March 18, 2012 by Rae

I’ve Had Better Road Trippin’ Weather

Movin’ through the Rockies by way of the Crowsnest
These rocks are cursed, thrown up by some god
Who turned his back on a word called love— Paul Gross, ‘Angels’

I set off for Fort Steele at about 8:30 yesterday morning. I’d been following the forecast for a week and knew that I could expect some flurries through the Crowsnest Pass, but expected good roads since that forecast kept improving day by day. HA HA HA HA HA. By the time I hit Fernie, the roads were pretty slick. But I knew I was heading downhill from there and had a better chance of hitting good weather quickly if I kept going west than if I turned back east.

I was right. The first 50 or so klicks out of Fernie were abysmal but, without warning, the pavement became dry. It was really quite amazing. I pulled into a turn off to let an idiot race past me only to discover that half of the turnout had several inches of snow and the rest of it was bare! So it was smooth driving to Fort Steele from that point on.

I arrived at 12:45, only 40 minutes ‘late’ as per my GPS’ initial arrival estimate. So that just goes to show that slowing down for the conditions really doesn’t add that much time to a trip when compared to having to wait for a tow truck because you spun out into a ditch!

Donna wasn’t home from work when I arrived, so I had a few minutes to snuggle my favourite dog in the universe while Ken brewed me a very welcome cup of coffee. Donna arrived with vittles and we had lunch and gabbed for most of the afternoon.

We went into Cranbrook for dinner, all enjoying a very satisfactory dinner at ABC Country Restaurant. This is a BC chain of casual family restaurants; I ate at one in Victoria. Donna and Ken had been there a few times and had a few recommendations, including getting the roasted red-skin potatoes in lieu of baked or mashed. Yum!

Back at the Ark, we gabbed some more, then Ken retired for the night. Donna and I chatted into the wee hours of the morning as she ran down the battery on my iPad playing a game. It’s a good thing I brought it. I’m not sure how she would have entertained herself otherwise. 😉

Needless to say, we all got a very late and lazy start to today, which included watching two movies. I headed out around 3PM in good weather conditions and had nice dry pavement all the way through the Crowsnest. I thought I was home free. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

The sky became more swollen and angry the further east I drove and it finally erupted over Fort McLeod. I pretty much crawled for the last 50 klicks of the drive in near zero visibility with big fat snowflakes clinging to my windshield wipers. It’s still snowing and it’s sticking. Yuck! I am so glad to be home. I just checked the forecast and Lethbridge is under a winter storm warning.

Even though the driving conditions were less than ideal, I am so happy that I had a chance to visit with my friends before the spring migration. Based on today’s projections, we will see each other again sometime next summer…

Before I sign off, does anyone care to guess what the liquor store in Blairmore is meaning to say with this sign?!

October 23, 2011 by Rae

Weekend in the Kootenays

I just got in from a great weekend visiting with Donna and Ken who are staying at a lovely RV park just outside of Cranbrook, BC. This was my first time driving through the Crowsnest Pass area on my own and the four hour trip was much longer with just the radio for company, but still as beautiful!

The wind was terrible along the entire stretch out of the Prairies and into the foothills. I stopped in Pincher Creek for coffee and fuel and it was just as bad as the last time I was there.

Pincher Creek

I was glad to cease my white-knuckle driving by the time I hit the Crowsnest pass, and by Blairmore a few speckles of rain had replaced the wind. It was then a smooth and easy drive to Fort Steele, 10 minutes north of Cranbrook. I arrived around five and quickly made myself at home. I was impressed by how much progress Ken and Donna had made in turning their new rig into an organized and functional home!

We didn’t do much Friday evening because I was running on very little sleep and exhausted. I did walk around the park a bit

the Ark 2.0

and check out their emu neighbours!

emu

We hit the sack pretty early, but made up for it with a very full Saturday!

When I planned this weekend, I sort of thought of doing the Kootenay circuit to make up for missing the stretch from Banff to Cranbrook after my engine troubles.

Kootenay circuit–Lethbridge to Cranbrook to Radium Hot Springs to Banff to Calgary to Lethbridge

But that would have meant an eight-hour trip home, most of it through familiar territory. I instead proposed that we drive up to the village of Radium Hot Springs, gateway to Kootenay National Park, about 300km round trip from Cranbrook. Ken and Donna thought that was a great idea and Midnight was happy to come along for the ride.

One of the most interesting things we came across on the drive to Radium was Columbia Lake, which is the source of the Columbia River, along the banks of which I spent quite some time this spring. It’s very beautiful!

Columbia Lake

Radium is the typical hot springs resort town. We drove through quickly and turned around at the gate to Kootenay National Park since we wouldn’t have gotten our money’s worth out of the admission fee.

There’s a sign in the video for This is Our Home that piqued my curiosity because I had no idea where it’s located. Well, I found it in Radium!

We also saw the very strange house of the Radium woodcarver:

strange house in Radium

The Kootenays were beautiful on this crisp autumn afternoon, with snow on the higher peaks and lots of amber. It was a great drive!

vista just south of Radium village

Today’s agenda was for me to get to know the emus. Here’s a video of Donna feeding them:

Lots more pictures of my trip are in the gallery below!

