Bombay beef tartare (wrong, we know, but delicious)
Long bone short rib korma (we had to ask about the odd "long/short" description)
Great cocktails - notably the Movie Night
Bombay steak tartare. Outstanding.
Surprise packet: brew pubs. Only one half of the Foodivore team cares for beer, so it's testament to just how well so many brewing businesses have thought things through that we visited as many as we did.
Big Island Brewing, Waimea. Love the Holy Humulus.
Fine burgers, Big Island Brewing
Last Frontier Brewing Co, Wasilla
49th State Brewing, Healy. Beer cocktails, with bacon/cheese garnishes.
Hair of the Bear, 49th State Brewing
Glacier Brewhouse, Anchorage
Hop & Hog, Clearwater. Best sausage in Foodivore experience. Smoked duck breast also great, but so much was soooo good.
Jasper Brewing Company, Jasper. Elk carpaccio, ramen with wild boar, prize winning tacos (add both the guacamole and jalapeno cheese sauce, but don't kid yourself it's a full meal in itself for at least two), bison brisket....and great cocktails
Grizzly Paw Brewing, Canmore. Roasted bone marrow.....
Kudos to some places doing good work, where you didn't expect it
Kalikala Cuisine, Kona: a really unusual, but highly appropriate for the tropics, take on huevos rancheros, with great view of the water and fisherfolk.
Brooks Lodge, Katmai: in a place where everything had to be flown in except the sockeye salmon, the buffet here always had something really tasty and welcome (we're looking at you, steamed broccolini, only place all trip with plentiful steamed green veg).
Sockeye salmon chowder, Brooks Lodge
Menu, Brooks Lodge style
Trail Lake Lodge, Moose Pass. There aren't many options here, we could have eaten in Seward - but instead went back for a second helping of impressive burgers.
Grub Stake burger, Moose Pass
Victoria's Station, Moose Pass. Makes it on the list for the highly impressive (and unexpected) espresso. North America is coming along on the coffee journey, but it's still awful a times. Not the case here.
Arigato sushi, Kamloops (Aberdeen): delicious, freshly prepared,
from a place that from the outside (in a parking lot) looked like it was
just going to serve nori rolls.
From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow" first "meal" of the trip
Fresh from a balmy, relentlessly sunny, Alaskan summer and fall we progressed to Alberta. Recent (and current) home to forest fires. One of the hottest summers on record. What was happening to the Frozen North? Admittedly, it was still summer in Alberta (one of those quirks, where Alaska is already in Fall but near neighbours are not).
From the moment we awoke it was clear that Things Had Changed. The Frozen North had arrived.
Squirrel! Hope you haven't wasted the summer...
Enchanted, but undeterred, by what appeared to be lightening conditions we trekked off to the Valley of Five Lakes. Hmm things down here were picking up, maybe the weather was indeed "slumping southward". Pretty walk, but mostly it was the soft and peaceful flurries that we were enjoying.
Spiders intended to capture insects, apparently caught snowflakes instead
After another fine meal at the Jasper Brewing Company (see separate post re food & brewpubs in particular), we headed back to our cabin for a lazy afternoon watching the snow. Of course, wood doesn't chop itself (ok you can pay for chopped wood, but really who hasn't wanted to see how they would have stood up to the Klondike goldrush conditions, at least for a few minutes? The snow continued to drift peacefully down, throughout the afternoon and evening....
Who wants to be a lumberjack?
Rum'n'sno
The strong survive
The next day we were set to head off down the Icefields Parkway (hmm is the name a hint?) to Canmore. As we were leaving a mother and calf elk were hanging out right near the exit grazing through the snow covered grass, lovely.
"making of"
As we traveled south, conditions worsened. We'd given ourselves heaps of time, thinking we'd stop here and there to check out the sights (of which there are many) and maybe do a short hike or two along the way. Stopping is generally dependent on it being safe, careering off into icy pull in spots, or some with a foot or more of snow on them, doesn't qualify as safe. We made it to Athabasca Falls, which were beautiful (though it took us about 1/2hour to walk from the carpark due to treacherous ice, normally maybe 5mins).
Top of Athabasca Falls
From here on though, things got tougher.
The ever-present ravens contemplate less-green pastures
We threaded along cleared channels from earlier vehicles, most of which must have had greater clearance than Tommy (our Cruze) as persistent crunching/grinding noises emanated from beneath us from forcing through piles of icy snow. We learned that overtaking is strictly for the 4WD/truck crew, as only one lane attracts enough regular traffic to carve out a path of sorts.
Example of pretty good driving conditions (compared with what else we encountered)
Snowploughs were sighted, though far too late (and in the wrong direction) for us.
From the fact that we can report on this it's obvious that we made it, but it was tough and exhausting. Happily, Canmore also sported a brewpub (actually more than one, but one was ~5min walk away, and in that weather that was far enough for us).
So what became of our plans to hike around the Canmore/Banff/Icefields region? Well we did less, but still made sure to check out Lake Louise
Lake Louise
Lake Louise - our photo, not the standard tourism shot
(thankfully crowds were down due to conditions), Johnson Canyon (beautiful, in particular the Inkpots up the top of the hike).
Inkpots, above Johnson Canyon
And from there to Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake (with cloud cover)
Emerald Lake
(gorgeous), to stay a night at the lodge (overrated). Naturally, another hike (to Emerald Basin), in gradually improving conditions.
