Outlet Access for Berth Passengers on The Via Rail Canadian Train

I’m taking a diversion from the sort of things we usually write about and posting this information in the hopes that it will help some future traveler on The Canadian. One thing I learned ahead of time is that berths are the only accommodations on the train without their own outlets. As a pretty connected family that was bringing many devices, I spent a lot of time searching online, trying to figure out the locations of various outlets that we could use to charge them. In particular, I read that there was an outlet in the hallway of the sleeper cars near the bathrooms that might be reachable with an extension cord, but the description of exactly where was pretty vague, so I had no idea how long of a cord would be needed to actually make reasonable use of it. If you’re like I was and trying to understand what you’re in for as a berth passenger with charging needs, here’s my best description of all of the charging options I saw on the train.

The Bathroom. I know it seems weird, but the reality is that there are only a handful of other passengers likely to use the bathrooms at the front of each manor sleeper car. This is because all of the single and double cabins have their own toilet and sink inside those compartments. So you’re really just sharing with the other berth passengers. Of course there’s nothing stopping other passengers walking through from using these bathrooms, but I suspect most people are going to be charging at night when that sort of traffic will be minimized.

When facing the front of the train, the bathroom on the right is larger than the one on the left. This larger bathroom is best option in my opinion. Opposite the toilet, it’s got a small stool with a shallow shelf under a mirror on the wall. That shelf is plenty close to the outlet, making it the perfect place to set your devices while topping up.

The perfect shelf next to an outlet in the larger of the two bathrooms.

There is one potential caveat, though. We took two different trains due to a stopover during our trip. The first one had both bathrooms marked for use by anyone, while the second train had the larger bathroom marked for women and the smaller for men. I doubt the labels matter much in the end, but it’s something to keep in mind.

There is also an outlet in the smaller bathroom, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You can see in the picture that there is a small shelf nearby, but it’s actually the drip tray for the soap dispenser. It’s certainly not ideal for a phone, and likely too small to hold a tablet or more than one device.

You probably don't want soap dripping on your phone.

Hallway Outlet. This is the primary reason I decided to write this post. There is indeed an outlet in the hallway near the berths in every manor car. It’s at the very front of the car on the same wall as the smaller bathroom, so it’s on the left side when facing the front of the train. I decided to buy a 10 foot extension cord (about three meters) and hope for the best. Mine turned out to be just long enough to be functional, but not quite ideal. The end reached just to the edge of the nearest berth, so a typical three foot (~one meter) charging cable would reach the rest of the way onto the seat. A 15 footer (approximately four and a half meters) would have been ideal. You’d especially want that if you were on the opposite side of the car behind the larger bathroom. And if you’re in the third birth, you’d probably want a length of at least 20 or maybe even 25 feet (six to seven and a half meters) which might be getting too large to be worth packing into your luggage.

I did use this option a few times when I wanted to charge a device during the day without babysitting it. Under those circumstances, I was more comfortable leaving the device amongst our other stuff on the seat in the berth over sitting unattended in the bathroom. If you think this is a good option for you, I would highly recommend an extension cord with a flat plug so it won’t stick out from the wall into the already narrow hallway. I bought this one from Anker and got lucky that the plug was actually installed upside down so that the direction of the cord coming out of the plug was correct to maximize it’s reach. This was not true for our sleeper car on the second leg, though, so an even better option might be one with a flat plug that also rotates 360° so direction doesn’t matter.

Skyline Car. There are two viable options in the Skyline car, both on the lower level. The first and most likely to be available is in the middle of the activity section with tables and chairs. We spent a fair amount of our time here playing cards and other games, so this was actually a pretty good option for us. This outlet is centered between two tables, so you can reasonably use it from either of them. At least one of these tables was open pretty much every time we walked through the car, so I was always able to plug in at least one device here every time I tried.

Outlet in the middle of the Skyline car.

I thought this was the only option in the Skyline car until close to the end of our second leg. I happened to be nearby when the activity coordinator pointed out a second option to another passenger. It’s in the lounge area between a booth and the bathroom. This one is really only a viable option if you’re sitting in that specific booth due to the relatively heavy traffic through the Skyline car.

Park Car Bullet Lounge. This is a great option with a caveat. On one hand, the Park car is the nicest and comfiest spot on the entire train with a single receptacle for every seat in the lounge on the lower level. However, the Park car is only available to berth passengers after 4pm each day. Prior to that, it is reserved for the use of prestige class passengers only. It’s also the last car on the train, so depending on the placement of your sleeper car, it’s a bit of a commitment to get all the way back there. I only visited twice over our four days, and didn’t think to grab a picture. I did find this video from Adventures with Todd that clearly shows the outlets, though.

