National Park After Dark - Two for One Special: Banff & Jasper National Park

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Do you really think we could visit Banff and Jasper and NOT come back with some stories to share? Today we are switching it up to bring you two tales we were introduced to on our travels to the park. Get to know Grizzly 122 aka The Boss and learn about Operation Habbakuk - an idea so crazy, it may just have worked - a prototype aircraft carrier for use against German U-boats made out of ... ice?For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Miracle Made: Use our link and code NPAD to save over 40% and get 3 free towels.Care/Of: Use code npad50 to get 50% off your first order.  BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your subscription.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hey everyone, no intro today. Yeah, it's kind of like a really, I feel aggressive about this.

And hi. There's the little music that they'll hear though. So it's not just our voices, stark. Yeah, that's true. I'm just out of the groove and it feels weird. But yeah, we have a completely different type of episode for everyone today. So hi, welcome to National Park After Dark. Danielle and I decided to do a collab episode today.

So we're both going to tell you some stories. We were inspired. We were. A little too much, actually. Yeah. We just got back from our Banff trip where we went to Banff, Yoho, Jasper. And it was our group trip. It was our NPAD group trip. And we had just such a wonderful time. And one of the days we had off in the town, we like to run around and look for books that are for the national parks or the surrounding areas. And lo and behold, we went home with like four books and decided, well, we have these stories. let's do a combination episode and tell a couple of them that we found. Yeah. And we had to, we limited ourselves.

Let me just put in that a little tidbit. Like we had to put books back on the shelf because we physically couldn't carry them back in our carry-ons. Like we're about to make a Canada podcast. Yeah, like this. And also who is going to want to hear like 10 BAMP stories or Jasper Yoho, National Park stories in a row? So we had to be a little bit selective.

So there are more stories coming at some point when I have no idea. But they'll be sitting on our bookshelf for when we're feeling inspired again to talk about these parts. Yeah. So we have two different stories. One of them actually wasn't in any of the books that I got. We were actually verbally told this story by one of our guides. Yeah. And we got T-shirts to commemorate this mascot.

Is that a good term for it? The mascot of Bamp, the violent and... I don't know. Aggressive and massive mascot of Banff National Park? Yeah, we're getting ahead of the king. The king. Well, tell them about the king. Okay, okay. Yeah, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Yeah, so the story I am going to cover is located within Banff National Park, and Cassie's going to take us somewhere else. So we'll share more about our trip throughout the episode, but let's just get going with mine because when I first heard about this story, I was immediately intrigued. not a super long one. Again, another reason why we decided to kind of double up and do a collaboration for this episode, but I'll introduce everyone to Banff National Park as we do. Located in Alberta, 78 miles or 127 kilometers west of Calgary and established in 1885,

Bamp is Canada's first national park and widely considered the flagship of the nation's national park system. In 1883, three railway workers were working on the slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains when they, quote unquote, discovered a cluster of natural hot springs. This led to disagreements over the ownership of the springs, which eventually led the Canadian government into declaring a 26 square kilometer or 10 square mile area around the springs as a natural reserve. And over the years, it was extended and given its present name. Of course, we all know, I mean, it kind of goes without saying, but we have to say it. and highlight it that these three railway workers didn't truly discover anything new at all.

No. For thousands of years, many different groups of indigenous peoples regarded and still regard the area as a very special and sacred place. They came here to gather food, medicine, and visit the various peaks and hot springs for healing. According to Don Saunders-Dahl, the Indigenous Relationships and Programs Manager at Bamps White Museum, says it's really important to know that Banff and the Bow Valley was used and regularly visited by the Ahay, Nakota Nations, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Dene, and Mountain Cree. Respecting, honoring, and remembering that as visitors to Banff and other surrounding parks, that we are on native lands is a very important fact to keep in mind.

And from our experience there recently, Parks Canada, who, similarly to the U.S. National Park system has a pretty shaky and questionable at best past with First Nations people. They're really making an effort to keep that at the forefront of the minds of visitors. I mean, just based on my own personal experience, paying attention to the signage and different things throughout visitor centers and on the trails and throughout the park, there's a lot of First Nations history and language kind of braided into a lot of. Yeah, they have the names for everything, the indigenous names for everything. They've changed a lot of things.

There's a lot of signs that will blatantly say, this is indigenous country here. And they teach you of how the indigenous people were the first ones to show people how to even navigate through the Canadian Rockies. And there's a lot of information. They were really good about it. And it's cool to see. And it sounds like they're really trying to integrate making sure that indigenous people have a say over the land. Yeah, it was a really cool, like obviously the U.S. Park System has, the U.S. National Park system has their own ways of doing similar things.

But just as like an observer, visiting a different country and how they're handling it was something that I was trying to pay attention to. And I really noticed at least. And visitors to Banff are coming in record numbers. Summer of 2023 was its busiest on record with nearly four million people, all vying. to catch glimpses of the emerald and turquoise waters, glaciated peaks, and divers wildlife. Of course, there is more to the park than just good photo ops, though.

Rafters, climbers, and hikers all flock here. Because of the snow and increased risk of avalanche hazards, prime hiking season runs primarily through roughly July to September, and with over 1,600 kilometers or about 1,000 miles of maintained trails that we've throughout the park, the opportunities are pretty endless for recreation. And if you ever been here or ever plan on going,

you'll probably get very familiar with the Bow Valley Parkway, which is the main travel lane throughout the park. It's a 48 kilometer or 29-mile scenic winding route that travels between Banff and Lake Louise that has scenic pull-offs and offers sweeping views of the Rockies. Like, there is not a bad seat in the house, no matter where you are on this parkway.

Like, it's amazing. And Bow Valley is considered one of the most beautiful drives in the world, right? That's the ice line. Or not the ice line. That's the iceline trail we were on. I wrote about it. Icefield Parkway? Is that what you're referencing when we went to from Banff to Jasper? I just know it's a parkway. Yeah. Yeah, the road between Banff and Jasper and Yoho is considered some of the prettiest drives in the world. Yeah, I think that's the Icefield Parkway. And we'll all find out when I get to it in my notes eventually. Oh, it's on here. Okay. I'm jumping. Ed.

Yeah. So this roadway, the Bow Valley Parkway, is popular not only for vehicular travel, but also for road cyclists, which I also notice. I'm like, God, there are so many people on bikes here right now. Yeah, for sure. The National Park even launched a pilot program to support cyclists in the park. So from 2022 to 2024, Parks Canada is restricting vehicle use along the 17 kilometer eastern section of this parkway in the spring.

and in the fall in an effort to provide an improved cycling experience. So they're closing it to vehicles and just allowing people on bikes to enjoy it, which is interesting. And I'm curious to see the results because obviously it's going to go for another year. And speaking of travel restrictions, from March 1st to June 25th, another 17 kilometer eastern section of the parkway is closed as the area serves a small yet vital part of the park for its animal residence. That portion of the road travels through this vital ecosystem called the Montaigne that provides critical habitat to the area's large carnivores, including wolves, bears, and cougars. Per the Parks Canada website, quote, Protecting Wildlife is the foundation of a great visitor experience and sustainable future for Banff National Park. This mandatory travel restriction will allow sensitive wildlife to move unimpeded across the landscape, use high-quality habitat, and engage in normal behavior.

