Category: Travel posts

Finally…the 16th of September rolled around…..time to leave Under 8 Flags…….

…..and take possession of our new abode.

The house met, if not exceeded all expectations from its’ MLS listing and subsequent virtual tour…… The purchase was made, and the beginnings of a new home base was underway.

Epic drive no. 1 was the journey from the Bay of Fundy to Milk River to view the property. No. 2 was for the retrieval of all our worldly goods from storage in Brantford.

We had explored various options for moving the goods, and because all of them realistically involved us actually being there to either supervise the loading or do the loading ourselves….the most sensible option became renting a cargo trailer locally in Alberta, hauling it to Ontario…..filling it…and then hauling it home.

Our most excellent Realtor, Ken Just of Century 21 Realty in Taber AB generously offered the use of his ‘billboard’ trailer. We gratefully took him up on that offer.

Taber (corn capital of Canada…!!!) is just under an hour from our new home…..so the journey began with picking up the trailer in Taber.

Monday morning had not yet quite arrived when we set out on the first section of our drive, 12 hours approx to Jamestown ND. The downside of driving due east….is the first part of the morning is driving directly into the sunrise….beautiful….but not the greatest for visibility.

Crossing at Coutts just after 6am was uneventful. “What’s in the trailer?”….”Absolutely nothing”….”well ok then….have a nice day…!!”….is pretty much how it went..!! To describe the Coutts/Sweetgrass border crossing as low key would be an understatement…!!!!

The midwest,Montana, North Dakota is not particularly populated…and the long straight easterly road has one thinking often of self driving cars…..!!!! It gets pretty exciting to see a curve appear on the GPS several miles ahead…!!!

We hit Jamestown in the dark….and left again in the dark of the morning……so we can’t really offer a comment on the town…!!!

Next stop ….10 hours this time…..was to Rockford Illinois. In Rockford we had the inspiration that pizza was the ideal “road food’….easy to store, easy to eat in transit……and it was pretty good pizza too….!!!

We left Rockford and struck out for Paris. We had not calculated traversing Chicago in the morning rush hour…….a bit hairy….but we survived…!! Indiana and Michigan are pretty much those horrid ridged concrete highways and roadworks…upon roadworks…….argh…!!!

Crossing back into Ontario at the Ambassador Bridge…should be the last time we need this blooming blinking arrivcan app thing……

Arriving back with J+M…our most gracious and ever patient hosts is always a pleasure….and a fun time to catch up.

We just had to stop to pick up coffees at the new Detour coffee location at the Wincey Mills in Paris.

After a great feed and a good nights’ sleep…it was time to tackle the storage unit. At 10x 11 ft…..it demonstrated a mastery of Jenga, stuffing everything efficiently into the limited space available.

The next trick was a transferring it all to a storage unit on wheels, balanced, with an outside chance of most of it arriving still recognizable……and still being able to pull it……(especially over the mountains in Northern Ontario.)

After a bit of juggling…..most of it was in….!!!

Finally the unit was empty…….

The first part of the return journey (we had to go back through Canada owing to the quantity of alcoholic beverage stored in the black boxes..!!) , and the hardest part…or maybe just the scariest part….was crossing Toronto……mostly scary because we were uncertain as to how well (or badly) this thing was going to tow loaded…….

First stop was Goodmans Motel in Espanola……..not the worst place we have ever stayed…….right on the highway…..so handy for getting right back on the road.

So….without incident…and having worked out that 2 to 3 hours of driving is enough at a time…….switching out regularly made the long driving days much more do-able ( when we did the drive from Fundy we pretty much drove ’til too tired to go on…..then switched…….not the recommended method…!!)

Next stop Thunder Bay. That drive from Sault St Marie up the side of Lake Superior, and across the North shore is so spectacular….and terrifying taking those down grades with a loaded 20 foot cargo trailer…..!!! But all negotiated without incident…

The Super 8 in Thunder Bay was….OK…..the most fun here was the truck driver that blocked us in the parking lot when he came in at 3am…….took an hour to wake him up to get him moved so we could continue……not the most relaxing start to the morning…!!!

