July 23, 2023
To Revelstoke
Moving day. Perhaps from having been reading Kelly’s journal for the last month, Rachael’s got ice on her mind. Her plan is to head down to the ice machine at the office just before we leave so she can put a chill on her water bottle for the hike we’re hoping to take in Glacier National Park (the Canadian version) on our way to Revelstoke.
The time comes, she heads out to the office and comes back sounding sheepish a few minutes later, sans ice. There is no ice in the offICE.
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The drive to Revelstoke starts with about an hour heading north on Highway 93, the same road we biked on our first day here. As it was then, it’s quiet and scenic the whole way - better to be biking of course, but very pleasant and relaxed driving too. At Golden though we come to the Trans-Canada Highway and head west and suddenly the driving is heavy and stressful.
As I drive I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen this stretch of the TCH, which my first wife and I drove most of the way across Canada back in 1972. We were on a road trip with my best friend from the army, Gary Rose, who was tragically left paralyzed from the waist down just a month after getting released from service on the same day I did. We joined him as he checked out a set of universities he was interested in pursuing studies at that were allegedly wheelchair-accessible, something that was much less widespread fifty years ago. Dalhousie in Nova Scotia was the last on his list, and after that we made a bee line west across the country. And I do mean beeline - the road across the heartland was virtually empty then, and I got the only speeding ticket of my life on the open, featureless prairie near Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
At some point we turned south and across the border, but I can’t remember where; and I can’t remember even how we joined up with or separated from Gary since we were living in Ferndale (near Bellingham, where I was going to school) and Gary and his wife lived in Pueblo, Colorado. I’ll have to send a message to Carol Jo to see what she remembers.
Also on my mind as we drive is climate change. I’m thinking about the glaciers that are rapidly receding everywhere, the name of the park we’re coming to, and wondering how much longer there will be glaciers up here or even if there will be much ice to see even today. As we start the climb up to Rogers Pass though suddenly the sky is filled with craggy silver and white peaks - awesome, but not really conducive to a hike because suddenly the air ahead is dense with smoke from an apparently nearby fire.
And what was Rachael thinking about during all this time I’m contemplating such deep thoughts? There’s the sad fact that her water bottle doesn’t have ice in it for one thing, but the other is undoubtedly the bears. We’re city folk and easily spooked by menacing wildlife - we were even anxious in our tame walk along the Old Coach Road. We spent some time last night reading the literature about hiking in Glacier and finding ourselves anpprehensive about it. Neither of us likes the thought of a grizzly knowing on our bones.
Our thinking is that we’ll stop in at the visitor center and ask the rangers about safety issues, but when we get there and read the signs saying we need to find another couple to walk with us without risking a steep fine we decide we’ve seen enough. Between the smoke and the threat of bears we decide to just keep driving.
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We arrive in Revelstoke not long past noon, several hours before we can check in at our hotel. We spend a couple of hours killing time at a coffee shop and then move on to the Craft Bierhaus where we have our main meal of the day, appreciating a colorful decor, enormous portions and an impressively long tap list.
We’ll be staying four nights in Revelstoke lodged at the Grizz Hotel, a good enough place right in the heart of town.
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Thanks for the journal plug - I do like an ice cold drink.
I ordered watermelon seltzer water on the flight home, and thought of Rachael with her after ride drink preferences.
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