The Road Goes On…

Category: Alberta

  • Canada 2017 Trip Summary

    Coming home gave us the feeling as though we are living between two worlds. Before we enter back into our everyday life with all its responsibilities we look back on six weeks of excitement and adventure. We’re happy we wrote the blog so that we don’t forget all the things we saw and experienced.

    What worked well:

    Roadtrek 190 Popular: We love our Roadtrek! It is small enough to go virtually anywhere and has everything you need – kitchen, bathroom, fridge, furnace, air conditioning, etc.

    InReach Explorer+ Satellite Communicator: We bought one of these units to be able to communicate with friends and in case of emergency in areas where there is no cellular service. It worked like a charm and has the ability now to request weather reports as well.

    Public Mobile: We were travelling through areas where our cellular provider (Freedom Mobile) doesn’t have their own network so instead of paying roaming charges we chose to get a Public Mobile pay-as-you-go subscription with 6GB of data for the 6 weeks we were on the road. Public Mobile uses the TELUS network which covers western Canada very well.

    Freedom Mobile’s Unlimited US Roaming. We’ve been Freedom Mobile customers for a number of years now and their price just can’t be beat. For $15 a month we had unlimited voice calling, texting and 1GB of data for the days we were in Alaska. This allowed us to keep in touch and look up things on the road.

    Good Sam Membership: This RV club membership cost $25 a year and give you 10% discount at member campsites.  It definitely paid for itself.

    Garmin GPS: We love our Garmin nuvi 2689LMT GPS system.

    Allstays Camp and RV App: We use this app on our iPads all the time to look for campgrounds. It shows the location of campgrounds and gives information about their rating, facilities and distance from your current location.

    Visitor Centres: These are always a source of great information and have invaluable knowledge of local conditions and opportunities.

    Here’s a map of the entire trip. This is an image grab from Google Earth as it wasn’t possible to use the entire GPS track on a live map.

  • Lake Louise, AB to Moose Jaw, SK

    After a luxurious breakfast, with heavy hearts we looked out of our hotel room window at the Chateau Lake Louise one last time and departed eastward.

    The second farewell was to the Rocky Mountains which very quickly turned to plains. The day was mostly driving with only a stop for lunch in Calgary at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  We were very determined to make it to Saskatchewan and we did. We made it to Moose Jaw and noticed some attractions that enticed us. Maybe something for tomorrow morning?

  • Lake Louise, AB

    Ruth woke up not feeling well so we started the morning slowly. She spent most of the day lying down and resting and Martin went for a nice hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.

    Along the way he saw a number of people rock climbing, two grizzly bears from a distance, and tons of chipmunks.

    The hike is 5.3 km one way and had a 370 meter elevation gain.

    No map today as the van didn’t move.

  • Jasper, AB to Lake Louise, AB

    The night was not as calm as expected. Pepsi was also a paid guest of the Fairmount but she made it very clear that she preferred sleeping in the van over the five star Fairmount. After this battle was settled we had a great night sleep and Pepsi was happy to go for a walk in the morning.

    After breakfast we left for Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway. We stopped several times to take in the amazing beauty and visited the Athabasca Falls.

    Later on in the afternoon we stopped at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre and hiked a short distance to the glacier. There are a number of markers that show where the toe of the glacier had been in previous years and it became very obvious that global warming has taken a huge toll on this glacier.

    We arrived at the Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise and our van was too high to fit into the parking garage. Therefore it was ‘valet’ parked right out in front of the hotel along with four other RVs.

    When we had made the reservation we had also included Pepsi as one of the guests and when we arrived in our room we found a welcome gift for her.

    After the issues with her sleeping in Jasper we decided to have her sleep in the van again.

    We had a nice swim and trip to the steam room followed by a cheese fondue at the Wallser Stube restaurant.

    Lake Louise is an exceptionally beautiful location and we decided to try and stay for another night. This took a bit of work, but Jeff, our front desk agent, pulled out all the stops to make it happen. Yay!

     

  • Prince George, BC to Jasper, AB

    The morning started out with a swim, whirlpool and sauna at the Prince George Aquatic Center. We were refreshed and felt fit for our drive to Jasper. Despite the rain we made it in good time and didn’t see any evidence of the forest fires burning in BC.

    On our way to Jasper we saw our first Elk feeding by the side of the road. It is close to mating season and the signs said to stay away from the animals as they may charge. Remember, these animals have big horns. Nonetheless, a number of tourists felt the need to take selfies with the Elk or otherwise get within 5 feet of them. Hopefully everyone made it back in the car safely.