No Outlet! I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this option as well. Even though I knew there would be charging opportunities using outlets somewhere, I also came prepared with a backup plan in the form of two power banks. Something like this 10,000mAh option from Anker will recharge a phone up to three times, and it’s small enough (about the size of a phone) to carry it with you and top up anywhere.

I hope this helps someone out there! Thanks for reading.

Day Sixteen: Are We Home Yet?

Sunday, June 25, 2023.

1:45am Pacific: Wake up and get ready for a looong day. Finish the last bits of packing.

2:15am: Say goodby to the airbnb and start the drive to the airport. 

2:57am: Arrive at the airport and return the rental car to en empty garage.

3:10am: Check in at the American Airlines counter.

3:15am: Get in line for baggage drop.

4:00am: Baggage check actually opens and everyone realizes we’re lined up going the wrong direction. Remind me: why did we need to be here three hours before the flight?

4:10am: Pass through security where they scrutinize my backpack and it’s content for at least 15 minutes. I fully admit there’s a lot of random bits and pieces in it, but this is excessive. The bag is literally empty and they are still separately running individual pieces back through the scanner. Explain to the security staff that, no, there is not a hidden blade inside my multi-tool because I specifically bought it because it doesn’t have one so it can be carried on for air travel.

4:25am: Finally leave the security checkpoint and get in line at US Customs. Vancouver International Airport offers customs pre-clearance, so once we pass this checkpoint we are considered to be in the US and everything is handled as a domestic flight from that point.

4:30am: US Customs is supposed to open. Tell me again: why did we get here three hours early?

4:35am: US Customs actually opens.

4:45am: Pass through US Customs with no fanfare whatsoever. Still no stamps on the passports. 😕

5:00am: Find a coffee shop and grab chocolate croissants and a yogurt parfait for breakfast.

5:05am: Arrive at our gate.

5:15am: Boarding begins for the flight.

6:00am: Our flight departs on time.

11:45am Central: Arrive in terminal B at DFW and hop on the airport train heading toward the gate for our connection in thermal C. The train does not visit the terminals in letter order, so it’s a bit of a ride.

11:52am: Exit the train at terminal C and start walking toward Dickey’s BBQ for lunch. Notice an Auntie Anne’s and make plans for a post-lunch snack.

11:53am: Get a notification on my phone that they’ve changed our gate. No big deal, we have plenty of time.

11:55am: Another notification that they’ve changed our gate. OK, at least it’s in the same terminal.

11:55am: One more! Really‽ Back to B we go. Let’s deal with that after lunch.

12:15pm: Finally get our food from Dickey’s BBQ. It’s pretty good.

12:50pm: Our gate hasn’t changed in a while, so we feel safe heading back to B. Despite the indirect train route, there is an easy way to walk there. It’s hot in the sky bridge; the first half anyway. (Ooo, foreshadowing!)

1:03pm: Pass another Auntie Anne’s. You what that means! Ellie and Amber both choose cinnamon sugar pretzel bites, while Mackenzie and me go with original pretzels with cheese. 

2:45pm: We should be boarding, but instead they announce that the plane is too hot. It’s 100° outside and nearly as hot inside the plane. They need to cool it down before we can board.

4:15pm: The staff at the gate announce they’re ready to board us, but they need our help. They can’t cool the plane during boarding, so we need to go fast before it heats up again. We start boarding immediately and the plane is thankfully a very comfortable temperature.

4:35pm: It’s only been 20 minutes, but we’re fully boarded.

4:40pm: The plane pulls away from the gate. It’s already starting to heat up.

4:45pm: We make it airborne and it starts to cool down again. A delay of about an hour and fifteen minutes.

6:30pm: Arrive in Madison just over an hour late after an uneventful flight beyond the delay.

6:50pm: Grab our bags from baggage claim and blow that popsicle stand!

Day Fifteen: Granville, Burgoo, and Gelato

Saturday, June 24, 2023. We felt like we didn’t have enough time at Granville Island yesterday to really do it justice before everything started to close, so we decided to head back today. We debated about breakfast, and eventually chose a place on the way that had good reviews. Unfortunately they were up to a 45 minute wait by the time we got there (20 minutes after they opened), so we ended up going around the corner for ol’ reliable: Tim Hortons.

