Week ending June 25, 2015 High Prairie to Athabasca

Friday after a visit with John's parents we took the truck for a bath, and then stopped in at Kal Tire to discuss our tire problems. We purchased 2 new tires, and within an hour had them installed. While we waited for the installation we took out computers up to the library to use their wi-fi. After picking up the truck we stopped at a local pub for lunch. The rest of the day was spent sitting around the trailer watching the people taking care of the horses at the rodeo grounds next door.

 

Saturday was a big FIFA day.

Sunday, we walked along the West Prairie River by the park before watching more FIFA.  There is a fish ladder at a weir near the park.   We missed getting a picture of a muskrat in the river.    

Monday was moving day.  There was a low tire indicator, and our digital tire pressure gauge wasn't working, and has expensive lithium batteries, so we stopped in at Kal Tire on they way out to ensure that it was still due to the new tires.   We were pleased to see the indicator go off about half way to Slave Lake.   We did stop in at Canadian Tire in Slave Lake to pick up a good old fashioned pressure gauge for future use, and torqued the truck tires.  We checked into the Blueberry RV park at Athabasca early afternoon. This is a nice park, and suits us well as we work our way to Edmonton.  We are only here until Friday, since they are booked for the long weekend.

Tuesday we did a drive around the area, exploring the numerous little lakes, looking for a place to park over the upcoming long weekend.  Our first stop was Baptiste Lake. The county park there is for tents only. Ghost Lake county park only has 2 sites large enough for us and they are both occupied.    We saw a large chair next to the road on the way out.  We are not sure why it is there, as the 3 signs we saw on it were all warning people not to climb on it.

Our next stop was Lawrence Lake Provincial Recreation Area. It is virtually empty and has numerous sites that are suitable for us. We find it somewhat annoying to pay 26.00 for a primitive campsite, but we may have to bite the bullet and park there over the long weekend.  Our next stop was Island Lake County park. It seemed okay, but no cell phone service there. All these lakes are perfect for our little boat, so we would be able to enjoy the warm weather floating on the lake.

There are so many lakes in this part of Alberta that we spent Wednesday checking out more lakes. On our way to Hope Lake county park we stopped at an Alberta Historic marker at Amber Valley. Amber Valley was settled by Oklahoma's black residents who figured Canada would be tolerant than the USA. The county park is a very well developed park with a full time caretaker and a reservation system. There are no campsites available for this weekend. It is a very pretty lake and may be worth a day trip. Our next stop was Boyle. There is a municipal campground there that will work for the long weekend. We returned to Athabasca via Colinton and Meanook, both little hamlets without even a coffee shop for a mid-morning break.  We loaded up with our weekly groceries in Athabasca on the way back to the trailer for lunch.

Thursday was spent doing some housekeeping and maintenance.

Week ending Jun 18, 2015 High Prairie

Friday we appreciated having cell phone service so were able to have a Skype visit with John's parents. We didn't do much for the rest of the day as it was a cold windy day. Falher is the honey bee capital of Canada.

 

The campground host gave us a neat honeybee pin as a momento of our visit.  

Saturday we went to the Falher hotel for breakfast. There are only 3 restaurants in town and that was the one that was most busy. After a nice breakfast we wandered around downtown Falher.  Joan was looking for a hairdresser. Neither of the 2 hairdressers work on Saturday, which seems odd to us. We then decided it was time to check the neighbourhood. Our first stop was at Kimiwan birdwalk, next door to a Northern Alberta Railway museum in McLennan.

We had a short walk on the boardwalk looking at numerous birds. But we cut our walk short due to the plethora of mosquitoes.  Joan is still looking for a haircut, so we checked for a hairdresser. No luck.  Where do people get their hair cut here? Our next stop was High Prairie. Our first stop was the Elks RV Park, a perfect place, no trees and full service, with a very hospitable host. On our way back to Falher we wanted to stop at Little Smokey River Recreation area. It exists on our map, but there were no signs to it from the highway.

Sunday we spent most of the day at Gary and Jan's farm.   Gary was a fellow metallurgical engineering student with John in university and has farmed up in this area since graduation. We had a wonderful visit and Jan cooked us a great roast beef supper. Nothing beats eating someone else's cooking. Thanks Jan.

Monday was moving day. We arrived at the Elk's RV park in High Prairie before noon. We had a visit with the host, a perfect person for the job, very friendly and with a great sense of humor. We  went into High Prairie in the afternoon to find a hairdresser. Surely we can find someone here. Most paces seem to be closed on Monday, the one place that was open was too busy to take drop-ins, and when I asked about an appointment for tomorrow I was told yeah we could do that, but I don't know how much it will cost. Hmmm. Back to the trailer to bowl and golf on the Wii. Too wet and cold for anything else today.  After dinner we watched a number of horse riders practicing in the neighbouring rodeo grounds. Looked like it might have been a rodeo parade practice.

