Thursday, Sept 23rd, Burns Lake Municipal Campground, B.C.
Oh hell! Mechanical failure! An inspection of the rig’s tires has me worried. The outer edge of both tires on the passenger side is bare of tread. ( I probably should have noticed this weeks ago but when you’re covered in mud it’s hard to see. This is the first time we driven a hundred miles on good asphalt in months.) It’s late in the afternoon but I persuade a mechanic in Houston (B.C.) to have a look and his opinion is wheel bearing failure and that the tires will last me to Prince George - but after that I’m tempting fate.
The Burns Lake Municipal Campground is free to tourists but we get what we pay for. At midnight we awaken to a bunch of drunks arguing and a young man who flaunts his manhood - and the size of his brain - by standing on the brakes of his truck with one foot while he floors the accelerator with the other. This goes on for over an hour. But then they leave and all is quiet and we get a bit of sleep.
In the morning, as we leave, I see that he has dug sizable holes in the asphalt and I doubt he has any tread left.
Friday, Sept 24th - Bee Lazee RV Park - Prince George B.C.
In the morning we drive the rig to Inland Spring and Axle in Prince George. They are happy to help us spend $750 as they replace two tires and deal with the wheels and axles. I have hopes that I can get most of this covered under warranty when I get back. While they’re working on the rig we head out to Bee Lazee to pick up my glasses which have made the trip safely from Dawson City. In spite of its peculiar name the campground is really quite pleasant. The rest of the day is spent grocery shopping while we wait to pick up the rig.
Saturday, Sept 25th & 26th - Whistler’s Campground, Jasper, AB
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| Alders in fall |
The drive from Prince George to Jasper is beautiful.The leaves are changing all around us and we drive down a corridor of amber and gold. I get rather frustrated as I drive by some great photos because:
I can’t stop quickly
There’s no place to pull over even if I could stop.
The “F” word is deployed repeatedly as I vent my frustration. Eventually I find a highway exit and I turn around, but by the time I reach my goal the sun has retreated and the landscape is blah.
Monday, Sept 27th & Tuesday, Sept. 28th - Tunnel Mountain Village Campground, AB
Driving down the Icefields Parkway the day is grey and gloomy - the mountains shrouded in cloud. We stop at the Athabasca Glacier and hike against a vicious wind to the foot, but it has retreated considerably since 2006 and I can no longer get the shots I want because the barriers are set TOO FAR AWAY! Darlene tells me that my moods swing with the quality of light and it’s true that I’m just as gloomy as the day as we head for Banff. As we approach Banff, the clouds begin to break up and I find a patch of alders glowing in sunlight. I’m happy again.
Banff is surprisingly pleasant. When you reduce the number of tourists by a factor of 10 to the third it turns out that you can see the sidewalks, appreciate the mountains, and the town becomes real again. It’s still overpriced and filled with “boutiques” but there is a normalcy about the place. Now it’s no worse than, say, ... Niagara-on-the-Lake.
On Tuesday, we rent a GyPSy Guide and find to our delight that it’s very informative and it takes us to places and suggests hikes that we would have overlooked. The Canadian National Biathlon team is practicing and we watch them roller-ski their way up unforgiving hills. It pours with rain when we’re up at Lake Louise and Morraine Lake but by the time we return to Banff, the sun is out and I get more alder shots.
Wednesday, Sept 29th - Fort McLeod Municipal Campground, AB
Leaving Banff we head south down the #2 towards Claresholm where my mother grew up. Although it’s still very much a small town they have an active and eager museum staff and I learn and see all sorts of things about my family that I didn’t know. I saw a photo of Uncle Billy Moffatt as a young man with his piano class and there was Uncle Morley, a boy of about 5, in the front row. I don’t think I knew that Billy’s father - William - was the town’s first mayor or that my Tillotson grandparents - Colin Edgar and Melissa Ann - were the first people married in Claresholm. And Uncle Ernie, a young man in a baseball uniform!
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| Mule deer - Writing on Stone Prov Park, Alta |
Saturday, October 9th, Rawlins, Wyoming
A huge gap here! Due to the last ten days being spent in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We entered at Mammoth, MT and I spent the first hour wrestling the rig over some very tight, twisty and pitted roads as we made our way to Mammoth Campground. It may be the end of the season but the park is still busy and we are asked if we have reservations. No - but we find a site and settle in for the night. The next morning there are elk in the camp and we drive south to Madison where we unhitch and spend the next two days exploring the park and stopping for wildlife.
I am getting jaded. If it’s an elk, I want a male, if it’s a male I want a big one with a decent rack, and if I’ve got all that, could I please have a little sunlight?
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| Finally - a guy with a decent rack! |
Yellowstone seems to combine a dozen different topographies - mountains & valleys, forests and plateaus. The geysers, fumaroles and sulphur springs are a world unto themselves. Rain and cloud obscure some of this but there are still some moments of sunlight. (And the roads have improved immensely south of Madison. I hit the worst, first.)
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| Dar gets up close & personal with a cow elk |
Grand Teton National Park is a revelation. I had heard it described as beautiful but was not prepared for its majesty.( Part of this is because of Jackson Hole - the tectonic shift that dropped the plateau and pushed the mountains high above with no foothills in between.) The park is still highlighted in tints of amber and gold - the last leaves of fall providing contrast to the pale grasses and grey rock.
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| Mormon barn - Grand Teton N.P. |
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| Grand Tetons & happy couple |
Dar and I are up early chasing the morning light amidst elk and antelope and herds of bison. At night we can hear the elk bugling - it’s rutting season. On the second morning, as I sleepily make my way to the washrooms, I come face-to-face with a bull moose. And then there are seven moose in the camp and I spend an hour shooting in my pajamas and crocks, freezing my butt off but reluctant to miss that perfect shot. We leave later that morning; our camp, Gros Ventre, is closing for the season at 11 a.m. We’re one of the last to leave. It’s Friday, the 8th and we’re heading east. Have I mentioned that Darlene is becoming her father? I get weather reports at least three times daily and sometimes hourly. Rain, sun, current temperature, nightly lows - she’s got them all. And not just for our current locale. I typically get information about 3 stops ahead of us and 2 behind.
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| Roadblock on way to washroom |
On Friday we push through the continental divide about four times, the road snaking back and forth, getting higher and higher. At one point I stop for a pee break and we both comment that it seems to have gotten colder. Around the next bend we find mountains at eye level with snow on them, and around the next, climbing a bit higher, the snow is on the ground around us. Dar gets the hard drive of the day, weaving through road construction on a wet mud surface as we start to descend. We make it to Rawlins that night after passing through vast ranges of grass and sage, mountains and hills surrounding us on all sides. It’s windy in this part of Wyoming - really windy - and, at one point, there are huge wind farms stretching across the horizon.
We’re heading for Laramie. It’s time for another oil change.
Home again, home again. We spend our last night near Buffalo. We could have made it home but this will give us a chance to search for Bogs for Alysha tomorrow morning. And ... it lets us have our final meal away at the Anchor Bar!