While we were eating, I noticed that we were close to the Vancouver Public Library which is styled like the Coliseum in Rome, so we walked over to check it out. We would have gone inside (and probably done the Adventure Lab), but it wasn’t open yet.

Part of the reason to return to Granville was for the Kids Market. It’s an entire building of shop’s with kids as the target audience. While that is pretty cool in concept, it turned out to be a little underwhelming. The first shop we stopped in was basically a toy store…and so were 75% of the other shops, most of which carried basically the same thing you can get in just about any Target or Wal-Mart. The items for sale also skewed pretty young, so much so that Mackenzie got a little pouty because there was nothing that interested her.

Luckily we did find one gem on the second floor tucked between a hair salon and the arcade. It was a magic shop, and one of the staff wasn’t shy about showing off his wares. The girls weren’t really very impressed at first, but then I saw that they carried a whole selection of wands for various characters from Harry Potter. He eventually showed us a trick box for making candy or money disappear. That one got the girls attention (because it was really cool!), so Ellie decided to buy one.

Once we were done inside the Kids Market, we continued exploring and picking up Adventure Lab stops and a few physical caches as well. One set of Adventure Labs was setup as an I Spy game where you had to find the item of interest from a distance, then approach to get the needed answer. The girls enjoyed that one more than most.

It started raining as we found the last physical cache in the area, so it was time to go. We decided we had two things on our agenda for the afternoon: finding some old caches and getting gelato. But first, we needed to pick a spot for lunch.

Based on the direction we were headed and Amber’s directive of comfort food, I chose Burgoo. Amber got a pulled pork sandwich with tomato soup, Ellie had a fancier than usual mac and cheese, Mackenzie got a grilled cheese sandwich, and I had chicken Parmesan sandwich. The girls were their typical picky selves, but that just gave us the opportunity to clean up after them, so I wasn’t really complaining.

After lunch it was time for a few more caches. Geocachers like to come up with challenges to keep the game interesting. One well-known challenge is the Jasmer. To qualify, you must find a cache hidden in each month since the game began in May 2000. Since there weren’t very many caches in the early days and even fewer of them have survived today, the older months are the most challenging. We’ve been slowly chipping away at it over the years, but we’re actually getting reasonably close to finishing. We’ve already picked up a few months on the trip, so we went for another one that took care of May 2001.

We still had time before we wanted to head back to the airbnb, so I looked around the map and spotted a park that held a collection of highly favorited caches. One was a newspaper box in the woods, one required calling a phone number to get the final coordinates, and another contained a miniature replica of the trans Canada highway.

At last it was time for Amber’s top priority for our time in Vancouver: La Casa Gelato! They are famous for having a world record number of flavors, with over 500 created and 238 available in store at any given time. Each of the girls got a single scoop cone, while Amber and I splurged for two scoops each. Peanut butter Oreo for Ellie, mint chocolate chip cookie dough for Mackenzie, caramel Oreo + pistachio for Amber, and salted caramel fudge brownie + pistachio for me. (Amber and I were thinking of all the pistachio gelato we enjoyed in Italy back in 2010.) The store can get so busy that you’re only allowed inside while making your purchase, but they have a nice outdoor seating area with benches across the street where we sat and enjoyed our flavors of choice.

Gelato was really the last interesting part of our day. Due to an early start the next morning, we planned an early return to the airbnb, then worked on getting packed up and ate most of our remaining snacks with a McDonald’s supplement for dinner. The girls were in bed relatively early, and even Amber and I were in bed by 9:30.

Day Fourteen: Capilano and the Prince of Whales

Friday, June 23, 2023. Apparently, tucking the sheet between mattresses worked because both girls slept in late; I actually had to wake them up! Our day started with ginormous banana crepes for the girls and blue crab eggs Benedict’s for the adults at OEB Breakfast Co. TOTALLY worth the stop if you are ever in the area!

After breakfast, we went up the road to explore Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The Capilano bridge is about 40 billion meters long and built in 1920 for the express desire to get to the other side. Then, in 1921, the Capilano family started promoting the bridge as a tourist attraction. (This entire paragraph needs to be fact checked before publication.)

Editor’s note: The original bridge was built in 1889, tourist attraction promotion began in 1953, and the current bridge was totally rebuilt in 1956. It is 450 feet long.

