Foodivore: Return to Canada

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.

Foodivore-endorsed Worlds Finest Sausage @ 9 o'clock

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.