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I'm currently on a month-long trip across Canada, traveling 4 and a half thousand km on train from Halifax to Vancouver. Oh, wow. Just come around the corner here. I can now actually sort of see out to the coast. I recently immigrated to Canada from the UK and this trip is a perfect way to get to know my new home country. And so, in this final leg, I'm going to be heading to the Rocky Mountains at Jasper. Look at that. I mean, this is just beyond any expectations. Like, we got two moose right in the middle of the road.
I'll have 4 days exploring round with a car rental in Jasper before getting back on the train and heading to the finish line in Vancouver. All right, we made it to Vancouver. Loved, loved, loved that. That was absolutely brilliant. My journey began 3 weeks ago exploring around the Maritimes before I boarded the train in Halifax and city hopped my way through Quebec and Ontario. [snorts] Somebody I then boarded Vail's Canadian line which runs all the way from Toronto to Vancouver and I stopped for a few days in both Winnipeg and Saskatoon. This is amazing. This is so cool. But the great thing about Heritage Park here is you can arrive with zero knowledge, but then get a very good
understanding of the history. And now I'm about to get back on the train for the 20-hour journey that'll take me from the prairies to the Rocky Mountains. All right, time to get back on the train and time to head up to the mountains. So, let's go. This is me for the next 20 22 hours, I think. Yeah. So, tomorrow morning I'll be waking up in Jasper. It's going to be my fifth time in Jasper, but I haven't been there in 10 years. And last year they had the devastating wildfires there. So, it'll be interesting to see how the
area's recovered, how it's doing. Um, but I love being in the mountains so much. So, I'm very, very excited to get back. It's going to be an amazing few days. The sun's gone down, so next time I see daylight, we should be in Jasper. Okay, it is 7:00 a.m. We were supposed to arrive at 6:30, but we're running a bit late, so we're going to pull in at 9:30. But the sun's just starting to come up, and I can see mountains.
I'm pretty sure that's Pyramid Mountain up ahead which is right above Jasper. So, we're about 20 minutes away now and I'm just itching to get off the drain just to get out cuz it's a beautiful day. It's blue skies. It's looking amazing. So, I got to pick up my car rental, go check in my hotel, grab some food, and then we go explore. But just look at this.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Before the European settlers arrived, the Jasper area had been used by the indigenous people for travel, hunting, and trade through the Rocky Mountains. In the early 1800s, fur traders established Jasper House, a key trading post, and the region later became protected as Jasper Forest Park, which evolved into Jasper National Park. In 1911, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway reached the area, connecting it to Eastern and Western Canada, and this arrival played a major role in establishing Jasper's tourism industry. I've got 4 days here to explore around. So, I picked up my car rental from the station, checked into my hotel, and I was ready to hit the road. I've got my supplies. I'm ready to go. We're going
to head to Meline Lake, which is like a 48 minute drive. All the FAF is done. Got my trusted Diet Coke. So, let's go. Just look at this now. Look at what we're driving through. Oh, boy. I'm excited. All right, let's see if we can spot any moose. Apparently, when I pick up the car and like someone saw like 13 moose, something like today. And now I've said that on camera, it's probably not going to happen. But let's let's just see how we do.
Just to begin with, I'm driving through all the burnt forest. It's devastated. But still beautiful though. Still incredible. Just like that, it's back to green. It's like the fire just stopped and then now it's back to how it should be. This is so cool. Oh, I'm so happy to be here. So good to be back. There's a raven here poking around in someone's van for supplies. Huge as well. Anyway, I'm at Melain Lake. Let's look at the map. It's a nice little loop trail I could do just on the other side of Moose Lake. So, I might go and check that out after I've
had a look at the views. Feels like Canada is just flexing now. You know, it's like I'm glad you've enjoyed your coast to coast trip, but now let me just show off. Yeah, I had originally planned to do the boat tour out to Spirit Island. Um, they closed down for the season just a few days ago and it's 18th of October, just for reference of what time of year. I hopped back in my car just for a couple of minutes to get to the other car park for the hike up to Moose Lake. Oh I'm just about to start the walk.
There's a moose right here. Well, I guess you should still do the moose loop even though we just seen one. It's like a 2k little loop to Moose Lake, which I just saw on a map. I thought that might be worth checking out. So, that's what we're going to do. Just think two, three weeks ago was in like Montreal and Ottawa. It was like 30 degrees and now I'm in a little winter wonderland. Yeah, they obviously had a little bit of snow and then it melted. Now it's frozen over again. So the whole path's like an ice rink. Look at this though.
