kinda tricky losing an hour as we skip into Rose country. It puts your planning off just a touch. We didn’t want to arrive too late at the B&B nor did we want to pass up an opportunity to walk the streets of Jasper. Rather smoky for the first couple of hours today but things were bright and clear by the time we reached Grande Prairie. Nearing Grande Cache, we encountered a large generating plant and coal mining operation. The backhoes were excavating right out of the side of the mountain leaving nothing but gravel. From there the road seemed to climb steadily until we reached an altitude of 1450 metres and that was just in the foothills. Saw a similar road construction backhoe carving gravel out of the side of a mountain – had to be perched 300 metres up the mountainside. Traffic was heavy all day and that certainly distracted us from animal watching but the only wildlife we spotted was a single stag elk surrounded by 5 to 10 cars and people mingling all around, as we entered JAsper. Today we didn’t bother to wash the bike – there’s lots of bugs but no construction dust. It was fun to sightsee while walking among the hordes of tourists in Jasper. Tomorrow is a long day and we have a deadline to be in Windermere. The threat of thunderstorms will keep us watching the clock.