    In Jasper we stayed at the Fairmount which has log cabins right beside the lake. Ruth had received a teaching award four years ago and one part of the gifts were certificates for a stay at a Fairmount hotel. Since we hadn’t used them we thought this was the time and place to be pampered a bit. Quite a difference from Walmart the night before.

  • Grande Prairie, AB to Tetsa River, BC

    As we left our campground we drove by a tractor trailer accident. Highway 44 up to just outside of our campground is a 4 lane divided highway but it ends and takes a left turn into Grande Prairie. This truck driver must have either missed his turn or fallen asleep and ended up running off the road. A great wake up call for us, especially because this was going to be a driving day for us.

    We stopped at the Costco to gas up the van and also pick up some bottled water. The water costs $3.39 plus a deposit of $4.00 and a $1.39 Enviro fee.

    We passed many oil and gas wells and associated businesses and a large number of Golf courses on our way to Dawson Creek where the Alaska highway begins.

    There is a turn off to Kiskatinaw Provincial Park about 27 kms in. Here one can drive a 10 km section of the old Alaska highway and can cross the historic Kiskatinaw Bridge, the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska highway that is still in use today.

    The beginning of the Alaska Highway still had lots of canola fields and oil and gas wells but soon it became more forested with hills and curvy roads, still with oil and gas wells although those eventually also ended.

    As of Fort Nelson we drove through mountainous areas with steep ascents and descents of up to 10% and tight curves. We enjoyed the stunning scenery and were warned to look out for animals by the many caution signs. Sure enough, we were very lucky to see a mother moose and her calf crossing the road ahead of us. What a sight!

    We were ready to call it a day and stayed at the Tetsa River Services and Campground. One of the allures was the promise of the best cinnamon buns ever for breakfast. After driving 720 kms, that sealed the deal!

  • Vegreville, AB to Grande Prairie, AB

    We had an early morning that started with brushing Pepsi and de-fluffing Martin and the van.

    As a treat, we went to the nearby Tim Hortons for breakfast and some planning and getting excited about our imminent arrival in the Yukon.

    Our first stop was a few kilometres down the highway in Mundare with its large sausage monument honouring the Stawnichy’s Meat Processing plant. SMP has been making sausages in the area since 1959 and we sampled and purchased several different items.

    By now it was 10AM, and the Ukrainian Heritage Village a few kilometres down the road was just opening. This reconstruction of what life was like for early Ukrainian settlers includes actual period houses from locations in the area and interpretive staff that interact with you as if you were actually in that time period. This was informative, a lot of fun, and a unique experience. We spent several hours there learning what the life of early Ukrainian settlers was like. We talked to a blacksmith, teachers, and a farmer and his wife.

    We saw some chickens, but the star of the farm animals was a very smart pig that used its snout to open and drop the lid of its feed box to rattle the food into its trough.

    Time for Ukrainian lunch under a big shady tree followed by a serious stretch of highway to make up our daily quota of kilometres.

    Our campground tonight is in Grande Prairie and features what looks like a number of oil and gas workers.

    Our restaurant at the campground was right next to a garage where honey was being harvested and we got to sample fresh honey straight from the comb. Yummy!

    Guess what? One more Ukrainian meal to finish the day prepared by Irina, who came to Canada from the Ukraine only three years ago.

  • Manitou Beach, SK to Vegreville, AB

    After a good planning session of our route to come, we departed towards Edmonton rather late in the morning. It was mostly a driving day and the canola fields gradually turned to bright yellow canola fields with scattered black oil and gas wells.

    Towards the end of the day we visited the Alberta Visitor Information Center in Lloydminster where Jonathan, our competent and very nice associate, hooked us on the Ukrainian history and food in the area.

    Our first stop was the “Cheesiry”, an artisan cheese making operation. Their boutique was now permanently closed, but they had an honour fridge in the barn where one could purchase cheese.

    Unfortunately, after deciding what we wanted, we looked into the fridge and found it void of cheese, save for one small piece. There was, however, a fairly substantial amount of cold, hard, cash.

    The next stop was Vegreville, the site of the world’s largest Ukrainian egg at 25.7 feet in length, constructed in 1975.

    We were looking forward to having dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant that had advertised in the regional tourist information brochures, only to find it was closed and for sale. The city campground office was also already closed for the evening and while it had a mail slot for self-registration, there weren’t any forms available to actually register on. Walmart parking lot to the rescue!

     

  • Canada 2017 Overview