“On the Road Again”

It has taken us a couple of days to get back into the system of travelling after being home for a two months. Also was hard to extract ourselves away from family and our new grand-daughter Aurelia.

Thanks Tony for collecting us on Monday at the Calgary airport, the hospitality, and the help servicing the truck before we departed Canmore. Brakes readjusted, vehicle greased and a general check over. Today we have almost shaken our jet lag and the time differential.

The first night we spent at a previous camp ground the the Jasper National Park. The scenery very different to two months previously, the snow is gone from the mountain tops and the tourist numbers have experientially increased, clogging the car parks and viewing spots.

On pulling into the camp site we stopped to fill out the camp pass and moving forward the rear breaks locked up. With a lot of squeaking noise we moved slowly to a vacant spot close by, much to the attention of all in the campground. It was 8.30pm and almost immediately our neighbours Steve and Sylvia invited us over for a beer. It had been a long day and that offer was too good to refuse...the brake fix can wait till tomorrow morning.

Camp 99:  Mosquito Creek

Cost C$15.70

N51* 37.820 W116* 19.944

Today:  85 Kms

Trip Total :  47,085 Kms.

Wednesday 10th August:

With the brakes fixed, our neighbours invited us to join them for breakfast of pancakes, maple syrup and crispy bacon. We chatted like old friends and I had to politely extract ourselves so we could hit the road. This road we had previously travelled and I was keen to find on to some foreign territory.

Turning left at Jasper we were on new ground. Almost immediately a magnificent elk graced the road side.

Jet lag was still catching us and an early afternoon stop at 3pm at the Mt Robson Shadows Campground was called. This gave us time to settle in, and attend to other matters on the camper for which I had bought replacement parts from Australia.

Camp 100:  Mt Robson Shadows

Cost C$22.00

N52* 59.396 W119*18.241

Today:  285 Kms

Trip Total :  47,360 Kms.

Thursday 11th August:

A good sleep. We were in bed by 8.30pm even though it was still light outside. The next morning on our way by 10‘ish and soon a black bear ran across the road whilst I punched the now working brakes.

The small town of McBride offered an assortment of fancy painted fire hydrants.

Just off the road a short walk around the Ancient Forests where the cedar trees exceed 1000 years.

The weather is warm. “ Best summer in 40 years” says a Prince George local.

With info from the visitors centre we camped at Clear Lake about 30k’s out of town.

Very quite, the trout are jumping and we just saw a beaver swim by.

Cost NIL

N53* 39.888 W123* 01.348

Today:  352 Kms

Trip Total :  47,712 Kms.

Friday 12th August:

Our camp site was quiet until 9.30 when a family arrived with camper, vehicle towing boat, 2 dogs and loud kids etc. Anyway we had enjoyed the solitude up until then.

The road quality is good and follows the old glacial river valleys. The verge is covered with the colours of summer flowers, and the housed adorned with hanging baskets of colourful blooms. In Burns Lake even the cars are flowered!

This is BC’s Lakes District and we hear of a Salmon breading ground at Fulton River some 35kms off the highway.  The man-made gravel pits here increase the Badine Lake Sockeye Salmon numbers by 1Million over the 1.4million that  spawned naturally. Five years later the same fish migrate up the river to start the process again.

Everywhere are wild flowers, we follow forestry roads back towards the h’way.

Before the black top I find a “Decommissioned Forestry Road” and that is my call for a quiet camp spot, far from the maddening crowd.

Camp 102:  ‘Decommissioned Camp”

Cost NIL

N54* 47.534 W126* 48.313

Today:  412 Kms

Trip Total :  48,124 Kms.