so if you arrive around 10am you can get a great spot.

I loved Jasper National Park. Despite one of the days being very hot and smokey, I was able to do several amazing hikes (my favorite was the Edith Cavell Meadows Trail) and some great mountain bike riding. The impressive Athabasca Falls was near our campground too. Christine did the 1.5 hour Maligne Lake Boat Trip, which would have been much better without the heavy smoke that day, while I did a bike ride.

I’ve been getting more into biking trails, and the ride to Lower Fryatt Campground was perfect for my skill level. There were several groups of cyclists who overnighted there in a great little campground with a big pile of free firewood and an outhouse. This is the first time I’ve seen a backcountry campground specifically targeted to mountain bikers. Is this common? Quite cool!

The town of Jasper is very cute, and looks like it would be a nice place to live, despite the number of tourists.

The full set of photos for this week are here.