Thursday, April 28, 2011 Jasper

6:30 am

The temperature is -5 C, with a high predicted of +6 C.

From the Environment Canada website:

Today Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon. Snow level 1800 metres. High 6. UV index 3 or moderate. Tonight. Cloudy. 60 percent chance of rain showers early this evening. Snow beginning this evening. Snowfall amount 5 to 10 cm. Snow level 1800 metres lowering to valley bottom this evening. Low zero. Normals Max: 13°C Min: -1°C

6:40 am

Time for coffee. The weather today doesn't look to bad. But tomorrow may be another story. There are two mountain passes to drive through - one at the Columbia Icefields and the other at Bow Pass. If there is a lot of snow this could be interesting.

The wireless signal in our room is very weak and intermittent. Fortunately the 3G network for the iPad is better so I still have connectivity. Technology in the mountains can be a bit of a challenge.

I have identified 4 geocaches and 1 earth-cache between town and Athabasca Falls. I'm not sure how many of these are accessible (one is disabled as the road is closed to it). Some of the others may still be under deep snow but we shall see. There is still one cache to find in the town itself.

9:40 am Geocaching

We began our geocaching by looking for one cache in the townsite. This was well camouflaged but the hint helped a lot and I soon spotted it.

GC2Q8H5 Mount Tekarra - Jasper Discovery Trail

Here is my posted log for this find: "Another nice hide. The hint was useful and appreciated. SL. TFTC."

9:50 am Photography

After finding the cache we stayed in the area to take a few pictures of the mountains and even of a couple of the diesel locomotives that were idling in the Yard.

10:20 am Geocaching

We then drove south along the "old highway" (Hwy 93A) and were able to search for and find Otto's Cache.

GC2DJ2Q Otto's Cache

Here is my posted log for this find: "The coordinates were spot on. Thanks for the history lesson. I have hiked through both Shovel Passes but was not aware of the significance of the names. SL. TFTC. This is also the first cache I have seen with a large sign indicating its presence (and in a National Park!)."

3:00 PM Birding

We noticed the sky was relatively clear to the west and so decided to drive to Mt. Robson to see if we could get a good look at it. We saw one Steller's Jay while still inside the park (i.e. Alberta). We also saw about a half dozen Ravens and a similar number of Crows. All of the lakes along the route were totally ice covered but the streams and rivers appeared to be open and the ground itself only had the occasional snow patch.

We were rewarded with some excellent views of Mt. Robson. The path near the Information Center was clear of snow so we went for a 20 minute walk. There were numerous Robins (about a dozen) and 4 Northern Flickers but we failed to see any Western Tanagers (last time we went on this walk we saw a couple of dozen of these beautiful birds).

We then decided to continue driving west to Valemount for a light lunch. While looking for geocaches on a trip through this region last year we visited a nearby marshland, the Starratt Wildlife Sanctuary, that had been set aside as a nature reserve so we thought we would give this a look and see if the ice was off the water.

As soon as we began walking on the trail to the marshes we saw birds. Juncos were the first to be identified (about 4), followed by 2 Black-capped Chickadees. Then we saw about a dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers. They were everywhere around us. These were our first Canadian warblers for 2011. We also saw about 4 vireo-like birds in the lower shrubbery. I could not identify it in our book on Alberta birds but using the "Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds of North America" it definitely looked like a Hutton's Vireo, which would be very rare this far north. I have done more checking and have decided it is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The latter is fairly common in this area and the two birds look very similar. The ruby-crown is usually not visible.

The water in the marshes was all open but there were only a few waterfowl to be seen. Buffleheads (4), Mallards (4), American Coots (6), an American Wigeon (1), Northern Shovelers (4), and Canada Geese (8) were all identified.

The bonus were a few sparrows and possibly a wren or two. We were unable to identify them until we were back at the motel in Jasper where we could review some of the photos. I think we saw a couple of Savannah Sparrows, a Fox Sparrow, and two Song Sparrows. The Song Sparrow is a new lifer for us.

5:00 PM Geocaching

We were back at Jasper by 4:30 so decided to complete the day by driving out to Athabasca Falls to look for one regular geocache as well as to answer the questions to complete an Earth cache.

GC2DJ3A The Falls

Here is my posted log for this find: "One of my favorite stops in the park. Thanks for putting a cache here. Nice location. SL. TFTC".

GC2BB27 Athabasca Falls Earthcache

Answers for GC2BB27 Athabasca Falls Earth Cache: 1) 10 C colder 2) a few millimeters of rock eroded each year 3) icy blue caused by microscopic bits of rock reflecting the light 4) sand, silt and gravel grind out the potholes 5) photo to be posted to the website Thanks for setting up this Earth Cache. They are my favorite type - very informative and educational.

The falls were frozen and the path on the far side was closed due to ice and water. This was my 950th find. I should have no difficulty making it to 1000 before year's end.

6:00 PM

We then decided to try a new restaurant, the Olive Bistro. This turned out to be a real delight. We both had a chicken breast stuffed with a fig dressing and covered in a mushroom sauce. It was delicious. The music in the background was perfect - easy listening country, blues and jazz. We will make this a regular stop in the future