On Friday we went on an exploratory loop north and west of Rimbey. Our first destination was Dick Lake, which we had seen on our backroads atlas. We had seen references to fishing on it on the internet. The atlas showed two roads which come close to the lake, so we picked the north road. However, when we got within sight of the lake, the road was closed. We then drove through the hamlets of Hoadley, and Winfield, then on to Calhoun Bay Prov Rec Area on Buck Lake.
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| Calhoun Bay Rec Area |
No services there (or at any rec area), but it looked like a few sites would work but at $21/night. Then we headed west through Alder Flats, and then a few km south and west to Em-te-town, a 'dude' ranch with some historical displays, cabins, an RV area ($41/night with power) and a restaurant. We had an Em-te-town burger and a soft taco wrap. The burger was good and the wrap so-so. It was pretty quiet there for the day before the long weekend, with lots of empty space in the campground and only a few people wandering through the site.
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| Em-te-town |
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| Weeds on the roof |
Across the road, we popped into Ponderosa City, which has a mercantile shop carrying western clothes, boots and gifts. There is also a restaurant there. South on highway 22, we headed cross country on Medicine Lake Road to another prov rec area. Interestingly, there were lots of trailers, with ATVs, boon-docking just off the main road near the intersection that heads into the rec area.
On Saturday, we went to the Canada Day pancake breakfast. We started preparing to head out about 9:30, and walked up to Pas-ka-poo Park. We got into line shortly after 10, and reached the serving window at 11, when the event was supposed to end.
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| Pancake Breakfast line-up |
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| One form of entertainment waiting for breakfast |
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| the band |
After enjoying a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage, we went to the farmers market. Usually it is at the park, but due to the Canada Day events there, it was moved to a street just off the main business avenue. We picked up some new potatoes, carrots and radishes from one of the vendors. At 11:00PM, we watched the fireworks from the comfort of our trailer, as they were launched from the ball diamond behind the trailer. They had a nice long display.
Monday, John replaced the leaky water pump. Later in the day we did the walk that goes around the campground. From the back of the campground, it heads towards town where new long term care facilities are being built. However, it stops there, at least while the construction is active.
Tuesday, we went to Eckville to golf at the Dark Horse Golf Course. Tuesday the rates are half price, which made it $21 for the two of us. The Medicine River wanders through the course, even crossing the fairway on hole 7.
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from Google Maps satellite view
with fairways marked in red
and paths to next tee in purple |
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| approach to the 7th green |
There are sheep in the trees between the fairways. It is quite a confusing course, which requires signs at almost every hole pointing the way to the next tee. One of the strangest designs is that hole 2 is between hole 3 and hole 4. If you play the black tee boxes (which we don't), there are several spots where you have to clear stretches of the river to get to the fairway.
Wednesday, we moved to Rocky Mountain House, to Riverview RV Park on the west side of the river across from RMH. We stayed here in May 2016, but it is a lot busier in July than it was last year in early May. However, we still managed to see a deer run through the grass between the trailer and the roads. We also picked up The David Thompson Highway Hiking Guide while we were checking in. We hope to do a some hiking in the area in the next few weeks. We had a bit of trouble running the front jacks up to level the trailer. Once we had lifted them enough to get the truck off, and unplugged the power from the truck, there was no power to the jacks. When we plugged the power back into the truck, they moved slowly. Seems like the batteries in the RV were dead, and the batteries in the truck were getting low. When we plugged the trailer into the utility stand, and the jacks worked just fine. We have no idea why the batteries were dead.
Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk along the North Saskatchewan beside the park.
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| golden banner flowers |
On Thursday, we put our RV batteries into box bottoms that are the right size, but we left the old battery box tops, because they have vents for the hydrogen gas given off by the batteries. After posting the blog, we are heading into Rocky to the Farmers Market, which is on from 5 to 8 pm.
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