Maligne Lake northeast of Jasper, AB.

Angel Glacier, Mt. Robson, Valemount, Columbia Icefields, Lake Louise (posted from ‘The Bison’ parking lot in downtown Banff, AB)
(this post covers 25-28 August)

Monday, 28 August-
At 0300 this morning we were awakened by ice-thunder—a massive keeRACK-rumble-bumble-jumble-stumble as it echoed down the valley. Of course we couldn’t see a thing—there are no pole lights on the ice-field. We did have a pretty good star-glow, however. We could see a pale glow coming off the glacial lake at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier.
We also happen to be below the Snow-Dome Glacier, which is interesting to geographers since its waters drain to three different oceans. Some of the waters drain down to the Arctic Ocean via the Athabasca River; we’ve been following the Athabasca upstream as we’ve driven down the Canadian Rockies from Hinton. Some of its waters drain to the Atlantic Ocean via the North Saskatchewan River, the river we followed in Saskatoon. And some of the Snow-Dome Glacier’s waters drain to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River.
After breakfast we drove south down the Icefield Parkway toward Saskatchewan Crossing. Our first significant stop was Peyto Lake, where we walked the trails through the meadows at Bow Mountain summit. We finally saw some Indian Paintbrush, a flower we liked on a previous trip west but hadn’t seen until today.
After lunch in the parking lot, we drove on to Lake Louise. We took the obligatory walk through the grand hotel but the best thing about it is the view across the lake. Though it was a Monday at the end of summer, the public parking lot was nearly full. We heard many German speakers and many middle-Eastern and Indian tourists but the greatest percentage of foreign tourists are Japanese.
After Lake Louise we continued south on the Bow Valley Parkway and soon came to a cluster of cars blocking the road—they were stopped for a black bear who was contentedly munching bear-berries and ignoring everything else around him/her.
We stopped our travels for the day at Protection Mountain campground. Labashi cooked up one of her terrific one-pot medleys. Cost at the campground tonight is $18.80 CDN. We are in a large campground and there’s nobody in sight. The trees around us are all straight-as-an-arrow lodgepole pines and the ground between them is covered in a thick carpet of pine needles and moss. The weather continues pleasant though rain is called for in the next two days. We have very few bugs so it’s very pleasant to sit outside and type away at the blog tonight. I have to wrap it up—it’s getting dark…

Sunday, 27 August-
This morning we woke to a 43-degree morning in Mt Robson Meadows campground. This one is a provincial park and, unlike most campgrounds in Jasper National Park, this one has showers, albeit in an unheated building. Fortunately, they were very hot showers so the cool morning isn’t as bad as it sounds.
The first order of the day was to visit the salmon falls at Rearguard Falls, a roadside rest along the Yellowhead about ten minutes west of our campground. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any salmon in the impressive falls. We saw several backs of salmon as they fed in the pool below the falls and Labashi saw one salmon jump out in the pool but nothing at the falls. However, I talked with an Australian couple who said they had been here yesterday and had seen salmon. They asked if we had been to Valemount to the spawning pool. We hadn’t heard of it but went on their recommendation. The spawning pool is a section of the Swift Creek just outside of town where Chinook salmon spawn after an 800-mile (!!!!) swim from the Pacific. This place represents the farthest distance swum by any salmon. Only 15 per cent of the Chinook starting the trip make it this far. When we first arrived we didn’t see any salmon but that was just because we weren’t looking close enough. Within a few minutes we saw a tail out of the water a bit downstream—then another one. The two salmon were easily over 30 inches long and were very slowly working their way upstream. We waited on a bridge crossing the stream some 20 yards above them and they made some progress but then fell back. They would try again, every once in a while thrashing but not making much headway. We walked downstream another ten yards and saw two more fish working their way up. They are truly magnificent creatures.
We then drove into Valemount and stopped at a coffee shop. I thought it great good luck to have found a coffee shop open on a Sunday in such a small town but then learned I couldn’t order the drink I wanted because they had no ice--- they had run out. But WE had ice! So Labashi talked them into making my mochaccino with ice from our cooler. On the way into town I had also seen that they have a car wash. After 29 days on the road, it was time for Mocha Joe’s bath. But we did have a little problem--- the wand-wash coin machine said only “This machine takes only loonies or toonies”. Fortunately, we knew from our other Canadian trips that the Canadian one-dollar coin is called a loonie because it has the image of a loon on it. And then it follows (in the car-wash-coin-machine context, anyway) that a ‘toonie’ must be the Canadian two-dollar coin. And that was indeed the case. Ah the adventure of living in a foreign land!
After the car-wash we stopped in the local park and had lunch, then headed back east toward Alberta. It had been a great little detour into B.C…. absolutely wonderful mountain scenery, glacial lakes, glacial rivers, one of the nicest campgrounds we’ve been in so far and good roads the whole way.
After crossing back into Alberta, we drove into Jasper to look for an RV roll-up hose. It seems Canada does not believe in having hoses at their dump-stations. But no luck there, so we just gassed up and iced-up and headed south.
We stopped at Athabasca Falls next. Two weeks ago, an Italian tourist and his girlfriend had climbed through the fence around the falls to take some pictures. The tourist got too close to the falls and slipped on wet rocks and tumbled into the falls to his death. So it was with amazement today that we saw tourists climbing through the fence, some with little children or dogs, and venturing out to within feet of the plunge over the falls. In their defense, both the fence and the warning signs should be improved. But it astounds me that people would take their children so close to obvious danger.
We continued south and soon came to a sign warning that there could be mountain sheep on the roads. And before long, there they were, a small herd of eight or ten of them… right in the middle of a road-side pulloff! There were tourists around three sides of them, taking pictures and reaching out to them. The only side open to them was the highway where cars were speeding by. Not good.
We continued south to the Columbia icefields and a highlight of the day. We took a trip by ‘Ice Explorer’ onto the Athabasca Glacier. An ‘Ice Explorer’ is an over-sized combination bus and ATV. The body is much like a bus but it sits very high on earth-mover-style tires about three feet wide and six feet high. We bought our tickets at the visitor’s center and then boarded a conventional bus for a ten-minute ride to the Ice Explorer terminal. There we boarded an Ice Explorer for a two kilometer ride on the glacier. We first descended a scarily-steep ramp down what a gravel road. After we leveled out, our driver asked if anyone thought we were on the glacier yet—which of course was a loaded question. We appeared to be on a stone-and-rock road but learned that there was 300 feet of ice under us already. We then went through a pool of water about three feet deep which is there to wash the gravel off the tires before going onto the glacier. Then we started a slow climb up the glacier as the driver explain the sights around us, including the glaciers on the mountains above us as well as the glacier under our tires.
We came to a halt about a hundred yards before the headwall at ‘the turnaround’, where we were on 1000 feet of ice. There we got out of the Ice Explorer to walk around on the glacier, to take pictures, and to taste the glacier melt-water. A short time before, I had seen a thermometer reading 60 degrees in the shade of the boarding platform at the Ice Explorer terminal. On the ice, we had a stiff breeze blowing down the glacier and I’d guess the air temperature was in the high-thirties if not colder. We had twenty minutes to wander around but didn’t take all the time available. Labashi and I were last to re-board and there were still five minutes left.
I had been a little reluctant to take the trip because we could see most of what went on from the parking lot of the visitor’s center. We could see across the valley to the glaciers and we could see (via binoculars) the Ice Explorers venturing out onto Athabasca Glacier and people getting out and walking around. But in the end we wanted to experience it for ourselves and took the chance that it would be worth the $35 per person—and it was well worth-while.
After our ice-adventure, we returned to the visitor’s center and toured its nice little museum. We saw a short silent film of a 1925 horse-packing expedition to the glacier. And today all we had to do was drive up to the visitor center and buy a ride on the Ice Explorer.
This afternoon we had learned we could park overnight in the visitor center’s RV parking lot for $9 CDN --- what a deal! As I wrote this blog entry I could see the sun setting on five glaciers out Mocha Joe’s windows.