It does kind of feel like I've just stepped into Narnia. You can see the lake peeking through. Looks frozen over, huh? How amazing is this, though? That's a big one. I don't know what that mountain is, but that's huge. You can see now why I was in a rush to get out cuz I just wanted to get to places like this and just have a moment, eat my sandwich, take it all in. What a beautiful spot. Right, shall continue. Yeah, it's just over 10 years since I was last standing on this lake skimming stones. And I managed to cut my finger back then as well.
Well, I've just completed the loop back at the car park. Moose is actually still there just sitting down chilling in the woods. Moose. We got moose in the road. We got two moose right in the middle of the road. It's a good start though. Seeing three moose today. I made my way back to Jasper and then head to the old Fort Point to do a short hike up for amazing views of the valley.
Oh Whole bunch of elk here. I'm trying to start the walk, but the elk is just blocking the bottom of the stairs. Like I might be able to get past it, but I don't know. Well, bet you got past him. Up we go. Couple of cheeky false arises on this thing. Well, here we are. [clears throat] Well, this is perfect view of the town of Jasper. And yeah, a very good overview of uh the damage from the wildfires. Like everything around me here was all burnt. And I think this end of town got hit here, but then it kind of stopped before it took out the rest. And like I was saying earlier in the car, yes, there's a lot of burned down trees, but still
still beautiful, still spectacular. So, I have for this evening booked to go up the sky tram to do a bit of a stargazing evening. It's going to be nice to go up there, but I don't think there's going to be much stargazing this evening. Just pure overcast. Back in town, I finally got a chance to settle into my cabin at Bear Hill Lodge. Wa, this is sick. And then I made my way towards the sky tram to try my luck with the dark skies evening. Wow, check out this guy. That's a beautiful creature.
That's magnificent. The antlers on just incredible. It was about a 15-minute drive from the center of town to the sky tram if you ignore wildlife stops. And then I got myself checked in for the star sessions evening. Like at the start of it, they take you into this like inflatable dome at the bottom. And in there, they give you like a briefing on like all the kind of stars you're going to see at the top. And then we took the sky tram up, the cable car up, sat down for a meal, which was lovely. Was like three course. I had some cheer battered bread. Had this nice chicken and a chocolate mousse. That was all great. But then before it even got dark, just the clouds are coming even more. And it was just snowing. I um
don't think we're going to see any stars this evening. It's snowing. They couldn't even point the telescopes down towards Jasper to look at things cuz it's all just coming in. They've actually got a dark sky festival on here in Jasper right now. And they've changed all the lights in the town so like all the street lights are just facing down to help preserve the dark sky. So I think on a clear night that would have been phenomenal. It just wasn't a clear night. Well, good morning from Jasper. My plan for this morning is I'm going to go driving on the Icefields Parkway, the road between Jasper and B because it's one of the most beautiful roads in the world. And I'm going to be driving on it
tomorrow to go do my glacia hike at Columbia Icefields, but because of the timing of it, I won't get to stop and see many things along the way. So, I'm basically going to do the exact same drive this morning. Maybe go a little further to try and see if we get to PO Lake, but it just depends on the conditions and the weather. I won't be going as far as Lake Louise cuz that'll just take too long to get there and back. And I've got a food tour booked this afternoon. Yeah, should be good fun. So, I'm just going to get packed up, have a little breakfast, and then hit the road. So, I've just pulled over at the Aabaska Pass viewpoint, and this is what I'm going to be driving down. This
valley right here. Wo. It's so beautiful. I need to look at some more words. I keep saying beautiful. I need to get a thesaurus out. Well, the roads obviously just come up a little bit higher. So now all the trees have got snow and frost in them and we got the sun rising over the mountain head. It's just it's perfect. It's so Heat.