Wisely, Carson had purchased our entry tickets ahead of time, so we were able to skip the line and go right in. Just inside gates there was the gift shop and a cafe. After winding through their informational signage and some totem poles, we got to cross The Capilano Suspension Bridge. Despite its length, bounce, and sway, this is a very strong bridge. So strong in fact that back in 2006 a bad snow storm knocked a 17+ ton tree across the bridge causing no real damage to the bridge. (Editor’s note: These facts are accurate!)

Ellie was a little nervous at first but quickly started to enjoy the crossing. Mackenzie, on the other hand, wanted to get off of it even before we got on. But to her credit, she went all the way across without much issue.

Once on the other side we started exploring the boardwalks through the lower portion of the rainforest. Oh my these must have been a lot of work to build and have been meticulously maintained. Along the boardwalk there were informational signs teaching us about this micro biome. We also happened across three ornithologists displaying a hawk and an owl.

After we made it out of the boardwalks, we picked up a couple of Rainforest Explorer booklets as we made our way up to the Treetops Adventure (suspension bridges through the rainforest’s canopy). The booklets included activities for six different stations across the suspension bridges and lower boardwalks asking the explorer to answer questions, solve problems, and make some observations. This booklet mission kept the girls preoccupied and helped to settle Mackenzie’s nervousness with the heights. Then, once completed, they turned in their booklets for recyclable bracelets made with seeded paper to plant later.

The Treetops Adventure was very fun! It’s not everyday that you have the opportunity to walk through a canopy. Along with enjoying the views and the experience, we marveled at the engineering that it has taken to build such an experience without causing harm to the trees and surrounding environment.

Like most things, our time in the canopy and the park had to come to an end. But first we had to get back across The Capilano Suspension Bridge. This time, we gave Mackenzie the binoculars as we crossed and she had no hesitations. Then we passed through the gift shop and were off to lunch.

Much more confident this time.
Much more confident this time.

We had lunch at La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop. This, like most really good local joints, felt like a random eatery in an industrial park. And it was not a let down! I don’t remember what all we ordered but it was all nummy.

After lunch, we had some unaccounted for time, so we found a playground nearby for the girls to play while Carson wandered around the neighborhood attempting a couple geocaches. Some days geocaching is kinda like fishing, it’s about the adventure and not always the results. Right??? Anyhoo…

Once we had all regrouped, we headed down to Granville for our next adventure: a boat tour of Vancouver. We arrived at Prince of Whales right on time but were delayed a bit by a group of passengers that were running late. After that was all straightened out, our group of ten headed down to the docks to load up. Our arrival at the boat was greeted by one of three sisters hoping that we would have scraps to share. She was disappointed. 

Our boat was a small rubber zodiac, slightly larger than a dingy. As we disembarked from the docks, we made our way out of the inlet, past tankers, around Stanley Park, through the shipping lanes, past mountains of sulfur at the Port of Vancouver, and made our turn around at the hydroplane runway. The tour was fine, but the most fun was watching the planes takeoff over our heads and when our guide cranked the boat to full speed. 

Our high adrenaline day ended with steaks at Earl’s. (Sorry, no pics this time.)

Day Thirteen: Stanley Park

Thursday, June 22, 2023. Despite attempting to sleep in a little bit, I was still up at 6. The train was due into Vancouver by 9. So, instead of doing a full scheduled sit-down breakfast, they offered the option of a basic continental breakfast in the Skyline car with croissants, muffins, fruit, juice, and coffee or a sit-down breakfast with a smaller menu that typical and would be first come first served with a waitlist if all tables were full. These breakfasts would be served starting at 6:30. 

We let the girls sleep a little longer and headed down for breakfast around 7. When we got there, the dining car was full so we added our names to the list and went to the Skyline car to wait. 

While waiting, we pulled into the station ahead of schedule. And because we were early, the station wasn’t staffed to let the passengers off, so we would need to wait until 9 to start disembarking. That was fine, we still needed to eat!

After 30+ minutes of waiting, the dining car finally radioed the Skyline car that they had room for 18 more diners; that was the rest of everyone waiting. Come to find out, several people removed their names from the list when we pulled into the station, so there were 12 of us left to eat.  We went down and ordered. While we waited for our food, the doors opened and we were being let free 🙂 Despite the more limited menu, breakfast was just as good as the other meals had been. We finished up, went back to our berth to get our bags, and stepped off the train for the last time. 