Tuesday John got a haircut, his hairdresser/barber works when she gets fed up looking at his hair. About 10:00 A.M. Joan finally got hold of the other hairdresser in town and got an appointment at 1:30. Yahoo! After lunch Joan went for a haircut and John took the truck for a bath. After 3 days of trying Joan finally got a haircut.  The local farmers can thank John for the rain that started just as he finished washing the truck.


Wednesday was a perfect exploration day. On the way to Hillard's Bay Provincial Park we drove through Enilda, looking for the historic site advertised on the highway. We drove on all the streets of the town to no avail. We then carried on to Hillard's Bay on the north shore of Great Slave Lake. The park has a very nice beach area and numerous hiking trails.

We came back to the trailer park via Prairie Echo and Heart River, communities whose only evidence of their existence is abandoned churches. We walked downtown mid-afternoon to the farmers market. Its very early in the season, so not much available. John had a hotdog and then we walked back to the trailer via the walking trail along the creek.


Thursday we headed out to explore a couple of places we had noticed on our map. The first place was Banana Belt. We could not pass up finding out what existed at the community of Banana Belt. All that is there is a rather run down community hall.

View from Banana Belt Hall

We then stopped at Snipe Lake Community Campground. Snipe Lake is quite large and a nice looking lake, which is overflowing its banks at this time.

The campground had its attractions, but the road into it (a private oil company road) was not one of them. Our next stop was South Shore Resort on Snipe Lake. We had seen numerous signs advertising this resort on the highways in the area. The signs are really attractive and lead one to believe the resort is well appointed. We thought we may stop for a coffee break.The resort is obviously the figment of someones imagination and whoever is developing it spent all their money on signs. So much for a late morning snack, so back to the trailer for a late lunch.  We noticed the final statement on the sign along the highway at Sunset House.
 

Week ending June 11, 2015 Peace River

Thursday we moved to Strong Creek District Park, just outside of Peace River. This is a pleasant park, on the bank of the Peace River and close to all amenities that the town of Peace River affords.  We are testing out our new batteries, and so far they seem to be working well with our solar panels. Of course it is hot and sunny, that doesn't hurt. The biggest negative to this park is that we only have cell service sporadically, more off than on. As a result we don't have wi-fi access either.

Friday we took the opportunity to do laundry in Peace River. It has been a while since we have been close to a laundromat.

Saturday we explored the neighbourhood.   We headed up the Shaftesbury trail, stopping first at Fort Fork National Historic Site.    The fort was actually on the other side of the river, but that is in a corner of the  Peace and Smoky Rivers that is hard to get to, so they put the historic markers on the north side of the river.  Alexander McKenzie wintered here in the winter of 1792 after returning from his trip to the Arctic along the river named for him.   He continued his search for the Pacific by traveling up the Peace River from here.   David Thompson also wintered at the fort 10 years later.    

We continued on to the Shaftesbury Ferry to cross to the south side.  We found out that they would have a few feet to spare for our trailer should we decide to cross the river here.  It was interesting to note that the ferry is pushed with a small tug boat.  After many years of petitioning the province to put a ferry across the river here,  in 1952 a couple who owned land on both sides of the river built their own ferry.   In 1977, the province took over operation.

We then checked out  Tangent Park, a full service campground on the south side of the river.  An okay place, but too many trees for our liking, sites a bit short.   Climbing out of the valley, we came upon a bit of detour, where the road had washed out.   It was a strange site, as there was no evidence of slide above the road, but the road was almost gone for a section a few car lengths. 

Our next stop was the Eaglesham Golf and Country Club. Their golf course looked very nice, and the campground was great. There was not space available for the time we require. We then checked the municipal campsite at Falher. It is in the area we want to be and looked very nice. Long wide sites and cell phone service.

Sunday was Nascar race day as well as the start of the FIFA Women's World Cup.  We watched Canada win their first game.


Monday morning we explored Peace River. It is a pretty town, there are nice walking trails along the river.  We eventually stopped at the 12 foot Davis statue in Riverside Park in the downtown area. 

 

Davis got his nickname from a gold claim he made in BC near Barkerville.  Claims could be 100 ft wide, but 2 claims next to one another measured 212 feet.   Davis claimed the extra 12 feet.   After a quick bite of lunch we drove up to 12 foot Davis grave site. It is in an amazing location with views of the entire valley.

