Pincher Creek Alberta to Marathon Ontario

 Gosh, how the days have flown. We have not had a lot of time to reflect, as we battled against strong bitterly cold winds all across the prairies. We woke at Pincher Creek to murky skies. As we climbed out of the valley onto the plains we could smell smoke in the murk and we realized it was from the massive forest fires in the north. From the photo below you can see how closed in it felt...

 On the prairies everything is on a larger scale, including what you see traveling down the highways with you...

 The trip across was not the magnificent Big Sky Country of our past experience, it was miserably cold, with miserable winds and miserable wet. But we made good time as there was no reason to stop anywhere...

 

 By the time we got to Regina, we had outrun the worst of it, and we pulled into a leafy green campground and enjoyed the Big Sky Country for a few hours...despite the cold air mass that followed the rain, we thought the sunshine a good omen.

  

This is a typical Saskatchewan sky despite the first three photos. Unfortunately we only enjoyed it for a few hours before toppling into bed, exhausted.

  

 On our second day crossing the prairies we made it almost to the Ontario border, and camped at Falcon Lake Manitoba (See below)...in the morning there was fine sunshine, but the temperature was around zero (Celsius) and once more WE FROZE!!! So much for positive omens...

 Crossing into northern Ontario, we noted that we seemed to be traveling backwards in time, as we saw that in many places the leaves had not yet even broken bud.

 

At last I saw what I was waiting for, some sign of the Canadian shield, an outcropping of granite, my Ontario rock face! I took a lot of photos of rock!!

 

 As we passed Thunder Bay we stopped at the wonderful memorial to Terry Fox. To my overseas friends they can read about him here http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/terry-fox/. I don't think I have seen a lovelier setting than for this memorial. We approached it by a long winding drive lined with beautiful hardwoods just leafing out. It led us upwards onto a high crest of land with a magnificent memorial statue positioned to view the "Sleeping Giant" island of rock in Lake Superior.

 

 We had one of those special moments here at the memorial. Two young men were there on their bikes packed with camping gear. I asked one of them where they were from. He said Chatham Ontario but his friend was from Holland. We heard their story. The young Dutch man had had the same kind of bone cancer as did Terry Fox, only he had beaten his.  He then decided he wanted to do a cross Canada bicycle trip with his friend from Chatham, as a tribute to Terry Fox and the personal inspiration he had been given by Terry through his similar struggle with this terrible disease. They decided to bicycle from the Maritimes to Vancouver. And the highlight of their trip would be this memorial in Thunder Bay. Here were two young men, pedaling all this way from Nova Scotia to get here just for this moment.  They told us it had been snowing in the Maritimes when they started and indeed it had snowed the night before in Schreiber Ontario where we were heading next!  We enjoyed our chat with them, and wished them well for their trip across the prairies and mountains of BC. I wonder how many others have been inspired like this by our Terry?? Before we left them, they offered to take our photo standing in front of the memorial statue.

 Continuing on to Schreiber I took photo after photo of rock cuts. Yes yes, I know. It's just rock to you. But to me it holds the essence of who I am and where I come from...it is the heart of being an Ontario native... I love granite!!  I personally like the pink and black granite with crystals glittering through it, but Rick likes the more sombre dark greys and greens.

 In the end we miscalculated, as the campground at Schreiber was deserted and closed down, and looked as if it had been for many many years!  So we wearily trudged onward down the long ribbon of highway to the next opportunity at Marathon where, after 10 long hours on the road, we found an open and welcoming campground to park ourselves for the night and we plopped into bed.

And so here we are. Starting another day down the Trans Canada, weary a bit in body and yet anticipating another sunny day, and hopefully one that ends in the comfort of above freezing temperatures somewhere south of here.

Across BC to Pincher Creek..a testament to the year of western drought

We made it. Started off early from Keremeos and had a good run across highway 3 with litle traffic to frustrate our progress. The general landscape was green everywhere, despite showing up in some of the photos as browned out. But despite the green, everything is dry. The rivers on the first part of the trip were running hard with lots of white water but the colour was clear. The ones near Cranbrook and Fernie were also running high but were muddy and brown.

This photo is taken as we rise out of Osoyoos on Osoyoos Lake. We are now standing at a viewpoint only a mile or so north of the US border. The south end of Osoyoos Lake is in the US. The orchards are lush and green and cherries are ripening. This is early in the morning and nothing was open, but the many many fruit stands will be full with fruit in just a few weeks.