From here, we went inside, waited longer than reasonable for our larger stowed bags to make their way onto the carrousel. With all of our bags in hand, we took two SkyTrains (Pro Tip: the SkyTrain is partially a subway) and hiked through the airport to pick up our rental car. Now, the ultimate question: where to? 

Our last connection to the train: Vancouver Pacific Central Station.
Our last connection to the train: Vancouver Pacific Central Station.

Now that we finally have nice, warm, dry day, we decided to head over to Stanley Park. We found a parking spot behind the aquarium and started our journey to find a playground. And of course, on the way over we found a couple more caches. As we got closer to our destination, Carson went left for a couple more caches and I took the girls right to find this elusive playground. 

Mission accomplished; we found the playground. So, the girls played for a bit until Carson found us. At this point, we headed over to the concession stand behind the pool for lunch (burgers, chicken tenders, Korean corn dog, and fries…lots of fries.) After lunch, we all got salted caramel gelato cones and headed down to the beach for the girls to dip their toes in the water. Then, we started walking back towards the aquarium.

We made it to the aquarium at 3:30 and it closed at 5:00. So, just enough time to speed through it! This was a fairly small aquarium compared to what we are used to seeing, but it was pretty nice. The most exciting exhibits were outside; urchin and starfish petting, harbor seals, otters, and sea lions.

Before we left the park, there were still two things that we needed to do. First, we ventured over to explore the long retired polar bear and grizzly bear enclosures…and find the cache. The last thing we did as we left the park was to drive the outer loop of the park to complete a five stage Adventure Lab that toured the park and provided the location for a bonus geocache final. Given the size of this park we had no desire today to walk this entire route. So instead, I drove while Carson hopped out to complete each stage. 

After wrapping up our time at Stanley Park, we made our way towards our condo. On the way, we stopped at a very authentic Chinese restaurant. This was a small place with eight tables and a menu with mostly unfamiliar options. Carson ordered a sweet chili chicken, I had sweet spare ribs, and the girls had shrimp fried rice. We weren’t very adventurous, but it was really good.

FINALLY! We made our way to our condo. We had strategically picked dinner because it was just a few blocks away; I think it took longer to find the address than to actually get to it. 🙂

For this part of the trip, we stayed in the basement of a private home with private access, with two bedrooms, one full bathroom, kitchen, and living room. The girls were back to sharing a bed, but this time their bed was European with two twin-ish sized mattresses with two sets of sheets and blankets. So, I tucked their top sheets into the crack between the mattresses in an attempt to contain Ellie while she slept. Then, Carson and I took the king sized bed and both slept blissfully unaware that there was even another person in the bed.

Day Twelve: Back on the Train

Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Something a little different for today.

Written by Ellie:
We woke up around 6:30 and got packed up and headed to breakfast at Bear Paw bakery. Once we got breakfast we brought back the car and went inside the train station, then we waited to board the train. We boarded around 9:15 ish and found our seats in the train car 113 and our berth numbers are 2 and 3.

We put our bags at our berths and went up to the skyline car and played cribbage and card games. We had mimosas and kiddy cocktails and Ellie and Carson went back to berth to get the Switch then we went back up to the skyline. 

Written by Mackenzie:
When Mackenzie and Amber finished there game of cribbage, Ellie, Carson and Amber played a three player game of cribbage while Mackenzie  played on the iPad. When it was time for brunch they headed to the dining car. 

After brunch we went back to the berths and we talked with strangers about Oregon. (the strangers were from Oregon as well). Then we went to the game car. Eleanor and Mackenzie  played chess. Then Amber and Carson came and Ellie started to work with Amber a 300 piece puzzle. While Mackenzie worked on a 210 piece puzzle.

Editor’s Note: Somehow they both forgot to mention that we also saw some bears right next to the train, passed a waterfall, and took a goofy picture at Kamloops North station!

Day Eleven: The Canyon Part (And Lunch)

Tuesday, June 20, 2023. One of the things on our list for our time in Jasper was to explore Malign Canyon. Based on my research beforehand, I knew there were trails and a series of bridges back and fourth across the canyon, so we could kind of choose our own adventure in terms of how far we wanted to go before heading back to the parking area.

After surveying the geocache map, we decided to go to at least as far as the third bridge, which would be far enough to get an EarthCache and a traditional. The latter was exciting because there weren’t a lot of physical caches available in this stretch of the trip and I was ready for something to actually find.