Brandon Manitoba….last motel stop before home…actually the best hotel stop on the trip so far…!!!

Then the final leg, headed home……….

Saskatchewan is not the most exciting province to drive across….!!!

Because Milk River is about south in Alberta as you can go…the route took us off the Trans Canada and through some great little towns like Seven Persons, and Manyberries…….(Editor, if I discovered a country and could name places…oh boy what fun)

Pulling in the driveway felt so much like coming home………We don’t remember ever feeling so very comfortable and at home so quickly in an entirely new location.

The next morning, the neighbors greeted us with a visit…!!!

We were very pleased to realise that Milk River is actually only about 90 minutes from Waterton Lakes…..makes it kind of our local park…!!!

The drive from Waterton to Milk River for our last couple of days before the house closed, is a straight drive east, just slightly north of the Alberta/Montana border. We stopped back at Under 8 flags campground again…..a very handy spot for the border….and our house..!!!

To avert some impatient thumb twiddling we took the drive to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park.

This park is another gem in the Alberta Parks portfolio. I had tried to snag us a campsite there…but there was nothing available around the time we needed it. When we actually saw the campground…we were even more disappointed to not have found a spot there. It’s a really lovely campground, right down on the Milk River, surrounded by big old cottonwood trees…..

This park has a really fantastic visitor centre with lots of information on the history ,geology, flora and fauna of the park.

As you walk down from the visitor centre you enter this ‘alien ‘ landscape of hoodoos…….it’s amazing…hard to believe all a naturally occurring phenomenon.

The Hoodoo trail has been set up as an interpretive walk. ……and it’s been really well done. As you start the walk, there are little booklets that explain the various lookout points/points of interest along the trail.

Even though this is another badlands landscape, it is completely different again from all the other we have seen. (Dinosaur Park, Horseshoe Canyon Trail, Badlands National Park SD )

This park has quite the array of petroglyphs…

Weaving through the rocks, climbing the carved stairs, wowing at the views around every corner.

It’s not the longest hike we have done…but its richness is unparalleled.

The rock formations are incredibly beautiful….

…and the added glimpses of the river and the valley all add to the magical quality of the park….

There were many signs warning that we were visiting during snake migrating season. We had a few sightings…the first was at one of the lookouts, I turned a corner and found this chap sunning himself on a rock…!!

He was amazing…..from the ‘shushing sound he made as he wove across the rock…to his incredible camouflage once he was in the undergrowth. You could see him when he moved, but if he was still….even though you knew exactly where he was…it was like he just became invisible…..incredible. (no rattling…!!)

This area along the Milk River was a wintering spot for Prairie Peoples. Both because it is warmer by the river, and because there is an abundance of berries and wildlife.

Further along the trail there are more pictures. The big one at the end of the trail is an extremely cool battle scene…complete with the showers of bullets from the European invaders….

It’s a huge panel of carving with intricate detail of both sides of the battle….very cool.

On the path back, we met the next prairie rattlesnake…I almost stepped on this big sucker as he made his way across the trail…. scared the living……*&%^$ out of me……LOL…..

It’s such an incredible place…we are very fortunate to have this on our doorstep. ( 41 kms from our house..!!) We took note that they do night sky activities here…..we might have to check out some of their organised night sky observances thingummies….there is so little light pollution here that the night skies are quite something.

EXTRA PIX

For our second hike in Waterton, looking at Alltrails we had identified a couple that we were interested in for sure. This one, Lineham Falls, promised a spectacular waterfall.

…and at the trailhead there was also the promise of some wildlife excitement..!!

The trail itself was a fairly steady elevation gain up the side of the valley ….and it was the hottest day of the week. Due to Watertons extensive burn in 2017 the first part of the hike was totally exposed, and an eerie climb through the vast expanse of skeletal trees.

It was so hot, I had it figured out in my head as we were walking & climbing, that I had to get to at least 2.5km before bailing due to heat…so we had at least 5km in total……it was pretty brutal ..that first bit.