It is part of a larger action plan to ensure the ecologically and culturally rich Bow Valley Parkway area continues as a world-class setting for visitors to learn about and experience the park and as a safe and secure environment for wildlife. So that's just amazing. Beautiful. I really, and this might be coming from a place of not being informed enough and correct me if I'm wrong. but I don't know of any national park in the U.S. doing that. Like, can you imagine in Yellowstone like, hey, this main roadway through the park that everyone travels is actually going to be closed this big section of it because wildlife needs to be able to move across it safely.

I would love if Yellowstone did that. You know what I mean? And I'm just picking on Yellowstone because it's a big name park. It could be any park. But it's just something that's so thoughtful to obviously wildlife. one of the main reasons that people visit the park in the first place is to see wildlife and to make sure that they're protected and supported in any way that the park can, I think is a really, it was just really cool to read that. And of course, when we were there, all the wildlife

crossings, like the bridges, wildlife bridges that we saw. Yeah, they have a lot of them over the highway so the animals can cross safely across the road without having to walk in the road. Canada's great. I love Canada. Every time I go to Canada, I'm just like, you know, I could live here. Canada's great. Yeah, it was really awesome. And it's, I feel like we feel so similar to Canada because we share a lot of, I mean, obviously we're on the same landmass. A lot of our culture is the same, but at the same time, we're so different and things are handled a lot differently there. And it's really apparent in times like this when you see stark contrasts. For sure. And it's from this road, the Bow Valley Parkway, that if you're fortunate, and I mean very, very fortunate. And I mean, very

fortunate that you may just catch a glimpse of the boss. The boss. I'm so excited to talk about him. The people who were on our trip, our Canada trip, are all probably smiling ear to ear right now because he was kind of a running theme towards the end of our trip once word spread about him and his story. And I was like, God, yeah, I'm going to cover him. So we all took a photo and a shirt of the boss. Yeah. So just for some context, we had two guides and we kind of like, because our group, was big and there were some activities that we had to split up into two groups and one day Cassie's off with one of the guides comes back meets up with me and she's like hey my guy just told me a story that I think you'll be really interested in and she shared just kind of like the basic

information that she was told about the boss and it became like like wildfire just spread throughout the whole group we're all like oh my god the boss and it kind of like you know when you're about to get a new car and all of a sudden you see those cars everywhere you know like You never would have noticed them. It was kind of like that. Like we've all learned about the boss. For memorabilia in the gift shop. Yeah.

And then all of a sudden we see the boss on everything, T-shirt, shot glasses, hats, scarves, like whatever. So it is my pleasure to introduce the world to the boss, a.k.a. bear number 122, aka the most badass bear in Banff. He sure is. So if you are familiar with Banff National Park, have spent any time there.

I mean, his picture is everywhere in all the wildlife photography. You bought a photo of him. I do. Look it. I have him right here. I'll post a picture of him, obviously, but here he is. Yeah. Look at that big chunky boy.

Yeah. He is de Bois. He's massive. He's the boss. So a little bit of background on the boss and a little bit of his story. based on a dental examination from 2013 when he was last handled, so 10 years ago now, it is believed he is now roughly around 23 years old and going strong. The boss is Banff National Park's most dominant male grizzly bear, and for a very good reason.

Residing in the Bow Valley, he has been the biggest and toughest bear for years. For starters, of course, his age, while grizzlies can reach over 30 in captivity, the typical lifespan for a wild grizzly, especially males, averages from 15 to 20. So he's an old king we have going on here. He's 23 and still the baddest. Like no signs of slowing down. He's also a big king.

Now, grizzlies and Banff are going to be smaller on average than brown bears saying coastal Alaska. And they'll come in at around 500 pounds for males. And of course, weights are variable. Some are smaller, some are bigger. The boss, however, is the heavyweight champ coming in between 650 to 700 pounds. He is chunky.

He thick. He is thick. And while grizzlies in this area rely heavily on mostly vegetation, carrion, and insects, they will kill larger prey when given the opportunity, including things like elk and deer. However, the boss has an addition to his resume that takes a lot of people aback when they hear about it. In 2013, the Sundance Canyon Trail had to be a job. be shut down after the boss was spotted feeding on a black bear. Full grown black bear. Oh my god.

He eats other bears for breakfast. That's right. And it's pretty gruesome and not totally a common behavior, but it isn't entirely unheard of. And ironically enough, as I was getting ready to put this episode together, a video on Nature's Metal, the Instagram that we talk about a lot, popped up of this exact behavior. I mean, it wasn't the boss. It wasn't the boss. feeding on a black bear, but it was a grizzly consuming a black bear. And solely because tooth and claw had Rick, who is the founder of Nature's Metal on their show, they did an interview with him. I trust the validity of the information of Nature's Metal posts. I mean, if it's endorsed by Wes, like, I got to, I got to give him props. So I'll share what they had to say about this behavior

on that post. So it said under that video, which is obviously still up and you can watch if you're so inclined, I guess. It says, quote, such interactions are most commonly observed in areas where brown and black bear habitats overlap. Brown bears are generally larger and more aggressive compared to black bears, giving them a physical advantage in any confrontations between the two species. This behavior is typically driven by competition for resources, territorial disputes, or even predatory intent. Brown bears can be highly territorial and may kill black bears to eliminate competition

or as a source of food, especially if other food resources are scarce. These interactions are not extremely common and are more likely to occur under specific environmental conditions, such as during wildfires, which displaces animals and exacerbates competition for already limited resources.

So it's not clear as far as my research, what I found regarding the bomb. in this, the particular incident incident on the Sundance Canyon Trail. I have no idea. I'm guessing it was probably a territorial thing because he clearly is not hungry. He's not going hungry. You know, he's a big guy. Or maybe he's so big that he has to eat black bears to keep up his weight. Yeah, maybe. Who knows? It's the only thing that will keep him fat enough to remain king. Black bears are the key to living forever. Don't say that because now people are going to want black There's something in their blood.

