Lovely park, well laid out with lots of historical information scattered through the park. Easy walk though….mostly paved double wide paths’
Nice walk…..nice day…..and then right at the end we noticed the sign we really should have seen at the start…!!!!
aaargh…!!! 😮
A bit of investigation yeilded us two local farmers markets for visiting…first was the Cochrane Farmers market on the Saturday…..very close by 11mins from campground by car…..
Cochrane Farmers Market
Lots of cars were arriving, it was a fairly big, quite spread out (good COVID distancing) market…..lots of produce, live music and some interesting local businesses. We bought a couple of Pasties…a bit pricey…but we have been on the road long enough that puff pastry seemed like a real treat…..we were entertained by the meat one….it was supposed to be steak and mushroom…but the little pastry thing on top looked more like hippo…!!!
We also managed to score some ground bison and some ground elk…….there will be a review on the elk on some future post….
Sunday was Bearspaw Farmers Market just outside Airdrie, AB.
Bearspaw Farmers Market
We arrived early for this one….and the cars were already lined up both sides of the road and the parking area was completely jammed. This was a great little market…..
First vendor we came upon was a lady with all different variatals of garlic….5 for 10 bucks…how could anyone resist….the fifth one we bought was a combination of two of the specialty ones…..
If you ever find yourself in the vicinity…this one is worth a visit……
Sunday afternoon took us on a little side trip to Inglewood….one of the nicest little suburbs in Calgary…..they close the main street to cars in the summer time….its a bit like Paris….lots of interesting little stores…
………and then I spotted this little tiny woodpecker in the tree above where we parked the truck….
The next walk we did was the Grotto Canyon Trail…another Alberta park…….but it’ll be the next post….it was an epic hike…!!!
Bronagh had her off days Monday and Tuesday…turned out Monday was rainy and miserable…..plus..I managed to score a veterinarian appointment for da katten at Arrowhead Animal Hospital (https://arrowheadvet.com/ ) …..they were marvelous…Dr Sylvia was just great…..I may have to organise being back in Cochrane for his health check next year….yes I think they were that good…..so…he now has his vax passport so we are good to go when the US border opens…..
Tuesday 24th ….all systems go for Drumheller…..I was very excited cos Dinosaur park was sooooooo good……..
Drumheller itself I would have to say, was a bit of a disappointment……probably because I was comparing it to Dinosaur park…
Drumheller , by comparison, is overdeveloped…and….well….a bit run down as a town.
Most photogenic building in Drumheller…!!! Didn’t go in for a Waldorf Salad
The landscape is very similar but much more spread out.
Anyway…we bought tickets for the Royal Tyrell museumhttps://tyrrellmuseum.com/ ( an oft overlooked fact is that a lot of the fossils in the Royal Tyrell were actually pulled out of dinosaur park…not Drumheller……..
I loved the mammoth….loved his elbows and his knees….and his feet…..great bones…I could have stood there a lot longer just looking at these bones and joints……would love to touch them too……!!!😁
Totally excited by this fabulous sacrum (tailbone)…I’m sure anyone who knows me will not be surprised…!!!
Huuuuuuuge sacrum….with Scotts hand for scale……how cool is that..!!!
I was highly entertained to see this Mosaurus…….and most disappointed to re-read the sign and see it was actually a Mosasaurus……!!!
Nessie makes an appearance…for anyone who subscribes to the idea that Nessie is a plesiosaur…..!!
Scott spotted this little guy…..we decided he was the prehistoric ancestor of the ground squirrel…..his jaw specially evolving to snip shoelaces….!!!!
The museum is quite definitely a ‘must visit’….but so is the frequently aforementioned Dinosaur Park………. (Drumheller feels like its had a bit of the same kind of overdevelopment commercially as Niagara falls…)
There had been rain a couple of days prior to this visit…which left some more interesting textures in the rocks and creek beds…….it was a more challenging hike than it looked like it was going to be at the outset…..
