The final day! My youngest and I had camped overnight at Two Jack Lakeside, then drove and planned to meet the riders in Jasper at a campsite we had booked, but we saw their bikes at the Goats and Glaciers lookout, so we stopped and met them there. They ended their journey by bike at Athabasca Falls, just after the lookout. They decided that they wanted to camp again at Honeymoon Lake as it was quite quaint and lovely, and we couldn’t argue. This was no race, so there was no finish line and the majority of hills were conquered, so we rolled with it and had a great night camping all together, waking up to my eldest’s 9th birthday the next morning!

Overview of the details

From this point on into Jasper, it is mostly flat or even descending along with the Athabasca River. Of note, at Athabasca Falls, you have the choice to continue on the main highway or the hillier (but quieter) secondary highway that runs along the west side of the Athabasca). Their plan was to take the secondary route (but we interrupted that).

• Start/End: Day 5— Honeymoon Lake (campground) to Athabasca Falls
• Route type: one way (northbound)
• Campground: Honeymoon Lake Campground, Jasper National Park (first come, first served)
• Distance: 21 km
• Elevation: Climbing— 43 m; Descending— 269 m
• First trip: September 2020
• Terrain: Paved highway, decent paved shoulder (usually)
• Notes specific to kids: Suitable for competent riders. This can be a high traffic route (depending on the season) due to tourism. It is hilly (especially for kids) although highway grades.
• Highlights: Finally saw a goat; nice, cruise-y downhill; Athabasca Falls.

Day 5: Journal Entry

It was the last day, the day that we were going to see Mom and my little sister again, which was exciting, although, we kind of wanted to keep going because it was so fun. We had to climb some hills, but it was OK. We saw a thing on my map that pointed out a viewpoint that was labeled “Goats and Glaciers” and we agreed that it would be our next stop. I kept saying “Goats ‘n Glaciers” along the way. When we got there, we did the special thing that we do when we cross the  highway to make sure that we’re safe from cars.

We discovered that the Goats and Glaciers viewpoint has quite a nice view, we saw some mountain goats, but the view of the glaciers wasn’t as good; I guess it just sounds better than just “Goats Viewpoint” or something like that. I wondered if the goats had crossed the road. Ten minutes later, we heard this screeching noise. There had been a car crash. The goats had crossed the road. I felt scared. Dad went down to investigate and see if everyone was OK. I found him chatting with some other people, they told me that the car crash had happened when the goats had crossed the road, and one driver had stopped, but the driver behind them hadn’t stopped quickly enough, therefore causing a car crash. There was a lot of swearing. Dad said to me and the folks that he had been talking with; here I’ll show you: “man, if her Mom was here, she’d be so worried!”  Ten seconds later, we saw our car driving up the highway. Was it a coincidence? I’m not sure. Mom drove over to our side, and she said “what happened? Has there been a car crash!?” Our answer: “yes, there has been a car crash.”

We decided that we would continue to Athabasca Falls, just down the highway; Dad and I would ride and Mom and my sister would go in the car.  It was only about six kilometers (mostly downhill) to Athabasca Falls, so it would probably take fifteen minutes to half an hour, which, in the grand scheme of things, really isn’t that long. When  we got there, we met in the parking lot and started hiking. Mom and I walked together, I hadn’t seen her for a long time, well only about a week, but I usually see her daily. It was quite beautiful, but I still think that Mistaya Canyon is my favorite because of the giant’s pots. Dad and I told Mom that Honeymoon Lake was absolutely beautiful, and that we must go back there to camp for the night instead of Wapiti, the big campground south of Jasper that was our original destination after we met up with Mom and my sister. The next day would be my ninth birthday!

Waking up in the mountains on my birthday

It was the last day, Dad and I couldn’t believe it. It was also my birthday, and when I woke up, Mom and Dad held me with one of them holding my legs, and the other holding my arms, and they swung me nine times, because it was my ninth birthday; and they added one for good luck. My sister hadn’t woken up yet, so we had our site to ourselves. Mom had made a special breakfast; can you guess what it was? Pancakes! It was very unusual to have pancakes while camping, even car camping, it was extra good for that reason.

When my sister woke up, Mom let me open a present from one of my friends, Mira. It was a card made by her, and a notebook made out of a decorated paper bag cut  to make a sort of case, holding some paper. I liked it, and started to make a little story in it. The story was comprised entirely out of drawings, but it was pretty easy to understand anyways. It was about a skunk, a rabbit, a wolf, and a fox. Everyone thought that it was funny.

We met some girls that had been there when just me and Dad were there, not Mom and my sister. I had been too shy to try and play with them, but now, I was feeling brave enough to go and say hi. My sister and I actually enjoyed playing with them, and the adults looked like they were having a good time talking. We climbed the big glacial erratic that was at the campground, rode our bikes (with my following us on foot and constantly asking us to slow down because Mom hadn’t brought her bike) around the campground as they showed us all the cool trails that they had found, playing some sort of game that I didn’t really understand, but that was still pretty fun.

We (by “we” I mean us kids) had made plans to do some marshmallow roasting together after dinner. When we asked the parents if we could roast marshmallows together, they said yes! We had a fun time roasting them, after that, we made an obstacle course out of logs from the humongous woodpile.

Homeward bound

The next morning my family and I had to go. My sister and I didn’t want to because we were having so much fun with these new friends. But we had to. We drove and drove, but I knew where we were going to stop. We had  to stop there. When we finally  got near, I told Mom that we must  go there. I was thinking of Mistaya Canyon. I told them that we were stopping here. So we drove into the parking lot, and Mom said that she had never been there. In all the at least ten times that she had driven back and forth along the Icefields Parkway, she had never stopped at Mistaya Canyon. She told me that almost every time that she had driven it, it had been to go to Smithers, B.C., where her sister lives, so she kinda just drove it as if it were a regular highway. She thought that it was downright amazing. We continued driving, we were headed toward Gran’s house in Canmore to say hi outside, then home to Calgary.

The end.