He's like, he's 23 years old and he's like to stay young. I drink the blood black bears under a midnight moon. Full moon. Well, speaking of being territorial, the boss pretty much rules his kingdom in more ways than one. And I'm just like laughing throughout this whole thing because it's just like he's so, it's just funny. I mean, it's just funny the way in which he has this death grip on PAMF. So there are roughly 65 grizzlies in Banff National Park,

and the boss's personal territorial range varies through his 2,500 square kilometer or 965 square mile home range through not only Banff, but also Yoho and Kootenai National Parks as well. And when not in his winter slumber, he patrols this entire area for food and resources, with one of his favorite spots being along the train tracks. Not only is utilizing these transportation corridors easy, it's incredibly smart. He feasts on animals who had been struck and killed while on the tracks.

So he's scavenging carrion, like works smarter, not harder. You know what I mean? Like they're already dead and just waiting to be consumed. And he is also eating spilled food sources from the trains themselves. So, for example, in March of 2019, one of Canadian Pacific Railways freight trains derailed. It was a huge mess. It sent like 10 loaded grain cars off the tracks, spilled grain everywhere.

It was a huge thing. And Parks Canada was immediately, obviously concerned for the safety of everyone, it was okay. But also for the cleanup, because they knew immediately it was going to be a big attractant to bears coming out of their hibernation. And especially the boss. So seven years earlier,

he served as an important learning tool when researchers collared and tracked him in an effort to find out why so many of the animals in Banff are killed by trains every year, because they knew that he frequented this area, so they were using him as a research tool. And the five-year-long project,

sponsored in part by Parks Canada, had a goal to monitor and analyze his movements in hopes to prevent grizzly bears from being killed by trains, the number one killer of wildlife in the park. And within the first week of the study, they realized that the boss was using the railway to for spilled grain product, but also to access an area where the town of Bamp was using for curing their compost.

That happened to be by the train tracks as well. Very smart. They even spotted him, like, caught in the act, chowing down on steakbones and corn cobs. So he's like, this is really good, thanks. He's like, thank you for literally laying this out for me. Yeah. This is a big uh-oh moment for researchers. Former town manager Robert Earl said the research project underlines the town's dedication

to maintaining the human wildlife balance. And researchers hope to gather information from this study that would eventually lead to better options to keep the bears away from the trains, like either fencing or in early warning systems of some kind. The tracks are a really dangerous place, and the boss got a taste of that for himself. A couple years later, after the study,

when he was hit by a train, and literally just walked away. It's like, and the train was destroyed. The train blew into smithereens. The train no longer exists. So he was fine after that train incident. And it's just also interesting because not only was he not killed, it doesn't appear that he had any long-lasting injuries that have inhibited him in any way.

He's like bruised for a couple days. And he's like, God, that was annoying. Yeah, he's like, oh, that hurt a little bit. Yeah. So I just thought it was interesting because usually, you know, we hear a lot of stories about animals. that end up predating on either people or pets or going after easier meals because of previous injuries and what that has done to their health and maybe inhibited certain ways that they hunt or can get food.

So I just thought it was interesting that he hasn't shown any signs of that at all. Yeah. Another part of patrolling territory also involves missions to find potential mates. Bears head into the breeding season around late May through June. sometimes extending into July, and let me tell you, the boss has been a busy man. According to David Laskin, a Parks Canada Wildlife Coexistence Specialist in the Lake Louise Yoho and Cootene Field Unit, he says, quote, we have some DNA results that show the boss has sired the majority of cubs in our Bow Valley Bamp population. And that majority, may you ask,

is roughly 70%. So not only does he rain over Benp? Banff National Park, but he is also the only male that mates with any of the females, basically, in the park. If he was on Mori, he would be the father in 70%. 70% chance you are the father. So this is no easy feat, because while he may be the biggest, baddest bear for now, no one's reign lasts forever. And he has plenty of healthy competition.

For example, his rival. Bear number 136, aka Splitlip. Oh, how do you get that name? Nicknamed for his disfigured mouth, split lip is another dominant black bear eating, grizzly cub consuming male grizzly in the park, who is often in direct competition with the boss for territory and of course for breeding rights. And while fights amongst bears often leave the contenders bloody and scarred, they tend to not cause serious, long-lasting injuries despite their physical prowess.

So it looks pretty gnarly when they're fighting. When you see videos, especially of Grizzlies fighting, you're like, someone's going to die. Like, you have to, like, how can you walk away from that? But they're both pretty evenly matched a lot of times when they're competing directly for territory and breeding rights. So most of the time, they walk away. So just for an example regarding their, like, physical adaptations that make things pretty rough looking. Of course, their sheer size and just weight, of course, 500 to 700 pounds of mass

hurling at each other is a lot. They also have an extremely impressive bite force. So they come in at around 1,100 PSI regarding their jaw force, which, just to put into context, can crush a bowling ball. They have four inch long claws, all of which they can just hurl out each other at 35 miles an hour. Stop. That's why you don't want to be attacked by a grizzly because they're going to swat you at 35 miles per hour. Running at you. Yeah, at 35 miles an hour. And it's like that's why when you list even just the smallest of like bullet point facts about grizzlies, when people are like, I don't know, I feel like I could, I could take a bear maybe. You know what I mean? What was that comment we got one time? Have you seen that? It was like, I feel like I could just push

them off balance. Like, what? Have you seen someone emailed us and they're like, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I could just like push one off balance. And it reminds me of, have you seen those videos? They're so funny. And they're all animal-based videos and it's this guy. And he's like, all right, choose an animal you want to be attacked by.

And it's like a moose, a grizzly, a black bear. And he's like, all right, grizzly. And he's like, what I would do is I would run. under the grizzly, I would pick it up, throw it up, spin it, throw it down, crush its neck, stab it in the eyes. It goes through like all these like wrestling moves pretty much that they would do on these animals that obviously would not work, but they even have like a little photo image of them doing it at the same time that they plastered together. Have you know where I've seen that? Where? Jeff has posted that from tooth and call. That makes sense. I'm pretty sure he is

posted those. Or like, I'm going to say that he just posted those before, like, on his story, because I have, I know what you're talking about. They're so funny. I saw one yesterday and I just thought it was so funny. Well, now they're in your algorithm. Yeah, I hope so. You're doomed. They're going to be there for months. Okay, so back to the boss. In 2020, Canmore-based photographer John E. Marriott captured what he refers to as the Battle of the Titans, in which split lip and the boss fought for dominance in an epic showdown that zipped through meadows and spilled right onto the Bow Valley Parkway where the boss chased splitlip for miles right along the side of the road. Like what an epic thing to catch.

