Day 3 was immediately off to an exciting start, you see Mama Hennin got Jake a couple Skytram passes for his birthday, and because she knows us so well, we were on flight 08 @9:03 AM, the very first flight up the mountain!
Like a kid on Christmas morning, I was up much earlier than necessary and had everything gathered for the day before Jake was even out of bed. It was his gift, yes, but I was so ready to get on top of a mountain. On our way to the Skytram lower station, we saw a gorgeous black bear just munching away on a couple spring flowers, but we were on a mission so I gave him a wave from the car and we continued on.
We arrived at the lower station, parked the car, skipped (ok I did, Jake just laughed at me) to the ticket pick-up station, and hopped in line. We were packed in like sardines, 26 people per tram car!
The Skytram travels from the lower station at 1258 m above sea level to the upper station at 2263 m above sea level. The travel time is about 7 1/2 minutes, and it travels at a speed of 6 metres per second.
This is the first view we were presented when we got off the car. The mountain that red circle is surrounding is in fact Mount Robson all the way in British Columbia, which is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. Pretty cool that we were able to see it, as it is only visible from the Skytram Station about 60 days out of the year!
Continuing on, we took the Summit Trail (1.4 KMs) towards Whistlers Mountain Summit.
Even the trails are marked beautifully up there!
Jake's mountain pose.
Continuing on, we looked back at how far we had already come, cardio is not undesired in the mountains, and we often move faster than we think.
We then took a viewpoint trail, and were pleasantly rewarded! For information's sake, I have labelled the photo below, identifying landmarks of interest.
- Patricia Lake
- Pyramid Lake
- Roche Bonhomme (Old Man Mountain)
- Lake Annette
- Lake Edith
- Lac Beauvert (as seen in Honeymoon Day 2, Jake's 30th)
- Athabasca River
Also of note, the J shaped town is Jasper. Some tourists claim it was developed in that shape because of the town name, others think it is because there are so many Australians that it was designed to look like a boomerang; either way, it's a sigh to behold.
As we continued along the trail, Jake called me over to identify a little creature that was sitting like an exhausted human. It was determined he was a hoary marmot, an he was quite hilarious, he honestly sat like this for 15 minutes, only shifting to get a bit more sun!
Not wanting to wait any longer, we took off full steam towards the summit, it was going to be our first summit as husband and wife after all!!!!
Just another photo of my best friend, adventure and life partner. 😀
Not surprisingly, we eventually came across patches of snow, which just goes to show how unpredictable mountain weather can be!
Almost to the top, we decided to be tourists! The mountain I am "touching" is Pyramid Mountain. It was named by an explorer who had just returned from a trip to Egypt, and had nothing better to name it so he called it Pyramid Mountain. Creative eh?
Finally at the top, we came across a million dollar view and a sundial which identifies the mountains that surround it. No matter how many summits we conquer, that first view when you reach the top always takes my breathe away.
Naturally, we had to mark the occasion and take a photo on our first summit as husband and wife. It's easy to forget the mountains we have climbed and the trails we have crossed off our list, but going through photos is a good way to re-live those moments, and it is my favorite way to save a memory.
Now, at this point most people stop and turn around, we however decided to continue on and explore Indian Ridge. Whistlers Mountain Summit is a trail that is maintained by Parks Canada and the Skytram, but Indian Ridge is not. I urge you, if you do visit the Skytram, please don't venture out onto Indian Ridge unless you have knowledge, and are properly equipped.
With that being said, I hope you enjoy some photos we took along the ridge, and as we stopped for lunch!
Our ridge walk begins!
Whistlers Summit can be seen in the photo above, it is the rounded hump with snow up most of its side.
These mountains have a beautiful way of making you feel so small.
As you can see, the terrain along the ridge is a drastic change in comparison to the Summit Trail that is maintained.
Jake doing his Mountain Pose again.
We followed the ridge, and looped around the side of the mountain into the valley on the other side. Yet again we found snow, but even better we found a place where there was no other person in sight! On the Whistlers Summit, there were hundreds of people at this point, but through adventuring we found a spot on the mountain that we got to have to ourselves.
So much love, in one little photo. So much love.
This photo gives a whole new meaning to "lunch with a view". The view to my right was pretty spectacular too.
We also found some gorgeous flowers up top, which is pretty outstanding considering they only get about 1mm of rain and growth per year!
All credit for this gorgeous photo goes to Jake!
How am I so lucky to be able to do this?!
My favorite explorer; the person who gets me like no one else. Us against the world, always.
💙💚💛💜
After a couple hours on the mountain, we headed back to the Skytram Restaurant, had a beer, then hopped on a car back down to the lower station.
In typical Charlotte & Jake fashion, we weren't quite done exploring for the day, we just weren't sure what we were going to get into just yet.
Then, on the way home, we saw a spot along the highway that looked like a good swimming spot, so we pulled over, threw on our suits, and went for a dip!
I may or may not have ran towards the water giggling like a little child.
These photos offer a pretty cool view of the pine trees affected in the park. In the background, you can see the affected trees resembling a dark purple, and the still healthy ones a bright green.
Also of note, although this river looks quite large, you can in fact walk across to the other side and only be up to your shoulders.
*well for Jake it would be his shoulders, for me it would be my neck*
It was another gorgeous day for these 2 mountain explorers, and we couldn't have gone to bed happier. After our beach swim, we headed up to the Miette Hot Springs, and then back home to our camper. (Thanks again Court!!)
It was an early night, reminiscing yet again. We are pretty lucky to live the lives we do, and we do realize that.
Hats off to day 3, you were wonderful, wonder what day 4 will hold!!!
xoxo
char hazzard
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