Calvin's Weblog

3,643 KM later...

I'm back!
Did ya even miss me?
Saturday morning I set out on a journey to traverse the roads less travelled by.
At noon, I was already in Salmon Arm, where I picked up my brother. From there, we set off for Revelstoke. Of course, we had both travelled those particular roads before, but we were on our way!
First stop was Three Valley Gap. Not by choice, there was road construction and we had to wait a few minutes - so it was a great opportunity to take this picture:

From there, we continued on to the Rockies - they came into view shortly after Revelstoke.

Finally, at Lake Louise, we were in the heart of the Rockies. Only a short distance to the south was Banff, but we had been there...

so we headed north to Jasper, straight through 'The Trench' - a perfectly flat passage, straight north, through the middle of the Rockies, to Jasper. I've been to Banff, I've been to Jasper, but I've never driven the Trench before ... and it was amazing! There are glaciers, ice fields, magnificent mountain ranges,

and an unbelievable amount of wildlife. We saw mountain goats, mountain sheep, Caribou, deer, bear, moose, elk, you name it... even got a few pictures!

I had planned on spending our first night in one of the National Park campsites (since the park employees are on strike, the park pass and camping site are free!) but irony of all ironies, the only time we saw snow on our entire trip was right at the campsite I had marked... it was in the shadow of a glacier, and it was cold...like, daylight, and below zero. We decided the drive the extra hour and a half to Jasper and get a hotel. It figures, not a kilometer past the campsite, there was once again no sign of snow, and it was about 8 degrees out.

At Jasper, we checked in to the Astoria Hotel. If anyone's familliar with the vancouver establishment sharing that namesake, fret not... this Astoria was much nicer. The pub in the loby was smokier than any bar I've been in, in the last 5 years, but hey... we're in Alberta now - things is diff'rent...

There was a bit of confusion with the alarm clock. We set it for 8:30AM, but didn't realize until we were already checked out and finished breakfast that the person staying in the room before us must've been from Saskatchewan or Manitoba, as it was an hour ahead. Yes, I know that by my BC set watch, all of the clocks in Jasper should have been an hour ahead, but THIS particular clock was an ADDITIONAL hour ahead... so when we finally got into the car and started off toward Hinton that morning, it was quite a surprise to see that the clock in the car said "8:14AM" (yes, it was still in BC time). Tim says "uh, didn't we get out of the room at about quarter after nine? "
"Yeah..." I reply...
"But that's right now by this clock... we packed up, went for breakfast, drove around, walked around, took some pictures.... that must've taken about an hour..."
"Um, yeah.... you're right... so that means we actually got up at 6:30 BC time? No wonder when we got back from the bar last night and the clock in the room said that it was past one AM we said "Where'd the time Go!!!" - it was really only eleven! That's hillarious!"
So anyway, that means we got a really good, early start on the day. No harm, no foul. I even had time to get my picture taken with a bear:

It wasn't too far 'till Hinton, where we only stopped to fill up with gas (77.4 - getting cheaper! Ironically though, that was the price on the pumps here in Vancouver yesterday). From Hinton we then turned north and headed up through Grande Cache, and finally hitting Grande Prairie shortly after noon. The weather was beautiful the whole time. In Grane Prairie it was about 18 degrees, but perfectly blue skies. I was really impressed with the city - it was much bigger than I had expected, and unlike some northern BC cities (like Prince George) it was very modern. New buildings, nice restaurants, it actually struck me as a really nice place to live ... of course, I didn't get to see the 8 month winter, so my impression was probably as good as it could get.

I took a picture of the Grande Prairie Regional College, which was designed by the famous architect Douglas Cardinal. I saw a whole doccumentary show about his amazing works, and how he entirely designed the National Museum of the american Indian in Washington DC, but didn't even get credit for it after a whole bunch of really lame American political crap - Canadians never get a break!!! Anyway, in that same show they talked about this amazing design and engineering feat that he pulled off in Grande Prairie in the 70's, and I was really psyched to see it in person. This ain't a good picture... lookup Douglas Cardinal for cool examples of his work...

So we ended up having lunch in Grande Prairie, and quickly set off to the west, back toward BC, but still trekking northward... First town after the BC border was Pouce Coupe.

From there, it was less than an hour 'till Dawson Creek.

Dawson Creek was a nice town, but I must admit, I was expecting more from it. It's really bustling right now because of all the oil and gas exploration in the area, but unlike Grande Prairie, it didn't strike me as a really "thriving" community.
Here's a picture of the Dawson Creek 'roundabout', which is also MILE-ZERO of the Alaska Highway:

We decided to try a figure eight roadtrip from there, since we still had lots of daylight hours ahead of us this second day... First, north to Fort Saint John (where I got my picture taken with another Bear),

then southwest through the Peace River Valley to Chetwynd, then south to Tumbler Ridge, and finally back up north-east to Dawson Creek again, where we'd spend the night. Of course, a few twists and turns and side trips few a couple of kinks into that plan...

...this entry is not done - I'm working on it slowly...

Also, I'll be adding photos in later - after I'm done all the typing...

Posted by Calvin at October 6, 2004 08:13 AM