May 3, 2005

May 3, 2005

Fernie, B.C. to Hill Spring, Alberta

DAY 320

 

Another sunny, warm day, although the wind is extremely strong where we are tonight, just east of the base of the Rocky Mountains. I guess the wind blows down the mountains, then rushes across the rolling prairie.

We slept very late this morning. I guess it's because we changed time zones yesterday. The first thing I did was phone our Escapee friends in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Gord and Lil Casey. We knew we would make it as far as Pincher Creek today. At the Escapees Chapter 44 Spring Rally in Mesa, Arizona, Gord and Lil had invited us to visit them when we were passing through the Pincher Creek area on our way back to Manitoba. We phoned them repeatedly throughout the day, but there was no answer. We'll try again tomorrow because we're going to stay in this area for tomorrow.

Yesterday I noticed what looked like a small rip in the edge of the rubber roof of the trailer. I climbed up onto the roof this morning to examine it. I found two small tears right on the edge where the rubber roof wraps over the side of the trailer. This is the second time I've found some areas of the roof that need patching right where it wraps over the edge. I guess after a few years of exposure, the rubber roofs of RVs start to get dry, and crack at the edges.

We left the Snow Valley Motel & RV Park, stopping for diesel before we were out of Fernie. Continuing east on the Crowsnest Highway, I was worried about how tough it would be to cross over the last range of the Rocky Mountains, through the Crowsnest Pass. It was a non-event. The Crowsnest Pass is a fairly gentle climb up and over. Unlike the exceptionally tough mountain passes from before Osoyoos to about Cranbrook ! I thought the most southerly route through the Rockies was going to be the toughest, since it's the least travelled of the three routes through the Rockies. I seem to recall that Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse Pass on the Trans Canada Highway 1, north of here, through to Banff and Calgary, were more difficult than the Crowsnest Pass that we drove through today. Maybe my memory is faulty. It's been over 20 years since I last drove through Banff and Lake Louise into B.C.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside historical exhibit called Leitch's Collieries. It's the ruins of a coal mining and processing operation from the early 1900's. It was interesting, with a selfguided tour and historical explanations around the ruins. After lunch, we continued on towards Pincher Creek. As we came through Crowsnest Pass, the Rocky Mountains seemed to end abruptly. One minute we were in the mountains, the next minute we were on relatively flat ranch land. Again, my recollection of the more northerly route is that after the mountains, there are rolling foothills for quite awhile. We turned off Hwy. 3, heading south on Hwy. 6 to Pincher Creek. Since we were unable to contact our friends, we continued south through Pincher Creek towards Waterton Lakes National Park. We stopped about halfway from Pincher Creek to Waterton Lakes National Park, about 30 miles from each. We are going to stay here tomorrow, and take a day trip to the National Park. I am unwilling to pay the exorbitant fees to camp in a National Park. The camping fee and daily park user fee, together are over $40 !

We are at the Great Canadian Barn Dance & Family Campground. It's a campground on the prairie, around a man made lake. During the summer, they have weekend barn dances and dinners. They opened the campground for the season on May 1. We are their first guests of the year. Since we have the entire area to ourselves, we allowed Bo to run around like an idiot, off leash. Boy ... what a high energy little mutt. He ran at full speed down to the lake's edge, and seeing all the Canada Geese just off shore, ran into the water to chase them. He doesn't get very far from shore before his feet don't touch the bottom, and he's floating / swimming. That certainly slowed down his chase of the geese. And ... he sure smells bad when he gets all wet, and hasn't had a bath lately. Actually, he has been smelling particularly bad whenever he gets wet since all that romping around in tidal pools he did at Saltery Bay on the Sunshine Coast of B.C.. After setting up in the campsite, I got up on the roof of the trailer and began patching the two small ripped areas. It's particularly hard to patch the roof right on the edge, where it wraps over, which, of course, is where it keeps cracking / tearing. I did the first application of patching, and will do another application tomorrow. When I was finished, we took Bo for an off leash obedience training session. He won't heel off leash, so after a few minutes, we returned to the trailer and put his leash and choker on. Much better ! Like most dogs in formal obedience training, he recognizes that being on the choker means it's time to pay attention and "work".

It was much too windy here to barbecue tonight, so while Joanne prepared supper, I did today's accounting, and began working on today's journal. I got the TV set up for watching Amazing Race, which is on at 10:00 P.M. tonight.

DSK