We thoroughly enjoyed the day with the girls……
They have to go back to work now….and we have to decide where we are going next…….!!!
The drive back from golden was a bit less scary…..partly because we had driven (royal we..!!) back and forward on the worst part of the road a few times during our stay in Golden. ( Editors note. A passenger with a look of sheer terror is not helpful. )But time to go back slightly east as Bronagh’s time off work is done. This time on the journey we had a second vehicle following so some action shots of Xolo in the mountains…..!!!
Xolo in action…!!!
It is such a spectacular drive. I spent most of the time with my eyes bugging and mouth open with a perpetual “wow..!!” dropping from my lips….!!!
And then here is a picture to give a bit of scale….there is an airstream…(us..!) in the middle of the picture.
and the road so beautiful continues to unfold…….
Quite different from the drive in…with the smoke cloak lifted and these little tufts of cotton wool stuck to the trees along the valleys.
Its tough to go from gaping at the scenery to trying to grab shots while in motion……and there always seems to be a huge transport overtaking at the best/worst moments……
Yoho Valley
….and then back through Dead Mans Flats where the fire was a few days ago……
Back at Spring Hill RV….up on the hill just outside Cochrane again…but this time with a clearer view of the mountains……the line of the Rockies just goes on forever……its a panorama and then some….really too vast to be able to translate in photographs….so you will just have to come and see for yourself…!!!
After a couple more days of rain…it was time to get the crumbly old pins x 2 out on another trail……we picked Leseuer trail
Lesueur trail.
Lovely day but with a threat of a storm later in the day…so no dawdling on this one…!!!
All the reviews recommended doing this one anticlockwise with the steep climb first….and boy oh boy this was a climb. Trail said 800 m of up…..it was more like 3km of up……!!!!…..but the view was both breathtaking…and worth it…..
pretty pretty skyline….
There was a lot of stopping for breath on the way up….definitely challenging…and sheer enough in spots to be quite slippery, glad this was not the down route….or we might have needed a toboggan…!!
a little bit of a trek through some forest……and then at about the midway point…..now the path goes down….if you look at the middle of the next picture you can actually see the path go all the way down…!!!
This ‘walk’ down was a lot steeper than it looks in the pictures….I skidded down a couple of sections on my ass…!!!!😮.
…….and of course just what everyone needs to find towards the end of a hike……
is this for the bears??…..
The weather was definitely changing as we came in the last few 100 metres…..we got back in the truck just as the first few raindrops fell……
A really great hike……highly recommend it if you are in the vicinity….
Next adventure is going to be Drumheller and Horseshoe park trail……..
Golden made an appearance out of the smoke and the mist….!!!
Tuesday evening after the rain…….
Wednesday and an early morning start for Louise……all sources suggest the parking fills up fast…so we were aiming to get there for 8am…….even at 8.05 when we arrived….the parking lots were packed……but we did get a space.
And be prepared….there are A LOT of pictures in this post…!!!!
It was very ethereal on arrival…….morning mist just as thick or thicker than the smoke…but a strangely different more wispy consistency.
FYI for anyone doing this trip in the future….the park office was closed when we drove up…..but the smart parking meters also let you purchase your park pass….!!!
The plan was to do the Lake Louise to Lake Agnes trail route…and hope the visibility would improve through the morning…..
Salt flats at top of Lake Louise….
As we walked along the edge of Lake Louise…which was still eerily beautiful with that intense turquoise water shining through the mist ……the haze was gradually lifting……Louise did a leisurely, yet dramatic reveal………..
Its a well travelled very clear trail….but pretty seriously up…!!!!
Climbing higher the view became clearer as the sun warmed and dissipated the mist.