Saturday, 26 August-
This morning was clean-up day. We had a late start today because our fancy meals had kept us awake late last night. We’re just not used to the rich food, I suppose. In my case, I suspect it was the chocolate martinis. Anyway, when we finally did get up around 0900 we cleaned out the van, took care of porta-pottie, and went into town for some ice. Then we headed west on the Yellowhead Highway. The term ‘Yellowhead’ comes from an early fur-trader in the area, Pierre Bostonais, who was known as ‘Tete Jaune’, or, literally, ‘yellow head’ for his distinctive blond hair. Though we hadn’t really planning to head out that way, I wanted to see the Yellowhead Pass since I learned it’s the lowest pass through the Rocky Mountains and its crossing of the Continental Divide coincides with crossing into British Columbia and into the Pacific Time Zone. The trip was an easy one. We were in British Columbia within a half-hour and down the Yellowhead Pass to Mt Robson within an hour. Mount Robson is spectacular—it’s the highest peak of the Canadian Rockies and it’s massive and snow-covered. We stopped at the Visitor Center where the view of Mt Robson is fantastic. I had read a recommendation to take the Berg Trail from near the visitor’s center so asked about it at the Center. We saw a regional park campground nearby so we checked in there and selected a camping spot then drove to the trailhead. We spent all afternoon and evening hiking to the far end of Kinney Lake via the Berg Trail and then returning (approximately 8 miles total). The trail was great--- it followed the Robson River, a spectacular, rushing, roaring, blue-glacier-melt river coming out of Kinney Lake. Above us the whole time were the snow-covered peaks of Mt Robson and our trail just took us closer and closer to the mountain until we started running out of daylight and had to head back. Absolutely awesome.
Back in the Mt Robson Meadows campground Labashi cooked up ravioli experimentali to help us recover from our walk. It too was awesome.


Friday, 25 August-
Last night was our coldest yet, 34-degrees, so we fired up the Buddy heater to get dressed and have breakfast this morning. We started early in order to drive up to Mount Edith Cavell and see the Angel Glacier. The area is very popular even though it lies five miles back a twisty and pot-holed road. We had seen recommendations that visitors should either go before 1000 or after 1500 because of the narrow road and the relatively small parking lot. We were on the access road by 0830 and had it to ourselves. At the parking lot, though, there were already a dozen cars and a mini-bus from the Adventure Center had just arrived. We put on winter hats, coats, and gloves and started hiking the ‘Path of the Glacier’ trail since it takes you to the toe of the hanging glacier called Angel Glacier, below which is Cavell Glacier and a large pool of glacier-melt from both of them. Angel Glacier is so-called because it has an angel’s shape. Above you and out of sight is a very large ‘cirque’ or circular area into which snow falls and compresses into glacial ice. The glacier moves toward an opening and spills down a canyon in the wall of the opening forming a ‘hanging’ glacier (the body of the angel). The wings of the angel are formed by ice remaining high up on either side of the initial opening of the canyon, making a very striking form. The glacial ice is covered with snow but in many places you can see the light blue of the pure glacial ice.
Our hike took us to the large pond at the base of the mountain. Waterfalls cascaded down the mountain wall, emanating from under the hanging glacier and making quite a loud rush and though out the valley. At the far edge of the pond is Cavell Glacier, calving small icebergs into the pond. Shortly after we arrived we heard a sound like a dynamite blast. We couldn’t immediately place it but later talked with another tourist who had seen the Cavell Glacier calve off a piece in the far corner of the pond. It had sent a ripple across the pond even though the pond had a light coating of ice. The tourist said the ripples caused ripples in the ice sheet and caused a tinkling sound as the light ice coating rippled. High up on the left was another glacier, this one called ‘Ghost Glacier’ and it looked like it would fall from the mountain at any time. As we sat amazed by this little valley we were in, we noticed that there was a cloud forming at the top of the mountain. We couldn’t tell if it was snow (which seemed unlikely) or condensing moisture droplets. In any case, we could also see beautiful falls near the top. The falls appeared to be snow drifting down and funneled into the valleys in the rock face and cascading over the rock. These were very odd; they would start and stop. We’d see a beautiful cascade which would appear to rush down the rock valley and shoot out into the air only to disappear as if it evaporated. A few minutes later, another rush would happen. These appeared to be tied to the fact that the sun was shining on that upper reaches of the mountain. We later returned when this area was in shade and the cascades had stopped.
As you can imagine, we were endlessly fascinated by the glacier and the little valley we were in. The floor of the valley was a moraine that in the 50’s had been covered by part of the glacier. Now, there are small coniferous trees growing there, most under two feet tall.
We kept hearing the ice crack but saw little evidence of it. The sound itself was spooky and every time the louder cracks happened you could look around and see that all of us tourists were paying very close attention for we were so close to the glacier that it looked like it would be very easy for a big chunk to come down on us. I did happen to see a small ice fall after one of the ‘ice-thunder’ booms. It was at the lower end of the angel’s body but only consisted of a few chunks of ice rolling down a short distance.
After two and a half hours there, we walked back to the van and had lunch in the parking lot. By that time the lot was completely full and people were circling for parking spots. But we weren’t ready to leave. We had a quick lunch and headed back up to the glacier, this time up the moraine trail, which gave us a slightly different perspective. And we also saw that we had been very lucky to get an early start since the light had changed dramatically. We had seen the glacier in full sunlight but already the left wing and the body of the angel were the mountain’s shadow.
After such a great start to the day, we then drove into Jasper and hooked up to the internet to do our email and to upload my blog entry. At the campground I had asked if there were any free wi-fi connections in town and the clerk told me to try the hospital or the old-folks home. So we tried the hospital parking lot and though we had a fairly slow connection, we were able to get the job done.
After a couple hours of internet work, we took a walk through town. Jasper is a nice little resort town and we enjoyed seeing it. Late in the day we stopped at an Earl’s restaurant, thinking we’d have a drink and maybe a snack. We had drinks and had their wonderful herb bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we were hooked. Labashi then went for the cedar-plank salmon and I had a terrific chicken curry. So much for eating in the van tonight!
After our meal, we took a walk into Maligne Canyon at Bridge 5. It was very pretty walking along the river that had carved the limestone canyon but we didn’t last long.
We then drove back to Wabasso campground, the same one we had been in last night.