This is the Columbia Icefield Center where I'll be coming tomorrow hopefully to my glacia hike. All the buses that go up there. Well, I think I'm going to turn around here cuz my plan was to drive all the way to Pedo Lake and then gradually work my way back to Jasper, stopping at all the sites. But it's still an hour to go and the roads just suddenly become covered in snow and I haven't fitted with winter tires but still, you know, by myself. I have no phone signal. So, um, I just stop here. It could be absolutely fine, but also it's like I'm pushing it just to go to a place I've been to before just cuz it's an
iconic spot when there's actually loads more beautiful things to see that I've just driven past. So, I turn you this way. It's not actually that cold. I don't know if that's cuz I'm a hardened Winnipeg now after surviving one mild winter, but it's not actually that cold out at all. Very glad I've done this morning. So, here's the snow blouse. So, I should have just waited for him. Oh well, decisions been made. So, this is where I'm going to be coming tomorrow to go hiking on the glacia. But I thought I'd just stop and have a quick look just in case it's canceled tomorrow or something. That wind coming off it
right now is bloody cold though. Well, I might see that tomorrow, might not. It depends on the conditions. Let's see what they advise. I drove about another 10 minutes back towards Jasper and then stopped to do a hike at Beauty Creek. Oh, hello. I think it's like an hour long walk you can do here to some waterfalls. So, going to give it a go. Look at these guys, though. Chancing for some food. Yeah. So, this trail um I haven't done before and hadn't heard of before until 2 days ago. So, when I was on the train from Tescu to Jasper, some guy who lived in Edmonton recommended this trail. So,
don't know the guy's name, but if for some reason he ends up watching this, thanks, mate. Wow. See like the frozen bits around it. My god. Oh, wow. There's even more. I don't think these are even the main falls. I think it's just like little ones along the way. It's beautiful. See, there I am again. But it is beautiful. Absolutely loving this. There's so many little waterfalls coming down the creek.
Nature at its best. This is a great little hike. I mean, this is just beyond any expectations. Like, so incredible. You got the frozen icicles next to the billflowing waterfall. You got the bright blue colored glacier water, snow in the trees. What more do you want than this? Wow. You get these little clearings and you can see up to the mountain tops above. Just breathtaking. I think this is it.
This is just heaven on earth, though. Yeah, rather glad I've done this little hike. This has been like one of the highlights of the whole trip. Seems so much quieter now. I'm away from the waterfalls. That was outstanding though. Like so glad I did that. Yes. Back to the car and start making my way back along towards Jasper. My first stop on the way back to Jasper was somewhat falls 0.1k. I think we can manage that. Ah, super impressive though.
Cool. All right, on to the next one. All right, next quick stop is the goats and glaciers lookout. See how many glaciers and goats we can see. But it's a very pretty panoramic view. Nice contrast of colors like the bright blue river, the green trees, and then the white peaks of the mountains.
All right, last stop of the morning. Aabaska Falls and she's a busy one. Still a spectacular though. No amount of crowds is going to change there. All right. Now that I'm back in town, I'm actually going to spend some time in town. I'm going to be doing a foodie tour. They're going to be taking us to four different restaurants, trying out different bits of food, pairing them
with some nice drinks, learn a little bit more about Jasper. So, yeah, done my adventuring for the morning. So, now let's just eat. So, the food tour I was on was simply called Jasper Food Tour, and it lasts 3 hours, takes you to four different restaurants, and it's actually been rated in the top 10 food tours in all of Canada. It was a nice mixture of food as well, and something quite surprising. I didn't think I'd be having some falafel with white wine and then elk tacos with margaritas, you know. That's amazing, though. I like It's another favorite place for a lot of us. Lots of great stories about the history of Jasper along the way as well.
It's a great way to learn about the town. Great way to try some amazing food and support some local businesses. It's just a really good afternoon's experience. And I am stuffed now. Going to have a little rest for a bit and then I might go up for a drink later. Got this set up just outside the cabin. Uh, got to use it once. Cheers. Might look like I'm worried about wetting myself, but no. Did the trick. Got a local ly here as well. Pretty good. Looks like it's another good night for stargazing. Well, good morning. What a beautiful morning here in Jasper. Got word the glacia hike is on which is amazing. This is a gorgeous day out here. Actually,
it's a least amount of clouds we've seen. Yeah. So, I'm g basically just drive back to where I was yesterday. I'm meeting the guide Ben there and we go hike on the glacia. So, this could be something really, really special. Very excited for this. Okay, I had to pull over at this lookout again. It's the Aabaska lookout. Comparing this to yesterday, like yesterday, I was like, "Oh, this is cool." But now it's just like it's just unbelievable. Just jumped out of the car real quick again to come look at this viewpoint. There's the big glacier just sitting on top of the mountain there. After about an hour and 15 minutes of driving, I made it to the glacia. And the last time I was actually on the
glacier was back in 2001 when we went in these trucks here and drove straight onto the glacier and had a bit of a wander around, but they're all closed up for the season now. And so I'm doing a hike with Rockaboom Mountain Adventures and it'll just be myself and the guide Ben hiking out there alone. Yeah, we just get packed up and ready to go and get lots of layers on cuz it's a little chilly with the wind coming off the glacier. On the way up, they had markers of where the glacia used to reach. And now we're going to have to walk around the lake that's at the bottom of the glacier. So, you said this summer you'd get a Zodiac across that.
