The Great Canadian Epic, Part 7: A Little More Jasper and Home Again

And so, at last, I am on the train bound for home.  But not before having one final Jasper adventure, which deserves a bit of space.  The eastbound train leaves Jasper in the late afternoon, but I had the whole earlier part of the day at my disposal – and decided that the time had come at last to take the sightseeing cruise on Maligne Lake, a 50-minute drive out from town.  I’d driven out the lake on my last visit, but had been too late in the day to take a cruise.

On the way out, the adventure began with a close encounter of the elk kind, barely a kilometre up the Maligne Lake Road.  Many of the elk had been removed from Jasper and resettled in Algonquin Park in Ontario a few years back, but some may still be seen.

Farther up the road, at Medicine Lake (about half way to Maligne) there was a sizable forest fire about 6 weeks ago.  These pictures show not only the utter destruction of the forest, but also the dried and dead state of many of the surviving trees which shows that they too were prime candidates for nature’s own weeding mechanism.  The forest plainly had become too densely packed, and a fresh start was overdue – as for many of the forest tracts in the national parks.  It’s difficult for us to come to terms with the beneficial effects of forest fires when we are faced with the devastation of familiar and beautiful places and views, and with the lingering effects.  Even before I got out of the rental car, the smell of burning and smoke was enough to make me start coughing.

Maligne Lake itself was untouched – the last major fire there was 12 years ago.  Since this is a heavily glaciated landscape, the most obvious comparison for me is found in Western Brook Pond in Newfoundland.  With that, I will let the pictures – including the classic view from Spirit Island – speak for themselves.

  

Plainly it was another hazy day, especially when shooting from Spirit Island directly towards the sun.  I don’t mind.  That glowing aura of light added a special dimension, for me an almost mystical feeling, to the experience.

And so back to Jasper and aboard the train, for the three-night run back to Toronto.  The only difference from the westbound journey is the setting of the clock ahead twice in just over 12 hours and consequent loss of sleep time.  That was noticeable this morning.  I was in the dining car at 6:40am for early breakfast, and we passed the westbound Canadian in slow motion at a siding.  Their dining cars were both about 2/3 full.  Ours had only 2 people eating.  Of course, the westbound passengers had just set their clocks back two hours the day and night before and thus were eating at what would seem like 8:40am to their body clocks!

Travelling eastwards across Saskatchewan I was struck all over again by two things.  One was the incredible variety of landscape in a province usually dismissed by people who’ve never seen it as flat and boring.  The other was the incredible increase in the rough riding qualities of the train when the maximum speed is increased from 80 to 100 kilometres per hour, or even higher to 115!  After trying to walk through the train under these conditions, you begin to think that elbow pads wouldn’t be a bad addition to VIA’s list of suggested items one should pack for the trip!

I did get some decent pictures across Saskatchewan – at least until after Saskatoon at which point the fire smoke caught up with us again and somewhat obscured a few of the prime sights. But here are a few good examples.  A classic prairie slough, ringed by mineral deposits:

One of the many fields shared by rows of flax and canola:

The small town known around the world for its quirky slogan, “New York is big, but this is Biggar”:

(That slogan was actually painted on a town sign in the early 1900s as a drunken prank and remained until it was officially adopted as the town motto decades later!)

The gigantic slag heap of a huge potash mine (note the big construction equipment perched on top of the pile at the right side of the picture to get the scale):

 The broad and majestic Assiniboine River valley:

And after the train left the Assiniboine Valley we were back on the same level prairie west of Winnipeg which I had already covered in my third blog post of the trip.

Winnipeg passed in darkness this time, still with an extended stop but not as long a stop as westbound.  I slept through that long quiet time and for many more hours during the ensuing night.  My internal clock was really thrown off by having two time zone switches in less than 12 hours with the consequent effect on my regular meal times – and here I thought this was an issue only in air travel.  See how wrong you can be?