I mean, it's for anyone who was right on the road. Like they were literally just battling and chasing each other for miles down the pavement. That would be wild to witness. Yeah. Yeah. And despite his reputation for being the biggest, bossiest, most best, badass predator in the park. He has grown accustomed to living in close proximity to humans and has never shown signs of aggression towards people at all. He has managed to strike the perfect balance

of occupying habitats around people while avoiding conflict with people, which has created this perfect scenario where he is both well-loved as a bear and as a legend. And that is the boss's story as it stands now, he is definitely a fixture now for us. And every time we think of, Bamp National Park will think of the boss, I went to one of the wildlife, wildlife photography studios that are in downtown Bamp. There's several that we all walked into that have beautiful photos. And I got, I mean, there's a whole display of the boss and his story and obviously the beautiful photos that this particular photographer has captured of him. And I got one of the boss and I got one of one of the alpha female wolves in the Bow Valley area.

And yeah, so I'll have a picture of the boss hanging in my office now from now on. And I will post a picture of Cassie, myself. And I think like there were seven or eight other people in our group that all bought the boss shirts. And we forced everyone to take a group photo wearing them. Yeah, it was fun. So we will post that with this episode too because that was fun. And yeah, so that's the story about the boss in Banff. And Cassie has a completely different story and it completely like the hardest left turn that you can take, I think.

Yeah, not related to the boss or animals or anything at all. And we're going to Jasper. Yes. National Park. A neighboring park. Yes. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So I'm going to do the intro to the park as well. And you obviously can't go to Banff without going to.

Jasper. I mean, you can, but you would. I've done it before, but I regretted it and I was sad. I sadly only went to Banff. Not, I shouldn't say sadly because Banff is amazing, but I had wished I had gone to Jasper and now I've been. Yeah, you've checked it off and Jasper National Park is about a three hour drive from Banff National Park. And if for whatever reason, you think that is just too long of a stretch, you don't want to do it, you don't want to make the drive. Don't worry because this is where you'll be on. on one of the most scenic, iconic roads in the entire world. And it is named Highway 93, but better known as the Icefields Parkway. It's one of the planet's most spectacular drives that links these two parks together. Along the drive, you'll have continuous views of mountain peaks, turquoise lakes, and over 100 different glaciers. And the destination of Jasper is just as breathtaking as the drive. I mean, I know they're all different parks,

But they all do kind of like bleed into one another because it's just a continuous sweep of beauty. It's not like you're in the park, it's beautiful, you get on the highway, you're going through nothing, and then you're at another park. It's just a continuous jaw-dropping swath of land. Jasper National Park is the world's second largest dark sky preserve and the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies. It was first protected in 1907 and officially became a park in 1930. The park is known for its abundant wildlife and extensive trail network reaching over 600 miles. One of its crown jewels, however, is the Columbia Icefield, the largest ice field in North America's Rocky Mountains, which formed over 10,000 years ago, from which eight major glaciers are fed that drain into three different oceans,

which we visited. We didn't visit the ice field, but we did do the Athabasca glacier as a group during our trip, which was really cool. Many of the backcountry trails were established first by wildlife than by early travelers including First Nations people, fur traders, explorers, and adventures, and that rich cultural human history within the park that is ready to be learned throughout your visit through different various interpretive signs and museums kind of like we touched upon earlier in the episode.

But there is probably one story that you won't ever read on trail sign, but don't you worry. Cassie stumbled. across it at a local bookstore. Actually, it was not a bookstore. It was not a bookstore. It was like a general store, thrift store. It was like an antique thrifty. They made funny t-shirts and they just had like an assortment of random stuff. And one of the random things that they had is they had just a rack of what you would normally put, I feel like, birthday cards on. And instead they put a bunch of books on it. and I came across this book there.

And Cassie read the back and kind of gave it to me and laughed. And I read it. And I was like, wait a second. Is this even real? At first I thought it was a fictional story, like a made-up novel of some kind. We were like, this can't be real. And she Googled it. And lo and behold, it was real.

And she's like, you're coming home with me. And we're doing this story. So take it away. I am so eager to learn what you discovered past just the synopsis of the back of that book and it's been killing me. The book, it's just for everyone to know what book we're talking about. It is named Codame Habakkuk, a secret ship made of ice. And this is the story of how a war ship was created out of ice. Yes, that's what I mean is ice inside of Jasper National Park in order to fight off the German Nazi U-boats that were sinking ships during.

World War II. So this was a whole war effort where they decided that it was a good idea to create a ship out of ice. I'm so ready. It's really, I've refrained from looking up more after just learning the initial little bit. You're like, no, no, I'm going to, I'm going to do it. And at first we're like, is it enough for like an actual full story? And you're like, oh, is it enough? Let me tell you, is it enough? I had to condense this down for this. But I will say if you want to know more about it. Read this book. It's very in depth with like a lot of technical things and specifications of the boat and things, which I won't get into all the numbers and stuff, because it'll just get confusing. But it is a, it's a true story. Lo and behold, the world did

decide that a boat made out of ice to fight in the war was a good idea. And they had an entire project on it. So it's very interesting and a little comical. And now while the story of constructing a warship made out of ice on a picturesque lake in the Canadian Rockies of Jasper National Park does sound very comical and it is the story behind why they were creating it is anything but. The project began in the 1940s at the height of the war against Hitler and the German Nazi army who would later be attributed to the mass genocide of six million Jewish people and others inside their concentration camps, including members of the LGBT communities, people with disabilities, or people deemed enemies of the Nazi regime.

These numbers include women and children. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hitler promoted a quote-unquote superior race and wanted Europe to create a also, quote-unquote, racially pure state. And in this, he deemed Jewish people as inferior and a threat to the community and part of creating a superior race also meant killing people within the LGBTQ community, murdering men, women, and children with disabilities, and a lot of other atrocious acts, including extreme and dangerous medical practices on some of the people of these groups. While the history of World War II and Nazi Germany is an extensive one,

and I could go into it forever because I have read so many books about it. I think it's a really interesting and devastating period in the world's history. I'm not here to dive into that story today. But in a very short synopsis, in Hitler's reign, they began invading neighboring countries and forced Jewish people around Europe into concentration camps, where obviously later we find out they had killed six million people, but this eventually resulted in World War II. In the largest continuous military strategy in order to defeat the Nazis, the best of Battle of the Atlantic took the war to the ocean. A major part of this battle was known as the

blockade of Germany, where the British Empire in France were stopping food, fuel, and textile supplies from reaching the Germans. And it went both ways. The Germans were also trying to stop the British from getting supplies as well. The British Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill, was in command of many of these missions against the Germans. However, despite their best efforts, the Germans were sinking allied military ships and were essentially winning the Battle of the Atlantic. In one of these attacks, on October 18th, 1940, 6 of the German U-boats, which were their warships, attacked and sunk 15 of their Allied ships in six hours. The next day, they brought in more of their U-boats and sunk 12 more vessels and then another 49 ships.

And one thing that I read and I didn't read super deeply into it, but it said there were almost 30,000 casualties. Wow. By the winter of 1942, German U-boats had sunk more than 600 of the opposing ships. And Winston Churchill became desperate in finding new ideas to defeat the Germans in the Atlantic, as they were coming dangerously close to losing and thousands of their allies were dying. A major ally in the war efforts were the Canadians, as they offered to ship supplies to help the British fight the war, but now they were the target of Germans sinking their ships.

So they had a big hand in this as well. In October of 1941, desperate and needing new eyes on this project, Winston Churchill appointed a man named Lord Louis Mountbatten. Imagine being addressed as Lord. All it reminds me of. Call me Lord. Well, I said all. But the first thing it reminds me of is Lord Dissick with the Kardashians, like when we were in high school.

Like that era of the Kardashians when Scott Dissick, like they called them the Lord. I didn't know that was the thing. That doesn't surprise me, though. It was just like, I don't know. You had some like weird fascination with being, what is it, knighted or? I don't know. It's a buried memory. Call me Lord Farquad.

The Lord. The Lord. Well, Lord Lewis was appointed Chief of Combined Operations, which was an organization responsible for the development of tactile equipment to help win the war. And he was this handsome, charming, and wealthy man. He was bold and he was very willing to explore ideas of new inventions and strategies in the war. And he also had gotten a history for not actually making the best decisions. He was attributed to the cause of why some of the ships were able to be seen. sunk. So he had something to kind of lose here. He already had a bad reputation and he was like,

I need something. I need an innovative idea to win this war that's going to take back my name and get me associated with making good decisions, basically. He wanted redemption. Yeah, exactly. So shortly after he was appointed the job, he visited the University of Cambridge, which is in England, to find innovators and ideas that may be helpful in the war effort. And it was there. He met a man from London. Jeffrey Nathan Joseph Pike, which I don't know why he has so many names. Nathan Joseph Pike. Wait, what is it? Four? Is that four? Jeffrey Nathaniel Joseph Pike. Yeah, that's... Call me Lord Jeffrey, Lord Nathaniel, Lord Joseph, Lord Pike. Lord Farkwood.

He was a very unconventional man, and he had a lot of unconventional and bizarre ideas, but he also had a very intriguing past. And all of the... this sparked Lewis's interest. Jeffrey had these outrageous ideas and they were very creative and got people's minds really thinking, but he was also known to create ideas without any direction or knowledge on how to execute his plans. So basically he'd be like, hey, I think this would be really a good idea. No idea how to do it. That's not my job. I have the vision. Not my job. Yeah, I'm the visionary here. You can figure out the rest. But what made Jeffrey so interesting was he was an escaped prisoner of war from the First World War.

He had been a journalist and educator, and when the first war broke out, he left his studies in school to become a war correspondent. He somehow convinced London's Daily Chronicle to allow him to be a spy and gain inside knowledge within the city of Berlin, despite no training or education to do so. He didn't do well, though, and after only six days, the German authorities arrested him and put him in his. in solitary confinement for 13 weeks. Okay, so not off to a promising. Not off to a great start. Yeah. Like six days.

He must have been really sketchy, though. Yeah. I just imagined him at like a coffee shop and be like, so, what do you think of the war? If I'm not a spy or anything, but if I was. The first thing is, I have four names. You know, that's already a weird thing. Oh, and he didn't speak German either. He just spoke very small bits and pieces of German.

and he got an American passport. So there was just a lot of weird stuff going on. So they basically are like, you're stupid and we're putting you in solitary confinement. It's just, I can't make the shit up. After his 13 weeks were up, he was transferred to an internment camp, which he eventually later escaped after climbing over the fence in the middle of the night. So he had actually watched and studied the prison walls. and he noticed that there was a certain point inside the internment camp where the security lights never shone on for a certain period of time every night where the security guards couldn't see. Or actually it was during the day, I think.

And so what he did is he went in there. He hid in the shed. And then at night, when you couldn't see anything, he waited all day inside the shed. He climbed up out of it, climbed over the fence, and escaped. And he was found just over the border in neutral territory and just that. narrowly escaped. Well, you got to give him credit for that. That's smart. Yeah. And he was. He was a very smart person in some aspects. Some people considered him a genius, but it was very weird. There was a lot of weird stuff going on. His ideas were creative and innovative, but also not thorough. And I'll get

more into that. So when the second World War broke out, Jeffrey had more ideas to gain inside intelligence. He came up with the idea of finding out what ordinary Germans thought of the Nazi regime by sending people into the country posing as professional golfers at an international tour in Frankfurt. So basically he gets out, the Second World War breaks out and he's like, hey, I don't want to go in and be a spy again, but I have this really good idea. I have a lot of experience here. And he says, let's put some professional golfers at the golf tournament and we'll just have them have conversations with other golfers. And it did work briefly at the beginning and they did get some intelligence off of the ideas because they did approve it.

But shortly after warnings came through that there were very high suspicions of the golfers and there was talk of them being arrested. So they were pulled out, brought back to England and the entire project was dropped. For some examples of his other wild ideas, in one of them, he decided in the war he wanted to bomb the defenses around oil fields in Romania that were fueling German machinery. He suggested, this is, it's just so funny. It's outrageous. So he suggested that they aerial bomb the oil wells, and then they would have their British soldiers dressed up as fake firefighters,

come in riding on a quote unquote fire truck and pretend to extinguish the fires. But instead, their fire hoses, instead of them shooting out water, it would actually shoot out explosives like grenades. Okay. And they would continue blowing everything up. Okay, so then what? like what happens when people are like, hey, you're actually making this worse? The whole thing was just to blow it up or there was, it's not thought through it. And also, hoses are not invented to shoot out grenades. So that's a whole other aspect. This is just like a lot

of admin that he was not wanting to deal with. He's like, here's the end vision and you can fill in the blanks of how it's going to logistically unfold. But this is what I want it to be in the final version here. So like, just make it happen. Yeah. It just reminds. me when you're a little kid and you're coming out with outrageous ideas and you're like, I'm going to swing from the branches up at the top of the trees and client, you know, like you just come up with these wild ideas and there's no like physical way to actually do these things. But you have the vision. It just kind of reminds me of that. But with grenades. But with grenades. A little more violent. And with this also, he had several ideas surrounding this oil field and getting basically control over it so they

couldn't support the German military. So his other idea would be to send in cute dogs with alcohol tied around their necks as like little gifts and the guards would then drink all the alcohol, become intoxicated and then the British soldiers could move in. Again, flaws.

I mean, like, I get the vision. I would also love to be approached by a cute dog with little nips around his neck and then I can just drink and have a good time. But like, wouldn't you think that the soldiers or guards would be suspicious of random dogs coming in with gifts of alcohol? Yeah. And are they allowed to drink on duty?

You know, there's just so many things. Like, why would you think that that would impair everyone enough? Or it would even have, there's so many what ifs in that scenario that you cannot rely on that. Yeah, it's not like everyone is guaranteed to get hammered. It's not guaranteed that they're even like, what if they just like looked at the dogs? I just imagine like them hiding in the bush and's like, oh, this is going to work. I, this is going to work. And then they just watch as the dog's approach and the guards just like shoe them away and then nothing happens and then they're like fuck and then they're just like stuck there well another idea that they had that he had was instead of sending dogs in they could send women into the soldiers to distract the oil guards before the

British soldiers ambushed them all right that has a little more merit I think to it I guess but where are you going to find women who want to go into a place that's about to be a battle field. And again, so many what-ifs. Yeah. And it's just like, why would they assume that these are women who are just coming out of nowhere that want to sleep with them? Yeah, it's like, is this my lucky day for literally every one of us? Like, there is the exact amount of women to men ratio out in this oil field right now. This makes sense. Yeah, there's so many. I mean, so these were all obviously just ideas that didn't go anywhere. These were ideas that. he proposed that did not go anywhere. So he's not just thinking about them. He's actually voicing them,

writing them down, submitting these projects to higher-ups. Okay. And they're getting shot down, shot down, shot down. But Lewis Mountbatten, he didn't care how wild his ideas were because he was really intrigued. And he loved how creative he was. And he was really behind it. He was like, you know, maybe that's not it, but you're on to something. I'm listening. Tell me more. So When Jeffrey told him, he said, you need me on your staff because I'm a man who thinks. Lewis was like, yeah, yeah, you really do think. You're a thinker. And he added him to his team where he was tasked with the job of finding a way to defeat the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic and stop them from sinking their ships.

That's a big task and a big ask. And I feel like maybe he should have been put on a little bit of a smaller project first. Yeah, like warm them up a little bit. Like, obviously. No, he's confident in his abilities. He knows that he is going to have. There is something to be said about confidence and where it gets you. Yeah.

I mean, they say you don't actually need experience to get jobs or a resume. You just need to sound confident and like, you know what you're doing. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Or that you're qualified for. I want to be a surgeon. I have the perfect outfit. I'm going to say, no, I haven't been to school. Everyone out.

I'm a thinker. I'm an innovator. I have the vision. You need me. Fly slice. One of Jeffrey's first ideas were actually inspired by the sinking of the Titanic. After seeing how large and strong icebergs were and how that iceberg was able to sink the most unsinkable ship in the world, Jeffrey came up with the idea to use icebergs for battle.

He wanted people to go to the Arctic, cut off massive chunks of icebergs, level the tops of them out and have warships tow them behind them through the waters to carry large aircrafts. And it would also, it could allow them to use them as landing strips as well. And part of this was their warships at the time couldn't carry large aircrafts. So they were strictly in the water. They were like, if we can get aircrafts, aerial people out here all the time, we could win these battles. Okay, I thought his vision was going somewhere else. I thought he was leveling off the tops of them so they couldn't be seen on the surface from the surface of the water, but they would be right under the surface of the water and other ships would crash into them and sink like the tit. No, he wants them to be aircraft carriers that they're towing behind the ship.

Like invisible little aircraft carrier, because they're under the water. I'm confused. No, they're above the water. It's an iceberg. It's above the water. you're taking all the iceberg that's underneath. You're just flattening out the service, so it's nice and smooth so your aircrafts can sit on it. I don't know why I was thinking that this was some covert iceberg mission that like he was trying to hide the fact that they were. Well, well, you're not far off because his other idea was that he wanted to hollow out the icebergs and hide aircrafts inside of it in a way to ambush the Germans.

So the Germans would just be in the water, full. floating around, they'd see this iceberg like, oh, it's just an iceberg. Lo and behold, behind the iceberg is this giant hollowed out area with an aircraft in it ready to bomb them. Okay, so it's like the Trojan horse idea. Yeah, but with icebergs. I would also be super curious to know how you just cut off an iceberg from the Arctic. The logistics behind this.

And wait a second, an aircraft in the hollowed out. Uh-huh. Okay. I'm just trying to envision this. How is it going to fly out? Great. question. It's just sitting there. I will just like, I will preface this entire thing with that none of it makes sense. Again, like, I see the foundation of, I see the origin of the idea. Like, I see what icebergs

are also very tippy. They're tippy, okay? They're tippy. Like, they roll over. Like, that is a known thing that icebergs do is they roll over. You're just going to put an aircraft in the middle of it and just hope it doesn't roll over. And wouldn't they think that giant chunks of Arctic sea ice all of a sudden showing up in a place where Arctic sea ice is not common in the Atlantic? Like the Titanic. The Titanic saw an iceberg. So yeah, but like he's transporting these away from like I'm some of them are towed behind the ship just going ankle. Yeah. And like I'm guessing that he's transporting icebergs from areas that have icebergs to areas that do not. not, hence why he needs to move them.

Otherwise, they would already be there. So all of a sudden, they're just going to be like, oh, yeah, there's just a lot of these icebergs hanging around. Like, that looks normal. Okay, I need to know more. Where's the ship coming in? Because it's coming. It is coming.

By September 23rd, 1942, he had moved his work for the British Empire to the United States and was working from there. But he submitted a 232-page document of a new idea of what. what he called super cooled water. It would be water that was chilled below freezing temperatures, but would remain in liquid form and could be shot out of cannons at high pressures, immediately freezing and immobilizing any incoming enemy ships or aircrafts. A major flaw in this plan in the 232 pages that he wrote was Jeffrey never detailed how to create supercooled water because he didn't know how. And he wrote that this was just a, just a small,

thing that we would have to get over basically. It's like it's just a small little issue, but we'll figure it out. Okay. I think it's also important to mention that Jeffrey's ideas weren't popular and neither was he. Most people that met him did not like him. While many considered him some type of odd genius, he also treated others as he was above them intellectually. He was eccentric, disorganized, he was standoffish. He also was dealing with hypergraphia, which is the intense desire to be constantly writing or drawing. He insisted that all hours of the day and night, he needed paper and writing utensils in his hands at all times. And he never left his bed. He did all of his work from bed while he wrote and even any meetings he had were done from his

bed. Okay. Well, and there's no Zoom or anything. He's just like, I got to keep writing. Just come on in. And he's just like covered in papers, trash, food, whatever. Hasn't showered in weeks. I'm going to say. I've been there. You're like actually his ideas are starting to make sense. It's like, okay, the bed thing, I don't think is that crazy. I have definitely been there. That sounds nice. I have definitely taken a couple meetings from bed surrounded by pizza boxes and writings for ideas and whatever.

But that's where it ends. I mean, I feel like when you said he wasn't very popular. Like, I feel like he, at least how you're describing him. seems to be a pretty divisive kind of guy. Like, you either really like him or you really do not like him. There's not really an in-between. Yeah. Just a very extreme type of person.

Like, you're either about him or you're not. And he was very odd. Yeah. A lot of people didn't understand him. And he also definitely had some mental health concerns going on. He did not shower. His house was covered in trash and he did not take care of himself at all. He actually had a caretaker who would come in and, like,

help him and he would constantly be covered in bruises because when he had to like get up and go to the bathroom or something, he would just be tripping and falling over piles of trash. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, like a hoarding type of situation. Yeah. And at one point in his life, he did agree to spend some time in a mental institution. Still though, despite all of these mental issues and troubles that he was having at home, Lewis Mountbatten was his number one fan and supported most of his ideas and thought of him as a genius. So when Jeffrey presented him with the idea of Project Habakkuk, Lewis Mountbatten was all in. Habakkuk is the name of a Hebrew prophet, but I would like to note that Jeffrey named this project and spelled the name wrong, as he added an extra B in the word

that is not there in the Jewish terminology, which he was naming it after. It seems like it would have been corrected on the first pass. Another set of eyes probably could have corrected that. Well, this book is even titled with the two bees. Well, it's just staying consistent, yeah, with what the name ultimately went down in history as. But yeah, for sure. So Project Habakkuk brings us to the ice ship because this entire new idea was to create a warship aircraft carrier constructed of Pai Crete. And Pye Crete is 86% ice and 14% sent sawdust or wood pulp. So he had been experimenting and he had discovered they did all these different experiments and they shot into regular ice and saw that it would just break apart. But then

they added wood pulp to ice and they would shoot at it and notice that almost nothing happened. They also noted that when they added this wood pulp, it took significantly longer for the ice to melt. So basically adding this wood component to ice made it significantly stronger the normal. And this was how his idea was created that he was going to, he wanted to create a warship made out of ice for several reasons. One, I call it, I call it an ice ship, but it was really more of an ice island that he would create that just had basically like this floating military base on it because it wasn't going to be shaped exactly like a ship. It was supposed to be designed to be able to ambush the Germans.

So they had no idea that it was coming. It was just like another, it's just ice coming on in. And he reasoned that this idea was genius because the ice was strong enough to undergo missile fire. It could carry larger aircrafts than the current warships. And also when it was damaged, they could simply fix the boat with more ice. So he's like, you know what?

The best part about all of this is you can just fix it right there. You've got water. You can cool it, ice, perfect. Everything's free. The boat, Free. Fixing it free. And Lewis is like, yeah, a free warship. This is genius. It can't be damaged. This is the best idea I've ever heard. So he was so excited that he sent this, this proposal to Winston Churchill and marked it as most secret, which was like the top secret, no one can look at this, make sure no

enemy eyes get this because when they do, they're going to just die for this idea and try to do it themselves, basically. It's not just secret. It's the most secret. It's the most secret. And Winston Churchill, he got the project. And admittedly, he said he didn't understand the physics of ice. But other than that, he thought it was a great idea and he approved looking into it and getting it started. So the Royal Navy and War Office agreed to start the project after brainstorming ideas on where a prototype to test out the ship could be done. And they landed on Patricia Lake inside of Jasper National Park. I feel like Winston Churchill and probably a lot of other people were just gaslit. They're like, okay, yeah, I guess I don't understand ice, so it must be fine.

Like, yeah, that sounds like a really good idea. So on this lake, Patricia Lake, they would build a 2,000 foot long or 600 meter prototype that would be about one tenth of a scale of a model of the real ship that would be built. So this thing is fucking massive. The real or the real one. The real one. Yeah. I mean, even 2,000 feet long for just a prototype is pretty, it's pretty massive as well.

Yeah. But yeah, it's supposed to be this massive ship. And the lake that they chose Patricia Lake was named after the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. And Patricia Lake is located in the Athabasca River Valley close to the town of Jasper. And we went to Pyramid Lake when we did a night there. for our trip and we didn't know it at the time because we hadn't heard the story before, but Patricia Lake was right next to where we were. It was the next lake over.

We had to pass the sign. Yeah, you saw the sign, right? Yeah, I was like, no. And then when you said the location, I was like, we literally passed right on by it. It's a popular area for swimming and hang out on the beach and cross-country skiing in the winter. This area in particular was chosen because of how cold it remains there for the majority. of the year. Now, with a place chosen to begin the project, it was in full force ready to begin with an entire committee, military operations, engineers, scientists, and construction crews

sent to work on it. And because this project was labeled Most Secret, Most Involved in the building of it had no idea what it was being used for. It wasn't long after the project began that they reached problems and it got really expensive. As I mentioned before, Jeffrey would come up with these ideas, but he had no outline on how to execute them. So this required a lot of testing of the ice and research into what it could withstand realistically out in the waters. No one knew how to make super cooled water, so that was also an issue. And architects, when they got started, found that his design didn't make sense and they had to change it. Plus, they realized in this project that with a shipful of ice, they needed to find a way to keep the crew warm. And at the

same time keep the ice frozen. So that was a major obstacle that they found. Yeah, you can't do both at the same time. Have you ever been to an ice bar? Yeah. Yeah, you're not warm. It's like you're frozen. Yeah, you're frozen. So work began on Patricia Lake in the early months of 1943. It was quickly discovered that this aircraft would be much more than just a block of ice. There would be lots of piping that had to be installed. They built the floor and ice blocks of the craft on top of the frozen lake. The structure was built with pyrite, but they used a mixture of asphalt and charcoal to insulate the area for the crew. They experienced hardships when areas of the ship had major leaks. When the ice started to melt, they had to create an anchoring system to keep it in place.

When they did put a roof on the outside, they disguised it to look like a boathouse because they believed that there might be enemy eyes that were spying on this genius project trying to get the intel to make one themselves. By the time they were done constructing it, it weighed 1,000 tons and ended up being 60 by 30 by 20 feet, which is 18 by 9 by 6 meters. So it didn't end up being the 2,000 feet long that Jeffrey had originally been like, this is what you need to create. Architects were like, okay, that's not going to happen. And it didn't look like a ship. It looked like a boathouse.

If you looked at it from the water, it just looked like there was a boat house, like maybe a fishing boathouse or something floating on the water above the water. During the construction of this prototype, a lot of things were realized. First, that it was not free, like Jeffrey had said, it's ice, it's free, it's ice, it's wood chips, it's free. It was very expensive. They discovered to build a ship of actual size, it would cost them about $100 million. So it was not free like they advertised, and they had already spent $150,000 to create this prototype. On a 60-foot little dinky prototype. Yeah. They're like, okay, this is. is already not shaping up to be great. It's like this is already ridiculous. They also realized that it would have to be built entirely in the winter months. So there was a very short span which they could build this ship. And there were other obstacles like keeping it frozen, managing damages, and having large crews on the vessels. It was much more difficult to build than anticipated. Plus, many of the people behind the prototype, they didn't know what they were doing, but they realized whatever it was,

was kind of dumb. They were all like, this, we're not behind whatever the project this is. Whatever we're trying to make out of ice here, it's not working. Can you imagine being assigned to that if this did go through and you get stationed on this ship and you're just freezing your ass off? It would be awful. It's like, not only am I in the war, I'm on a fucking block of ice in the middle of the ocean. That may or may not just melt and leave me in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at any time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not a good idea. Also, at this point where people were really starting to feel down about the idea, things weren't

working, it was getting really expensive, things were kind of going up with the higher authorities of like, hey, this project kind of sucks. And they're debating on whether or not they should even continue it. Things had changed at this time in World War II. And the Germans were beginning to lose the war, and the British Navy in France were beginning to take back the Atlantic waters. Around this time, Alan Turing had cracked the coat. in the German Enigma machine, which if you've seen that movie Enigma, they show it's on Netflix, I think.

But this was basically a machine that the Germans used to speak to each other in code that no one could crack because it had a really sophisticated code. And when he did finally crack it, it allowed military to understand these secret messages being sent with their top secret military plans. So it essentially allowed them to know where they were going to attack next before they did it. And they could stop and intercept them. So when that code was cracked, they started winning the war and they started taking things back. And that was like a real project that was successful and made sense.

Yeah. I do want to say, and I don't know, I'm a thousand percent sure. I feel like this guy. I can see the envision of an episode we should do. I don't know how we're going to do it. I don't know how we're going to get there. And I don't know if it's linked to a national park at all. But what you're talking about with the Enigma thing, project and all of that,

I feel like we should definitely do an episode on the Navajo Code Talkers. Have you ever heard of them? That would be cool. Yeah. Like, I just feel like that's such an interesting story. And it has to be able to be linked to something. We'll look into it. I bet. We'll look into it.

Because it's around the same time. 1940s and creating a code that like no one can crack and it's based on you know like indigenous language. I think it's really cool. But anyway, yeah, a little side note. So basically they're starting to win the war. They're spending money on a project that doesn't make sense. People are tired of it. And by May of that year, the entire project was dropped.

They stripped the floating boathouse of all useful material and allowed it to sink to the bottom of Patricia Lake. Jeffrey Pike was crushed that his genius idea was abandoned, but he did not give up. Instead, he took his ideas to the American Navy and tried to sell the idea to them. And surprisingly, President Roosevelt and the U.S. actually agreed to fund the construction of a Habakkuk aircraft carrier for their efforts in the Pacific Oceans of World War II. For the same thing. Same thing, but he's taking it. He's like, you know, this would be a great project for your fight with the Japanese.

in the Pacific Ocean. And the U.S. was like, yeah, that sounds great. Come on, everyone. He must have been so convincing. He had to have been. Like, I'm just thinking of the amount of great minds that he had to coerce to get on his, like, line of track of thinking. You know, like, these aren't dumb people. Like, these are some of the greatest minds and intelligence that we have.

Of their time. Of their time in the nation. And they're all kind of being like, even if they're not fully on board right away, they're at least giving it enough thought to consider it instead of shooting it down right away. They're not even just considering it. The U.S. agreed. They agreed to fund it and to start the project. But I will say, the U.S. dragged their feet on the idea.

And eventually they did decide against it before starting the project. Okay. All right. I'm like, don't do this to me. In 1988, the Alberta Underwater Archaeological Society marked the sunken remains of the Habakkuk prototype with an underwater plaque. So they had scuba divers go down there and put a plaque down there for it. And then the following year in 1989, the National Park Service created a plaque on the shore of Patricia Lake, commemorating the ship and the efforts made for the war that took place there. So there is a little plaque on Patricia Lake now that you can visit.

Whoa. Like I really, I, What a ride. This episode has been a lot of ups, a lot of twists, a lot of turns.

Wow. We got there. We got there. Yeah, Canada, you got it all. Yeah. And we got more books with other stories too.

So there's more. There's a lot more. I can't even, honestly, I'm going to be just transparent. I took those books, put them right on my shelf. Oh, yeah.

Same. Have not looked at them since I got back. And it's not anything. That's a theme, though. that's usually what we do. They'll come back around. They'll come back around. It's fine. We just decided to pick, like, the two lightest-hearted stories. And weirdest. Like, the boss is wild. It's just like, what is going on here? And then when I picked up this book, I'm like, what is really going on here? What was happening? So we just, we like the two stories that we found in our travels there. Yeah. And we decided to just give you guys kind of like a episode to be like, wait, what is happening? I feel like we just gave everyone whiplash. I feel like we heard a bear. Now we're talking about ice ships.

Yeah. Basically, we really liked our trip to Canada, and you should all go check out the Banff, Yoho, Jasper area. Yeah, for sure. And I'm really glad that we had such a good time. I mean, all of our trips have been great in each of their respective ways. They all have different things to offer. But this one was really cool.

And I think part of it is because I did like, zero research to the area. I just kind of showed up and, you know, was like ready for whatever was in store. And a lot of times, you know, because I'm a planner. I like knowing things in advance. Like I want to know what things look like, what to expect. You know, it's just the normal things, especially with, you know, now the ease of Google images and making your whole trip and like basically kind of living your trip digitally. Before you actually live your trip. Yeah. Digitally, before you actually experience it in person. And I didn't do any of that before this one because we had guides and itineraries already kind of outlined. I just showed up.

And I was very pleasantly surprised, you know, just of how, like usually I look at the trails. What does it look like? How long is it? Like where, what is the viewpoints? What are we, you know, just different things like that. And I didn't do any of that. So every single day was a new adventure. And I really enjoyed having the opportunity to do that, you know, to kind of let go with the reins and just show up and be. humbled and the Canadian Rockies definitely humble you and it was a really cool trip. Yeah, I loved it there. I had been there once before in the wintertime for a snowboard trip and it had been on my bucket list places to visit for a long time. And then after I visit in the winter, it was so magical and I loved it so much. But I had always wanted to see the Torquoise lakes that were up there. So getting to return

and actually hike there and see the Torquoise lakes and our group was so wonderful and our guides were so wonderful. It was just such a magical trip, I think, like, overall for everything. I just so highly recommend people visiting those parks. Yeah, go show some love to our northern neighbors. Yeah, for sure. And enjoy the view. But watch you're back. See you later. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPADpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD Podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock

monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more. Visit our website at npaddpodcast.com. rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind.

Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed

who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.