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.