Day 16: Soul Medicine

Good morning! I had another excellent sleep last night - 8 whole hours! Can't remember the last time I did that. It was definitely a cosy little room.

Today I'm off to see a few more beautiful lakes including Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake, and then I'll be in search of some hidden trails to provide a bit of mystery to the day. Once I arrive at my destination tonight, I will need to plan out my next 10 days, as I've reached the end of the current planned route of this amazing journey.

Before I left the beautiful Pyramid Lake, I snapped some stunning early morning photos of the lake. It was so smooth it reflected the trees and mountains like a mirror. Breathtaking, right?

And don't forget my handy dandy sandwich-making factory which was hard at work before I departed. There are 6 simple steps to making a ton of sandwiches in 4-5 minutes flat. Today's demonstration will be of me making all 10 PB&J sandwiches.

Step 1: Prepare your space so you can lay out multiple slices of bread and have your fillings at the ready. (pro tip: if you don't have a cutting board available, regular towels will do the trick 🤣. Pyramid Hotel if you are reading this, I did not cut anything on your towel, and I washed it myself afterwards!)

Step 2: Distribute the first filling across all slices, no need to make it pretty or even just yet, you're just getting the quantity right here.

Step 3: Now that your filling has been distributed, you can now spread it evenly.

Step 4: Repeat step two with your second ingredient. Here I'm adding a dollop of jelly.

Step 5: This step is a bit blurry 🤣 but it's also a repeat of step 3, so you get the picture.

And Step 6, Add your halves together and make a whole sammie!

Jasper National Park Drive By

I was on my way, driving through Jasper and taking as many photos I could as I went.

Athabasca River

Maligne Lake Canyon

The Maligne Canyon had a gorgeous viewpoint allowing you to look out onto the scene ahead from high above.

And when you looked down you could see into the canyon, which had an interesting phenomenon of huge logs creating quite a sizable dam. I figured it's either massive beavers the size of whales who are responsible, or the current is so strong it carries these long trees downriver only to get stuck at this spot.

I am so happy I stopped at the Maligne Lake Canyon! The canyon ended up being a 3-in-1 deal, with an incredible viewpoint, a glimpse down into the canyon itself, and it even had a waterfall inside! The waterfall is quite impressive, a 38-meter drop, and it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the map. If I hadn't stopped at the canyon I would have missed one of the nicest spots!

At the canyon, I met 2 folks from Montreal, France and Fern. They are touring around Canada in a Tesla Model Y and I had to find out if they have any anxiety around finding charging stations. They told me they absolutely do not! They even managed to do the entire trip from Banff to Jasper, which is quite long, with no stops (since there are no charging stations along that route).

I learned that though this vehicle is a rental, they own a Model 3 car in Montreal and absolutely love it. With the Model Y capable of covering 500 km (apparently the Model 3 has a smaller battery), they are planning to drive to Canmore, Lake Louise, Banff and Jasper.

He started to explain to me how driving in the Canadian rockies, with uphill and downhill, he hardly uses his breaks. I let him know that back at home my family are avid Tesla owners and that my son has the Model 3 and my wife has the Model S.

Bus Stop

I had a happy encounter with a lovely school bus driver, and by happy encounter, I mean I was illegally parked in a spot reserved for buses. After a few apologies, I learned the driver's name was Tanna, and she was driving a group on a field trip for a school 2 hours away in a city called Edson. She was very understanding about the parking mix-up, and since it's still off-season there was plenty of other parking spots. We discussed how lucky the kids in the area are to be able to do a quick field trip to such an incredible place such as this.

Lake Medicine Lookout

Well, I know why this place is named "Medicine". It truly feels like medicine... for the soul, that is. Just look at the color of the water!

I walked down a whole bunch of stairs, despite my bad knee acting up, for the promise of some good photos. Also, it's medicine, so it'll be all better after, right? The things I do for my blog followers. 😉

Lake Maligne

I pull up next to Lake Maligne. There is a parking lot where most people will park their cars and then get out to walk around. But I'm not most people. I find the hidden trails. So at Lake Malign, I found the backtrail to where the locals launch their boats and I drove Steele, the Mercedes, right up to the water.

