We made it to the Rockies all refreshed and ready to grab the bull by the horns and make the most of every minute we have in this amazing part of Canada. We almost felt like we had made it. Like the traveling so far had all been a build up to arriving here…I think it was the relief that we were no longer driving along an endless flat plain just pushing one step further to reach somewhere…anywhere to stop!

Dont get me wrong, the prairies weren’t anything as bad as everyone had made out, it was rather like England to be honest. Rolling fields of crops as far as the eye can see with the odd hill giving us a lovely patchwork quilt view of the distance. We quite enjoyed the mind numbing drive and employed the time to reflect on the past 7 weeks, listen to the radio and just enjoy the drive.

As the prairies gave way to the mountains of Jasper we could barely believe our eyes. We could just see them in the distance, a different shade of the sky and thought it was our eyes playing tricks on us but sure enough as we got ever closer they formed before us and crawled up the skyline.

They were tremendous, fabulous, outstanding, awe inspiring, tear inducing…they were just completely indescribably stunning!
We drove along in silence (apart from the odd squeak from Alex in response to my excited nipping) just taking in our new surroundings!
We arrived at our campsite just on the outskirts of Jasper town and gaped at the view from the van. Enthused and excited we packed up a picnic and headed into Jasper National Park to embark on our very first hike! The Sulphur Skyline! The hike pamphlet says ‘if you want to reach a summit in Jasper take this challenging hike’. So I was thinking there are no warnings on this walk, no
mention of certain fitness levels needed, just take water. Thats all it said. 4km 1 way, 700m ascent. Sounds fine. Of course it had also been recommended by Steve and Sarah at Elk Island as a lovely afternoon hike with amazing views so off we go.

The trailhead starts at the Miette hotsprings carpark so in our wisdom we decide we will take our swim suits and towels on the hike so we can go straight to the pools afterwards. We also pack lunch, 3 bottles of water (2frozen to keep lunch cool), 2 bananas, 1 apple, 4 cookies and emergency sugary lollies, 1 camera, 2 lenses, 1 video camera, 1 pair of trousers, a jumper, bug spray, suncream and our trusty swiss army knife (we watched 127 hours the other day and now will not leave home without it!). Needless to say we were well prepared (or laden with stuff, whichever you see fit) and ready to set off. I was wearing shorts and a vest and my still rather new looking ‘Bare foot’ trainers and Alex rather sensibly wore trousers and a t-shirt with his well worn ten tonne hiking boots. We tentatively edged around the long horn mountain sheep that were licking the cars in the car park ( for the salt) and that are quite scarily large and frightening and took our first step onto the trail!

We were excited and ready for anything and almost skipped up the first 10 metres of the path. A man passed us on his way down and said ‘morning hikers’ (which made us a bit giddy as we must look the part) as he huffed along looking suitably worn out. The path soon turned to gravel track which soon turned into a single mud track spiralling the mountain which was no problem at all. The sheer drop to my left was not a concern at all but the climb was. Within 15 minutes of setting off I could barely breathe. It was steep and tough going and without even thinking about it we were already at an altitude of 1300m (4265 feet) which for someone who has always lived at sea level is thin air! We carried on under the baking sun, constantly climbing and stopping for breathers at every bench which were few and far between.

To cut a long, painful, steeply gruelling story short we arrived at the top in 2 hours and after panting like a dog in the dessert for a few moments took in the sights around us. The exceptional views of knife-edged ridges, deep gorges and the carpark where we had started took our breath away once more. I wrapped up in my tousers and jumper as it was blowing an icy gale and we ate our rice lunch on what we thought was the top of the world. It wasn’t until we had eaten that we noticed people were carrying on the climb up a sheer face of crumbled rock and tundra. We hadn’t made it to the top yet!

We were still 70 metres away from our goal! My legs were lead, I was frozen stiff and exhausted but Alex talked me into it. We started on the hardest climb yet when we were at our weakest. The tundra slid about under our feet making it unstable and difficult to walk on let alone climb but we pushed on. My nose felt like it was going to explode and had started bleeding which we can only assume was due to the altitude and I was close to tears but Alex kept telling me we were nearly there. When we finally made it we looked around and I was so happy we had fought so hard to get there. The view was amazing. The powder blue Fiddle River was a snake running through the trees 2070 meters (6791 FEET) below us, the snow capped mountain next to us was almost within our reach and the sky wrapped around us and made us grin like loons that we had actually done it! The feeling of acheivement was worth every short breath, the nose bleed, the lead legs and the aching feet.

We sat a while and watched others make it to the top and smiled with them at their moment of joy and realisation they had made it alive too.
We eventually looked at each other and admitted we would have to set off back before our legs gave up completely. The climb down the last hurdle was going to be tough and then the other 4-5km downhill wasnt going to be much easier but we couldn’t sit there forever.

We practically tumbled down the sliding tundra, my legs had gone from lead to jelly and were refusing to co-operate which made it interesting when trying to walk sideways and dig into the loose rock to get a footing. Nevertheless we made it back to the fake top and syched ourselves up for a rather rapid descent and a direct route to the hot springs as reward. Never has walking downhill been so difficult. I just had nothing left to give.

My legs were useless and I just flopped about in a walking motion, kind of like Harry Enfields impression of  teenage boy Kevin, arms flailing, legs flopping and head lolling on my shoulders. Alex was worn out too, he couldn’t believe we had made it and kept telling me how well I had done. We eventually made it back to the carpark and were so dilusionally happy that we walked past the springs back to the van!!! We realised what we had done before we collapsed onto the bed and made the executive decision to not sit, just get changed and head back to the pools.
When we stepped into the 40 degree pool steam must have come off us. We collapsed into a heap in the pools and let delirium wash over us. We sat in silence for about 20 minutes with our mouths hanging open, lolling in the water waiting for our batteries to be recharged.It certainly brought us around and we almost felt floaty light as we walked back to the van. we drove back to camp again in dumb struck silence, ate dinner and went to bed before the sun.

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!