……..and then the reward………
Louise on one side and Agnes on the other…….It is a truly spectacular place to stand…well worth the torture of the unrelenting ascent……
As we embarked on the descent into the bowl that contains Agnes…the steep switchbacks made us very glad for the clockwise choice on the trail……there were lots of people (a lot of them looked much younger and fitter than me..!!!) struggling up the path as we hiked down.
Agnes Panorama
There were some young ladies readying for a swim…..bear in mind this is glacial melt water and we are still quite high up….the sun may be warm…….but…….!!!!
…and then back down to level to a much clearer vista on Louise herself……and she is beautiful……
Fantastic walk, fantastic day…….
We decided ice cream was in order back in Golden……pretty sure we burned enough calories to deserve it…!!!
Last night in Golden….back to Cochrane tomorrow for some more shenanigans with the offspring on her next couple of days off…..
….and actually kind of looking forward to the drive back through the mountains with a clear view this time…….
Our first trip through the mountains….on a very smokey day. A new fire started up just off the Trans-Canada at Dead man flats yesterday and shrouded Calgary and the mountains in a veil of smoke.
We drove by the spot on the way to Golden…2 hours 42 minutes said Google.
There were hints of shadowy mountains behind the curtain as we made our way through the Rockies. Interestingly, despite the steep mountain roads, up and down, fuel economy was actually about a third to a half better than hauling across Saskatchewen…..
Stop on the road………..
The winding roads promised great beauty….on another day….!!!!
The last part before Golden, Kicking Horse Pass is under construction with a plan to make it 4 lane……the roadworks there make for a steep winding…impossible seeming corners with 30 feet of shiny trailer behind you…it was a hairy scary ride……and I was not even driving (thanks Scott..!!)
The campground, Golden Municipal campground was easy to find, easy to back in to, and very handy for the walk to the downtown. I can’t believe I did not take any pictures of the campground……Scott took one of the river behind it…
The rail line runs along the far bank of the river….those big freight trains with hundreds of carriages..they are NOT quiet in the night……….
Wapta Fallstrail is up a little logging road, sharp right turn off the trans-Canada..!!!
Well groomed fairly busy trail…..
Tuesday was forecast to rain all day….so the plan was to go to Radium Springs where raining all day would not be a problem…but it would also, hopefully, clear the smoke enough to give us a good day on Wed for Lake Louise.
Radium Provincial Park…..the drive was a bit more revealing having had a bit of rain overnight….( https://www.hotsprings.ca/radium )
Little puffs of misty clouds sitting on the mountains and some actual sky…!!!
Radium park is a very impressive entrance…
They open the doors for the springs at 11…but people start queuing way before that….. according to staff it can often be an hour wait……No pictures in the spring water……but it was……fabulous….!!!!
The temperature of the water is…well just spot on….and quite perfect with a little bit of rain falling on your head…….the minerals in the water make your nerve endings tingle…..in a very warm pleasant kind of way……..Im not sure how long we stayed in…..but if we lived anywhere close to here….we would be here a lot….!!! ($7.46 adult entry fee..!!)
From here it was over to Invermere to try and get lunch…..Invermere is mostly closed Mondays and Tuesdays…..so no dice….nice little town tho….
More drizzly rain and more forecast for overnight so we returned to Golden with high hopes for clear skies tomorrow for the turquoise lakes……
We are definitely going back to Tillebrook, Dinosaur Park and Patricia…..might even do the Patricia rodeo…..we will see.
In the meantime we are getting perilously close to Calgary and meeting up with the youngest offspring (and off loading her belongings….!!!)
Harvest Host no. 4 is High River Brewing ( https://hrbrewco.com/ ) a very pleasant little craft brewer in High River, just south of Calgary. They don’t serve food themselves…but they have afood truck arrive through the evening, and menus for local restaurants/eateries that deliver. They also have live music going on……very friendly little place.
Best part of it tho……got my kid for a visit…!!!!
We had secured a spot at Springhill RV for the following night……so pulled the trailer through Calgary..(not for the timid or feint of heart )…..