More Saskatoon, Edmonton, and into the Canadian Rockies (posted from Jasper, Alberta hospital parking lot)
(this post covers 20-24 August)

Thursday, 24 August-
After a dead-quiet night in the campground we awoke to a 42-degree morning. We didn’t use our little propane buddy-heater but did use the butane cook stove to heat up the water for morning wash-up — quite luxurious, eh wot? As we prepared to leave the campground, I asked the attendant whether there was an ‘upgrade policy’ for park admissions. I asked this because I had been thinking that we still have a lot of Canadian National Parks to see and the daily per-person admission fees are already adding up quickly. We had already paid for a day at Prince Albert National Park, one at Elk Island National Park, and so far one day at Jasper National Park. Given the amount of days we will still be in the Rockies, I should have bought an annual pass. The attendant said there is indeed an upgrade policy— all you have to do is keep your receipts and the amounts you’ve already paid will apply toward the $125 fee of the annual pass. That’s when I realized I had thrown out the Elk Island receipt with last night’s trash! Rats! But I also realized that the dumpster was almost empty when I threw my little Wal-mart bag of trash into it—I could probably find it. At least it was worth a shot. And find it we did. My little Wal-mart bag was indeed lying there separate from the other trash and I could just barely reach it. With a little bit of gingerly digging, I saw a receipt—the Prince Albert receipt. And with a little more digging, the Elk Island receipt. Success! We laughed and laughed about dumpster diving for park receipts but those two receipts plus our receipt for Jasper gave us a $45 discount on the annual pass. Good deal!
As we drove out of the campground we were wonderfully surprised by the morning light on the peaks around us… it was spectacular. We had arrived in cloudy weather and in fact many of the peaks were completely in the clouds yesterday. But this morning was a fresh-sunny day and the sunshine washed the peaks all around us.
We drove south toward Jasper and stayed well under the 45 mile-per-hour speed limit. I kept an eye on the mirror and pulled over for approaching vehicles. We were just astounded by the views of the mountains. And when we saw water it was the milky color of glacier-melt on the right side of the road and ultra-clear on the left. Where the stream fed a lake on the left side, the ultra-clear water reflected the emerald green of the lodgepole pines covering the lower mountainsides. Absolutely stunning.
Continuing south for forty miles or so, we soon saw a dozen elk, including one with a trophy-class rack, lying in the grass only 20 yards off the highway. Approaching Jasper we saw the turnoff for the fancy Jasper Lodge and took a drive through there—it was crowded with oilmen attending the Oilmen’s Golf Tournament. We stopped in a nearby picnic area and had a nice lunch in the van as the sun warmed it (and us). Afterwards we went into Jasper to the Visitor’s Center. In reviewing the brochures, we saw that a number of tours are offered into the Maligne Valley so we did that on our own. We drove the 40 kilometers to Lake Maligne and parked at a trailhead for five trails. We took Bald Mountain Trail, which had a 500-meter rise but offered the chance to possibly see caribou. We climbed for an hour and then the trail steepened to the point that we realized it was going to be another hour and a half of huff-and-puff to get to views of the lake. We spoke to several people coming down and they hadn’t seen any wildlife at all up there, much less caribou, so we threw in the towel. And the trip down was great. Not only were we going downhill, we were also getting great views. As our trail turned we’d get a view of one snow-covered peak, then we’d go a little more and a completely different one would come into view.
We got back to the van in another 45 minutes after turning around at the hour-mark of the climb so we had a nice workout. We had supper in the trailhead parking lot and recovered a bit. Then we walked the Lakeside Trail. Along the way we saw a loon which just ignored us entirely. We’ve never been so close to one as this one— it was only about ten yards from us (and of course we had not brought the good camera). Continuing along the lakeshore in the late evening, we soon saw a cow elk and a little one easing along the shoreline. We were afraid of disturbing it and it was getting pretty close to dark anyway so we turned back for the van.
We took our time driving out of the Maligne Valley. We didn’t see any of the larger wildlife but did see a weasel or a mink. I had pulled off the road so we could search the opposite side of Medicine Lake for wildlife when this little guy popped up over the bank and walked out in front of us. As soon as he saw us he took off, bounding away.
We headed for nearby Snaring campground but when we got to the turnoff, a sign said the campground was full. Uh-oh. I thought we’d have to drive the forty miles back to Pocahontas but Labashi found another one much closer but south of Jasper. We found it easily and they had plenty of space. Cost for tonight’s camping is $18 but no showers.


Wednesday, 23 August-
Today we headed west from Edmonton, bound for the Canadian Rockies! The land slowly changed from plains to gently-rolling hills to mountains. We made it to the Jasper National Park entry station by 1530 or so. Soon thereafter I saw the turnoff for Miete Hot Springs and that sounded perfect—a soak in the hot springs would cure what ails us. The 18 kilometer drive up into the mountains was a wonderful intro to the Rockies—the mountains are fantastic! At the end of the drive was the sulfur spring. We didn’t know quite what to expect and were a bit surprised when the springs turned out to be two rather normal-looking outdoor swimming-pools of 104-degree water, one few inches to a meter deep, the other up to almost two meters in depth. The day had turned cloudy and cool and it was spritzing rain a bit but the waters were very, very nice. We spent about an hour and a half lazing around there. It was odd to see the lifeguards bundled up in sweatpants and fleece jackets up on their lifeguard stands while the rest of us were in swimsuits, many of us sitting out poolside with just our legs in the hot water to cool off a bit after over-heating in the water. We did have to be a little careful in the hot water—it could make you light-headed. We did see the immediate aftermath of one guy’s rescue. We saw a bit of commotion across the pool and then saw a fellow holding up the head of another guy and signaling to the lifeguards and dragging him toward the lifeguards. One of the lifeguards jumped in, fleece and all, to get to him quickly. He wasn’t looking good at all—he seemed to be staring off into the distance and not responding—at first I thought he must be disabled. They pulled him to the poolside lifeguard station and pulled him out and he still wasn’t responding. But after a bit he seemed to start snapping out of it and started reacting more normally. Apparently he had been sitting or standing along the concrete poolside wall and had fainted, struck his forehead, then fallen under and had taken in some water. Luckily, the other guy saw it happen and got to him right away.
After our soak we showered and then drove down the mountain to Pocahontas campground and had supper. Cost is $18.80 tonight plus the $17.80 daily entry fee to the park. Too much!

Tuesday, 22 August-
After a quiet night we took our showers and cleaned up the van. As we drove out we decided to take another turn through ‘Bison Drive’ even though we hadn’t seen any bison there yesterday. Right off the hard road we found a small group and stayed with them for a half-hour or so, listening to their primordial-sounding grunts as they fed. We continued around the one-way drive and paused to look closely for more bison and there down the road was another coyote, staring curiously at us. He too seemed to evaporate into the woods.
We drove on to Edmonton and arrived there before lunch time. We found the west-side Wal-mart (there are four of them in Edmonton) which was far enough out of town and bounded by an open field; that looked good for tonight. We drove on the West Edmonton Mall, the world’s largest shopping mall. Like Mall of America, it was a big, BIG mall. This one outdoes the Mall of America in that the amusement rides are bigger and nicer and they also have a waterpark with a very large wave pool. We spent the afternoon at the Mall and then drove downtown to a city park for the rest of the day. At the park we had supper in the van and then later I set up the laptop’s television receiver and antenna so we could watch local television news. We only had four channels but that was enough.
Late in the evening we drove to the art-walk part of town and took a stroll. Most shops were closed but we checked out the menus of the restaurants and shared a to-die-for chocolate-hazelnut gelato at an Italian specialty shop while we browsed the newspaper. We then took Mocha Joe back out to the Wal-mart we had seen earlier and parked for the night. Shortly thereafter a thunderstorm came through and rocked us for a good two hours before settling down after midnight.