 I was very much hoping for better weather in Northern Ontario to allow me to do photo justice to that region which I love so much.  The weather was not perfectly clear, but on a typical warm hazy summer day there was more than enough sun to allow for a few good scenic views. 

Pelican Lake just west of Sioux Lookout:

The northern end of the sizable lake at Collins:

An interesting group of treetops south of Hornepayne:

Another interesting aspect of this final full day was the delightful musical entertainment played and sung by the duo Rodent Tiger – a fascinating collection of blues, ballads, folk, pop, country, and original songs, all sung in a gentle mellow voice by Hayley Mcgregor and accompanied by the skilled acoustic guitar of Patrick Allan.  The lounge of the Skyline activity dome car is a tricky environment to play in, and these two carried it off with plenty of style and some unique harmonies to add an interesting spice to the flavour of their music.

As with the westbound experience at Winnipeg and Vancouver, so with the approach to Toronto.  For most of the last full day the train was running between two and three hours behind schedule.  But we still arrived into Toronto only 75 minutes later (in the other two cases we arrived early!).

The approach to Toronto is via the direct route down the Don River Valley, a remarkably scenic approach to the city shared by no motorists, since the valley looks completely different from the roads which thread it alongside the tracks.

This summer of trains has been a remarkable journey for me.  I’ve come away with a new and more realistic respect for the efforts of all who struggled to build and operate Canada’s major railways, as well as a new appreciation of the impact that riding these railways would have had on immigrants from distant lands.  I’ve refreshed and renewed my own visual impressions of the vastly diversified landscapes of Canada.  

Driving across the country doesn’t convey the same impression for me at all, not least because the scenery when I’m driving tends to dwindle down to an endless blur of yellow centre lines with fleeting impressions of other landscape elements cropping up from time to time.  Certainly no roadside restaurant can feed you as well, or provide such excellent service, as the mealtime experiences you will receive from the crews of The Canadian and The Ocean.  In the 4-day trip there are no repetitions of any main dishes on either the lunch or the dinner menus, and the chef’s omelette choice at breakfast is also different every day.

I’m sure that I will feel the earth moving under my feet for a few hours after I get home.  I will definitely keep on walking in the defensive elbows-up posture for fending off aggressive corridor walls for several more days!  I know I will miss the friendly, helpful attitude of all the staffs I’ve met on The Canadian (five different teams in all).  And I will look back nostalgically at the easy camaraderie of the scenic dome, and the congenial table conversations of the dining car.  It’s all been quite an experience.

Nothing says it better than the fact that I am determined to repeat this trip in another year or two!

Final suggestions: if you are taking one of VIA Rail's overnight trains, be sure to download and read their guide:  Travel Tips for Sleeper Passengers.  It covers many essential details that you won’t find in any other way, from advice regarding the very limited storage space in sleeper cars to the need for warm clothes (as the on-train atmosphere can get very cool) to the recommendation that you not schedule same-day connecting transport from The Canadian at any station.  (I’m writing these words during a 30-minute hold at a siding to allow a freight train to pass us in the opposite direction – a frequent event which underlines the importance of that last point.)  

While VIA Rail will re-book you on the next available train should you miss your VIA Rail connection, you might prefer to plan your trip around a stopover of a night before the connection, as I did.  It’s important to recall that these long-distance trains are subject to the vagaries of the freight-dominated railway network, and so schedules cannot be guaranteed.

In this day and age, it’s best to regard overnight trains like The Canadian and The Ocean as a cruise on rails rather than as point-to-point transportation – although many people do use them as a point-to-point service.  The same main features are all there for sleeper passengers: comfortable but not spacious accommodations, included meals of good quality, frequent activities and entertainment throughout the day, extra charges for alcoholic beverages, attentive and friendly service throughout the trip.  

Board the train in a flexible frame of mind, prepared to adapt to circumstances beyond your control, with no deadlines or imperative dates in mind, and you’ll be well-positioned to just relax and enjoy the journey.  Come prepared to make new friends and to meet interesting people from all corners of the globe and I’m sure you’ll have an experience to remember.