It was quickly apparent before we even left the parking lot that the area was going to be a sloppy mess. There was still snow on the ground, but the temperature was well above freezing so everything was melting. The parking lot had several large puddles, and the trail was no different. There was also quite a bit of tree damage here, too, some of it affecting the trails.

Despite the mess, this was a pretty fun area to explore. There are several theories about how it was formed, but my favorite is that a glacier scraped the top off of an existing cave. It is very deep in some parts, and each of the bridges we crossed was marked with it’s height above the canyon. The highest was 51 meters, or about 167 feet. We timed how long it took to drop a snowball to the river below; it was nearly 4 seconds!

The EarthCache we were working on asked for quite a bit of information, and I couldn’t find one of the signs I needed. After we were well past it, I realized that a tree had fallen right on top of it. Luckily there was a fence behind it to hold it up just enough that I could duck underneath and still read the sign.

Once we got past the third bridge, we decided to go a little bit further and continued to the fourth. It was a little less exciting than the others, but the hike was still beautiful despite the tree damage.

On our way back, we took a different path to get to the traditional cache. This one was not paved and involved a lot more elevation changes and tree dodging. When we got to the coordinates, I realized it was a micro (about the size of a film canister) and the snow was going to make this search difficult if it was on the ground as the hint implied. We spent quite a bit of time with the four of us looking, and tried to use pictures from previous logs to help us find it but didn’t have any success. Everyone was ready to give up, but I decided to check one more spot…and there it was!

The rest of the walk back to parking was more of the same. Despite the weather, the area was pretty crowded and the parking lot was even more full than when we arrived. We considered getting lunch at the restaurant there, but the girls didn’t see anything they would eat on the menu. We realized as we left that the parking lot was so full in part because a second parking lot next to a viewpoint was closed due to downed trees.

As we got back to Jasper for lunch, we decided to redirect from our original choice because it looked more expensive/fancy than we were expecting. Instead, we ended up at Famoso which turned out to be a great choice. They serve pizzas made in a wood fired oven. The girls weren’t overly thrilled with their cheese pizzas (they’re boring), but Amber and I got a really tasty chicken and pesto pizza.

Day Eleven: Skytram, Canyon, and Rafting – Oh My!

Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Despite all of the rain and snow yesterday, today started cloudy but was suppose to start clearing up by mid-morning. So after breakfast from the cafe in front of our hotel (yogurt with fruit and nut toppings, pancakes, salmon BLT sandwich, and an apple cinnamon muffin) we headed out for the Jasper Skytram on Whistler’s Mountain. 

The drive up to the base was pretty sad. The road was covered in leaves and the sides were lined with broken trees; yesterday’s storm was very hard on the vegetation in this area.

Once we made it to the base station, we had a short wait until it was our turn to ride. We boarded the gondola with 17 of our closest friends and began our ride up the cable. Ellie was a bit nervous at first but she relaxed as we progressed up; Mackenzie white-knuckled the entire 7 minute ride.

At the top they had a small gift shop, a restaurant upstairs, and a boardwalk around the building. Because of the snow yesterday, they were still clearing the boardwalk and even had a section blocked off due to the drifts over hanging to roof and ice cycles on the eaves. Therefore, we did not get to enjoy the full panorama of the area, but the clouds were lifting and  what we did get enjoy was beautiful. 

We gave the girls our phones to take pictures and they seemed to enjoy the trip back down.

Back at the bottom, we loaded in the car and started heading back down the hill on our way to Maligne Canyon (which we just learned is pronounced ma-leen, rhymes with clean). A few curves out of the parking lot and I remember that we wanted to try for a cache back there. So, Carson made a u-turn and we headed back up. Just inside the parking lot entrance was a large bolder behind some trees. Supposedly there was a cache in one of these trees. We couldn’t find it. So, we left and started back down the hill again. This time, we made it all the way to the bottom and were able to continue on our original trajectory. 

The road to Maligne Canyon was pretty clear but every road off of the main route was closed due to downed trees. Once at the main lodge, the parking lot was an absolute mess. As with all snow covered lots, people were parking with way too much space between the cars resulting in the popular locale filling up faster than normal. So, we had to make our own space along a curb. Thankfully, we were all wearing our hiking boots so we all had dry socks despite the sloshy lot and trails.

I wrote the rest of this post before the canyon part, and now I feel like it’s too long. So Carson’s going to cover that in a separate post.