Yeah, we were. We had a boat dock kind of by that big rock over there. And then some of the what look like islands in the middle are actually floating icebergs. Right. So they change day by day where they were situated. Yeah. So we come up and now we go down to the glacia. And in the summertime, there's uh temporary bridges to be able to get onto the glacier itself, right? Is there's a fast flowing uh meltwater creek right on its flank. A little bit less fast flowing. We stopped for a moment to put on some extra gear and then we finally set foot on the glacia.
Hey, fish on the glacia. Is that it? We just turned around now. in conditions right now where just a really small little bit of snow on top of the ice. The ice on the glacier is much more granular than you might expect. It's not like a hockey rink. Yeah. Almost has a little pebble texture to it. We started working our way up and the wind really started to pick up. How you doing? Good. Yeah, it's holding up. Little break from the wind. Just face away from it.
We paused for a moment so Ben can show me how they secure a rope into the ice. You want to try? Come over here and try to pull this out. Yeah, that's not going anywhere. Wow. That is like so It's not even like moving in like the slightest bit at all. It's so sturdy. It's incredible. A single ice crew can statically hold a person very comfortably. Ben actually explained a lot of cool things on the way up, but with the wind blowing, the audio on the GoPro didn't pick up a word of its surface. There's a deep bath just here. We just got to go check it out.
How amazing is this? Wow. This is fully engaged in snow. You wouldn't be able to tell where the hole starts and where the solid ice is. Yeah, that was absolutely amazing. get home. I thought this trip has been sort of just by the nature of it, exploring cities and things like that, which has been absolutely lovely. But just to get outdoors and just sort of gives me a bit more adventurous felt uh good for the soul. We had the whole glacia just for us and just walking that landscape was just so spectacular.
Loved, loved, loved that. That was absolutely brilliant. What a what an incredible experience. So, yeah, my face is feeling very dry right now from the wind going. Yeah. So, what I'm going to do now is go a bit further south on the road here. Sort of further south than where I turned around the other day, but um cuz it's warmed up and the snow plows have been around. The road might be okay. I'm not going to have enough time to get to Pedo Lake or anything like that, but there's a couple of the little spots I want to check out before I head back to Jasper.
So, this is where I turned around yesterday and all this road was covered in snow and now it's all cleared. I mean, it's starting to snow again now, but yeah, what a difference today makes. Holy this is amazing. So, I've just stopped here at Weeping Rock, which is as far as I'm going to go. It's kind of cool to see right now because some of it's frozen and some of it's still running. I remember when I stopped here in 2015, 10 years ago, and
I pulled over to look at the falls. So, I got out the car. I was like, "Oh, wow. Look at that." And then there was a bear right there. I was like, "Shit." Got straight back in the car. Not sure if we're going to see any bears today. They're all kind of getting ready for their hibernations. They're all kind of real estate hunted. All right, time to turn around. Head back to Jasper. Looks so amazing that way, but don't have time. See, let me show you the other way. See you next time. All right, back we go. Okay. So, there's three old railway pubs in town. They're all built in 1927, I think, around then. I'm going have to double check that. So, I'm going to go for a pint in each one. Starting out with Oayes.
Okay, this place is incredible. Interesting fact about these three pubs was they used to have tunnels going between them so that during the winter months, people could get between one pub to another without being out in the cold. So, it was a literal pub crawl back then. I was saying to the food guide that they should uh reopen the tunnels and actually make a tour out of it. This is the best of the three. Good morning. Another lovely morning here in Jasper. Just picked up a breakfast to go from Lost Lands Cafe. Lovely little spot. Tasty little breakfast rather. So this morning I'm doing something a little bit different cuz I've signed up for like a half day
tour and this is a wildlife tour with a company called Sund Dog. So we're going to go and hopefully find a whole bunch of wildlife in the area and also learn about the recovery uh from the fires. We're going to spend a little bit of time right in the valley bottom. We are just at the end of the elk rut which is the elk mating season. The Sund Dog tour doesn't go to the same route every time. It's kind of like when you do a safari, the guides and the rangers will communicate to each other about where the animals are.