Spring Hill is on top of a ridge where normally there would be a full view of the mountains……there was a grass fire at Calgary airport …and a wildfire just off the Trans-Canada at Dead \mans Flats so the view was mostly smoke….!!!
Spring Hill RV park, Cochrane Alberta
One night here and then off to Golden…..and our first drive through the mountains.
Just shy of Banff is Dead Mans Flats….and the scene of the previous days wildfire right by the road….
Almost missed it cos we were not expecting it…..black skeletal trees.
The parks have these neat animal bridges to protect the various wild creatures that live here from the highway….
The view was…..limited……
I’m sure there are mountains up there somewhere…..and I’m sure they are very impressive….!!!
You know its a scary hill when there’s a truck run off lane for trucks with brake failure…!!!!
The drive passes through Banff National Park, Kootenay National Park, and Yoho National Park……even through the smoke its pretty spectacular…..
Yoho Valley
It is most certainly NOT a boring drive…….and thank heavens for trailer brakes, engine brakes and a driver with nerves of steel….(not me…!!)
Just before Golden is the Kicking Horse Pass….which is currently the subject of a huge construction project…to widen it from two to four lanes….lots of massive equipment……concrete barriers narrowing the road…and some twisty corners (too scared to scream by this point…!!)
We made it to Golden…….not the most spectacular campground……but it was handy for the jumping off to the various spots over the next few days.
Bronagh and her friend Ajay joined us on the campsite for four days of hikes exploration and fun.
Harvest Host time again at (https://www.badlandsmercantile.com/ ) Badlands Mercantile……….fabulous stop……admittedly we picked it for its proximity to Dinosaur park……( as we were booked in to Tillebrook Provincial park on the 11th…but we could not get the 10th so Harvest host was the solution again )
The lady in the store, Darlene, is a delight ….she used to work for Alberta Parks and is a wealth of both local and historical information.
First stop, as per Darlene was the Patricia Hotel. It has been there they reckon since at least 1909……it was originally the stagecoach stop before it became the railroad hotel when they built the railroad.
Decor has to be seen to be believed…..tripadvisor describes it as prairie style……but I would argue….that its not really a style thing…it is the honest, salt of the earth personality of the place. There is a whole wall of hand painted motifs , everything form bucking horses to buffalo running…..a huge stuffed buffalo head and all the tables have branding marks….we asked the hostess what it meant…’Oh’ she said…’the cowboys all came in one night and had a branding party…….they all marked the tables with their cattle brands’…..now tell me that doesn’t sound like a party and a half…….
We are in Alberta …so we ordered steaks…one bison, and the bacon wrapped tenderloin…..Ten minutes later the hostess came out with two large steaks…raw….on plates….and pointed us in the direction of the grill…!!!!!
Cook your own steak, texas toast, baked potato soup and salad…$32…..
A walk around the town of Patricia doesn’t take long…!!!
The big event in town is the Patricia rodeo…labour day weekend in September…we might have to plan going back there for it…..small town…..terrific cast of characters……
Darlene’s next recommendation was Dinosaur Provincial Park…..and that we should stop at the lookout just before the entrance to the park.
Dinosaur Park….though the name may seem disneyesque and uninspiring……is a UNESCO heritage site…….it’s the place where they excavated the fossils for museums worldwide…….and wow…I mean wow…it is a landscape that really must be seen to be fully comprehended…..
Imagine the impact on your brain the first time you stood beside Niagara Falls…this is tenfold the impact…….
The badlands..are like inverted mountains….you drive across a flat landscape…..big wide horizon…big big sky….and then…..stop at the lookout by the entrance to the park (as Darlene told us to do….) and you have the whole panoramic vista of the park…mountains sunk below grade…….its breathtaking…
I know I keep saying wow…….but we have been experiencing a lot of wows…and we are not at the mountains yet….
