We boarded The Canadian at sunrise in the little station on the
outskirts of Edmonton. The main downtown terminal had long ago
morphed into a tower office building.
Seeing both ends of this enormous train gives a picture of how long it is
– nearly half a mile. No wonder Viarail gives us enlarged golf carts
to travel to our carriages.
Passengers gathered in the dining car for a brunch served all
morning long, for we arrive in Jasper mid-day.
And from there, we watched the prairies turn into rolling golden forests,
the setting for the many sapphire coloured lakes.
Then the golden-leafed forests gave way to patchy blankets
of dark green spindly spruce.
Later, in our bullet car at the rear of the 22 car train (almost,
as I have said, half a mile long)...
...we witnessed the remarkable change from autumnal rolling
woods to the foothills of our great Canadian Rockies.
The roadbed takes us through the Fraser river valley and completely
untouched wilderness, populated, one imagines,
by free-roaming happy-go-lucky bear, moose, and other denizens.
Then we entered Jasper National Park beside the Athabasca River,
over 1, 264 Km long, emptying into Lake Athabasca.
We follow the river all the way to Jasper.
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