We came back to town for dinner and I have a few minutes, so I have to tell you about our afternoon. We went white water rafting in the Athabasca River. It was so amazing! The water was 43 degrees; thankfully we had wetsuits! What an unbelievable experience! The water in the river is fed from the Columbia Icefield. The water was a glacier only 18 hours before we got in the river! Our guide told us that today was the best day she has seen all summer. There was a lot of rain overnight up by the glacier, so the river was flowing fast!
We had all 8 of us in a raft with one guide. We hit some pretty big waves right from the start. We were soaked almost immediately upon starting! They had someone taking pictures from the shore on the first set of rapids, and he got some great pictures. We bought the flash drive with the pictures but I'll have to wait to upload those as I didn't bring it with me to dinner. The rafting was an hour and a half of excitement! We even saw a mama bear and her cubs on the side of the river! Parts of the river are not accessible from the road; it's sort of a canyon where the river goes through so it's great for wildlife!
We couldn't get a reservation at a campsite for tonight, so we are parking the RVs in the parking lot by the Columbia Icefield. Not as redneck as the Walmart parking lot from our last trip, but still a parking lot! Luckily we filled up our fresh water tank this morning, so we're pretty self sufficient. It's a good thing too, because that lot is about an hour and a half from civilization on either end! I mentioned earlier how I'm trying hard to embrace this camping thing (limited water, public campground showers, tight quarters, etc.) and Jacob said, "You're sleeping on a mattress, in a vehicle with heat, air conditioning, a kitchen and a bathroom. You realize you aren't really camping, right?!" I love that kid!
Anyway, time to hit the road to our parking lot. Will take us over an hour to get there and with all the large wildlife, we'd like to get on the road before it gets too dark. Will update again when I can. What a trip!!
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