Monday, 21 August-
Today we headed west for Edmonton. The drive was a long one and we were happy to reach Elk Island National Park east of the city as our stopping place for the day. Once we rested a bit, we got out the bicycles and rode down to the lake and toured the nature trail. Then we rode some of the Lakeside Trail. We rode slowly so we didn’t surprise any of the big animals—the park’s bison, moose, and elk. The park is mostly known for its bison and this is the first time I’ve seen the distinction made between the plains bison and the woods bison. The park serves as a very large fenced reserve and keeps the two species apart by keeping the plains bison north and the woods bison south of the highway bisecting the park. Historically, this park played a significant role in the restoration of the bison. At a crucial point the Canadian government stepped in and bought the largest herd of bison remaining in Montana and established them as breeding stock. Rescuing the wood bison from extinction took a stroke of luck. Wood bison had retreated to Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Saskatchewan and were thought to have all been inter-bred with plains bison by the 1950’s, thereby ending the line of pure-bred wood bison. But in 1957 a small group of pure wood-bison were found in the remotest sections of Wood Buffalo National Park. Twenty-three of them were brought to Elk Island National Park and the separate range area established for them. To understand the importance of the park, consider this: most of today’s bison throughout North America descended from the historic Elk Island herds.
Our bicycle ride around the lake soon took us to a large pond where we saw beaver happily mucking about in a pond so totally covered in green algae that the surface looked like you could walk on it. But the beavers didn’t seem to mind swimming around through it. Further along we came to a lone bison bull blocking the path. Labashi shot off some pictures and we then retreated; it was getting late and buggy by then anyway. And on the way back we were stopped at a side trail to consider walking out to Beaver Bay but there on the side trail was another bison staring us down. We kept moving.
We camped that night at the Sandy Beach campground in the park and were a bit unhappy about prices. The campground was $22.80 for the night and that’s bad enough but we also had to pay $13.80 in entry fees to get into the park. That’s too much, bison or no.


Sunday, 20 August-
This morning we drove back to Wanuskewin to take a morning walk. We had started our visit too late yesterday and ran out of time. Today we had a nice, fresh, breezy morning and it promised to be a beautifully sunny day. We entered the trails via the same route as yesterday and remarked at how different the morning light looked in the little valley than it had in the evening light of yesterday. And as we walked along the Southern Saskatchewan River we saw something unexpected—a coyote walking in the river. He (or she) was headed toward us and hadn’t yet seen us. The breeze was blowing from the side and we were partially hidden by trees along our trail so it wasn’t until Labashi snapped the shutter that it saw us and froze for a second, then nonchalantly turned downstream and away from us, quartering to the riverbank and then he was hidden from sight by the riverside bushes. We waited and tried to ease along the riverbank to see him again but to no avail. We followed the winding trail up out of the valley and to the medicine wheel, one of less than a hundred such constructs in North America. This medicine wheel pre-dates Stonehenge by at least 500 years and, like Stonehenge, it’s purpose is unclear. It is said to mark positions of some stars. One remarkable thing about the site was the spectacular view all around--- it’s easy to believe a place like this has a spiritual purpose.
After leaving the wheel we continued on the path back toward the valley and came upon a small arroyo and there again (we think!) was our coyote. It’s possible this could have been another one but it was in the right place in approximately the right amount of time to have been our friend from the river. He was staring at us and watching intently. We thought we had caught him out in the open since the only cover around was the fairly-low prairie grass. But he fooled us once again. As Labashi tried to work her way around a large bush to position for a better photo, he appeared to turn--- and then was gone. We thought he had lain down in the grass. We had a clear view of all that area, and our pathway was winding right toward it. But we never saw him again. The ghost-dog had given us the slip again.
We walked a couple of miles and by lunchtime were very hungry. We again ate in the center’s restaurant, this time sharing a large bowl of bison chili with bannock. It was very well made, meaty and just enough chili spices to make it savory.
After lunch we headed to town to find a wi-fi connection so we could get our email and I could upload my blog entry. We found a coffee shop on Broadway and there was only one parking spot left in that area but one is enough! After getting the laptop hooked up to the internet, I went in and ordered a coffee while Labashi started some web queries she has been waiting to do.
After completing our email, blog, and web work, we decided to find a small park and relax for the afternoon—we’ve been working WAY too hard at this travel thing. We toured the riverside park in Saskatoon and then headed out of town for the Beaver Glen Conservation Area. We were hoping to find trees and shade but it turned out to be open prairie with some trails heading into a wooded valley or to the river. Since it was an airy day, we decided to take the two-mile prairie and riverside trail. That was a great walk; the grasses were waving in the wind and the trail took us to the wild-appearing river, again the Southern Saskatchewan. We had a light supper in the van when we finished our walk and headed out. When we had stopped at the visitor center upon arrival, the guy there had suggested we talk to shepherd if we had a chance. We had seen sheep off in the distance during our walk but they had been too far away and we hadn’t seen the shepherd at all. But as we drove out the lane we saw the shepherd driving the sheep into a fenced-in area. So we parked along the road and walked over to the pen across the prairie. As we came up to the pen, the shepherd and his dog were working the sheep and now driving them out of the pen. They had been brought in for a drink but since it was only five p.m. it was too early for them to bed down. After the sheep had been turned loose we met the shepherd, Jared, and his border-collie Kate. Jared and Kate are running sheep on the Conservation Area lands as part of an experiment to control invasive plants. Sheep, it turns out, prefer the invasive snowberries, chokecherries, and wood-willow plants to the native species. So Jared and his 231 sheep have been here since May 15th and Jared works sun-up to sun-down watching over the sheep. After our morning experience with a coyote, we asked Jared about them and he says there are many and they are getting a bit cheeky as they aren’t hunted on the Conservation Area. We walked the prairie with Jared as we talked. I asked if he sees snakes out here--- no, he replied, none in three years. We talked at length about Kate and about Jared’s days as a shepherd. Jared’s wife is a full-time student and he’s originally from the ranch country of southern Alberta, down near Waterton Lakes. We spent a delightful two hours with Jared and Kate and loved every minute of it. In the long light of evening, the prarie was a wonderfully-alive and gentle place. At one point I passed the van keys to Labashi and told her she’ll have to go on without me; I’m going to become a shepherd.
We spent that night at the Wal-Mart on the east side of Saskatoon, same as last night. And once again it was a nice, quiet night though after all our walking, sleep came easily.