 

Just before 2 we arrived at the GM dealer to get an oil change. Of course they always find extras and decided that we needed our brakes done, so instead of 100.00 we came away with new rear brakes and 1300.00 lighter. They also suggested we get new tires. Not today. Tires require some research, as these last ones didn't seem to last as well as we expected.



Tuesday we did another drive. Our first stop was Berwyn.  We find these small places have great recycling centres, so we dropped off our recycling.  We noted their small water tower. Obviously there isn't a large water requirement here.  

(the lean is our photography, not the tower itself)

We stopped at Lac Cardinal, intending to visit the historic village. It is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  We then did a short walk in the park, fighting off the millions of mosquitoes and black flies. We then headed to Grimshaw, Mile zero of the Mackenzie Highway.

There is a well cared for park with historic information about the area and about the highway.  One of the interesting items was a cat train, that used to be used to move cargo up the highway to Yellowknife, starting in 1939.   Each train had three Caterpillar tractors, and many sleds.   
 

We had a picnic lunch at the park, one of the few places that we were not attacked by flying insects. We got back to the trailer in time to watch our neighbours pull their trailer out. Actually we are not sorry to see them go as they run their generator almost 24 hr a day, and even though it is quiet, it is always there.  We really appreciate our solar panels as they provide us with sufficient electricity and are quiet.  We did run the generator to augment the panels for a couple of hours about half the evenings.

Wednesday was cleaning day. While Joan did some housework John replaced one of the headlight bulbs in a headlight. The dealer here wanted 150.00 to do it, but was kind enough to show John what screws needed to be removed to get at the bulb.  It cost us 50.00 in the US to have the same thing done. John figured it was time to take care of these things himself and although he has never performed this task before it took him about the same length of time they told us it would take them at the dealers.

Thursday was moving day. It doesn't take very long to pack up when we are parked in dispersed camping. By lunch time we were in Falher, and set up in the municipal campground. The campground manager came by, so we were able to get all sorts of information about the town as well as pay our fees for the next few days. We are looking forward to once again having cell phone service.

Week ending June 4, 2015 George Lake

Friday after a round of golf we stopped at Hines creek to pick up another set of oars for our boat to replace paddles that don't work as well. Maybe it will get warm enough to use the boat again soon.

Saturday as we prepared to leave for the Country Market we noticed a deer swimming across the lake, an unusual sight.

The market is located at The End of Steel Museum.  After enjoying a cinnamon bun we walked through the museum. We chatted with one of the museum volunteers and discovered that a lot of the funding for the museum comes from Canfor, a company that used to have a lumber mill here in Hines Creek. When they closed the mill they donated money to help them.  They built a fantastic taxidermy exhibit.

School Van

Owl

After finishing with the museum, we decided to check out Many Islands District Park on the Peace River west of Hines Creek.   Although the road was less steep than the other parks we have seen so far on the Peace, there didn't appear to be any sites available that would be suitable for the trailer.

Sunday was Nascar race day.  After the race we did a walk around the park, discovered that there is only one other trailer here.  The fellow in the trailer came over and chatted for a while after supper. He and his wife have been camping here for many years, because of the numerous birds. Even though his wife passed away 2 years ago, he still returns.

Monday we had more lakes to explore.  Our first stop was Leddy Lake. The campground did not have any sites large enough for our trailer. We passed more buffalo herds on the way into the lake.  There were lots of calves.

This part of Alberta seems to be buffalo farming country. Our next stop was Cecil Thompson County Park.  Although our information showed it had a campsite, it looked more like a day use area on the outskirts of Peace River. There are a list of historic sites and places to visit in the area, confirming that we will need  a week or two there to take it all in. We filled up with diesel, got groceries while we were in Peace River and then headed down the Shaftesbury Trail. About 12 km's south-east of Peace River we found Strong Creek District Park, which is suitable for us.    This part of the Peace Valley is wider than the areas we have checked out further west, so the main road runs in the valley rather than on the plateau above the river.  We now have found our next campsite.  We will use our solar panels purchased in Quartizite as our power source with the generator as backup.    After arriving back at we had a visit with our neighbour.

Tuesday was cool and a bit windy, not suitable for taking our boat out on the lake, so we went golfing. We spent the afternoon lazing around the lake.

Wednesday, our final day at George Lake was warm and calm, a perfect day for a paddle on the lake. As there was only one other boat around and it was a small boat with an electric motor we were not bothered with wake from other boats.

Thursday morning, we saw a family of ducklings swim by the back of trailer as we were having breakfast.

Ducklings

Today is moving day, so we head to Strong Creek District Park, just a few km's from Peace River.