Canadian Rockies

Canadian Rail Excursion-Overview

                                             Canadian Rail Excursion

                                                        Overview

         We had set out from the far away flatlands and alligator filled swamps of Southwest Florida. Covid-19 had delayed the trip for three years. After a few nights at the comfortable and fashionable Vancouver Fairmount, a very well-informed guide named Jeff took us on a six-hour odyssey of greater Vancouver. We visited Parklands, monuments and all manner of cultural sites, to get a flavor of a very attractive and prosperous City. Homes here run into the millions, mere condos start out at $400,000. The central part of the city is composed literally of sparkling towers of glass condos, stacked dozens of stories into the Pacific Sky. The Lion’s Gate Bridge frames the busy commercial Bay. Float planes landed and took off, as harbor ferries carried passengers to nearby Victoria on Vancouver Island. Huge Passenger liners docked at the enormous Canada Place Pier, topped by five enormous white sails. It was a pleasure just to visit wand watch all of the activity that takes place there every day. After enjoying the densely packed  urban beauty of Vancouver, we were ferried by rail, north and east, through the Jasper National Park, by the wonderful staff of the Rocky Mountaineer Rail Line.

               For the initial run of the Rocky Mountaineer, we travelled through a “tunnel of Trees,” mostly tall and slim Douglas Firs, espying the urban detritus of greater Vancouver. Cement Plants, steel yards and junk piles were interlaced with all of the other necessities for the urban colossus. A constant array of Canadian Rail Traffic passed us by, headed south to Vancouver. Maersk, CNN, One, Yao Ming, and a dozen other carriers that employ the sea-land express, were carrying all manner of goods back and forth. Some of the trains ran to over two hundred cars.

         Not far north of the city, we trained slowly by a stone memorial to the two dozen WW I Canadian soldiers who had been killed here in a head on train crash. A newly hired telegraph operator had inadvertently sent the wrong signals to the two trains who hit each other head on. The operator was charged with capital offenses. The trial involved a future Premier of Canada, who led the defense. The mountains were beginning to rise around us as we sped away from Vancouver.

        The Canadian Rockies are  part of the “Grand Escalier” or grand stair case, that starts very far south in the Baha Peninsula of Mexico. Two enormous tectonic plates had collided along this line that runs thousands of miles from Mexico into the Arctic. The enormous collision forced the Pacific plate to subduct (go under) the Atlantic plate. The force of the process lifted an entire range of mountains some fifteen thousand feet into the air from their underground bed far beneath a primordial sea. The central peaks of this range is called the “Continental Divide.” All water running down the western half flows into the Pacific or Artic Ocean. Everything to the east makes its way to the Hudson Bay, Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. Curiously, the Canadian or Pacific plate had granite bases, with dolomite and other softer sedimentary stones as their summits, while the eastern plate was topped with granite and had the softer sedimentary stones at their base. Both ranges are impossibly old and being worn down daily by wind, water and ice.

         The eroded peaks were carved initially by the seas and later by the winds, into eroded castles and heroic figures stretched along the skyline. The icy “freeze and thaw process,” that all northerners are familiar with, was literally the “chisel of God” that carved out all manner of shapes and images from their sedimentary stone faces Looking into these mountains is like cloud watching. You can see anything your imagination wishes in their fantastic shapes and varied colors. The primitive First Nation peoples had attached all manner of symbolism and mystical importance to these towering mountains for thousands of years.

         Later, when the fur traders, of the Hudson Bay Company and early railroad pioneers, first ventured into the area, they renamed the peaks, shifting from the colorful First nation names, to commemorate early explorers and people important to the traders and railroad men. One commemorated a British Peer, Lord Fitzwilliam. Others memorialized important females who had helped the early traders. One mountain got named after an especially good cook on an expedition. To try and name the many hundreds of peaks that we saw, without a map, is a fool’s errand. Many of the early traders and railroad officials were of Scot’s origin. Their names now emblazon many forest area lakes and mountains. But, First Nation names still crown many glaciers and rivers, like the Athabasca Glacier and River.

         It was the coming of the railroad, in the late 1800’s, that changed the area forever. Financed by the Bank of Montreal, the Canadian National Railway would lay down pathways of iron that would facilitate the arrival of many thousands to the area. As an incentive, the railroads were given 33 square kilometers, by the Canadian Government, for every kilometer of rail laid. The land was then sold to developers and settlers to help finance the cost of building the railroad.

         It was the creation of National Parks, like Jasper and Banf, that defined and saved the region. Strict rules for development, and preservation survive today in a national effort to preserve and protect these wilderness areas for future generations. In towns like Jasper and Banf, there is a “right to live” rule that requires an owner, to either work in those towns of own companies in them, in order to qualify for residency. They also have three- and one-half story height limits for any new construction so that the mountain views will never be obstructed.

        As our train proceeded northward,  the flora around us changed, from heavily forested and pine scented Douglas fir trees, to a semi-arid dessert around Kamloops and Jasper. We enjoyed viewing higher and higher eroded formations of the Canadian Rockies. Layers upon layers of sedimentary rock attested, visible to the eye, attested to the provenance of these high peaks, and their start eons ago, as under water reefs in a primordial ocean. 

      An electrical outage, in the town of Kamloops, kept us in the dark at the Best Western. Unphased, our colleagues hoofed it to a nearby plaza for essentials and patiently waited until the electrical crews repaired the blown transformer. It is what you do when traveling. When you run into an obstacle, you make do and continue to rock and roll. The next morning, the Rocky Mountaineer ferried us north and east through the semi-arid mountains to the small and attractive town of Jasper. After settling in, we hoofed it into town for spirits and provisions. Although we missed them, other guests in our hotel had witnessed a large Female Elk, and four of her young calves, walk through the grass around the hotel. Nearby, in a residential area, a mama bear and her cubs had to be shooed out of town by police, before residents could return to their homes. We truly were in the wild and this was the animal’s home.

        On Wednesday morning, a genial Irish-Canadian, named Martin ”Fireball” Flanagan, President of Canadian Rail.Ca,  picked us up with a comfortable land cruiser, to explore the many parks, glaciers and dramatic water falls of both the Jasper and Banf National Parks. The Columbia Icefields, with a motorized trek in giant ice tractors, and a pedestrian walk out onto the Athabasca Glacier, were a particular favorite. Another dramatic skywalk gave the more adventurous a look through an arch, with a glass floor that extended some 115 feet outward from the cliff’s edge, over the Athabasca River some 900 feet below. It had been built by the Brewster Company, who had erected a similar arch, cantilevered over the edge of the Grand Canyon. Surrounded by towering, dark and eroded peaks, and five separate glaciers, we thought ourselves fortunate to experience such a magnificent natural phenomenon that was fast melting away with the continued warming of the earth. We visited a series of glacially fed lakes, all resplendent with a sparkling iridescent jade, stained by the rock flour of melting glaciers. It brought forth the predictable “ooohs" and "ahhs" with the clicks of many cameras, trying to capture forever the beauty around us.

          The Pleasure of the Texas-like, cowboy town of Jasper and the beauty of semi-Urban Banf, made for a wonderful introduction to a region of Canada not well known by those outside the area. Martin Flannigan’s narration of the historical, cultural and geological provenance, of that which we were seeing, gave us an understanding of the many environmental and ecological concerns that we now face. Martin did his job with a smile and a patience not much known, this side of the abode of the angels.

          In the ensuing narrative, I hope to spell out the daily adventures of our journey and the many interesting cultural, geographical and geological entities that captivated and entertained us for the length of our odyssey. I hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did.

                                             -30-

                                   (1,533 words)

                            Joseph Xavier Martin