Statistically, by far our most dangerous animals, you're 10 times more likely to be hurt by an elk than a bear or Jasper. In the spring, the females are very, very aggressive with their young. And in the fall, as I said, just coming out of the rut, the males are they try to turn cars into convertibles. He's a really good guide, really informative, and uh sort of learning about like not just what happened with the wildfires here, but like how the area is recovering and which animals sort of benefit from it. Like the grazing animals like the deer and the elk are actually doing really well because the grass is actually really fresh and new because when like the forest is all built up, there's less sunlight that
hits the grass. But now cuz the forest is burnt, there's way more sunlight in the grass. It's a lot healthier and it's a lot tastier for those animals. Plus, with the trees being burnt down, the landscape's more barren, so it's harder for their predators to sneak up on them. So, they're doing really well. We started making our way towards Meain Lake, which is where I went on my first day here. But since that's where all the moose sightings have been, that's where we're heading. I've loved driving around the last few days. I loved it. But it is nice having someone else drive for a bit and just be able to, you know, try and look out for the wildlife and soak in the views.
This guy is very old. We can hop out, stay right beside the bus. I've seen this guy a couple of times. Well, a few times. And you can just see that he's withering away. And uh he doesn't move very far. There is herds of big horn sheep around here. He's not able to keep up with them anymore though. We didn't see any bears today and I haven't seen any bears in my time here in Jasper, which normally I've seen loads in this area, but I think because it's late October, they're all sort of starting to look for places that they can hibernate. But he was explaining as the new vegetation begins to regrow, there's going to be like tons of buffalo berries which the bears feed on. So in about 10 years time, Jasper is going to
be like the bear capital of the world. Yeah. So, back at Meain Lake. Turns out the car parks in Meain Lakes are prime viewing spots for moose. We had it both times I was here. No, that's not getting any closer. Wow. That's the uncar, is it? No, that's the other one is right here somewhere. Oh, see, look how it's leaning. is it's on his front legs to get to the salt. Yeah.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the wildlife tour this morning. Like even though I retraced my steps from the first day, any day you have to go back to Malay Lake is not a bad day. And I learned a load of stuff. I saw some really cool animals and I think if you didn't have a car then it's a really great way to experience a lot more of the area. So, it's my final afternoon here in Jasper. So, I'm just going to get in the car and drive about 10 15 minutes to a place called Pyramid Lake, which I haven't been to before. But hopefully get some nice views, a little wonder around, and just enjoy these last hours of being right up here in the Rockies.
Like just doing that drive, I'm immediately glad with my decision to come here and check this out cuz looks amazing. First up, I'm going to check out Pyramid Island on Pyramid Lake in front of Pyramid Mountain. Well, this is absolutely perfect. What a gorgeous place. So, you can see across the Whistless Mountain at the top of the sky tram just there. There is some hiking you can do up there, but I think it's a bit late in the season for that. Just covered in snow and ice. What a phenomenal view. Just perfect. Right back onto the mainland. I'm just going to drive the car a little bit further along. And then there's a little trail up to a viewpoint up here, I think. But yeah, there's a pyramid
overlook up here, which I'm going to go check out. One thing, it's not going to come across on video. This forest smells amazing. Just that kind of rich pine smell to it. Like, you know, if you like buy a candle, it's like pine scented and you always run up to your nose. It's like that everywhere. It's lovely. Decent bit of incline to this. It's not just a gentle stroll. It's a bit of a workout to it. This was definitely worth the short hike up. This is just phenomenal. like far better than I thought it could be. We got the Pyramid Mountain and the Pyramid
Lake just over here. That's Patricia Lake down there. Behind me, you can see Whistler's Mountain and the Sky Tra. And over there is a good view down to Jasper. But you know, when it's late in the day and you've hiked up to a mountain viewpoint, there's only one thing to do. Let's crack open a beer. This is by Jasper Brewing Company. They've not sponsored this, but uh this is the Jasper the bear ale. Cheers. It's not a bad way to finish my time in Jasper. Come up here and moment of solitude and take it all in. But tomorrow I get back on the train and it's the last journey to Vancouver and then I finish I've done the whole coast to coast which feels kind of
surreal. You know, it's going to take a while to process everything that's happened this trip cuz uh I know it's it's been amazing, but I've just squeezed so much into a month and experienced so much and learned so much and eaten so much food that uh it's going to take a while to like let [snorts] it all sink in and reflect on it. But I can tell you sitting here right now is pretty damn special. And uh feels like a long time ago I was at Peggy's Cove with those annoying bag pipes. And now I'm just here in serene bliss up in the mountains. So anyway, going to enjoy the rest of my beer and then head back down and just have a fun evening in Jasper with some food and drinks.