I left Fort Steele around 2 and was in Lethbridge by quarter to six where I was expected for dinner! Gary made sure to send me home with leftovers of the perfectly normal variety. You know, a few roasted sweet potatoes, a couple of muffins, some fresh baked bread, a container of homemade soup, and two whole roasted chickens. You read that correctly. I adore that man! 😀

Pincher Creek

emu

emu

emu

emu

daddy emu

the Ark 2.0

Pepe in overflow

Kootenay sky

north towards Radium Hot Springs

Columbia Lake, source of the Columbia River

Columbia Lake

my favourite dog, Midnight

north towards Radium Hot Springs

strange house in Radium

entrance to Kootenay National Park

vista just south of Radium village

Donna taking a picture of the vista just south of Radium village for her blog 🙂

you’d swear my car was in the Okanagan!

heading south from Radium

emu coming for a snack

emu snacking

emu hoping for more snacks

Kootenay sky

approaching Fernie

back to the Prairies

July 17, 2011 by Rae

Thunder (and Lightning and Hail) In the Valley

Yesterday (Saturday) evening Jody, Gary, and I drove out to the Crowsnest Pass to witness the annual fireworks show known as Thunder in the Valley. What makes the show so special is that the noise from the fireworks echoes in the mountains.

The fireworks are launched from the town of Blairmore, Alberta. There is always a large delay to get back to Lethbridge because of the number of cars so Jody thought it would be best for us to camp in the area. The nearest campground that would allow a single night stay was Mountain Shadows in Sparwood, BC. So we drove there (2.5 hours from Lethbridge) first so I could set up a tent (they sleep in their van) and also meet up with some of Gary’s family (the wonderful one whom we visited in Humboldt) who had gone on ahead.

Tent set up and dinner eaten, we headed back to Blairmore (45 minutes east of Sparwood) and found a spot up a dead end road. We set up chairs and within minutes I felt big, cold drops of rain hit me. Before long, the drops turned to a downpour and we ran back to the truck! The rain came down for a bit then stopped, giving us hope that the show would go on, but then it started up again. What a downpour!!! It was so violent and hail came down in loud plunks. Many people thought the show would not go on, so they left. We stuck it out and at about 11:30 the first fireworks went off.

The echoing effect was spellbounding! It was definitely worth going even if it was cold and wet!

We headed back to Sparwood after the show and I was glad to discover my tent and its contents were still dry. I did a quick toilette, crawled into my PJs, and went to bed.

The ground was hard and the noise from the highway was deafening, but I was warm and snug, so I was quite satisfied that I fell asleep immediately at 1AM and awoke at quarter to six. That’s actually a pretty decent camping night for me. We weren’t meeting up with Gary’s family for brunch until about 11AM, so I knew I had plenty of time to kill. I laid in bed and listened to an audio book for about an hour and then crawled out of my tent to use the most luxurious outhouse in the world: it has a flush toilet! There was no point crawling back into the tent so I literally wandered around the campground for three hours listening to my audio book.

This was such a pleasant morning. It was a trifle damp, but not cool, and the air felt so fresh. I took pictures of flowers and wandered up and down trails for a bit. At about 9, I headed back to our site to start dismantling my tent and packing up my gear, then sat on a dry corner of the picnic table to continue listening to my book. I decided to give Gary and Jody till 10:15, but they got up shortly before that.

We made quick work of packing, then drove out to meet up with Gary’s family. We had a nice ‘brunch’ (from the lunch menu) at the excellent restaurant attached to the hotel in Sparwood, then we headed home.

Like the first time Jody and I were in Sparwood, we stopped at Lundbreck Falls and we made a few other stops. So it was past five when we pulled in to home. My cats were happy to see me but we didn’t hang out for long since I got invited over for another Gary dinner. Yum-yum.

There’s nothing like a sleepless night away from home to recharge my batteries! 🙂

canola (rapeseed) fields

this cloud formation looks like an angry gorilla stomping around!

I love the big open skies of southern Alberta

beautiful valley (between Lethbridge and Fort McLeod)

into the Crowsnest Pass

Blairmore

my ‘one night only’ tent

I saw almost a half-dozen Royal Classics in the last day! This is a 1980s model.

to find our site I had to turn right at the outhouse with the flush toilet 🙂

path leading up behind our site

the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site

I bet that’s their bathroom window 🙂

petrified tree

two roads diverged in a yellow wood…

mushroom

antique truck and trailer combo

re-entering Alberta

Lundbreck Falls

bathers at Lundbreck Falls

Lundbreck Falls

wind mill at Lundbreck Falls

Lundbreck Falls

I liked the combination of the class A coming down the highway with the bus conversion in the foreground

crazy guy jumping into Lundbreck Falls!!!

striking image of canola fields!

near Cottonwood campground

April 9, 2011 by Rae

A Tale of a Giant Gorilla, a Snowed-in Town, a Mountain Pass, a Vanished Community, a Giant Truck, a Waterfall, and a Dam (it was a full day)

Jody and I went on another long road trip today. We didn’t make it out of the solar system this time, but we did leave the province!

She was happy to drive again so I just sat and ogled the scenery. Since I’m a movie buff she thought our first stop, Cardston, would be of interest, which it was. This town is the birth place of Fay Wray, most famous for the iconic scene of her trapped in King Kong’s fist while he’s climbing the Empire State building! The town isn’t much, but there is a little fountain and sign in her homage.

We then pushed on to Waterton Lakes national park, which is pretty much shut down for the winter. There’s not much to do or see except for TONS of snow, but there’s also no access fee. We drove around the few streets of this winter ghost town that were plowed and also drove up to see the Prince of Wales Hotel.

Next, she took me through the Crowsnest Pass! This is one of those iconic Canadian sites that you just need to go through at least once. We stopped at the site of the Frank slide, which happened in 1903, and buried the community. The area is still unstable.

We continued into BC so she could show me the world’s largest truck in Sparwood. It’s big!

Heading home, we detoured to visit the Lundbreck Falls and the Oldman River dam.

We got back to Lethbridge pretty late and were grateful that Gary had barbecued dinner for us. That mountain air sure whetted our appetites!