The deer was completely nonplussed by our presence……she looked over at us and continued munching even though we stood and watched her for a while. She was so close and so unconcerned…..
We did a hike through the valley floor, but we still had to get back and move the trailer to our next stop at Tillebrook Provincial park (https://www.travelalberta.com/ca/listings/tillebrook-provincial-park-1907/) about 30 kms away……we could not get a spot at Dinosaur park…which turned out to be a good thing because its about 3 to 4 degrees hotter in the valley….so Tillebrook was another win..!!!
After setting up we whipped over to the Brooks aqueduct (again…Darlene) another amazing structure……it was built between 1912 and 1914 as part of an irrigation system to bring water to southeastern Alberta…..its an extraordinary piece of engineering, when it was completed it was the longest concrete structure in the world.
There is a section where it crosses the railway….but it was not high enough for trains to fit under it…so they built a massive siphon under the railway…..its really quite something……The modern version also has a siphon….pretty clever…..!!!
The more modern replacement irrigation system is right next to it…we followed it down to the siphon and found these little creatures….
Muskrats according to google lens…….funny little beasties….
Scott……of course……….had to look it up….apparently they taste……”muddy”..!!!!
Second day of Dinosaur park we drove up from Tillebrook, totally the campground to stop at for the Dino’s. It’s quiet, all the sites are pull through and beautifully designed. Also very handy for Brooks which has everything you might need.
Along the road we just had to stop at this derelict gas station/gift store…..complete with its own Albertosaurus ( T-Rex’s smaller Canadian cousin ). There was something compelling about the dinosaur running towards the mailboxes…….
We picked out a series of smaller hikes to run together for this second day so we could do the Coulee lookout………
the path of the fossil hunters……………
There are three fossil sites that have had structures built around them to preserve them.
and the cottonwood flats……and it was hot……and dry……
The scale of the landscape is hard to communicate in pictures……
The cottonwoods…honestly …I had never heard of them before…….strange and lovely trees. The bark is actually soft like cotton flannel, quite surprising. They only reproduce successfully if the conditions are right at exactly the right time……and they self prune….by cutting of circulation to peripheral limbs when the conditions are dry……the big one in the pictures they reckon is 200 years old…….I know the sequoias are going to be impressive…but these were a lovely little surprise…..
Tillebrook was rife with these little gopher like creatures that looked kind of like squirrels without the fluffy tails….we were calling them ground squirrels until we looked them up….and found out that they are, in fact……ground squirrels……!!!
Left our shoes out overnight and the little dudes ate our shoelaces……….!!!!
Next stop High River Brewing….Harvest host again….but the first one, for us, that is a brewery…!!!
You can tell when you cross from Manitoba in to Saskatchewan because all of a sudden the road surface has been replaced sometime this century… A bit like driving out of a torrential rainstorm to suddenly completely dry roads……..did I mention…the roads in Manitoba are…..awful…….!!!
Oh Grenfell.. What a marvelous little town. Population posted at 1099….
Grenfell Main Street, Saturday afternoon
Makes Wawa seem like a thriving metropolis……and also no internet…and no wifi anywhere in town…
The campground is close to the railroad… Actually… Everything in town…. Is close to the railroad…..it wasn’t noisy cos they don’t move very fast….and they are very very long….
About 100 yards from the campground….
The local museum has scale models of grain elevators outside it. And the largest building in town is the grain elevator… By the railroad..
Grenfell Museum
We had booked the site online….and when we got there…..we were told by a random guy who was there with his dog….that because it is a municipal campground….you have to go downtown to the town office to pay…….( I forgot to take a picture before we left….but there is an honesty box on the wall by the showers for after hours check in and payment………!!!! this is such a charming little town…..)
So to the town office…….a block and a half from the campground….cos its not a big town…!!!
Now just over 2,600kms from home…the truck is in need of an oil change….and being in town for a couple of days…we think it might be possible to swing a spot at a local auto shop……”oh yes “says the girl in the town office….”you could try Slumps next door”…..(everything is next door in Grenfell..!!)
