Thank you for your kind words! Happy to hear you have already been thru the Rockies and plan on returning, it's a great place. The intentions behind my "booklet posts" is basically me solving my own problem for the next person. I live near by but it's such a vast landscape and every time I try to plan a trip I get bombarded with mostly information to expensive tours but very little about self guided activities, history, or what to expect on trails and the Rockies are so much more than a series of overpriced experiences (some are still cool but others unnecessary). The true wilderness is self guided and that can be overwhelming and causing visitors to miss out on hidden gems.
The wildlife YEEESSS. It is the best area of Jasper for wilderness, the animal tour available actually comes this way, there is also many Grizzly and Elk sightings on this very road but more at the bottom of the mountain.
Yes, I agree the self guided walk in the wood being good for the soul is best when one wants to walk alone. There are sooo many paid adventures there that it is overwhelming to approach and it makes it seem as though it is pay to play or walk, which is not the case. A simple trail map will enable the wandered to find millions worth of experience on a sheet of paper. I used to camp out by the river years ago off a road around a bend...not sure if that is still 'allowed'. perhaps it is best to let the tourists pay and leave the trails empty for those who do some searching and find the free beauty that they bring one to. Happy trails, thanks for posting a good reference for next time I am by that way. Regards.
Reality is, most tourist will continue to do the convenient touring laid out in front of them regardless of costs associated, it's pretty expensive to vacation here already. Those that truly want the "western Canada backcountry experience" as you mentioned can without feeling as lost so I don't think it would drag that much more traffic on the trail then what is currently, just maybe better prepared. Lots of people get lost and injured or dead in the backcountry by not knowing what to expect and being ill prepared.
Prepared is key. It is surprising how often i hear of people needing rescue because they did not think too much about where they were going. It is also funny to see people walking up to wildlife on the road and getting charged by the animal or the COs for doing so. Perhaps as your book post grows tourists will read it and learn. Or you could sell it to them for a few buck like a zine at the local shops.
Exactly, and rescues out there are not easy. Since every time something happens in the rockies we hear it on the news and there are some pretty tragic things and yes often comes down with lack of preparedness and underestimating the hazards. It's popular but it's still the wilderness and unforgiving.
I have thought of one day maybe publishing trail guide books based on my stories here of the different parks in the future when I have enough knowledge and material for each location, there is so much to explore! I do want to sell some swag in the shops, I already talked to them and they would accept it but I have to bring a finished product to them. I didn't put much effort towards that yet tho since I'm pretty shy about my work still.
The walking up to the wildlife burns me especially when they do it in crowds, I hate it, it really stresses them out along with being extremely dangerous, there has been some attacks. Sometimes the animals walk up voluntarily out of curiosity in my experience and running away is the absolute wrong thing to do, there is different scenarios with animal encounters but knowledge is power and respecting safe distances established by the parks should be a must when one can help it.
Many people think that walking in the mountains is easy as seen on the Tell-a-Vision. I hope your work can help save some lives and keep the rescue workers warm by the fire. I suppose your shyness makes you do a really good job of gathering the necessary information together. That is good to hear they shops are already accepting of work that should produce. It will help all involved. there are very good self publishing option these days and registering an ISBN is quite cheep.
There are too many videos of people disturbing the wildlife, when there is an attack it seems justified by the animal and not the human who provoked it. Perhaps that could be an entire chapter or two in your book about respecting animal space. 2 meters maybe, hahaha.
I hope to see your book some day. :-)
Thanks for your efforts to educate and inform people of the risks, that can be mitigated.
Yeah, they make it look easy on tv but people forget these are pros with the best teams gathering intel beforehand, it's not all just happy go lucky. It breaks my heart every time I hear on the news that a traveler will not make their way home because of an accident, getting lost out there is no joke, in the winter you have lots of slippery ice sometimes hidden under snow, avalanches too, lots to look out for. I should do some research and find out the stats of death and injuries and do a report and suggestions to mitigate. Thanks for the idea 😁
Combining my observations with what I have seen from other cultures here on hive I noticed what the issue is and it has a lot to do with cultural differences where the demographic that does really unsafe things here are offered similar experiences where they can approach and feed the wildlife or can do dumb things because they are in a controlled environment in their home country and they associate and assume it's as safe to do here, it's more like you're responsible for your own safety.
For example, surrounding a deer. Mainly Asians do that but they have a national park where the deer come to them for food so it is seen as a safe experience for them, except it's unacceptable and dangerous here, just like I would probably be freaked out getting chassed by a bunch of deer if I went to a park China. With language barriers added to that not speaking english adds even more difficulties. That is my hopes by communicating safety a little at a time in an interesting way in each post.
I have done some of those posts about animal space, I mention it regularly especially when I post about the Bison in a different park. I didn't mention it this time but I don't even exit the vehicle, I get out the sunroof like a Great White North Safari and I have a 300 mm lens and a good camera. I don't think the animals get in trouble for charging because the park is aware of the provocative human behavior.
The bigger problem is people leave food rubbish that attracts bears and wolves to campgrounds and then they have to euthanize the animal because they CANNOT associate humans with food and they return once they know they can get food and turn aggressive when they don't get any.
Thanks for your words of support, I will certainly announce it on Hive first when I do decide to print the books!
You are so right it take a lot to plan and not much to get hurt or buried or worse out in the beauty of the Western Canadian Mountains.
I have notice the same in other cultures from all around the world. People think that all of Canada is nice and easy and approach it the same way, with the mindsets of there home land. I have had people from the Alps want to go and run out into the woods without checking or knowing where they go because back home there are paths and people and cell coverage everywhere. They don't get the vast unpopulated wilderness and scope to which they walk into. I like there enthusiasm but caution them about just going and running into what could be a fatal mistake. Some people like to learn the painful way. Too bad it is at the cost of our country people that pay the price for others ignorance.
Yes many COs know it is the humans fault 99.999% of the time. The real animals are the humans who decide that throwing trash every where and feeding majestic animals junk food is appropriate. Sad to see how dirty those human animals can be. As an example we shall set the tone.
I read commitment to making that book a reality in your last sentence, hooray. Let me know if I can be of service to such matters.