Anyway, cheers. So, since I've been staying at a few of the old railway hotels on this trip, I thought I'd come and check out the one in Jasper. Even though I'm not staying at it, I thought I'd come and have a look and just get a drink at the bar. It seems very nice. Don't get me wrong, I love where I'm staying and it's great to be right by downtown so I can, you know, access the restaurants and bars and shops and all that, but it does seem very, very nice. I had a lovely relaxing drink at the Fairmont Hotel and then I made my way back into town and decided to treat myself to a delicious pizza at Jasper Pizza Place. And then the next morning, it was time to pack my bags and get ready for my
final train journey to Vancouver. Unfortunately, this was going to be the most spectacular journey of the entire trip. Well, it's such a beautiful morning here in Jasper. I kind of don't want to leave, but it does mean I'll get some amazing views from the train today. So, soon as I'm on board, I'm going to go straight to Don Car. Yeah, had an amazing, incredible time here in Jasper. Now it's time to head to Vancouver, my final destination of my Canada Coast to Coast trip. All right, so for my final journey, I've been staying in cabins for two mostly. This is a cabin for one. So, got a seat here. It's got all my stuff in it right now. Bed comes down from here. Got a shelf here to put some stuff up. It's
useful. Sink. And then this seat lifted up comes the toilet. There's me. The journey today was going to take nearly 23 hours. And we should be arriving in Vancouver at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Yeah. As soon as I got on the train today, I just went straight to the dome car because I knew the views were going to be spectacular as we weaved our way out of the Rockies and we went past like Moose Lake. It was gorgeous. And then the main event was seeing Mount Robson and that was just spectacular. Just had a lovely, lovely brunch. Now I'm very full. But yeah, going to just settle in and take it easy as we make our way to Vancouver. In the evening, I went to check out the
bar in the prestige class, which is available to us in the sleeper class from 5:00 p.m. and it's the last carriage right at the back of the train. Then, after a couple of drinks, I got my bed set up for the night, and the next morning, I'll be waking up in Vancouver. It's going to be exciting to get off. I've got a couple of days here. Explore around, do some fun things, meet up with some friends. It's going to be a great end to the trip.
Here, I can take that bag for you if you want. I got it. But thank you so much, man. Appreciate everything, man. Thank you so much. Cheers. All right, we made it to Vancouver here. Coast to coast on the train complete. All right, I've got my bag. Let's get the sky train to my hotel downtown. See you. I quickly hopped on a sky train to take me downtown and then I went to check in to my hotel. There's my hotel. I'm staying at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, another one of the Grand Railway Hotels in Canada.
It was built in the 1920s but not opened till 1939 because of the Great Depression. And it's been visited by royalty. And during World War II, it was converted into a temporary hospital to treat the wounded soldiers. Let's see if there's anyone in my room or not. Hey, there's no one in it. Oh, this is lovely. I can make this work for the last stop of my trip. I got a lovely king-size bed and also a rather good view of downtown Vancouver. Check that out. Vancouver used to be known as Granville, a small logging settlement founded here in the early 1860s. It became better known as Gas Town, named after
John Gassyjack Dayton, whose saloon opened in 1867 and helped anchor the community. In 1886, Granville was renamed Vancouver when it was incorporated as a city. And then the following year, it became the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, sparking rapid growth in the city. Today, Vancouver is often ranked as one of the most desirable cities to live in the world with its stunning coastal location where the mountains, ocean, and urban life come together. I've got a lot of love of Vancouver. Like, it's the city in Canada I've spent the most time in over the years, other than obviously now living in Winnipeg. But, it's really great to be back here to finish off my trip. Does feel a bit
strange being back in the big city again after the little cute town of Jasper in the mountains. So, what I'm going to do now is go hire out a bike and cycle the seaw wall around Stanley Park. All right, I've picked up my bike from Cycle City, which is literally around the corner from my hotel. You can see it just there. And I'm going to go for a little explore around Stanley Park. You have to do an anticlockwise loop. It's like a single track. You follow all the way around. And rain's supposed to hold off. So, let's see how we do. All right, off we go. Running through Vancouver. Watch out for the geese. They're evil.