Fort Qu’Appele, northern lights, Prince Albert, Saskatoon
(posted from the Broadway Brewery coffee shop parking lot, Saskatoon, SK)
(this post covers 16-19 August)


Saturday, 19 August-
Today we started off with a driving tour of Prince Albert National Park. We took a short walk at Shady Lake and then another at Waskesiu Lake. The park has an ‘eastern’ look about it, or, perhaps more correctly, it looks like the Quebec or Ontario woods. There are lots of birches and gray aspens, often with a thick growth of mossy on the ground. There are many lakes and ponds. The trails are designed to be hiking trails in summer and cross-country ski trails in winter; they are wide swaths through the forest, apparently maintained by a full-size tractor and mower. At Lake Waskesiu we realized we have now gone further north than ever before. We turned on the GPS to get a position and see that we are just below the 54th parallel, which further east is in northern Labrador. One mark of how far north we are is seeing the electrical panels in the parking lot at the resort area of Waskesiu Lake—there are outlets there for winter visitors, i.e., to plug their engine-block heaters so their cars will start in the below-zero temperatures.
After an early lunch we headed down to Prince Albert then across to Saskatoon. After the turn south-west we were back in the flatlands but there’s now more pasture and open field than the large wheat and barley fields we saw coming up to Prince Albert. We were also in the Metis country. The Metis are descendants of French trapper/voyageurs and Indian women. They were long discriminated against and the Canadian government gave them aboriginal status in the early Eighties.
Saskatoon has an interesting western-town feel. It’s out on the prairie and we had ‘long views’ all around as we approached and drove around the city. Our first stop was ‘The Berry Barn’ for a piece of Saskatoon-berry pie. We had never heard of ‘saskatoons’ in reference to berries before learning in Regina’s Royal Saskatchewan Museum (from the information person) that when in Saskatoon one should visit The Berry Barn for some pie. The berries are very much like a blueberry but grow on large bushes. We asked our waitress and cashier what other names there were for saskatoons but they said they’ve never heard them called anything else. The Visitor Center person told us they were called boysenberries in the States but that’s not true—boysenberries resemble raspberries while saskatoons look like blueberries. Finally, the web gave us the answer—they are also known as juneberries.
After our Saskatoon-berry pie, we went to Wanuskewin, a native-canadian culture center. We enjoyed the center’s displays but the highlights for us were trying the bison stew, wild-rice salad, and bannock-bread as we sat on a deck which gave us a wonderful overview of the valley below. Afterwards, we walked the Path of the People Trail into the valley. The sides of this valley formed ‘buffalo jumps’, or cliffs for some 5000 years. The native-canadians would drive the buffalo into a panic and over the cliffs and people waiting below would finish them off and process them. Because it was late in the day, we were the only people on the trails and we took advantage of it, staying until closing fo the day. We spent the night at the east-side Wal-mart which had good overnight parking area for us.

Friday, 18 August-
Today we cleaned up the van and then got back on the road, pointed north. We drove to the town of Prince Albert, where we stopped at the visitor’s center (where I saw a replica of a 1800s river-freight vessel called a ‘York boat’) then did some shopping for supplies for the next few days at a Sobey’s grocery store.
I also want to mention that along the way I stopped for ice and had to pay $3.50 for an eight-pound block of ice. Ice is getting ridiculous. Back home I was paying $1.30 or so for an eight-pound bag of ice but by Minnesota it was down to a 5-pound bag for $1.50. In Saskatchewan, ice has been $2.00 CDN for that 5-pound bag and that’s the Wal-mart price. The further north I go, the more expensive the ice. That seems counter-intuitive but then again if it takes volume to make it in the ice business, the ice-selling season is a lot shorter up here.
After the town of Prince Albert, we drove on to Prince Albert National Park, some fifty miles north. We swung in the south gateway, choosing the slower but scenic route. We checked out Sandy Lake campground and at first passed it up, thinking we’d like to see the smaller Trapper Lake campground. But we returned to Sandy Lake because it has trails and a better view of the northern sky. We hiked for an hour and a half but didn’t see anything remarkable along the trail. Our campground is perfect—we have a great view of the lake and can hear loons calling in the distance.
We stayed up late looking for the northern lights again but it was not too be tonight. We could see a definite glow off in the north-north-east which we believe was northern lights but it’s too indistinct; we couldn’t see drapery or anything other than a glow that would slowly fade in and out.



Thursday, 17 August-
We had a great Wal-mart for sleeping last night except for one thing: at 0230 a neighborhood guy decided to roar around the mall parking lot for a while on his ATV. He had a grand old time, roaring across the lawn, jumping curbs, and trying to put his ATV into a drift. That went on for an hour, then seemed to stop only to start up again for another twenty minutes, this time with his laughing-loon girlfriend on the back. Ain’t life grand?
In the morning we headed northeast. We wanted to go see Fort Qu’Appelle (“kwa-pell”), a favorite getaway spot for Labashi’s parents when they lived here. As we drove out of town the landscape was very flat but soon turned to very gently rolling hills. By the time we reached Echo Lake, we had a wonderful landscape of western-style very dry, dead-grass, deeply-ravined hills along the lake. The nearby town of Fort Qu’Appelle looked like a western town too--- very wide streets, store-front buildings (including an 1800’s Hudson’s Bay trading store), cars parking diagonally in front of the stores. We had an ice cream at the video store/general store and gassed up before heading out into the backcountry. I paid $107 to gas up… and only needed a little over half a tank. The gas was $1.15--- per liter, or about $4.60 per US gallon. And that was the off-brand, el-cheapo gas.
We then drove north up Route 35, all in the country. Once again we are amazed at the size of the fields and farms. We later spoke with a guy at our campground who told us it’s now common for farmers in this area to plant 10,000 to 15,000 acres. (The dairy farm I worked on for a summer as a 15-year-old consisted of 60 acres!)
The roads are arrow-straight and I bet we didn’t pass two cars an hour coming the other direction (and we didn’t see any at all going our direction) for the two hours it took us to get to Wadena. In Wadena we stopped at a visitor’s center and learned there’s an internationally-recognized birding area nearby at Quill Lakes. But we’re early; the action will start in a couple of weeks. Right now we could see some blue-billed grebes and some white pelicans but the rush hasn’t started yet.
By 1800 we were ready to get off the road and stopped at a little municipal campground at Melfort. There was only one other camper in the campground and I had to go ask him for the combination to the bathrooms/shower building and so learned that he’s a local farmer who camps there once in a while to take a few days away—not a whole lot of visitors to this campground. We saw that brochures about Melfort say it’s the ‘gateway to Saskatchewan’s North’ and is ‘the city of the northern lights much of the year’. After supper we took a walk around the campground then waited for dark, joking about the fat chance of seeing the northern lights. As the sky ever-so-slowly lost light, we got out a Kwik Kampfire (sort of an ultra-big candle sold as a campfire-in-a-can) and sat around it to keep warm. The temperature was around 55 and dropping fast. Finally, we could see the major constellations, then the swash of the Milky Way. We thought we’d see shooting stars but instead we started seeing satellites. We counted eight of them within a half hour. Then we finally saw a shooting star and not long after Labashi saw another but I missed that one. Then we counted three more satellites. During our scans of the sky for satellites or shooting stars we noticed that a portion of the sky seemed to be cloud-covered. We could see the Big Dipper, Little Dipper and North Star but nothing below them. Labashi said she thought she saw something moving but I (of course) said it’s just moisture in the air. About that time we definitely noticed movement— it looked like a shaft of light was building up in the direction of Melfort. And then—there they were…the Northern Lights. We suddenly had draperies of light, and the draperies were moving. ‘Folds’ in the draperies seemed to ruffle in an unfelt breeze. Then one end of the drapery faded. Somewhere in the middle a ray of light seemed to grow in intensity and vertical size while other parts of the drapery collapsed. Before long, the whole show seemed to fade back to a white haze. And after a few minutes, it would start again.
Throughout this Labashi was so excited she was pounding me and jumping up and down. “I can’t believe it! That’s really it! I can’t believe it! That’s really it! I can’t believe it!”--- you get the picture.
Anyway, it was super-duper-with-a-cherry-on-top cool. Labashi of course wanted to go across the field for a better angle and that indeed did seem to give us a better show. I’m not sure if it was coincidence or what but the displays seemed to fade if we’d walk back toward the van or put on a brighter show if we’d stay out in the field (a difference of about 20 yards).
We couldn’t see the horizon because of trees around the campground so we walked out to the nearby road (this is shortly before midnight) and immediately realized we needed to go for a drive to get a better view. We drove west, away from the lights of town and soon came to a place where I could park the van facing the northern-lights display and we could watch from the comfort of our van. We stayed there for about half an hour, jaws agape most of the time, just parked in the middle of nowhere.
This was Labashi’s first sighting of the northern lights and she can’t quit smiling. It was my second time—but the first was 45 years ago. Nevertheless I remember it well. I don’t know where we had been but my Dad was driving the family home late at night and we were somewhere near Newville or Shippensburg, PA—on US11, I believe—headed for home. The northern lights were shining to our right above the mountain forming the north side of the Cumberland Valley. As an 11 or 12 year old living in the time of the Cold War with the USSR, I at first saw the northern lights display as threatening. I thought it might have something to do with the Russians bombing us—perhaps that’s what radiation looked like from ICBMs. But Dad explained it was a phenomenon of nature and then it seemed magical. Almost as magical as tonight.


