What I failed to mention in the last post was the classical tune that Donna hummed throughout our walk (to keep the bears away) was playing in the visitor's centre later the same day. The assistant there was watching a video clip of a guy playing the tune on a table of glasses - co-incidence or what. He was very glad to help identify the tune which involved him humming it into his laptop and then searching for the film it was used in. The frustration was over, it was from the opera Carmen but has been used in scores of films including Trainspotting - where Renton needs one last hit! We had one last walk planned at Tumbler Ridge but awoke to low cloud and rain, we gave it a miss and went back to Dawson Creek. Back in Vancouver we took out just 6 months car insurance not knowing if camper life was for us but aware that we could extend our policy at any insurance office in BC. Life in Tilly has been great and we had already decided to extend our policy in Dawson Creek. Even though we had planned to tackle the insurance issue tomorrow morning we tried our luck at finding a broker open on a Sunday and we succeeded. It was actually too soon for us to extend, the earliest we could do this would be early October. By then we would be in the USA trying to escape the harsh Canadian winter. There was only one option left, we would have to cancel our policy, have a refund on the term left, surrender our license plates, take out another policy and buy new plates. Even though you are supposed to hand back both pates the insurance man allowed us to keep one as a souvenir. The rest of the day soon fizzled away buying groceries, fuel & propane. We tried to replace Donna's worn out hiking boots but didn't. We visited Pioneer Village which is a collection of furnished historic buildings, but after being spoilt by Barkerville, Dawson City and Skagway it failed to inspire us. The weather probably didn't help - cold & wet. One last job to do before dinner - colouring Donna's hair. It all went well but the major rinse over our little sink was going to end in disaster. Instead Donna lay flat on her back on our pickups tailboard (in the rain) whilst I poured jugs of warm water over her hair. We received a few strange looks. One night at Dawson Creek and eastwards we went into Alberta. We passed through Grande Cache, there are walkable peaks here but with the treeline being so high we made tracks for Jasper. As we got closer the skyline got higher and snow-capped peaks peeped out of the clouds. Before even arriving at one of Jaspers municipal campgrounds we spotted a black bear, elk and deer. The campground was huge with hundreds of pitches, the queue of campervans at the gate seemed to extend as fast as it diminished. The forecast for the next few days wasn't great. Even though our first day seemed grey and foreboding we tackled Whistler Mountain. Most people take the cable car up which is a 6-minute ride followed by a 0.75 mile walk to the summit, then back to the cable car. We opted for a three and a half hour walk of 5.5 miles and 5000 feet of ascent to reach the summit and then walked all the way back down. Donna was rather annoyed at people making a big deal about reaching the top of the mountain when they had only walked from the upper cable car station! Both our legs and feet ached in the evening but what a great day it was. Day 2 - cold and damp. After struggling to find a parking spot we had a delightful walk in Maligne canyon, lots of pretty waterfalls and sheer cliffs. The heavens opened just as we were nearing our camper. Day 3 - another grey one. Whistle stop visits to several lakes before renting a double kayak on Lake Patricia. It rained on us but it was good to be back out on the water. Every day here we have seen elk or deer, even in the campground. Some of the local trails were closed as there has been too many bear sightings on them recently. The danger in the campground was also bears - in search of elk to eat! We didn't get to see Jasper at it's best but we certainly got a flavour of it. One thing we couldn't understand at first on the Jasper map was 'Red Chairs' - it turns out that these are places with outstanding views (on a good day) and there are red chairs there for you to sit in. We found several red chairs we just didn't find the ideal weather to sit in them!