We cross over the height of land and then we drop down to Kootenay Lake at Castlegar which like Osoyoos  straddles the middle of the lake and has a significant but ancient bridge that joins the two halves of the community. We are here at another view point, rising up out of the valley on the way to Cranbrook.

 We were most interested to check on the status of the snow pack in  the mountain ranges that we crossed. This snow is at Kootenay Pass just out of Castlegar and for May, this is not a significant amount of snow. Not good.

 We arrive in Creston, a large agricultural valley that claims a number of ranches and agricultural farmland. It has an old time traditional feel to it and we wish sometime we could take the time to explore it properly. The main street is a little treasure.

 

As you can see, the mountains surrounding Cranbrook are already almost devoid of snow. 

 The Rockies outside Fernie are better but not by much. The summer looks like certain drought for all wildlife (plant and animal) and without adequate rain, a terrible fire season. This photo and the next one were taken on the BC side of Crow's Nest Pass.

 This photo was taken on the Alberta side of Crow's Nest Pass. The view is more spectacular than the BC side, but unfortunately the amount of snow has not improved.

 At last, just as we were starving for our evening meal, we approached Pincher Creek and we enjoyed how little it has changed from our last trip taken in mid-summer. The leaves are very young and the lilacs just blooming so spring arrived very recently. There were dark foreboding clouds to the east. However, when we checked into the campground the host said that the clouds were very dark and promising but that they held no rain. Another discouraging report on the growing state of drought in the west.

 For the next 2 days we will be crossing the prairies and doing long days, so no blog until we reach Ontario. Stay tuned!!

First Day

If it all is starting to look familiar, there is a good reason as we have done this section of the trip three times in the past 3 years. Some things vary. The weather obviously as we have done July and October but this is our first May. This trip was wetter than we had ever seen, and greener. But it reminded us just why we always choose this route for the camper. First of all, the mountains are gentler and the grades less steep making Rick's life as chief navigator much easier. Secondly, the traffic is negligible. Long stretches of empty highway and only the occasional semi or camper to whiz past us, and nobody getting impatient with our slow inclines.

I welcome those of you who are new to this blog and I do hope you enjoy some of our ramblings (both physical and mental)...this first day was short and we arrived at Keremeos campground at 5PM. We always stay at this campground because it is run by a lovely retired German couple and it is spotless and beautifully kept, they always have a giant treat for Molly and  the grounds are lovely and green no matter what the season. To see what it looks like at other seasons, you can always check back through previous blogs. There is also a photo of the grand talus slope right behind the office but I refuse to post it more than once..


This was the scenery this afternoon, with clouds looming, erratic bursts of rain and then rays of sunshine. The cattle didn't seem to mind any of it. This is after we left Manning Provincial Park and passed through Princeton.

 The campground at Keremeos reminds me of road side cafes in the 1950s, with quirky details. The wife of the owner likes to collect bird houses.

 We are staying on the left side. Molly is gleeful about the soft plushy grass, as we have none like this at Gabriola. She rolled and rubbed and enjoyed the moment to the max.

When we pulled in to the office, Molly perked up as she recognized the place.

 And she kept her head riveted onto Rick as he brought back her treat from the office.

 Once inside, she woofed down her supper and then instantly zonked out in her favourite spot under the dinette. All is well. We are having good beginnings...

Tomorrow it looks like the weather will clear and if the traffic remains light, we might actually make it further than our planned spot at Cranbrook, perhaps to Crow's Nest Pass. If we are REALLY lucky we might even make it to Pincer Creek, one of my favourite places on the planet. "Why?" you might sensibly ask??  Well....it is because this unassuming little prairie town on the edge of Alberta is surrounded with views like this....

On our way! Ontario bound.

Today we  left home on Gabriola Island for a 5 week, 6,300 mile (10,000Km) RV driving trip through Canada to the Province of Ontario. We will be on the road for 7 days initially and that will see us to our friends house on Bass Lake outside of Gravenhurst, Ontario. From there we will move down to Hampton to See our Great Grand Daughter for the first time. Thence to Ottawa to visit Barbara's sister and finally the long run back across the country to Hudson's Hope, BC. Barbara has a cousin there that she has not seen in many years. From there we go to Davie Lake which is just north of Prince George, BC for a few days of rest and relaxation before finally heading home.