Wednesday, 16 August-
After a noisy night at Chez Wal-Mart, we arose to a cloudy and cool day. We spent the morning at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum which had very well-done displays on the geological history of the province and an excellent First Nations section. The earth sciences section gave us a great overview of the physical geography of Saskatchewan and has convinced us to go north and see some of the variety. The area here around Regina is an ancient lakebed and is as flat as a pancake. After visiting the Qu’Appelle Valley (formed by the glacial melt) we will head for Prince Albert National Park to see some of the uplands.
The highlight of the First Nations section was seeing an hour-long film on pow-wow dancing and on making a tipi. The preparation of the 15 buffalo hides for the tipi cover was amazingly laborious; it’s no wonder nobody does that anymore.
After the museum visit we spent a few hours connected to the internet in the parking lot of the Java Express to check and respond to our email, upload my blog posting, and do some miscellaneous web work—like looking for the predictions for northern lights activity (solar activity is low for the next few days) and checking news headlines. I had one of the Java Express “Java Jolt” coffees and that wasn’t bad at all- the two shots of espresso provided the jolt.
Afterwards we drove to the Regina Public Library for Labashi to see what she could find in the Prairie History section about Regina in the early Fifties. She spent a couple of hours perusing old photos and made some copies to take to her folks.
We then headed to the north-side Wal-mart to (hopefully) have less noise tonight than at the Regina-South Wal-mart of last night. We had supper from the leftovers from last night’s meal at the Zest restaurant. This afternoon while Labashi was doing her thing with the computer at the Java Express, I bought a bottle of the German wine she liked last night at ‘Zest’ — J & H Selbach Reisling Spatzele. So we had another gourmet meal tonight, even though it was in our van in the Wal-mart parking lot! After supper, we did some shopping for supplies and also checked out a Canadian grocery store- Sobey’s. The Wal-mart is of course similar to the ones in the states but does have some differences in what they stock. Appliances, for instance, tend to be the Canadian brand ‘Danby’, for instance. And though we get a ten-percent favorable boost on the exchange rate of the dollar, things overall are more expensive here, at least for food. Also, the Wal-marts here are somewhat behind the times in that there are no Super-Wal-marts and these close at ten p.m. The Sobey’s we checked out had a great variety of food but seemed extra-expensive.

Bismarck to Knife River and on to Saskatchewan (posted from Java Express, Regina, SK)
(this post covers 11-15 August)

Tuesday, 15 August-
Today we drove on to Regina. Since Labashi had been planning this for some time and had a good map of the city, we found the house she and her parents lived in for the first year after her birth. She of course took pictures of the house and the street. Regina is famous for having planted some 350,000 trees throughout the city and there were plenty on this street. We believe the look of the street has changed a lot but we won’t know till we take the pictures back to her mom and dad. Labashi talked with the next-door neighbors but they had moved in too recently and didn’t know anything useful. We also took pictures of the schoolyard nearby where her Dad said the locals would flood a section of the playground and use it as a neighborhood ice rink. We went to the church the family had attended and also to the hospital where she was born.
Afterwards we turned tourist and visited Government House, the home of the Lieutenant-Governors of Saskatchewan from 1891 until 1945. We learned that the ‘lef-tenant’-governor was the Queen’s representative in the province—a position we would call the Governor in the States.
Later, we drove around the city, ostensibly in search of the city’s three Wal-marts but also just to get a feel for the size and makeup of the city. On this beautiful sunny day (temp=32C) Regina looks like a great place to live. Their city park is three times as big as New York’s Central Park, the streets are mostly tree-lined and very clean and there’s a lot of choice in shopping. We should probably come back when it’s 40-below in a howling wind to get the full experience!
We spent a lazy hour in the hottest part of the day at the local park with the van parked in the shade and the doors hanging open to catch the nice breeze. Then we went looking for a restaurant called ‘The Willows on the Lake’ which reportedly has Saskatchewan specialties. We finally found it but were a bit late—since we had no reservations they put us out on the outside deck and it was just too hot out there in the sun. We then drove to the Science Center which reportedly has a good ‘world fare’ restaurant called Zest. Our bad luck at The Willows turned out to be very good luck for us at Zest; the food was incredible. We started with a ‘pre-appetizer shot’ (they called it) of watermelon juice and a bit of Cointreau. We then had ‘Terrine of Elk and Bison’ which was on the ‘starters’ list. This can only be described as a type of spiced, light meatloaf with a slice of cold bacon and blue cheese atop it, served with a salad of mixed greens and Saskatoon-berry salsa (you had to be there…). Labashi then had a second ‘starter’ of fennel ravioli while I had a vegetable coconut curry with Thai spices and pineapple. If these foods are representative of Zest, I could eat there every week and never tire of it.
We took a walk around the outside of the Science Center and then headed for the Regina-South Wal-mart for our informal campground for the night. We spent the evening reading and blogging and listening to the local radio stations.