After the canyon, we headed back into Jasper for lunch at 1pm. Then, back to the hotel to change into our swimsuits for RAFTING! Yeah, we finally got to go white water rafting! But first, we had to walk twelve minutes down the road from our hotel to meet up with the bus. Again, we were back on a yellow school bus, but this one was half full of wet suits and other gear, and pulling a trailer with three rafts on it. 

As we pulled out of the parking lot, one of our guides explained the gear we were going to put on: we started with socks they provide (these were simply to make it easier to take of the shoes we were going to wear), our wet suits, water shoes/booty things, and because it is still cooler than comfortable they also gave us each a jacket to keep the river water off our arms. We were also informed that we would not need helmets as these were class II rapids and did not warrant such safety measures. After the explanation of everything, another guide started taking sizes and passing out our gear, and we started dressing while the bus kept going.

After a short drive, we pulled into a small parking lot at our put-in point, unloaded, and received a quick safety training on how to get in and out of the raft, how to hold your paddle, and what to do if you or someone else or your guide fell out of the raft. Now time for the fun!

We split into two rafts: the four of us plus our guide in one, and the other four guests (a young couple and a mom & her son) plus their guide in the other raft. Meanwhile, the third guide would be hanging back on shore to take pics as we rafted down the river. In our raft, we started with me and Mackenzie in the from with Ellie behind me and Carson behind Mackenzie, and our guide bringing up the rear.

The other group put-in first. Once they were a couple minutes down stream, we put-in and began our journey. 

The first little bit was pretty smooth; mostly just getting use to the paddle and strokes. From there, we went through a few pretty good rapids; getting some good air time and moderately wet along the way. 

About two thirds of the way through, Ellie wanted to get wet, so Mackenzie and Ellie traded places. We then went through one more pretty long stretch of rapids. Unfortunately for Ellie, our timing and bounces got us in the air pretty good, but not much splashing. 

Back at the bus, we pulled the raft out of the water and drained it. Then, we sat on the trailer and removed all of our gear and got back on board.

All in all, the fun lasted about 45 minutes, and we all had an absolute blast! This was just the right amount of thrill with a bit of breaks in between. We will defiantly have to do this again sometime!

Totally wiped.
Totally wiped.

We Interrupt This Program…

So, uh, anyone reading probably noticed that the posts from our Canada trip stopped before the trip did. I promise we really did write about the remainder of the trip, and even did it during the trip this time. I even have proof!

But when it came to posting, let’s just say it takes almost as much time as the writing part to choose photos, properly format, upload, and everything in between. Then when we got home without having finished, life just goes on, you know? Anyway, it pretty much took from then until the next vacation (Thanksgiving!) to finally have a block of time to hammer the out the rest. Post dump incoming…

Day Ten: The Drive

Monday, June 19, 2023. After a pretty decent night’s sleep, we all rolled out of bed around 7:00am MDT. Carson and I got everything packed up while the girls did…stuff. While we packed, we discussed our plans for today: we would start by grabbing some Adventure Labs around Banff, then head back north up highway 93 a.k.a. the Icefields Parkway, stopping at Sunwapta Falls on the way, and plan to wrap up the day with whitewater rafting at 3:30 in Jasper.

Taking pictures at the sign is so popular, it causes significant traffic problems.
Taking pictures at the sign is so popular, it causes significant traffic problems.

Well, as plans go, we learned pretty quickly that we would need to be flexible. Per the usual on this leg of the trip, the morning started out cold and rainy. We drove around Banff grabbing several ALs, got breakfast at McDonalds (because it was quick), topped off the car with gas, and headed out of town. But hang on, we needed one more quick stop at the sign leading into town.

THEN, we were finally on our way out of town. A little ways down the road, we approached the gate into Banff National Park and noticed there was a pretty long queue trying to get in. There was also a sign that said “Current Winter Driving Conditions” with the lights for Poor lit up. What’s that about? It also looked like every single car was stopping at the little hut to talk. This is gonna take a while… 

Finally our turn came around! We already had our pass and should have been able to breeze right through. But something just felt amiss, so I rolled my window down to have my turn chatting with the attendant. She informed us that it was snowing at the higher elevations and although the route to Jasper was currently passable, travel was not recommended. OK, so the sign was legit. 😕 Well, we needed to get to the other side of the icefields, so we decided to take our chances and went for it anyway. 

