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globe-trotters.chDana & Mathias on Tour |
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globe-trotters.chDana & Mathias on Tour |
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We cross the friendly canadian border at Osoyoos. The road winds for a while through wine and peach country. In Kelowna, we turn right and after twenty kilometers, we take an infrequented gravel road. The road sneaks through the forest of pines and berries. We cannot believe the mirrors.
We spend a full-moon night under the Mount Revelstoke on the banks of Columbia River.
The following day, we visit the Glacier National Park.
The first part of the hike on the Crete Abbott is a succession of stunning contrasts of pine and moss green, stark blue of the sky, and granite gray of the sheer rock faces.
Higher up, calling of pikas building their nests for the winter echoes between the boulders. Hairy anemone flowers flutter in the cold breeze coming from the glaciers surrounding us.
A steep path takes us back to the valleys shaped by meltwater rivers and alpine meadows.
The entrance into the Kootenay National Park is dramatic. Behind the iron-rich cliffs of the Redwall Fault, the nature assembled shallow olive green lakes, milky blue rivers, bubbling mineral springs, glacier-clad peaks, flowers, cacti, and grizzlys.
How can a pine forest bloom? Leave it to the fire. Many ecosystems have evolved with fire and depend on it for renewal. In cool temperature areas, decay is slow and logs and fallen needles pile up on the forest floor. Fire reduces this material to mineral-rich ash, releasing and recycling nutrients. Fire also creates openings in the forest. Sunlight penetrates these gaps, warming the soil and stimulating new growth from seeds and roots. Over time, periodic fires create a diverse vegetation mosaic, providing a rich variety of habitats that support many species of insects, mammals, and birds.
After a fire, woodpecker populations may increase fifty times. They come to feast on bark beetles that colonize in newly burned trees. Aspen raspberry, rose, and other plants sprout vigorously from underground after a fire passes. Moose and elk feed on this new growth. Both lodgpole pine and jack pine have resin-sealed cones that only open after a fire melt the resin, releasing thousands of seeds. The Canada lynx hunts in recently burned areas that support its favorite prey - the snowshoe hare.
We walk in an unlikely scenery of a forest that was caught in the biggest wildfire in the Kootenay park's living memory two years ago. Since, thousands of wildflowers sprang up in the freed-up space. Tons of butterflies fly over the waist-high vegetation. The ghostly black pillars of what remained of the dead trees still stand, pointing high into the skies. A world between the hell and the paradise.
Except for the West Coast, the entire Canada was under ice as recently as fifteen thousands years ago. Then the glaciers melted down, leaving behind tundra, relatively young forests, and hundrends of thousands of lakes and rivers. Some of the most spectacular water colors are found in the first national park of Canada, the Banff. One jewel of the Canadian Rockies, Lake Louise, is probably the best known, as some Ski World Cup Competitions take place on the nearby slopes almost every year.
But the most stunning, subjectively, is the Moraine Lake. We must be hallucinating. The blue of this intensity is just unique. In direct competition with the sky.
The lake is fed by the meltdown waters running down from the glacier. When the stream slows down, rocks and gravel it carries are left in the delta, and silt sinks to the bottom of the lake. But fine particles of rock ground remain suspended in the water. This floating "rock flour", scattering the blue-green rays of light, is the secret of the special color. The color changes during the year. The more meltwater, the greener the lake. We should check back in spring.
Bow Summit is a great place to visit. At least in summer. At 2115 meters altitude and this far north, the ground is covered by snow nine months a year. But now, the walk to the summit is easy. And the view is unbelievable. Below the treeless tundra, forests of Douglas fir, lodgepole, and white spruce completely fill the U-shaped glacier valleys. At the bottom of the valleys shine glacier lakes. The nearest one is the beautiful Peyto Lake.
Not all the lakes of Banff are of blue tone. They take on shades of green, silver, or color of whatever is reflected in them.
Van Gogh must have washed his paintbrush in Banff's waters.
In the campground, we are warned a grizzly is around. We spot him the following day by the road.