Monday, 14 August-
Today we awoke to a significantly cooler morning—it was 55, some 10 degrees lower than other nights recently. We drove across SR 200 from Stanton, stopping briefly in Hazen for supplies (it was in Hazen, ND where we passed a local ice-cream shop called “Sizzlin’ Sundaes”--- I swear!) then we headed up SR22. After Killdeer we saw hills in the distance and before long were suddenly presented a fantastic view of ‘badlands’ cut by the Little Missouri River as our road climbed those hills. Once atop the butte, we came upon the entrance to the Little Missouri River Primitive State Park. The drive in to the park provided a great view of the badlands, looking down into them like looking into the Grand Canyon. As we arrived at the park, we saw it is dedicated to horseback riding—in fact we’ve never seen one like it. Where a ‘normal’ state park has a campground, this one has extensive corrals and fencing beside the campgrounds (both RV and tent). Around the edges of the campgrounds are the normal outbuildings you’d see at a horse farm. We saw signs on the park roads that said “No Galloping”. At the back of the park is a trailhead and another set of corrals leading to trails leading out the butte and down into the breaks. On the way out, we saw a cowboy-hatted ranger mending fence and stopped to talk with him. He was great; he was very enthusiastic about the breaks and the state park being ‘the hidden jewel of the state’. He tried mightily to convince us to drive past the park another mile and rent horses to tour the breaks. We probably should have taken his recommendation. We felt we wanted to keep on moving and get into Canada today but this would have been a good one, I think.
We then drove on to New Town which is in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. New Town was formed when the government planned the building of the Garrison Dam, which flooded much of the historical homeland of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa. New Town and the land around it was the new reservation. We toured the Three Affiliated Tribes museum which was very interesting and had great historical photos and paintings of tribal chiefs of all three tribes plus objects once belonging to some of the chiefs.
We then continued our trip out into the North Dakota backcountry above New Town. We soon found ourselves among field after field of wheat and barley. And we saw hundreds of new oil derricks plus active oil drilling. When we stopped for gas at Tioga, I asked another gas customer about all the oil work. He said the area is part of a very large oil field extending to western Montana and the whole area has been ‘going crazy’ with work on oil rigs, particularly since the price of oil has sky-rocketed.
We continued up to the Canadian border and crossed below Estevan, Saskatchewan shortly before 1700. We drove on to Weyburn, SK, and Nickle Lake Regional Park, our campground for the night. Cost for our site tonight was $15 CDN. We took a little walk around the park and stopped in and chatted with the lady running the canteen and had an ice cream. Later that evening we saw the Milky Way! The winds rose after dark and we had to move the van to get away from a pesky branch rubbing against the top of the skylight bubble. After moving the van I got out to come around to the door and glanced up. I had checked the sky earlier and had remarked to Labashi that it was a lot like home—too much light to see the Seven Sisters. But only an hour later the sky had many more stars than we usually see at home and the Milky Way was clearly visible. I noticed a satellite passing over and told Labashi to get her shoes and coat on and come out. Naturally, she immediately saw a shooting star and I missed it. We stayed out for a half-hour or so in the wind and saw three more shooting stars before a few bug bites drove us inside. What a great way to end the day.

Sunday, 13 August-
After a fairly heavy rainstorm, we awoke to a darkly-cloudy day with occasional rain—but we could see blue sky to the west. We drove a north a bit and stopped at a Nature Conservancy area we had passed the day before and soon had fresh sunny skies above us—it was a spectacular day. This parking area turned out to be a trailhead for the Nature Conservancy’s Prairie Trail which we could see from the map made a nice little loop of about two hours walking time. Just after starting the trail I could see something up on the ridge off in the distance and thought it must be a statue—something unlikely to have been done by The Nature Conservancy. It turned out to be a bison facing toward us and Labashi started maneuvering around for a photo of it against the sky while I went up the other direction to explore an old cemetery. We hadn’t gone far, though, when she suddenly said she had scared a snake—and a big one…in the tall grass. She said she could tell it was a big one going away from her because the tall grass moved in a sinuous shape as the snake went through it. We remembered that last night we had asked the local couple about snakes in this area and they had said there were rattlesnakes around but there were reportedly very few of them this side of the river—but they had indeed seen one in the state park we were in. Labashi never actually saw the snake so we don’t know what it was but we decided to stick to the trail and keep our eyes peeled.
The walk was terrific. It led up and over the hill and into the next valley, then up the far side of that valley. As we walked up the far side, we looked back and there was the bison, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. The ghost-bison took a great interest in us but after awhile went back to browsing. But he was browsing toward our return path so it might get interesting later. We continued to the top of that hill and the views there were absolutely first-rate. We had a 360-degree view of the river hills and there before us was the great Missouri River. We could see across the valley to Washburn and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center we had visited yesterday and we could see well downriver toward Bismarck.
After our hike and lunch, we drove on to Fort Clark Historic State Park where we visited what is now just an open, grassy field with hundreds of depressions. This was a fur-trading outpost and Mandan village. The depressions had at one time been earthen homes of Mandans and Hidatsa. And it was here that ninety percent of the Mandans died of smallpox in one year—1837—after smallpox came upriver on the steamboat ‘St. Charles’.
It started to rain as we finished our walking tour of this park and we drove on to Knife River Indian Villages National Historical Site in the rain. We ran inside and happened to arrive just in time for a charming presentation by ‘Ranger Ray’ about wildfire fire-fighting. I say charming because ‘Ranger Ray’ is this 22-year-old sprite of a girl who has just finished her forest fire training and passed the tests qualifying her as a Fire-Fighter II but has yet to even smell the smoke of a real fire. The ‘Ray’, by the way, is short for ‘RayAnne’ but as she says in her no-nonsense way: “EVERYbody calls me Ray”. Ray went on to tell us about every item in her fire-line pack and haul bag, passing around EVERYTHING for us to look at- her box of band-aids, her foot powder, her water-bottle, her spare Nomex clothing etc. She was great, though…and I’m sure she will do well on the fire line. Her main concern is pulling her weight and not letting down her team.
After Ranger Ray’s LONG presentation (it took an hour), the sun had come out so we went out to the earthen lodge for a tour by--- you guessed it—Ranger Ray—now changed from her fire-fighter uniform to her National Park Service ranger uniform. Actually, the tour was very good. Ray was of course her ultra-thorough self and we were amazed at how much knowledge she had of the subject at hand. And remember, we also had a pretty good tour of a Mandan earthen lodge at On-a-slant Village just two days ago so we had some background info going in. Keep chargin’, Ranger Ray!
After Ray’s tour, we walked down to the Knife River, past the three fields of depressions where villages had once stood. There had at one time been about 5000 people in these villages and at the time Lewis and Clark passed through here, they were larger than either St. Louis or Washington, DC.
As we departed, we asked the ranger on desk duty about camping and she told us that the nearby town of Stanton had a small campground. We checked it out and found a nice little campground with good bathrooms and showers and right on the Knife River for $5 — I love it! We were camping within shouting distance of the place where Lewis and Clark first met Charbonneau and Sakakawea.

Saturday, 12 August-
This morning we took a morning bike ride on the bike path from Fort Abraham Lincoln toward Mandan and enjoyed the great views across the Missouri River. Then we finished our tour of the Fort at the Barracks. We almost skipped the barracks visit since we’ve seen many barracks at other reconstructed forts but, fortunately, we decided to go in. It was fantastic. The barracks had two sections, ‘L’ Company and ‘I’ Company of the Seventh Cavalry. On the ‘L’ Company side, the Barracks looked like the troops were just out for the day and would be back any minute. Each bed had a soldier’s name and his personal gear, complete with photos, bibles, mementos, medicines, glasses cases, etc, all awaiting the return of the soldiers. In the mess, the table was completely set and had the plates and cups turned upside down as was the custom of the time. The kitchen appeared ready to serve and the pantry was stocked with faux versions of the meats, vegetables, and fruits—they looked so real we picked up a spring onion from a bowl and had to smell it to tell that it wasn’t real.
On the ‘I’ Company side, however, it was different. All the bedrolls and personal gear were gone, leaving the starkly-white wood of the bunk frames. And each empty footlocker had a poster on it with the history of that soldier (including his enlistment information) and the fate of that soldier in relation to the Little Big Horn and, for those who did not perish at the Little Big Horn, details about the remainder of their lives after the Little Big Horn. Three soldiers were lucky enough to have been teamsters and one a cook who were temporarily detailed to another Fort. The majority of the men were of Irish descent and most well under 30 years old.
After our Barracks visit we cleaned up the van, showered and drove north, following Route 1806. We were confused for a while by the AAA map which showed the road as Route 1086 but soon figured it out. Only a few miles out of town the road turned to gravel and a very dusty gravel it was. That went on for some twenty miles but we loved it; we had views of the Missouri which we later learned have changed very little in the two hundred years since the Corps of Discovery came through.
We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and spent about two hours there before going on to Fort Mandan, the expedition’s winter camp for five months in 1804-1805. Both were well done but Fort Mandan was our favorite; it’s one thing to see artifacts in cases in a nice, air-conditioned museum but quite another to visit the primitive little triangular fort where they survived a winter with temperatures down to 45 below zero.
After Fort Mandan, we drove back to Cross Ranch State Park along the gravel road and camped there for the night ($13). We took our chairs down to the Missouri and sat along it waiting for sunset. A local couple came along and we chatted for quite a long time. We had lots of questions about what it was like to grow up and live in the area. We learned that it wasn’t quite that cold last year getting down ‘only’ to 20-below. The biggest problem locally, however, is the drought. They are in the fifth year of drought and it’s hurting local farmers. Since the can’t grow much hay and there isn’t much green for the cows, the farmers have to buy feed for them. We also asked about housing. Bismarck is apparently growing fast; housing prices here are also rising. The local couple said they’ve been looking at houses lately and homes that were $95K just last year or so are now going for $140K.