With the temp hovering around 3° C, the first several kilometers was all just rain. As we climbed higher though, the temp dropped to 2° C and the snow started falling. Given our current speed at the time and the fact that we still wanted to make it back to Jasper for rafting, we decided to skip Sunwapta Falls. A few kilometers farther and the temp dropped to 1° C and the snow had started to accumulate on the roads. Because of the warm temperatures and preceding rainfall, this was a very heavy, wet snow About an hour past the park entrance, the trees started to sag under the weight of the unseasonal snow. About an hour after that the temp was down to 0° C, visibility coming and going, and road conditions getting worse we passed the Columbia Icefields parking area and restaurant. This was the first time that we debated whether we should stop for a break or keep going. We knew there were large mountains in front of us, but all we could see was white. In good weather, we would have been about an hour from Jasper but this weather was making the roads questionable and the inexperienced camper drivers were making this trek even more treacherous. The storm had no intention of stopping any time soon, so we opted to keep going.

At one point I made the comment, “At least we get to experience all the seasons of Canada.” Mackenzie immediately replied, “Except the good ones.”

Ten minutes beyond the restaurant, northbound traffic came to a complete stop. Oncoming traffic appeared to be a bit snarled and very slow just up ahead for no reason we could see. As the lead car to the oncoming traffic got closer it became obvious that they were stopping to talk with every vehicle in our lane. Suspiciously, the vehicles in our lane that the car had passed started to turn around??? When the lead car got to us, they informed us that there were multiple campers stuck at the top of the pass completely blocking both lanes of traffic. Oh boy. So, we joined the procession and turned around in bumper to bumper traffic on the snow covered highway to head back to the restaurant to regroup.

We got parked and headed inside. While we stood around trying to get our bearings, Carson joined their Wi-Fi and promptly received a voicemail notification from the rafting tour company. They wanted to know if we still wanted to keep on schedule with our tour at 3:30 or reschedule. While Carson was listening to the VM, the Icefields Center made an announcement that the remainder of their tours for the day were cancelled; the roads, trails, and tour locations were too dangerous to go. 

At this point, it was about noon. So we headed to the restaurant upstairs, planning to call them back after we ate. Lunch was an overpriced buffet of fish sticks for the girls and cold brisket for Carson and me, but their dessert lineup was worth it: doughnut holes with honey drizzle, cream puffs, strawberry shortcake, butter tarts (a Canadian specialty!), and some layered chocolate bar thing. (Carson says they were Nanaimo bars. He wasn’t a fan, but I liked them.)

While we were eating, Carson got another call from the rafting tour company. As they talked, they agreed it would be best to move our rating to the next day at the same time. OK, one fewer thing to worry about today.

Throughout lunch, I was paying attention to the traffic patterns in front of the restaurant. As we were wrapping up, there was quite a bit of traffic coming down the hill indicating that whatever had stopped traffic before had cleared up and things were moving again, and the snow appeared to be letting up just a bit. So we got in the car and started out again.

On our way out of the parking lot, Carson stopped a couple coming into the restaurant to ask what direction they had just come from. They had just come down the mountain from the direction we needed to go and said that they were delayed a couple of hours but traffic was moving through that pass again. So, we should be good to go. Now with a bit more confidence, we got back on the highway and kept going.

We quickly made it past our original turnaround point and were able to keep going this time without issue. It was slow going for the first 20 minutes or so, but we made it over the pass and started down the other side. From here on, as we started to drop in elevation the temperature started to go up and the precipitation bounced between snow and rain. All things considered, it was pretty easy driving the rest of the way into Jasper.

We pulled into Jasper around 3:45, but it was too early to check into our hotel. So to kill some time, I had Carson pull over at the Jasper town sign for a geocache and our second sign pic of the day. Since it was still raining pretty hard, I was planning to get out for this cache on my own. But as I headed down the slope, Carson and Mackenzie were right behind me. It took a few minutes longer that I’d have liked, but we found the container, took our picture, and were back in the car in 5 minutes. 

Welp, since we were all pretty wet and we still had a few minutes left, we went for a couple more. 🙂 The damage that the snow was causing was pretty visible at our 3rd (and final) cache of this run; with significant broken limbs and branches near the find. 🙁

We finally made it to our hotel around 4:30pm. We unloaded the car, I pulled together all of our dirty clothes, and we headed out to dinner at Something Else Restaurant. They had a pretty wide variety on the menu, but Carson and I settled on Greek souvlaki (one lamb and one chicken). Carson dropped me off at the laundromat and took the girls back to the hotel to swim. Approximately an hour and a half later, I texted him that I was done and he swung back over to pick me up. 

After some quick showers, we were all off to bed.