The title of this post reflects the two things that I kept saying over and over again yesterday to the point of embarrassment. I was an English major. I have a PhD in English language and literature, but somehow I was at a loss for words and just kept repeating those words over and over.

In 1986, I rode with the assistant hockey coach of my hockey club team from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon to spend winter break with my hockey coach’s family.

I include this map because I want you to imagine the topography there. It took us 14 hours, and I remember at one point breaking down and crying. My coach thought I was crying because I was missing my family, but I remember being overwhelmed by the beauty. Don’t laugh. I was a highly emotional teen. I also had a crush on that assistant hockey coach that I knew was going nowhere. Try spending 14 hours with your crush and not be emotional.

At the time, I couldn’t believe that I was seeing a landscape that was that beautiful. At nineteen, I believed that I would never see anything as beautiful as the stretch of land right after we had passed the Canadian border.

I tell this story because yesterday was the first time I thought, “I finally did it! This has definitely passed that experience.” It has taken me 36 years, but I did it.

I’m not going to be writing a lot for this post because none of my words can really describe the beauty. The pictures will speak for themselves.

I started the morning trying desperately to catch up with the blog posts from two days ago. Thank goodness I had already purchased breakfast from the grocery store yesterday.

Don’t worry, mom. I also had an apple and some milk.

But I was running behind despite getting up at my regular time. I spent far too much time debating which socks to wear. I was really concentrating on layers and packing several versions of gloves and extra socks in case my socks got too wet.

The tour guide picked me up from my hotel. I was the first person on the bus. We stopped and picked up a family from Austalia that had three teenage sons and then the couple I ate lunch with on the train on Monday. We headed out to Maligne Canyon, named by a priest in the 1800s who cursed the river. At the time “maligne” was a french curse. Now, everything in that area is called Maligne.

The landscape in Jasper makes you think you are surrounded by a postcard. So it didn’t surprise me to have good views of the mountains, but I was surprised to see Elk so up close. Our guide was not.

Once we got to the Canyon area, we were all taken into the building to be issued helmets, insulated rubber boots, and ice cleats. My three new favorite things.

Then we headed out. We followed the regular trail for the normal hike around the canyon. I’d love to come in the spring or fall and do the hike and see the river when it’s completely flowing. I don’t want to come back to Jasper in the summer because I was warned that it is really crowded. I’m also not sure I could afford it. The hotel I’m staying in starts at $135 CAD a night in the winter but starts at $359 CAD a night in summer!!

This canyon is older than most dinosaurs, having started over 70 million years ago. There are many natural springs that feed into the Maligne river, and under the ice you could see fossils and even evidence of coral from the ancient lake that used to cover the area.

It’s the deepest canyon in Jasper National Park with some parts that go as deep as 50 meters/164 feet. It was interesting to be able to look down over some of the bridges–though our guide warned us about our glasses. Apparently, he’s on his third pair of glasses since October.

Once we got to the entrance of the canyon floor part of the walk, our guide made us recheck our snow cleats and also reminded us of a couple of things: not to stand directly under any of the large ice formations, to pay attention to where he walks and follow his steps (there are places where the ice is thin and the water under is very deep), and also to be mindful of the people ice climbing and their ropes on the ground.

Another reason why I’m glad that I came in the winter is because I’m terrible at visualizing distance by just having someone tell me measurements. Even looking from above didn’t really convey how deep the canyon was because even though I could look down, I could rarely really see the bottom.

However, the icewalk part of the hike where we could actually stand at or near the bottom of the canyon helped show the vastness of the space, how deep were were, and how powerful the combination of water flow and time can be.

I’m glad I did this tour because I don’t think I would have been comfortable without a guide. He also had great strategies for getting out and over certain areas that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

He actually helped some people who were there by themselves. I also don’t have rubber boots, and there was a bunch of sloshing through deeper areas that my waterproof boots would have been too short to handle.

After exploring, taking pictures, and drinking from a canyon spring, we started heading back.

There was one spot where we all had to slide down on our rears through this fairly skinny crevice. It was very short, but a bit nerve wracking because we needed to hook our left arm with our guide at the bottom like we were about to square dance to make sure we landed properly. We also had to be careful not to stab him in the face with our snow cleats. The Australina mom and I were joking about how we didn’t realize this hike was going to require so many quizzes that involved dangerous punishments if you failed.

To be honest, I was more worried about my large rear end getting stuck in the crevice than anything else!

I took video of the last person, but I still haven’t figured out how to share video here.

Because it was such a beautiful day, our guide took us up a different trail, so we could get some great views. I guess we passed his test because he told us in the beginning that he would gage how we were doing at the end of the icewalk before deciding which way to go back to the bus.

I’m assuming much of it has to do with how tired people look and whether anyone had fallen and gotten wet. It was around 25 degrees yesterday, so someone wet wouldn’t really last very long in comfort coming out of the canyon bed.

I’m really thankful that he took us out this way. Such a beautiful day and perfect views and cystal clear air.

Honestly, when I got back on the bus, I was ready to go to sleep. Everyone was pretty subdued. You have to be pretty impressive to subdue a bunch of teenage boys.

We did everything in reverse order on the way back. Going back to the lodge to hand in our equipment and put back on our shoes. On the way back to town, our guide told us about various places to get food. He also talked about the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights, but I knew there was no way I was going to be awake for that . . . although I might be up early enough.

My plan was to go back to my room, drop off my backpack and force myself to walk through town to see the two streets of Jasper and bring home some food. I knew that if I stayed in the room longer than five minutes, the bed and bath would be too tempting.

When my key didn’t work, I thought maybe I had the wrong room, so I went to the front desk. Actually, this time it wasn’t me. They had the key turned off because the key said I was checked out even though I was in system for another night. The manager was so apologetic, but I wasn’t in a rush. Also, I was happy that this time the tech problem wasn’t my fault. 😀 See Alex and Akiko, not all tech problems lead back to me.

I did walk around Jasper. Not much is open because it’s technically off season. Apparently, everyone here is at some ski resort not in town.

I stopped in Rockey Bear Gift Shop, which is only about a block away from my hotel. I really wanted to buy lots of things, but I’m really mindful of what I can fit, so I just bought some magnets. I had a great conversation with the shop lady though. We talked about traveling and places we had been and working to save for trips and relishing the time. She made some recommendations.

I said I felt sorry that I couldn’t get my daughters what I wanted at the store since I could not fit neither the bears nor the hats in my suticase. She was another person who was completely surprised that I have daughters in their 20s. She, too, just stared and stared at my face. “Where are your wrinkles? What is your secret?”

I just laughed. She should see my mom. She’s 74 and barely has any wrinkles. In fact, I probably have more wrinkles than she does.

It was heartening because I was feeling old after that hike. So stiff, especially after the bus ride. I’m glad I wore the back brace I brought with me. I was struggling on my short walk in Jasper.

I was very relieved that there really are only two streets to see and that half of the places were closed. If more things had been open, I would have felt obligated to see them all when all I wanted to do was lay down.

I eventually just stopped at a pizza place, Northface Pizza (which was on the same block as hotel), and got a pizza, figuring I’d eat pizza for late lunch, dinner, and breakfast tomorrow morning.

I practially crawled back to the room, took a very hot shower, put on my pajamas, and ate dinner. I still had one of the apples I had bought, too.

I’m not embarassed to say that I fell asleep around 6 pm. It was a very full day.