So I'm less than 2 feet away from the water's edge and notice the people nearby with their jaws dropped and eyes popping out of their heads. I think they were genuinely worried that I was having a mental break and was about to drive straight into the water.

There is also a park ranger nearby, so I get out of the vehicle and call out to him saying "This model of Mercedes turns into a boat! The wheels will angle 90 degrees in just a moment". He looked at me in shock and at that moment I said "Just kidding!" and explained that I was doing a photo shoot of my Mercedes for the blog I'm writing. He smiled and said, "Ya had me going there for a second!".

I then addressed the others nearby who had seemed horrified by the car's approach up to the lake shore. They introduced themselves as Sandy and Katheryn, and I gave them a postcard with the blog address so they could see the blog first hand and be assured that I am of sound mind (Though am I really? The next 10 days of planned adventures are making me wonder...).

After my expedition to the water's edge, I drove back up to the touristy part of the lake. Turns out they also have a dock in this area for the tourist boats that take people around the lake. So I did what any sane person would, and did a rinse and repeat. I pulled good ol' Steele (the Mercedes) up to the edge of the water once again.

This time, they send a park employee to "check it out" and that's how I met Monty. Man, let me tell you he was such a sweet guy! I learned that he was born in Vancouver Island and that both he and his sister live here. He's been working at the park for 8 years, which is far more than anyone else I've met at the park so far (most have been around for only 1-2 years and then move on). He described the move here and his work at the park as life-changing. Sounds like he really found his calling!

I asked Monty what he thought the most beautiful place in all of Canada was. He said for him it's the British Columbia coastline. That he has a soft spot in his heart for the old grove trees that line up right up against the ocean. It sounds lovely. But I'm also finding it hard to imagine anything more beautiful than where I am right now.

Smarter than the Average Bear

Back on the road, suddenly I see something moving off to the side. Who said the sentence "I am smarter than the average bear"? That's right, Yogi Bear! And I just found him. There he was, walking lazily along the side of the highway, not a care in the world. There were cars, trucks, and RVs all zipping by him and he just kept walking along. He was big, slow and FEROCIOUS! Nah, just kidding, he actually seemed really sweet. I wanted to get out and pet him. 🤪

Snaring Campgrounds

Next, I took a hidden trail to Snaring Campground. It was a 5 km, narrow but paved road which lead to an even smaller dirt road that continued another 15 km, but had some incredible views along the way. Looking at the sign on the way out....I think the last 15KM of that trail were more geared for foot hikers and not 4 legged automobiles.

The winding road went from smooth to quite bumpy, though still nothing like the forbidden trail or the longest 3 miles to Dog Park trail. Though this trail had its own perils, with sharp cliff edges on one side and a wall of steep mountain incline on the other. Meaning, there was nowhere to go but forward.

There were only 2 problems. One, was the length, with over 15 kilometers requiring deep and constant concentration. The second was that at some point, the trial got so narrow it could only fit one car both ways. There was a sign indicating traffic could go up between certain hours, and come down at different hours. But since it was off-season and I hadn't seen a single car for the last 15 minutes, I risked it. Up and down we went! Along the way, it seemed like there had been a forest fire in the area, as there were many charred trees and the smell of smoke still lingered.

The entire 15 km up and down took about 2.5 hours, with many obstacles along the way such as VERY narrow bridges and even one spot where I had to drive through a running river! But boy, was it worth it!

Once again, no pictures or videos could even capture the scene around me that made me feel such awe (Maybe it's time to invest in a "real" camera).

During the drive up, there were several moments where I felt tears come to my eyes out of sheer amazement and appreciation for the nature I saw unfolding around me.

After the trek through the dusty road, Steele was covered in a fine layer of dirt and was in desperate need of a car wash. Hang in there buddy!

