Canada in 2013 -- Beth and John Lucas Travel across Canada by Rail (mostly)

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All pictures, unless otherwise noted, are copyright 2013 by John A. and Elizabeth B. Lucas. All rights reserved.


Introduction Vancouver/Victoria Kamloops/Banff/Lake Louise/Jasper Toronto/Niagara Falls Montreal Quebec/Baie St. Paul Halifax Wildlife Second Thoughts Technical Details

Your adventurers at Bow Lake, Alberta on 18 June 2013

This is only frame with both of us in it. On the other hand, two trends continued on this trip:

1. We were asked dozens of times to take other peoples' pictures. I guess an older couple with serious camera gear looks like a good bet.

2. People continue to guess incorrectly where we are from. In Australia in 2008, more than one person guessed we were Canadians. Fair enough it turns out as two Canadians thought we were Australians! (And a railroad car lounge full of Brits wasn't sure). We don't sound like JFK or Lyndon Johnson or Ronald Reagan. Certain diagnostic words will give us away to people who know -- "schedule", "laboratory", "aluminum" (note spelling too), "project" (as a noun) and others.

Introduction

Canada has a larger land area than the US, but only about 10% of the population. Most of its population is concentrated in cities only 100 miles or so from the US border. Canada like Australia has large areas of very sparsely inhabited land.

Canada's transcontinental railroad was built to unify the nation -- in part to induce British Columbia not to join the US and thereby block Canada from the Pacific Ocean. Canada's railroad was also built to promote tourism which was not a goal of the US transcontinental railroad. We've watched television documentaries and listened to radio ones, too, about the Canadian railroads past and present.

This trip was not like our previous trips:

• We did not plan this ourselves, but relied on a completely planned itinerary by Fresh Tracks Canada (freshtrackscanada.com) We highly recommend their services if you are looking for an all-in planned vacation in Canada.

• We did not visit any GBCC members

• We did no driving at all despite Canadians driving on the same side of the road that we do

• We traveled, stayed and dined at luxury levels we would never have booked for ourselves (Most people who have traveled have seen chauffeurs waiting with signs containing people's names -- this time we WERE those people for every transfer required.)

• We've also not been on a trip (not even the UK) where it rained at least a little bit every day of the trip. To be fair as the photos will demonstrate, we did get sun and sometimes at the best time and place such as at Banff

This trip actually started out as a planned Scientific American cruise around South America from Machu Picchu (Peru) to Iguazu Falls (Brazil/Argentina) by way of Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel and the Falklands. Unfortunately, Beth was unable to get sabbatical leave for February and March. Eventually, this led us to realizing in March that we had nothing planned for the coming summer. We've thought about a Canadian trip of course -- Montreal is only five hours driving time door to door after all. A former business colleague from my days at DEC (before Compaq and HP) had told me about her plans for a similar trip after a cruise to Alaska.

After some comparison shopping, Beth contacted Fresh Tracks Canada and they came to the rescue! Timing was particularly tight as we wanted to go early in the season to beat the worst of the crowds and catch the tail end of the snow in the high Rockies.

How We Did It -- Modes of Transport

• Air Canada:

• Boston to Vancouver via Toronto
• Halifax to Boston
• Rail:
• Vancouver-Kamloops-Banff by the Rocky Mountaineer (Canadian Pacific tracks)
• Jasper to Toronto by VIA Rail sleeping car (Canadian National tracks)
• Toronto-Montreal-Quebec by Via Rail corridor trains (Canadian National)
• Quebec and Baie St. Paul (Le Massif Train)
• Quebec-Halifax by Via Rail Maritime Service (Canadian National)
  
• Bus (of varying sizes and capabilities, see below)
• Limo Services ("executive cars")
  
• Boats and Ships:
• Vancouver and Victoria (BC Ferry Service)
• Niagara (Maid of the Mist)
• Toronto (harbor and islands cruise)
• Cable car/aerial tramway/gondola, twice!
  

Athabasca Glacier

No light planes, helicopters nor catamarans were used on this trip! Had there been better weather there would have been opportunities for airplane or helicopter rides at several locations.

You'll probably want to have a good map of Canada handy as you follow this re-creation of our journey. We visited all of the Canadian provinces directly bordering the United States -- (from west to east across five time zones) British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia.