Comment Question regarding 6-29-12 post

Amazing Detail in the structural support!

Anonymous Comment on 8-29-2012 wrote: Would love to see more pictures of the Cedar Tree that supports the Info Center on "Cache Creek to Prince George" post of 6-28-2012

The top part of the main cedar tree

Four Stories High!

Balcony Detail ~ Amazing!

In answering Anonymous (from here on who will be referred to as "CP") here are a few more pictures. The Visitor Center was built by a Premier Log Home builder and also a Premier Architectural firm, together they wanted a signature building and design. I think they accomplished their goal very well!

Stats ~ Update

Hello everyone! I've been checking my blog stats and even with no new blogs I now have 2193 page views with a better breakdown of my audience. I have 93 views from the US, 36 from Canada, 6 from Russia, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Germany, 1 from the Netherlands. Maybe I should continue bloging about my travels!

Thats what I saw today

The Adventure ~ My Reflections ~ The Facts!

 

One of the most remarkable things that I have seen on this 14,800 mile journey is the amount of people doing exactly the same thing. For some people, this is there trip of a life time. For some others it’s just another road trip down the endless highway to adventure. I’ve met some that have sold their houses and are traveling around the continent. What drives these people to pedal their bikes from Inuvik, North West Territories to the tip of South America?  Adventure? Challenge? What possesses one to bring a full size six wheeler, all-wheel drive truck, converted to an RV and cross the ocean from Europe to North America?  To answer these questions I must look inward into one self to see why I traveled these thousands of miles across the United States and Canada. I believe it’s the urge to see and feel what it was like to travel across this land somewhat like when the original pioneers did there thing in search of having a better life. I am not looking for a better life, as I feel very fortunate with what I have.

I travel for a sense of seeing what is on the other side of the hill. How I can learn from watching and talking to people both local and fellow travelers. For example, I have a better understanding of First Nation people after talking to and watching them at the World Eskimo Olympics. I now understand, a little better, their tribal dance movements. Their Olympic competition events are nearly all related to arctic survival skills.

I travel to see nature. Whether it be a Wolf howling, a Bald Eagle perched, watching for the Salmon run along with the Coastal Brown Bears…who are tired of eating grass and just pacing up and down the rivers, also waiting for the Salmon.

I travel to see America and Canada move it’s GNP (Gross National Product) East and West along their mighty railroads. They are alive and in my opinion doing well.

Reflecting and Planning the next Adventure!

I travel to see the mighty Rivers of this continent. the Yukon, the Frazer, the Columbia, the McKenzie. I travel to see these mighty rivers at their birth place when they are only a trickle.

I travel to see the giant trees in the coastal planes of Washington State and British Columbia. To see the dwarf 200 year old trees up in the tundra of Alaska fight for their existence when no other trees can survive with ice just 18 inches below the surface.

Finally, I travel to converse with strangers on the trail and share stories and experiences. I have made long lasting friendships. When I say “I”, I mean “We” as my wife, Helen has made all these experiences possible. From the early days back in the 80’s when I had the opportunity to get free flights up to Alaska, ten years in a row, for a week or so, she would support my dreams. She was the best companion on our adventures to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and of course, most of the United States.

The Facts and Stats:

Days in Canada 32                                                                Days in Alaska 20

Days crossing Northern US 25                                              Miles traveled: 14,800

Days Traveling: 77                                                                 Number of Campground stays 28

Number of cracked windshields: One                                   Number of oil changes: Two

Number of tire rotations: Two                                                Number of time changes: Over Ten

Lowest price for gas: $3.45 Berlin, NH           Highest price for gas $ 7.20 Watson Lake, Yukon

Projected gas cost $6,500                              Actual gas cost $6,006.95

Furthest North: Inuvik, NWT (207miles North of Arctic Circle)

State/Province most viewed wildlife: British Columbia

Highest price for beer: Canada $23.95 for 12 pack (did not buy didn’t want to support their Health Care System)

Any Surprises: None

Do It Again? When do we leave

That is what we saw and did ~ See Ya Later!           Page Views to date 2,135 (Great!)

Blind River to Casselman, Ontario ~ I Can Nearly Taste Home

The original target for today was Ottawa, Ontario. If you’ve ever driven in this area you probably know how congested this place can be on a late Friday afternoon. We decided to move pass this large Metropolitan area. Casselman is small, but does have many stores for us to select a place for the night and a place to eat. We did eat at a place called Brian’s and it was excellent. They had a Canadian Tire Store which had an RV Dump Station and that was our parking spot for this night. During the course of the evening, another pickup truck pulled up alongside and also stayed overnight.

Boomers On The Move ~ Home Safe in Our Back Yard!

They next morning, on the 18^th of August we looked at our last ride for home. My Street Atlas said 265 miles to Berlin. This was a short hop compared to the 445 miles we did from Blind River to here.

This will not be my final blog for this trip. I hope to have a few facts and post thoughts of our adventure. So far to date, which is Sunday Aug 19, 2012 We have had 2029 page views which I am very happy about.

That is what we did and saw

                                   

Marathon to Blind River Ontario ~ Rainout

 

Wawa!

No “Tim Horton’s, McDonalds” only a “Robin’s,” for coffee this morning before our departure for Blind River. It was a heavy rain day, with a lot of concentration on my driving. The sun did appear for a short time when we stopped in Wawa. That’s right; “Wawa” is not the First Nation name for water. It is the name for a Goose! The information Center was quick to point that out with a giant Goose statue on the front lawn. Took a few pictures and off to the east again. There is not much to report on this day for the driving. It started to rain again and rained heavily most of the way to Blind River. I would imagine that following the Great Lakes the rain or snow would be greater because of the so called “lake effect” phenomena.

Blind River sits on the edge of Lake Huron. We drove down to the docks and there were four boats tied up. The boats, I think, were fishing boats, but they looked odd to me. They were built very low and fully enclosed. They just didn’t look like fishing boats you see back on the east coast.

Fishing Boat?

We couldn’t see going to a campground and not being able to take advantage of their amenities. We stayed in a good spot under a giant tree close to the fishing boat dock area.

Low Profile Boat!

In the morning, the storm was gone and the sun rose filling the camper. This would be a more enjoyable day to travel. We now felt the drive to get home. Maybe, two more days?

That is what we did and saw

                                   

Thunder Bay to Marathon ~ The Meeting & Lake Superior

Helen amongst the Eggs!

Nature at its best!

Two Keepers!

The Sunset before the Storm!

No early take off this morning… Had to wait for my Berlin Water Works Board Meeting at 12pm. It went off ok. I finished up around 12:45 and we left the campground a little after 1:15pm. Our target today was Marathon about 180 miles away. The sun was shining again and the road was heading North East with the sun to our backs by midday. We stopped along the road a few times to admire Lake Superior and its coast line. Here on the North Shore of Superior the water color turquoise and clear. It is a far cry from our encounter on the south side, when we found the water dark and cold. In Marathon, which I was assuming a bigger town, it didn’t take long to drive all the main streets and avenues. The cashier at the grocery store told us to check out Pebble Beach. There a big sign that explains the geology of the beach. There are thousands of round rocks of various colors that have been worn down by the lakes wave action. It made for interesting picture taking after supper. The locals, many of them, can down here after dinner to watch the sun set. The prediction for the weather later tonight and all day tomorrow was 80% rain with thunder showers tonight. We talked to several people here, one being a native of Newfoundland… He had an Irish or Scottish accent. He has been here in Marathon since 1978, working in the mines. He certainly gave me more information on Newfoundland and Labrador. We talked to a woman, who is a school teacher on vacation. She was from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The overlook was some 50 feet above the beach, a large parking lot with one picnic table and grass at one end. A trail led us down to the beach. The sign had warned us about having sneakers instead of flip flops. The rock beach, with several drift wood trees, made walking possible, but care was needed not to lose ones balance. I collected a couple of souvenir rocks, again against local policy, and slowly walked up the hill to the camper to stow the gems away. The evening went by before we knew it. This beach overlook area was beautiful and there were no signs that said no overnight parking! Another guy, in a van, had the same idea and parked at the opposite end of the parking lot. I decided to back into a dead end road… a little more discrete than the van guy. “Night, night I said to myself!” I fell asleep in no time. (Not the end of this story) Remember the forecast? (Thunder storms, lighting, heavy rains) About one AM the gentle surf that put me to sleep was now a continuous roar. The best way to describe this is to listen to the sound of a huge water fall, the sound doesn’t subside, it just continues to roar. Oh, yes, remember me backing into that abandoned road? I had not noticed a tree branch that was close to the camper. “Yup”, the wind kept pushing it against the camper creating a screeching sound. I got to a point, I put my pants on a moved the truck three feet away from the branch. Problem solved! (Not done yet) Remember our luck with trains? Yeah, that’s right the tracks just 300 hundred feet away. Need I say more?  (Not done yet) Remember the heavy rain? “Yup” it really poured down the hill, into the parking area and over to the grassy area where I was parked. I looked out a couple of times and when the lighting flash illuminated the road ahead, I could see it was filling up with water! Time to move up to the paved parking lot. I faced the truck towards Lake Superior hoping that she would forgive me for taking a couple of souvenir rocks from here beach.

All of this night time adventure is part of discovering this planets intricacies and I didn’t mind losing a good night’s sleep (at least once in a while)

That is what we did and saw

Kenora to Thunder Bay, Ontario ~ The Terrain Change

Before I start today’s blog, I need to update information I just learned from a fellow camper. Remember the Seagulls in yesterday blog? She is from Manitoba and tells me that they are called Field gulls, exactly the same as seagulls but native to the prairie states. (End of mystery)



The Rock Formations!

The Cloud Formations!

 We left Kenora early and headed east on PH17 toward Thunder Bay, ON. I noticed the terrain changes abruptly into small hills and curves for the first hundred miles or so. What is unusual is the rock formations. The land doesn’t have much soil over the ledge outcroppings. Some of the ledge and rocks are smooth in nature, while some are shattered and piled like slabs vertically and horizontally. The colors range from grey to pink to rust colored. I guess I wasn’t the only person who noticed this, because we came to a huge plant that processed this stone. They had four to five hundred feet of tailings of these beautiful rock slabs. I would have loved to have my dump truck here for a free load. The terrain here is also laced with ponds and lakes. Every corner has a sign with the name of the lakes. One that I recognized was “Lake Wabigone” mentioned on PBS radio show “Home on the Prairie”

The other item worth mentioning were  the clouds here in this part of Ontario. They were fairly low with dark grey below and very silvery around the edge. It was sunny all day except for a rain shower at 5pm here in Thunder Bay. It is an odd thing to think and look at clouds as you’re driving, but it makes the journeys interesting. After all, discovering new things about places is what I came here for.

We pulled into Thunder Bay around 2:30, went to the Terry Cox Scenic Outlook & Visitor Center for info and a remembrance of Terry Cox who jogged across Canada with one leg. Terry had cancer and passed away in this town. He was jogging across Canada for a cure for Cancer. In 2005, Helen and I had stopped here and the memorial statue of Terry Cox had impressed us enough that we needed to visit this place again.

The Terry Cox Memorial Over Look!

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring around Thunder Bay. It is a city of over 100,000 people. I must say the traffic was heavy, but we managed to get around. I did check on "Gas Buddy" for the best gas prices. $1.19 a litre was  the bottom with $1.35 tops. I set the GPS to the so called "Gas Bar". The price was indeed $1.19 a litre, but we had to cross a railroad bridge with loose steel plates and as wide as a normal sidewalk. It was a adventure!



Driving on the Sidewalk for Cheep Gas!

Tonight, we are staying in a KOA campground, because I needed to have excellent WiFi and a quiet location for the Berlin Water Works monthly board meeting tomorrow at noon. The camp ground owners said they would set me up in the game room with hardwired DSL. They would also shut the game room down from 11:30 to 1:30 for my meeting. I hope everything goes according to plan.

That is what we did and saw             

Portage La Prairie to Kenora, Ontario ~ Lake of the Woods

Lost Seagulls in Portage La Prairie!

 

My love of trains continued again last night. I swear to God, a dozen freight trains went by as we tried to sleep. These trains are each a mile long and you can hear them for a mile each way up and down the track. Morning finally came and the sun was shining as we looked outside. A footnote here…we must be an equal distance from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Getting back to looking outside, what do you think I saw? A row of Seagulls! What are Seagulls doing in the middle of the continent? Maybe they hitched hike on one of those freight trains!

Entrance to Anicabe Campground!

The promotion for free coffee at McDonalds ended yesterday, but we still went for our morning wakeup coffee. I fueled up and asked if there was a RV Dump Station close by. The attendant sent us to a municipal site and we took care of the campers needs.

It is a fairly quick ride to the Ontario border and to Kenora, Ontario which sits on the northern edge of “The Lake of the Woods”. This is a tourist destination and we decided to get a camp site near the water. We spent the afternoon walking around the town and watching float planes land in the lake.



Float Plane Base!

We took showers at the campground facilities…excellent new building with plenty of hot water. We had dinner and then did  laundry and got caught up on email and the blog.

That is what we did and saw

Moosomin, SK to Portage La Prairie, MB ~ A Haven in a Storm



Our Friend for 75 Miles!

A good night sleep in the church parking lot always helps. It also helps to have a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Station across the street. It is sort of odd to have a police station in a residential neighborhood, but who cares, they are there to protect and serve. The priest last night gave us his blessing on staying in the church parking lot. Of course, it wasn’t perfectly quiet as the CN, one mile long, freight train comes barreling through town at 55 mph and blows the whistle a half dozen times. We did feel very secure in more ways than one.

Helen Signing the Geocache Log!

German Panzer Tank on Canadian Base Shilo!

How a 50 Cal Casing is formed!

The sun was shining as we drove the last few miles out of Saskachuwan (SK). In Manitoba, the Visitor Center was closed, but the restrooms (they call them washrooms) were open. I flipped my computer cover open and I noticed that I had WiFi…great! I needed to download a series of geocaches along the route to get our Manitoba Souvenir. By the time I was done the center was open and I got a map. I love maps! The more detailed the better. Off we drove into the east with the sun in our faces. The one thing about the Trans-Canadian Highway is that it parallels the railroad tracks. On our first geocache stop, the tracks were very close. I took a picture of the engines pulling the long freight behind. The engineer waved and that was the beginning of a 75 mile partnership between the train and us. The train was traveling at 55 mph. I set my cruise control at 60 miles per hour. It took me 75 miles to pass the engines. What a way to pass the day! That is what prairie driving is all about.

The Passing Time on the Prairie with the Train!

In Brandon, there was a sign which said National Military Artillery Museum. Actually, many more of the museum signs sparked our interest, seeing that I am retired military and of Artillery background. The museum is located on Canadian Force Base Shilo, about 7 miles south of PH1 East highway. It was time for a diversion and the canoe took us to the base. What a surprise! The museum has 65,000 artifacts from first nation warriors to Desert Storm in Iraq. Artillery weapons of every war, from small arms to rare artillery pieces. Excellent museum! I could have stayed a week reading all the history. We started to leave and I was reading the pamphlet they gave us and noticed a line that said a geocache was on base. Very rare, at least, on US bases. I went back in to inquire and the attendant said it is located on the German Panzer tank a mile away from here. The German Army from 1973 to 2000 trained here on the base. They gave the base a full size Panzer Tank. We went looking for the cache, found the tank, but couldn’t find the cache. Maybe, if we would have had coordinates, we would have been successful.

Back on PH 1 East, the sun soon disappeared as the clouds darkened and the wind picked up to the point that I was feeling the truck rocking side to side. I was getting a little nervous and pulled off into a small community to wait it out. It looked like it subsided and we took off again. No, this wasn’t the end! It started to rain very heavily. I was trying to reach Portage La Prairie, a larger town, for the night. We pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot next to the building for shelter. We took a nap and the storm subsided for good.

That is what we did and saw

Swift Current to Moosomin, SK ~ Miles versus Time



Indian Head ~ Little Mosque on the Prairie

It isn’t that we want to rush home, but when you set the cruise control at 60 mph, one can easily surpass the 250 mile a day desired limit for day travel. Today, for example, we reached the 300 mile mark at 3pm. We are in a small whistle stop town along the Saskatchewan /Manitoba border. We decided to stay here for the night because we can attend church here and get a good start tomorrow. It started to drizzle and then steady rain after lunch in Indian Head. Speaking of Indian Head… Anybody who watches the Canadian show “Little Mosque on the Prairie” should know that this is the home of the show. I personally don’t know anything about the program, but I have heard of the name.

It is hard to blog about hundreds of miles of prairie which are so similar to a stranger to the land. I’m sure if I talked to the locals, they could educate me on several topics. There are only small towns with no one in sight.

Tonight, I plugged in our coordinates in Moosomin, SK and Berlin, NH and we are 1,851.35 miles from home. The computer tells me that would take 38:01 hours of driving. We don’t plan on driving that distance in one shot. It is only good information for the mind. I am sitting here and reflecting back to all the miles we have covered on this journey. All of the wonderful people we have met and enjoyed talking to at campfires at night and on the road. If I was ambitious enough, I should write a book on our travels. I have had some excellent conversations with, of all people, “Bikers” both motorized and pedal bike about future places to visit. Ironically, one is nearly in our backyard. Newfoundland and Labrador! I’ve heard stories from them about seeing Icebergs, whales, seeing mountains in Labrador as exquisite as the Swiss Alps. Time will tell if my canoe will bring me to these magical places.

That is what we did and saw 

Strathmore, AB to Swift Current, SK ~Hot Prairie & The Badlands!

Wal-Mart Sunrise!

Wal-Mart again for the night… couldn’t find the campground listed on the map. (We found it the next day further down the road) I didn’t sleep well this night. It was hot, but the main reason was the truck traffic going all night. The “Singing Sam Tires” were humming all night. The trucks hauling sometimes three trailers which makes for 38 tires rolling on the highway. Oh well, I got over it very quickly when the sun came over the horizon sometimes after six am.

A Sea of Grass!

The road east now straight as an arrow for as far as one can see. My gas mileage increasing to 14.5 mpg maybe with a tail wind. I set the cruise control and watched the grasslands fly by. At mid-day we were in Medicine Hat, at the visitor center. I picked up a map to survey the town. I noticed they had a dump station and took advantage of this to empty the tanks and fill the fresh water tank. The old town is down in what they call Alberta’s Badlands. Now here in Alberta “Badlands” means that there are hills and the land is not level. We drove around and looked at the parks, but it was now in the 90’s. We headed east on PH 1.

Let Us Not Forget A Sea of Wheat!

At the Provincial Border, we stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up a map of Saskatchewan (from now on known as “SK”) A T-shirt at the Center says quote “Hard to spell easy to draw”! There was a geocache here and were able to claim our “SK” souvenir on line with their free WiFi.

There are more bugs on the windshield here than any other place on our 69 day journey. The grasslands must be a perfect environment for them. My windshield is also a perfect crash landing site.

Unforgettable Sunset!

Swift Current is our spot for the night. There are storm warnings for severe thunder storms for tonight.

The Prairie Does Offer Beauty Also!

That is what we did and saw

Banff to Strathmore ~Bye, Bye Canadian Rockies!



Lake Moraine ~ Perfect!

Our last day in the Canadian Rockies… it leaves me a little sad. The mountains are such a unique place to get close to nature. You can walk around see the diversity in every direction. I don’t think you can do that in the Great Plains that will be our temporary home in the upcoming week or so.



I needed to get a few pictures this morning of early sun hitting Moraine Lake and that was our first destination. I’ve never been to this lake and it was worth the 8 mile drive up the paved mountain road. We weren’t the first to arrive, but we did beat the multitude of Japanese on tour buses. Lake Moraine sits behind a large rock moraine left by the receding glacier. We hiked up to the top of the moraine for that elusive shot of the lake with the sun hitting the glacier in the back ground. We were a couple of hundred feet above the lake and the sun did its thing with light. Perfect! The next stop was to go back to Lake Louise… we were there late in the day yesterday. But, the sun was not in the right place to light the lake. This morning it was sunny, but still not the angle of choice. You can’t win them all!

Rocky Mountain High!

Onward to Banff the best town with Tyrolean Architecture with  flowers everywhere! We spent the rest of the morning here walking around.  We drove up to the hot springs to dip our toes into the hot water.  A few more pictures and that was the last vivid memory of the Rockies. In about an hour or so the land became very flat and the mountains were only visible in your rear view mirror.

Everybody Does One of These Shots!

Calgary a city of over 100,000 people…As we approached the byways and heavy traffic, we elected to push on past this large city. We stopped in Chestermere a suburb of Calgary. It was one of those new communities with all the new store outlets. The Safeway grocery store had a Starbucks coffee shop which meant “Free WiFi”. We did groceries and got caught up on email and the blogs. We couldn’t stay there for the night so we drove another half hour to Strathmore. We had stayed here in 2005 at a motel and it was a good spot to bed down for the night.



Banff ~Style!

That is what we saw and did 

Jasper National Park ~ "The Columbia Icefield Trek"



Not Your Everyday Bus

Whistlers Campground was busy with campers moving out for their days’ adventures. It amazes me that 781 camp sites at Whistlers are so quiet and nearly every site is private with trees and a picnic table. Our 8 am departure was perfect. The sun was shining and the temperature was already up to 53 degrees. The road south at first is filled with fir trees and mountains fairly close. The vistas soon changed with the Canadian Rockies towering well above our field of view from inside the moving truck. We stopped at nearly every pullout to grab a shot of these mountains. This road is the most scenic mountain roadway in Canada. It is called “The Icefields Parkway”.  This is the route to over one hundred visible glaciers, turquoise lakes, rushing waterfalls.

On The Columbia Icefield

Mission one for today was to get to the Columbia Icefield and a get a ride onto the Icefield in one of those Giant Monster Truck Busses. The newest one cost 1.5 million dollars. There are only 23 of these in the world and 22 of them are here at the Columbia Icefield. They look like a bus with giant skidder tires. They are capable of descending and climbing a 36% grade. On this trip onto the Icefield, they would be only doing a 32% access. For an example of the grade, the acceptable percent for a highway is 12%, so you can imagine this monster going down a loose gravel hill onto the Icefield. Oh! The one vehicle that they don’t have out of 23 was leased to the US government and is in Antarctica.

That is the Columbia Icefield Top Center!

Helen Getting Ready for a Glacial Water Drink!~

This ride onto the Icefield is a big business. Regular buses shuttle tourist from the Icefield Visitor Center up to a staging area. You board the “Ice Explorer” and the driver gives you a detail anatomy of a glacier and how it is constantly moving. They have a road grader that keeps the ice graded and trenches open for melting ice water to run off and not flood the road. Once you are on the ice, you can feel the temperature drop nearly instantly. You are driving on ice that is as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall. There are boundary limits that you are warned about once you get off the bus for pictures. The danger is called “Mill Wells”. These are caused when a dark object like a rock is on the surface of the ice. The sun heats the rock and it settles into the ice. Once the water flows into the pocket sometimes it keeps melting and creates a large hole that can drop a hundred feet into more water runoff. The ice around the Mill Wells is also soft and can give way into the hole. It sounds scary. It is and most people obey the rules.

Not All is Beautiful Looking Up!

It was a great experience to be able to explore the Columbia Icefields!

Later in the day, we arrived at the famous Lake Louise that has a  “Chateau” resort at the outlet end of this turquoise lake, with a glacier in the background. We spent some time basking in the sun by the lake.

Footnote: The Visitor Center had told us that all campgrounds fill-up by noontime and we were advised that we could dry camp in the overflow field a couple of miles east of town. There is road construction further down the road and many of the construction crews and equipment are sharing our field tonight. I am out of WiFi hotspots and it may be a few days before I get to post this part of our “Boomers on the Move Adventure Blog”

That is what we did and saw

Jasper National Park ~ The Damage!

Last night from the campground, we could see in a distance, lightning and a fierce thunder storm. We only received a small amount of rain here in Whistlers Campground.



The Sky Ready to Damage Maligne Highway! Three Miles Away! 

The intended plan for today was to drive over to the Maligne Highway and visit Maligne Canyon and further up the road to Maligne Lake. We would spend the day seeing all of these attractions.

We packed up the camper and drove down to the gate hoping to extend our stay one more night. The Registration office was opened and I was able to pay for the site. The attendant asked as I was signing the Visa slip “What are you doing today” I said “we are going over and doing the Maligne Highway” he said “The road is closed!” “What,” I said. “The road is closed because of a landslide from last night’s storm.” I asked “What would you recommend doing or seeing as an alternate”. He thought a minute and said “I would recommend going over to Mount Robson Provincial Park and checking out the highest peak in Canada” He said it was only about a hour’s drive away.  It’s funny how the canoe has a mind of its own. The surprise to us was that we entered into British Columbia and a one hour time change. We decided not to set our watches again. I think we changed the time so many times that we’ve lost track!

Mount Robson does look mighty high with a Glacier running from the top down like a ski jump. A visit to the Interpretive Center, the coffee shop, gift shop and back toward Jasper we went. It isn’t that we didn’t like Mount Robson… it was, that a lot of the activities required a lot of hiking to do or visit, and we didn’t want to commit to that.

Mount Robson Highest in Canada

In Jasper, we stopped at the Visitor Center to inquire about the Maligne Highway, hoping that it was all cleared up from the landslide. The girl went on-line and showed us a picture. The road was gone! It would be three working days to repair. We asked if we could at least drive a little ways and probably take our bikes a little further. She said go for it they will tell you when to turn around. It is only three miles to the turn off and across the Athabasca River we went. No road block yet, but a magic marker sign said “ Road Closed Ahead” We wanted to make it at least to Maligne Canyon and see the Maligne River which had cut a 165 foot channel into the limestone over the centuries. “Ah”, the Park Rangers just ahead with a comment! “If you want to see the Maligne Canyon turn here. The road ahead is closed”. We made one of our original destinations! Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake would not to be on this journey.

The Canyon was spectacular, as you can imagine.

That is what we did and saw

Jasper National Park ~ The Majestic Paradise



How is that for Majestic?

People in the Grande Cache campground were moving around and striking a lot of their tents. We later discovered that a lot of them were participants in a so called “Death Marathon” running up a mountain. Took a few more pictures and off to the south for today’s adventure.

Purple Mountain Majesty!

Warm Day ~ Kids Playing with Glacial Ice ~ Mt Cavell!

The town of Hinton was our resupply point before entering “Jasper National Park”. The day was warm and sunny! The blue sky with a few puffy white clouds made our entrance to Jasper majestic. The mountains in a distance had a slight blue haze, but as we got closer the haze disappeared. The traffic was getting heavy and moving at turnpike speed. We soon came to a halt as the tail lights on cars ahead came on. We thought it might be an accident, but no, it was some Rams that were nonchalantly grazing along the road. My first impression was that this would not be a great experience with all of the traffic. Miles down the road the same thing happened. This time it was an Elk with extra-large rack. He was on the edge of a lake munching on whatever he munches on. The mountains were up close and breathtaking as we approached the town of Jasper. A lot of the traffic continued on the main highway as we entered the town. Charming is the word for this tourist community. The railroad station, the shops the mountain vistas in the background gave us a new perspective of Jasper NP. That is not to say that we were looking for a “Tourist Trap Town,” but charm and layout made us feel like we were in a town in the Swiss Alps. The     orders of business… Visitor’s Center to find a campground, get a site because they fill-up quickly at the end of the day. Whistlers Campground was a short distance from town and our choice. There was only dry camping available when we arrived in midafternoon. That didn’t bother us and we were assigned to site “18U”.

Hiking the back country!

The visitor center had given us a must visit agenda and we wasted no time to check-it off. The first was ount Edith Cavell (named after a WWI heroine).  A switchback road climbs so high on the mountain ,that they should’ve been serving peanuts and drinks. Excellent views of the Angel Glacier. We took the self-guided trail to the North Face for spectacular views of cascading waterfalls coming off the glacier. To our left was another glacier which was calving into a small pond. I took so many pictures and I think they are all keepers. I picked up a couple of rocks for a sculpture that I am planning for back home. Yes, I know this is not allowed in National Parks, but this is such a special place and there are billions of these around. We made it back to the parking lot only to find a bunch of oriental kids locked out of their car. I took a coat hanger and assisted them to do the break-in… two no, no’s in fifteen minutes. (Bad Boy)

The “Tow-Haul” button of the truck really helped out going down the mountain. Truckers refer to this as the “Jake Brake”. It kept our speed down without over using the brakes. 

What's for lunch

One the way down we saw a mom “Grizzly Bear” and cub grazing along the road. They didn’t even look up as I took a bunch of pictures.

Tonight, we went to Ranger talk at the open air amphitheater at 9 pm. The interesting thing about this is that an Elk walked right next to the bleachers and did some grazing. Later, the sky had multi-colored hues as a thunder storm was approaching. I think I also got some good pictures of this. Oh, the daylight is now disappearing during the middle night. The sun doesn’t set until around 9:45pm, it is getting closer to our normal routine.

That is what we did and saw

Dawson Creek, BC to Grande Cache,AB




The only Dinosaur we found!



That is were they are hiding!

We left town early to drive over to Grande Prairie, Alberta to attend mass at St Joseph at 9 am. The problem with that is Grande Prairie is in Alberta ( a one hour time change). We made it with plenty of time. Following church services we drove over to the visitor center. Nice place with knowledgeable staff. They gave us several things to do and visit. One of them was Kleskun Hill Park a Dinosaur excavation site. Off we went for a 30 miles side trip in the opposite direction of travel. It was extremely hot and we wilted long before we reached the Dinosaur site. Oh well the truck has excellent AC and we headed south again. A few miles south of Grande Prairie the road was closed for a police emergency. They detoured us for a 14 mile loop around the incident. We arrived in Grand Cache, AB late afternoon only to find all campgrounds full. This is a Provincial Holiday weekend (Heritage Day). We started to look for a place hide for the night. Going up on the back streets we notice a sign for a campground that was not on the tourist list. The place was full of locals… I mean the whole town was hiding out up here. They even had some Canadian Army units here. We asked a kid were we could register and he said there off duty now, just pull in and park. We are flying low and under the radar but it’s a wonderful spot to see the entire local community enjoying their Holiday.

The road trip today was much diversified. Up North it was prairie land, heading South more forest with logging going on even today (Sunday). In Grande Cache I was totally blown away with an open pit coal mine and a huge generating station. The highway goes right through the middle of everything (Mountains on both sides). The coal veins were visible along several miles of highway. Naturally everything in this area had a black coating of coal dust. Grande Cache itself is four miles south with no appearance of the coal mine.

That is what we did and saw