We also spot a herd of mountain goat jumping on the wind blown ridges, bighorn sheep, coyote, deer, and elk.
A group of goose is rafting in an icy river. They forgot a day-dreaming young one behind. They brake abruptly and wait for the panicked youngster to catch up.
The mountains here have wrinkles.
The story of Canadian Rockies begins about 160 million years ago in an ancient sea. By then, the bed was kilometers deep and had hardened into distinct rock layers. As Pacific and American tectonic plates strained against each other, the earth's crust buckled and heaved upward and eastward into a complex jumble. Glaciers came and went, and the mountains eroded.
Facing the cold, barren, sharp sandstone today, it is hard to believe we are actually looking at the bed of a warm sea that was once full of life.
We drive on the Icefield Parkway, one of Canada's most spectacular stretches of asphalt. The road follows a lake-lined valley between two chains of Eastern Main Ranges, which make up the Continental Divide. These are the highest mountains of the Rockies.
The highway passes within viewing distance of seven icefields. and about 25 smaller glaciers. The centrepiece is the Columbia Icefield, largest in the Rocky Mountains, with an area of about 200 square kilometers. The glacier in one of the crevasses is 191 meters thick.
Stopping at the Athabasca Glacier, it is obvious that the glaciers in the region are retreating fast. The glaciers retreated about two kilometers over the last century, with a pronounced acceleration over the past twenty years.
Meltwater carves millwells and caves as it flows to the toe of the glacier and into the Sunwapta Lake.
Single-celled plant colonies called snow algae color the snow pinkish in places. Pioneer plants such as purple vetch and yellow mountain avens made it to the lake shore.
Deep in the Jasper National Park, an underground river runs out from Medicine Lake. It comes to the daylight in the narrow limestone Maligne Canyon. We hike alongside the canyon and the bridges built over it, past waterfalls, crystalline pools, and curious rock formations.
Distances are enormous but as we have time we quite enjoy it. We shop in West Edmonton Mall wondering how come the biggest shopping mall in North America was built in the sparsely populated area of far north. We see evidence of Alberta's vast oil industry. On the big plains, everytime we stop, we get an invitation from a friendly farmer. Changing weather patterns are visible here, too. In an area where it never rains over the summer, fields were flooded, and crops had to be re-planted.
We drive through birch and short pine forests of Ontario.
The country is getting ready for winter.
Entering the Quebec province, we go hiking in the silence of the Aigubelle National Park. A moose is swimming across a deep black lake.
The water mirrors reflect the reality in a nearly perfect way.
The Laurantians are is of the world's oldest mountain ranges. Five hundred million years of erosion created rippling landscapes of undulating hills and valleys. The forest hides treasures such as silver maples and amber ponds..
The automn colors are starting to take over the unending forests of Mont Tremblant as we hike through them.
Back in Chiapas, we met a nice Canadian couple, Veronique and Mike. We promissed that when we drive through Canada, we would stop by and taste their wine. Yes, there is wine in Canada!
The winery Les Pervenches produces wines using the biodynamic methods. In the hot humid summers of Quebec, observing the biodynamic principles may be tricky, as the funghi cannot be treated with chemicals. But Mike is strict, valuing quality over quantity. The result is excellent wine, particularly the Burgundy-style Chardonnay, but also Marechal Foche.
We are supposed to ship our car from Montreal to Valencia tomorrow. Last minute, we get a message from our freight forwarder that there is no space left on the ship. Mike calls a friend and it turns out that the ship had to be taken out of water for repairs. So we spend ten days with Veronique, Mike, and their sweet daughter, Soline, in Eastern Townships. Merci les copains!
Take Paris, mix in bits of London, sprinkle with maple syrup, and you end up with Montreal.. The city on the mighty Saint Laurence river has its Quartier Latin, Notre Dame and Saint Denis, but also its Windsor and Hampstead.
But it also has its own creations. Ancient streets are peppered with modern phantasy.
For a couple of days, we walk the city, sit by the fountains, and enjoy the nightlife.
For the first time in a long while, we taste decent charcuterie. We start looking forward to meeting the old continent again.