Monday, July 09, 2007 – Banff – Revelstoke

After 10 days of sunshine (mixed with clouds), we rose this a.m. to RAIN. While I’ll be the first to admit breaking “camp” in a motor-home is a lot easier than a tent, tent camper, or 5th wheel, none are much fun in the rain. But so be it. We managed to get un-hooked and everything stowed without getting truly drenched.

So the first photo of the day is what we encountered about 20 minutes after leaving Banff – you guessed it – SUNSHINE. And we had thought we might even encounter snow in route to Revelstoke! But not today. Instead, we beheld magnificent mountain vistas, waterfalls, lush green forests, rushing torrents of glacial melt water, and blue sky. We saw trains that stretched from horizon to horizon, and still kept coming.

A word about our route today: Revelstoke is a railroad hub for trains heading north and east through Rogers Pass (Glacier National Park). We spent a few days here last year with Connie and Harold and found it a charming town. Not a Banff by any stretch, but nice nevertheless. So we thought we’d head here on the way south to our departure through the Okanagan Valley (Wine Country!!!). By the way, if you caught my spelling errors (?) of the Okanagan Valley, it turns out that the Canadians spell it: OKANAGAN; the Americans spell their town: OKANOGAN, WA.

It is about 175 miles via Trans Canada HWY 1 from Banff to Revelstoke. Doesn’t sound bad, but most of the road is in poor condition. In addition to the surface, many of the turns are tight (for a major highway), you’re either climbing or descending (7% grades) or coming into or out of a tunnel, plus the traffic continues to be horrendous. When you’re struggling to maintain 55 mph (the speed limit) on these two lane roads in a motor-home pulling an auto and everyone (literally) wants to pass you, it gets tiresome to say the least. Thankfully, we saw no accidents. An almost accident when an over-eager driver passed in a no-passing zone with a string of traffic coming led by a semi. Retreating to the shoulder allow him space to squeeze between at the last moment. Otherwise we would have been on row one as witnesses to stupidity-caused head-on collision.

Anyway we made it. We plan to spend 3 nights in Revelstoke and head back to Rogers Pass and the Glacier National Park to take in some sights we missed the previous two times, and a picnic or two.

We did have one surprise upon arrival. Yesterday, in Banff, I took the time and effort to wash most of the motor-home and the front of the Saturn. After I checked in and walked around to unhook the Saturn, I found we had arrived with a brown car – not the white one we started out with! I didn’t think the roads were that “dirty”, but the car (and the back of the motor-home) were definitely BROWN! So after getting parked, the first job was to rinse everything off with the hose. Fortunately, this part of the country isn’t rationing water!

The final photo shows the kind of camping environment Margaret really enjoys most: dappled sunshine, grass, trees, a good book – and relative privacy. We are about 2 miles east of Revelstoke, next to a river (and train), but ensconced in a grove of many trees with the lawn chair out and the awning deployed. It is actually quite warm this afternoon compared to the last 9 nights. We are only about 2,000 feet above sea-level, and it is quite a change from Banff. But we’re looking forward to a quiet few days here.