20th May 2025

Today was a pretty miserable day with rain. (This fell as snow on the hills, there was a definite whitening of the slopes.) We tried a morning walk to the other end of the campsite on a footpath which crosses the centre. This failed because at a third of the way across, some of the bridges across swampy land and streams had been burnt out last year by the fire and had yet to be replaced.

Back at the van, it started to rain. After a brief pause in the rain, I went for an afternoon walk along the river.  I ended up walking up a 100m high hill, called Old Fort Point and managed more than 7K walking, 17,000 steps and 82 heart points. Total for the day 11K.  From the top of the hill I could just see the van. Photo to prove it.

The river I had followed is the Athabasca River, which comes from the Columbia Icefield. This river flows North to the Arctic. An interesting fact was that a drop of water/snow falling on the Columbia Icefield could end up in the Arctic, Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. The river here, is a lovely glacial blue, and is used by kyakers and rafters

As soon as I was back it started to rain quite heavily.  Evening came out sunny, so we we were able to eat outside.

Back at the van, we realise we must be careful with water. The grey water was almost flowing into the shower. (I reckon R is a bit gung ho with the washing-up water.)

One of our marmot friends seems to have made a bad decision, digging a new, starter home in the road just where car tracks go. 

Tomorrow we move on, a short 90-minute drive, but a few stops along the way.