Canada 2010: Alberta

The guy with the white dreads from coming from Toronto sits chatting with the man from Halifax…the guy telling me of Alaska and a future. There is one Asian man up here, not the one seated across from me in economy, who is taking many pictures; the person sitting across from me down below gets up immediately as I sit down – do I smell? Has he caught a glimpse of the wads of money I do not have, making a break to steal it?

I’m slightly leery, but it is Canada, there are no real-life worries yet. We are on a train. Where can he go?

To my left and behind is the older woman in a printed dress, the young couple who spoke Spanish, the Headphones Gang (a skinny blonde and then one of the women who entered the Forks Market with me – the one who slept behind me on the first night).

We’re stopped now and everyone sits on the inside of the seat, we’re all alone mostly; still unfriendly, the window provides us all comfort or we all don’t dare be the people sitting next to each other when there is an open seat available. It gives me time to sketch a nice picture of what the Canadian Rockies are beginning to look like, the very eastern part of them.

I have finally finished Chapter Six; I am relieved that I’m able to finally begin proper observation but the time afforded to write is always to be taken advantage of.

Mostly, what I want, is for you to see what I see; us moving along again, with evidence of fire, the old poles paralleling the tracks have wires hanging down, loopy and neglected. The mountains, now – it is about 2:00 pm, off in the distance the clouds are covering the mountains but there is light that would be good for skiing these peaks, I cannot help but wonder as to the viability of that thought.

“An hour and change to Jasper,” which means we’re in Alberta, almost to the end of it – the train signals intrigue me more than the last call for brunch. Green light. Red Light. Here the snow looks fresh, about ten inches deep, back in the bush, slowly we inch towards the presence of the mountains.

Finally there is conversation as the mountains seem to break us all down, our stoicism abandoned with the altitude.

“The mountains! The mountains!” people shout with mock enthusiasm. The diesel floats over us, puff-puff-puff, in the observation car, down the grade we go, my mind is nice and empty…

The hillsides are green and covered with lichen, the snow is beginning to recede. Entering Jasper National Park, it is +6, mountain sheep stand on hillsides, pointed out to me, the lakes are opening up, no more snow at lower elevations. The open water throttles me – it is springtime here for the elk too as they walk down the tracks of downtown Jasper as we arrive fifteen minutes later. Salami and cheese in the grocery store, chips (Cam – guess the kind) and it is time to make friends.