Fortunately, at about that 2.5km mark the trail enters into a chunk of preserved green forested land that escaped the burn. The relief as you enter out of the sun is surprisingly impactful.

We met a couple hiking back down at this junction…..they were more than happy to stop and chat before they headed back out into the sun soaked, parched section of the return journey.

It just never gets old, as you ascend in the mountain ranges, wherever they are, the view becomes more and more awe inspiring. There is something strangely satisfying about feeling sooooo small….

Just off the trail there is a smaller waterfall that you can climb down to. There are very handy tree roots ideally placed to make it a very easy climb. The temperature was a good few degrees cooler by the water.

We stayed for a bit just because it was so beautiful. The water was crystal clear…..it was like the perfect water feature to have in your back yard….better than tv..!!!

About a km from the end of the trail, we met a guy coming back who claimed to have spotted a Grizzly at the trail end. We continued with trepidation….we caught up to mother daughter hiking duo who were also a bit spooked by the possibility of a bear encounter.

There was no sign of any type of bear being there or having been there….and there was no cover and no berries in that particular area….so whether he was just having fun or really did spot one….we did not….!!

The Lineham waterfall is actually beyond the trail end sign. We continued to see if we could manage a better photo op ……..it became a bit of a scramble to the point where only the intrepid photographer scrambled the last 200 feet to get the pix.

The weather had suggested that there may be some rain in the afternoon, and as we drew closer to the falls we felt some drops and heard some loud thunder like booms. We decided in the end that the drops were actually from the falls as the wind had picked up, and the booms were the wind ‘cracking’ over the ridge.

After a stop for water and snacks, a bit of scenery appreciation and chat with our hike mates…..we turned around for the alternate viewpoint of the trail (otherwise known as the descent…!! the views going back down are what you didn’t see on the way up…!!). We met a ‘little buddy’ on the path…….we waited to make sure he made it to the greenery before we left ‘im to it.

Once we broke out of the trees it did not seem nearly as hot as the journey up….that may have been cos we were not working as hard tho…LOL….

Another very beautiful hike under our belts……..highly recommend this one……as long as they day is not too hot…!!

Extra Pix

After Patricia Rodeo (click here if you missed it), instead of going back to Cochrane and Springhill RV to wait for the clock to tick round to house possession day..!!!!…We thought a trip back to Waterton Lakes National Park seemed like a good idea. We skipped by this park last year on our way through and with a little time to fill, it fit the bill….

There were no sites inside the park for the time frame we needed…but just outside the boundary…I found Crooked Creek RV park. It was a really lovely little campground set around the meanders of Crooked Creek. The campground has really nice tenting sites in the middle around the creek, all of them level and tucked in behind willow hedges.

Crooked Creek campground sunset

It sits just 5 minutes drive from the main gate to the park. We decided that next time we are here….the Crooked Creek is probably a nicer, smaller, definitely more sheltered spot than the sites actually in the park…well at the townsite park anyway. Waterton also has another campground further into the back country, but it has not re-opened since the devastating wildfire that hit the park in 2017. ( click here for the fire map of just how much of the park burned…..from a lightening strike in BC..!!)

After our Sofa Mountain hike we headed in to the visitor centre ( I always have to go to see if they have a pin for my growing collection……they did..!!) On our way into the town of Waterton, a black bear ambled across the road and continued on North….curses to cell phone cameras at any distance….He was maybe about 80 to 100 feet in front of us… ( if you click on it, the picture will appear bigger )

We ended up doing more hikes than we thought we would here……it is a spectacularly beautiful park….and I think probably less busy than Banff and co further north.

The views come with the wildfire reality check. Its hard to imagine that the burn here was 5 years ago….when you see the charred skeletal trees it might have been last year. A reminder that growth, and regrowth take time here…..

The irony is, that it exposes more of the landscape….enhancing the breathtaking views….!!

We also had a surprise snowstorm………a bit of a shock in the morning……but what a sight on the mountains….