So….off we trot…..to this…..
Slumps…!!!..inside were about eight guys sitting round a coffee table….drinking coffee……….the response….no…they were way too busy to do an oil change……!!!
New experience…in Saskatchewan or in Grenfell anyway…the hardware store also sells liquor wine and beer…..!!!
Grenfell Co-op…….
Sunday morning I walked down to the laundromat……both it…and the town were deserted…..!!..But the laundromat was …an experience…..
It was like a 50’s film set…….those dryers were phenomenal,,,,,50 cents for about a half hour…….can’t go wrong with that…!!!!
While I was away doing laundry….back at camp the truck and trailer were having Manitoba removed……both were thick in dust and mud……
All clean and sparkly again……..
Back on the road to Swift Current……
Now…the big learning module for Saskatchewan….other than the fact that it is not flat……its a bit more like the Yorkshire Dales…..only…if someone copied and pasted the dales at least a dozen times….thats more like Saskatchewan…..and the road feels like its all uphill….!!!!or at least our fuel consumption indicated that it was….
Anyway…as you cross the middle……you Canadians probably already knew this…but it was fascinating to us…Chaplin…about halfway across sits on Lake Chaplin…which is the second largest salt water lake in Canada…….all the little lakes and pools are white around the edge from the water evaporating off and leaving the salt…(sodium sulphate) which is then used to make things like laundry detergent.
It is also a habitat for tens of thousands of shore birds……which is an extraordinary sight right in the middle of this enormous land mass.
Swift Current….again…not a big town….but such a very friendly place…….best curry house we have found on this side of the Atlantic…..
If you are ever in Swift Current stop and eat here…!!!
They took my favourite curry…dahl mahkani…and added butter fried paneer to it…..heavenly…..
Arrived at the campground to this……..!!!!
Luckily for us…our name was on the door….!!!
We had much better luck with the oil change……two minutes from the campground….when Scott came back I thought he’d forgotten something…….but that was how fast they got the job done…….no slumping here….!!!!
As soon as you cross on the trans Canada… The grades are gone… But the road surfaces… tho relatively straight… are far from even… Cat started complaining straight away… Bumpy…. Head wobblingly bumpy. With frequent dips that make the whole truck and trailer porpoise… Scarily…!!
No pictures, part cos it was looong straight roads….prairie flat…..and partly cos the vibration was so bad I’m not convinced there would be anything in focus..!!!
Heading slightly north from the trans Canada to Wasagaming, and Riding Mountain national park… GPS turned us left off Manitoba highway 6…onto the MB 227..(a main trunk road on the map…) gravel… Thick loose washboard gravel… 55 km of gravel… Not wide enough to turn around… We managed to find an alternate that GPS told us was 24 minutes slower… Google was not looking at the road we were looking at…. Manitoba ministry of transport sense of humor speed limit 100kmph…we reached a top speed of about 39kmph on it… Mostly at about 25..we still had to do 19 km of shaking, rattling, sliding and slithering… To the 430 south…. A road that was likely paved in 1930 something… And had not been touched since……but at least it was not gravel…..
Even back onto trans Canada… No big sighs of relief… Very scared that 10 north to Wasagaming might be gravel… Fortunately not… But rough, rough roads.
Riding Mountain National Park. Our first National Park….waiting in line to register………Urgh…bear trap….do they bait them with little pots of honey ?!!!!!
Bear trap sitting by the entrance to the park……
The site we booked online….which was the only open spot in the park for the dates we wanted……was daunting…..Had to be the narrowest spot in the park….but we got Xolo backed in…..go team Harvey/Macfarlane….Always use walkie talkies, bellowing at each other is never going to end well!!!
The people in the other sites came over to congratulate us on getting in…they were not sure we would make it (can’t say I was convinced either…!!)
