Cold Sandwiches and Hot Springs @ Jasper National Park
Helen, with the gusto of one determined to avoid Sunday hiking crowds, woke at 5:45 before Adam could even hear the alarm. She started breakfast and woke Adam with the smell of coffee. Adam, perplexed by how cold it had gotten, when it was so hot the night before, clung to his sleeping bag for every morsel of warmth he could scrounge. After snoozing the Helen-alarm a few good times Adam finally mustered the strength to leave his sleeping bag.
Once out of the tent Adam and fed Adam cleaned dishes and helped pack the bike. We then made our way east down Highway 16 to Miette Hot Springs at the base of Sulfur Skyline Trail. We hiked our way up the trail. At one point we heard the call of bird a unique unidentified bird:
Upon closer inspection Helen, trained in the art of observation, used her scientist eyes and spotted the bird sitting in a tree only steps from the trail:
After some time we made it to the summit before noon and ate our sandwich at the top:
While hiking down Adam insisted on purifying water from a spring, determined to drink as much fresh Canadian Rockies water before it turns into Coors Light on its way south of the border:
After the hike we went to the hot springs and enjoyed a nice relaxing 104 degree pool with a 68 degree cold plunge that Adam, after much encouragement, managed to do on his own volition.
The day was still young so we made our way back to Jasper, making an impromptu stop at Jasper Lake along the way.
Once in town Helen bought a T-shirt and our 5th sticker of the trip:
Excited for the chance to avoid doing camp dishes we elected to eat out at Mad Grizzly Bistro for our first restaurant meal in a while. The food did not disappoint:
Tomorrow we make our way to Penticton, a little beach town in British Columbia to stay at a motel and enjoy our first real bed in a week and, best of all we’ll get to do laundry, because we’re more running low on clean clothes.