So, my trip's coming to an end and I've literally got maple leaves blowing down off the tree all around me. Like, how poetic is that? I got maple leaves falling down around me. Bunch of Canadian geese right there. All I need to do now is neck some maple syrup and then we got the full set. So, I've just stopped at Brocken Point Lighthouse. Got a great view of the whole harbor here. And then I'm going to be going around the park all the way around there.
Oh wow. Just come around the corner here. I can now actually sort of see out to the coast. I mean, yes, Vancouver Island is over that way, but this is the coast of the mainland of Vancouver, and I can't see any land on the horizon. Done it. Coast to coast, baby. Well, I've officially made it to the west coast of mainland Canada. I know some people are going to say like, "Oh, what about Vancouver Island?" And don't get me wrong, I've been to Vancouver Island before. It's amazing. I want to go back and do an extended trip there. But this trip is just about doing a coast to coast of mainland Canada. And this is the west coast of mainland Canada.
It's funny getting off the train and sort of just checking into the hotel and stuff and seeing Vancouver was I was feeling good but I hadn't quite sunk in yet and then just riding around Stanley Park eventually came around the corner to see out to where there's basically nothing on the horizon and I was like oh then it just sunk in. I was like I've done it. I've made it. I don't think a sense of achievement is the right phrase because I didn't hike from coast to coast. I sat on a train. But it still feels pretty incredible to have traveled all this distance.
Feeling very happy, feeling very satisfied. And uh yeah, it's all just sinking in now. Like feel a bit emotional. And I should have brought a beer. Famous little cafe around here that sells a one. I don't know. For the rest of the afternoon, I went up to the Vancouver lookout for a great view over the city. I wandered around Gastown for a bit, checked out some record stores, and picked up some local music. And then the evening, I
went to the pub to watch the Jays with my mate Tim. Unbelievable. And then on my final day, I actually hired out a car to go explore a few places around Vancouver and even up in Squamish. But on the last day of my trip, my luck had finally run out with the weather. So, I just made it up to Grouse Mountain and managed to see the grizzlies, even though I got absolutely drenched. So huge and so adorable. I love them so much. And then I was actually stuck up there for a while cuz the cable car stopped for a bit due to the high winds. But all this did was made me realize just how lucky I was with the weather on my entire trip. Like to be able to travel all the way across Canada in October and have sunshine for the majority of it was super lucky.
But yeah, looking back on this trip in terms of getting to know Canada, it was just like a fantastic introductory overview to my new home and getting to travel overland was really special because you get to see how it all connects, how each place flows into the next one. Plus, I just love traveling on trains. Like, it's super relaxing, just sitting back, watching the landscapes go by, enjoying a drink or two, and just stuffing your face with incredible food. This is amazing chocolate cake. Yeah, it's great. And I'm incredibly grateful to all the people I met along the way because everyone was super friendly cuz you know, Canada, but also just so passionate and just excited to share
their knowledge and share their home. They don't realize how special this is. So yeah, I came away from this trip just feeling like what an incredible, incredible country Canada is. And I'm feeling very good about my life choices and feel very fortunate that I get to live here now. And there's still so much more to see than I did in this one month trip. Like Jamie and I have talked about doing an extended trip in Newf Foundland and do an extended trip in Vancouver Island. And of course, I just traveled
like the southern strip of Canada. I've still yet to explore the north. Exploring the Northern Territories is something I'm so keen and so excited to do over the next few years and just really get out there in the wilderness cuz like there's just there's just so much to discover. So yeah, after I finished up in Vancouver, I got back on a plane for the first time in a month, flew back to Winnipeg where I was reunited with Jamie and of course Rosie. home.
There you go. There. There you go. Family's back together. Yeah.