Editors Aside. For our UK readers to give you an idea of the size of the park, it’s 3000sq/km. All of Fife and Lothian together would be the same area. Hence you can imagine traveling to other areas of the park can be a time consuming endeavour.
First order of business…Scott had spotted information for the Bison enclosure…… ( https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mb/riding/nature/animals/mammals/bison) and the best times to actually see the bison are either early morning or evening before the light goes…..no time like the present…we hopped back in to the truck for the 45 minute drive over to the enclosure…….anywhere else in the world it would have been a 20 minute drive I’m sure…..but they do like these gravel roads in Manitoba…!!!
Manitoba is a dust bowl….not because its dry…or because of the smoke……but because all the roads are gravel and the speed limit on them is 100 clicks……we made it to about 60….its like driving in thick fresh snow….!!!!
Anyway…the Buffalo enclosure…..is at Lake Audy……..man oh man it is beautiful…..
We stopped in a spot that was signposted as …the dam……and spotted a beaver…second picture almost……almost caught him doing a flip and dive….it is imprinted on my memory but unfortunately not on camera…I still like the image…!!!
We drove around the park first…hoping for a glimpse of this herd of 50 beasts…..Nothing out in the open, nothing on the road. SOooooo we stopped by the observation platform and walked from the truck was parked to where the steel gated raised observation platform is……..halfway there…we hear some branches snapping and rustling in the undergrowth………which spurred a hastier walk to the platform…….
We got there and closed the gate just in time to see these ginormous beasts trundling across the path we had just walked down…..
So….now we are trapped at the observation platform…as we are now surrounded by huuuge bison grazing.
we got the whole show…it was amazing….bonus was the barn swallow nests full of babies in the roof of the observation platform…
Awesome side trip…….and on the way back to the park we spotted a big multi point buck in the field…..and a bald eagle soaring across the road….I’m not quick enough on the camera …sorry…!!!
Bald Hill trail.
This Bald Hill trail looked like the most interesting one in the park……and it started out looking pretty good…nicely carved out trail……(we even spotted another black bear on the road on the drive over to the East gate of the park to start the hike….not quick enough on the camera again….)
The East gate, it turns out, is the original gate to the park…….
For a National Park which was fully booked……we spent a lot of the time feeling like there was nobody else in the world…..even travelling the roads….very little other traffic….actually ..in Manitoba generally…the roads were very quiet….(other than the bone rattling vibration of actually driving on the roads of this province…!!!)
The start of the trail….
It was humid in the forest……and very smokey…….
We decided to do the loop clockwise…..which turned out to be a veeery good decision….it was quite the climb…and along the edge of the ravine…..there was lots of evidence on the trail of mountain bikes…which just stops my heart thinking about it….!!!
About the mid point is the Bald Hill loop…
Need I say more….!!!
Its a nice little loop…the Bald Hill loop……but the observation deck was not a place I found particularly comfortable…..its called Bald Hill….because…well its bald….cos its all loose scree…
Admittedly…the view was fantastic…..360 degrees of breathtaking spectacular beauty…even with the smoke haze…….but I was still pretty glad to get back down……
From there….back down the other side of the trail was pretty tame….but as all trails do…a bit of down…then back up again…then a bit of down….and so it goes…….it was a long way….our longest hike so far….but so worth it……..
What a great day……..and the result of that hike was a realisation that we need to pull the trigger on the Alltrails app…….first order of business when I get back to a solid internet connection…..
Next day was a bit of recovery…so time to take the bikes out around Clear Lake from Wasagaming….and try out the newly purchased Alltrails app…!!!
Glad we came…….dreading what the other side of Manitoba looks like re pavement…!!!
Everything in the bed of the truck was coated in a thick layer of dust even with the bed cover tightly in place…..from the gravel roads…..the truck and trailer…..absolutely caked in mud……problem is…none of the parks will let you wash the truck or the trailer….poor Xolo…!!!