Hinton Alberta

It was time to leave Jasper National Park and head to my BnB. I ran into a bit of trouble trying to find the route there since I had no internet and I guess I had not pre-loaded that part of the Google map for offline usage. So off I went with my remarkable sense of direction (aka I have no sense of direction), with no GPS, essentially driving blindfold. On the bright side, I saw some incredible wildlife along the way!

I luckily managed to make it to the city of Hinton where the bed and breakfast is. Bet you can guess what my first stop there was. You've got it, grocery store sandwich supply stop! I pulled into the Safeway and got all the ingredients I needed and even managed to get my data plan to work with the cell reception there so I could put in my final destination.

As I left Safeway I noticed there was a distinct scent in the air and asked a local about it. Apparently what I was smelling was wood! He said there are fires over 200 km away, but the smoke travels far and carries the smell of burning wood with it. I will need to make sure my next journey north is far far away from any fires!

Rocky Mountain View BnB

The trail to the bed and breakfast was a hidden trail in itself, down a windy dirt road. They had a lot of great signs to indicate you were going the right way to the BnB which was very helpful!

1. Yes – this is the way

2. Keep going

3. You are almost there

4. You made it

When I arrived, Nicole was waiting to greet me. She was very warm, attentive and had a bubbly personality that just made me feel right at home. This might be the first and last place I will spend 2 nights in a row! That is how much I ended up loving it here. It 100% takes the cake as the winner of all the places I've stayed in so far, to date...ever in my life.

I learned that Nicole, the manager, used to be a legal assistant but now manages this location. She has truly gone above and beyond what normal managers do with a BnB like this. No wonder people love coming here so much!

Everything here is so well planned out. There is a washing machine and dryer, a full kitchen loaded with food (drinks, bread, cakes), there are games and other fun ways to pass the time. Everything is just organized perfectly and you can tell so much effort has gone into it to make things available to the guests for the best stay possible. I should have a sub-blog page just about this one place!

The rooms are also incredible, so modern and full of amenities. My room has a large balcony overlooking stunning mountain and forest views.

The location feels isolated and relaxing. As I gazed out into nature, it happened again! Tears! I guess my soul needed a bit of nature medicine more than I realized!

Another HIGH SCORE - demolished

Seems everytime I introduce my Oculus VR Headset to people I meet, and teach them how to use it, well....they top my high score. Nicole was no exception. She put on the VR gear and instantly started to smash the cubes in BEAT SABER. I was waiting for her 3 lives to "end" which DID NOT COME soon enough! Once I heard the "FIREWORKS" in the game, I realized...Another top score was history :( WELL PLAYED - Nicole !

Freson Bros Hinton

So there I was, trying to write for the blog and upload all the incredible photos for the day but was having a bit of trouble. The internet at the BnB is amazing and has super-fast download speeds. However, the upload speed was causing me some issues. It was just not fast enough to handle ALL the videos and pictures that I took today.

So I drove into town and found a nice hotel and asked to use their lobby internet, only to learn they do not have internet in the lobby. Apparently, each room has a dedicated router. However, they did inform me that Freson Bros (the grocery store) is open for another hour and they have free internet.

So off I went to the grocery store for some internet. I was the only "shopper" there so the internet was mine. All mine! I confirmed with the manager on duty that it was ok to use the internet (since I wasn't actually shopping). Ben, the manager on staff was totally cool about it and helped me hook up to the internet. Thanks, Ben!

The Freson Bros upload speed was great, so fast in fact that it only took 3.8 minutes for me to upload everything to the cloud. So I got back to the BnB before nightfall! I got settled in and watched an absolutely lovely sunset before tucking in for the night.

What a special day, and so soothing to the soul.

Before I go, I want to announce the winner of yesterday's pop quiz! The question was: Who got the first bag of my special popcorn during my trip? The answer is the Mennonites! And the winner who responded correctly first was Ronit, my dear sister and avid blog follower! Well done, Ronit! You get a $100 Amazon gift card.

See you all tomorrow.

-Shlomo

Check out all the additional incredible photos from today in the Photo Gallery!