Emerald Basin
Finally, we headed towards Calgary for the long return home......and were cheerfully farewelled by some mountain goats :)
Conditions were forecast as tolerable (moderate chance of rain worsening as the day progressed, small chance of sunshine, very likely blustery wind on exposed heights), so it was an obvious day for Bald Hills (above Maligne Lake).
We were promised a steep ascent, with scrambly bits, and a reward of sumptuous views. With cloud cover tracking ~2200m, and a climb to ~2400m, we were mostly hoping for critters (marmots, pika, and so on....and yes, as always, Tracey carried the bear spray).
Steep it was. Sudden were the climbs. Close was the woodland along the "shortcut", which cut distance at the expense of significantly sharper grade. There was also much beautiful fungus, which we preferred to not stop to long at lest our ursine friends drop by.
Once again, the Minister for Climate Change delivered. A heavily overcast day yielded wonderful vistas, and suitably mountainous atmospherics. Sure, we didn't get the postcard shots - but they only happen every 5-10 years.
There are only so many words to write about a hike like this:
Take the shortcut on ascent. More beautiful.
When considering the summit approach, go counter-clockwise. This maximises the climb/pain early, following which you can more easily appreciate what you've gained.
When you're climbing up (somewhat unrelentingly), turn around and look at the breathtaking view.
Listen...to the peace, to the marmots, to the pikas.
Smell... fresh air accented by spruce.
The advertised summit is only the beginning, with a far more scenically gorgeous spot available for the minor effort of a ridge walk. Maybe a predator bird (falcon?) will also welcome you. Pack a thermos of miso soup to make sure you spend enough time enjoying.
A smooth entrance into Canada disembarking from our boat and heading inland from Vancouver
towards Clearwater, our transit town on the way to Jasper national park. Why Clearwater I hear you say. Easy, Hop n hog, apparently one of the best smoke houses in Canada (smoked meats, not nicotine). Stopping off for a quick 9 holes of golf before dinner...okay 6.5 as Andrew lost all his balls early on. Andrew was happy, he had golf, Tracey was happy, she had puppies and squirrels.
We arrived at dinner at the Hop n Hog at 2 mins after opening and already half the tables were occupied, 5:02pm. We soon understand why this place has the reputation it does. We have a shared smoked appy platter entree, followed by the shared meat platter for main course. Sorry vegetarian friends, it was simply the most delicious smoked meats we've experiences. The sausage was **WOW**Worlds Best Sausage, the brisket melt in the mouth, the pulled pork yum. There was so much we couldn't finish it and asked for a doggy bag that resulted in a excellent breakfast as we head off early the next day towards Jasper. There were queues out the door by 6pm and apparently the food often runs out by early evening every day of the week. We can understand why. For a town of a few hundred people, this was the highlight of the town (competitors include liquor store and gas station, hey it's small).
The drive in the Jasper National Park was as beautiful as we'd heard. Along the way Tracey eyes a coyote running along the side of the road. Arriving into Jasper we have some time to fill in before we can check into our accommodation. A quick stroll along Pyramid Lake, a few squirrels to welcome us to the area and to work up an appetite for lunch...and gee we need it. Our first visit to the Jasper Brewery, we start with Elk Carpaccio, delicious with it's goat cheese and walnuts and some wild boar belly buns/bao. We follow this up with what we thought would be some entree size nachos. Three entrees should be manageable we told ourselves (along with the excellent beers and cocktails), we were clearly amateurs, defeated only half way through - a shame as was actually really good, way better than most offerings.
Time to finally check into our accommodation, were are delighted by our cabin with it's gorgeous fireplace and outlook into the forest. One catch is you have to chop your own firewood but that's also part of the charm (you could pay for the wood but not as rewarding). The degree of difficulty can be increased, depending on your choice of axe....Andrew felt the need to test-drive an amazing utensil found in Skagway some days earlier.
Our run of luck wasn't out yet: as we pulled into the lawned areas of Alpine Village, we found a herd of elk (maybe 20) happily lazing and grazing. Happy to see such profusion, made us feel a little better about lunch.....
We'd seen signs warning of elk rutting season, and the lady who checked us in suggested the bull might be around the next morning.....thrilling (and dangerous).
The serene sounds of our woodlands, punctuated by the chopping of wood, were suddenly disturbed by something we can only described as the Shriek of the Nazgul. We wondered what odd bird/computer game was emanating this....and it was repeated, and our curiosity levels heightened. Then we saw The Bull, a glorious seven-pointer.
Rutting season is exceptionally brief, and the elk move around a fair bit (they're happier near town these days as their predators are less enthusiastic about humans than they), there are local folk who talk about having to drive around to remote spots to even see a doe..........let alone such a mature bull. Bon chance a nous! Apparently this only happens once a year.
Athabasca River reflections
And that was it for day one, they say every day is different - this had been magically different. The next day marked the resumption of hiking, with gentle treks along the Athabasca River (not especially recommended) and Maligne Canyon (definitely recommended) to ease our sea legs back to steeper terrain.
Three-point bull elk
One of numerous gorgeous glimpses of Maligne Canyon
Chipmunk :)
More reflections
Maligne Canyon
Black bear at ~15m, Maligne Canyon (glad those berries are still available)