Well…next stop is Sasketchewan….so we will see what that brings…..
Packing up from Rainbow falls we headed through Thunder bay along our last stretch of North Superior. I’d like to say we checked out Thunder Bay…I have had several recommendations that we go to the Terry Fox memorial…..but the risk of heading into town with the big silver bullet seemed foolhardy without knowing the road.
Discretion being the better part of valour…we headed for Neebing…just south of the city to our first Harvest Host experience….https://harvesthosts.com/
Slate River Dairy ( https://www.slateriverdairy.com/ )…..nice level gravel parking lot…very friendly…….bought some milk butter and cheese…all quite excellent….
After what was also…correct me if I’m wrong Scott (Editors note, you are correct ) ….our first boondock night….back on the road headed for Wabigoon Lake RV park…just slightly east of Dryden.
Editors quick aside. Before we left, the large family sized Instant Pot was sold and we picked up the weenie 3qt size. When boondocking or dry camping ie. no services we are are on battery/inverter power. The Instant Pot only draws 800W so we can have a proper meal without heating up the trailer and let the sun recharge us.
Wabigoon Lake is approximately the halfway point on the journey from home to Bronagh in Calgary….1,781 kms from Paris…..
The road becomes slightly less challenging….and it was a day of considerably less smoke…so we actually got some sky…!!!
Wabigoon Lake RV Park is about 20 minutes east of Dryden….
yes…Scott took this picture…it is not a stock photo….!!!
Very friendly little park…..right on the Trans Canada….we stopped for a couple of days…good showers, good laundry, good fishing and full service pull through sites for $35 per night… (http://www.wabigoonlakervpark.ca/)
Some one..(pointing no elbows ) caught a pike…….not sure what else to do with it so it got tossed back in…..apparently they are not that great for eating anyway…!!
In the lake …the vegetation you see is mostly wild rice……the guy at the park said another couple of weeks before its ready for harvesting….!!!
Side trip to Oxdrift Farmers market on saturday morning…we had high hopes……..and met some nice people…….but I guess there is not a lot of produce happening north of Superior yet…!!!
Sunday it turned out there was a Dryden Road Runners get together in the park….
set up at Wabigoon…..
The local ‘convenience’ store in the town of Wabigoon is called Green Achers ….the first five times I looked at it I saw Green Archers…but no……we went in for milk one day…and had never seen the vast range of hostess old Dutch chips products…everything from jerky to nachos…products we had never seen or imagined…in the smallest, most “rustic” store you could possibly imagine……Oh…and it was also the local LCBO…….!!!!! The owner was serving the person in front of us and was gone for a while. Upon his return he was soaked to the elbows and handed the customer a couple of bags of minnows. Full service indeed.
Green Achers…I just missed the LCBO sign…!!!
Next stop Manitoba……..Stony hill farm…. our second harvest host. A jaunt north of the Trans Canada….but part of a loop to take us to Wasagaming and Riding Mountain National Park.
Stony Hill Farm.… ( https://stonyhillfarm.ca/) Beautiful place, lovely host……..and a super little store with fresh produce, a variety of organic stoneground flours, and a freezer full of bison and organic pork and beef sausage, steaks and ground meat.
Brenda, the host, is a grain expert ………so long discussions about sourdough ensued…….a child of our starter was given residence……..I do hope Brenda has success with the starter and the sourdough bread blog post from this site…we very much appreciated her thoughtful packaging of fresh greens already picked and washed…ready for campers….
Stony Hill farm has a large flat parking area close to the farmhouse, but Brenda gave us the option of pulling off further up the drive onto a flat area of grass…….which we did……(it was a little nerve wracking pulling off between the trees…but we survived…and it was well worth it….Thanks again Brenda…!!!
This spot is a bit out of the way…but we would recommend the spot for sure….
Back on the road again……..heading for Wasagaming……
OsteoPraxis on the road 