Friday, 11 August-
Today we crossed a sizable chunk of North Dakota west-to-east across I-94 from Fargo to Bismarck. Along the way we passed many lakes which had been designated as wildlife refuges, apparently because this area is in a major flyway. Each lake only seemed to have a few birds now but I imagine there are many more during migrations.
We also saw a marked change in the landscape as we crossed the state. On the eastern side of the state, the farmland looked much like it did in central Minnesota; very large, completely flat farmfields with wheat stubble, corn, or soybeans; equipment consisting of extra-large combines, dual-wheel tractors and grain haulers everywhere; and many of the farmhouse/barn complexes set in groves of trees, apparently for protection from the winter winds roaring ‘cross the plain. About a half-hour before Bismarck, the landscapes started changing—much drier (now a golden brown), for instance, more rolling, and more western-looking.
We drove south of Bismarck to Mandan and Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. This fort was the departure point for General Custer and the 7th Cavalry in their rendezvous with destiny at the Little Big Horn. Today was a hot day (97) but not so oppressively humid and we had a steady wind of about 25 miles an hour so we did the tour of the park on our bicycles. The high point for us was the On-a-Slant Mandan Village, which has excellent reconstructions of the Mandan earthen homes. This village was already in ruins when Lewis and Clark camped nearby and noted its existence in1804. The Mandans had moved further upstream to the Knife River.
That evening we attended the Fort Abraham Lincoln Melodramas. These were two very melodramatic plays put on by the Fort’s Dramatic Society. These were the type of plays where we were instructed to cheer the hero, boo the villains, and sigh at the pretty maid. They were of course ridiculous but nonetheless were a treat for the kids. The high point for us was the intermission, where two of the college-age dramatists sang and fiddled some very good Irish songs. Afterwards we stayed overnight at the Fort’s campground ($13).

Minnesota! (posted from the Luna Coffees shop in Fargo, ND)
(this post covers 6-10 August)


Thursday, 10 August-
This morning we headed west via back roads to get a feel for the rural area. The fields look very dry in this area and the corn stunted. We heard at the state park that they were having a very dry summer this year. We also came upon a new first for us--- a sign in the little town of Twin Valley offering a free building lot to anyone who wants to build a home there (see http://www.twinvalley.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={E7863A11-16D2-4EFC-897A-E99453D63581}&DE={74920BA6-E016-4D0E-B323-D6E957DC0ED8}) for the offer. They not only will give you a free building lot, but also free phone and sewer service connections and free water, sewage and garbage collections for a year! And it’s a nice area!
We continued on to Moorhead, MN, where we visited the Hjemkomst Museum. Robert Asp, a school counselor in Moorhead, decided one day that he should build a Viking ship and sail it to Norway. And though he died of leukemia before he could finish the boat, his family completed it and five members of the family (and seven other crew) did indeed sail it to Bergen, Norway on an amazingly dangerous voyage. Asp had no shipbuilding experience and made up some of the construction methods as he went. At one point in the voyage the rudder came off and water was coming in a 14-foot crack along the keel. But they made it! And the boat is there to see in the Hjelkomst Interpretive Center.
Also at the center is a ‘stave church’ replica, also build by an obsessed Norwegian. Guy Paulson took an early retirement from his job and spent the next seven years replicating a 12th-13th Century Norwegian church. Incredible.
After posting the blog entry today, we’re planning to stay at the local Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart.

Wednesday, 9 August-
We got up at 0530 this morning to once again drive the Wilderness Drive looking for wildlife but again saw only three deer. Afterwards, we hiked the Bohall Wilderness Trail (a mile), then hiked to the Fire Tower and climbed it. That afternoon we hiked for 2-1/2 hours on the North Country Trail in very hot weather and Labashi took a roll of film shooting two trumpeter swans (the male is called a ‘cob’ and the female a ‘pen’) along with their two gray-fur-covered little ones (‘cygnets’) we came upon in the middle of nowhere. After returning and showering, we celebrated my birthday at the Douglas Lodge with buffalo burgers and shared a hot fudge sundae and spent another night at the campground.

Tuesday, 8 August-
Today we visited the Rune Museum in Alexandria, MN. This is an interesting one. A local farmer found a ‘runestone’ wrapped in the roots of an aspen tree back in 1898. The stone contained runic symbols which stated that the carvers were 22 norsemen who were 14 days from their main ship and had been attacked by native Americans--- and it’s dated 1362! The stone has a long history of being declared a fake and then real in several cycles and that controversy continues through today. We spent all morning at this fine little museum and loved it.
In the afternoon we moved on to Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River. Lake Itasca State Park is Minnesota’s oldest (founded 1891) and consists of 32,000 acres. After parking in our campsite ($18), we set up the bicycles and biked down to the headwaters visitor’s area. We took the obligatory hop across the Mississippi on stepping stones and Labashi wanted to take some pictures so we went back to the van for supper then drove back to the headwaters. Afterwards we drove the 17-mile long Wilderness Drive at dusk, looking for wildlife but saw only a few deer.

Monday, 7 August-
After a wonderfully-restful night at the campground at Lake Elmo, we drove over to the bath-house for our showers. It was such a spectacular morning that while Labashi took her shower, I jogged the two-mile multi-purpose trail and cooled off a bit before taking my shower. Labashi was just emerging from the shower building as I was returning from the jog so this worked out very well.
We then headed for Minneapolis to visit the Russian Art museum. We saw the ‘Soviet dis-Union’ exhibit, which contrasted Russian art from two different sources—the ‘soviet-realist’ style which was the official style of the state and the non-conformist or dissident style. We have seen some really superb realistic Russian art in the past so were hoping to see more. On the whole, though, we were a bit disappointed--- there weren’t enough realistic works.
Afterwards, we drove to the Mall of America. We’ve heard about this giant mall and just wanted to see what it was like, i.e., how it differed from other malls we know. The first thing we learned is that parking is a problem for any vehicle over 7 feet high. All the parking lots immediately around the Mall have 7-foot barriers—too low for Mocha Joe’s nine-feet-plus. All the larger vehicles have to park in a dirt lot across the street and from there’s it’s a fairly long walk to cover. That must be fun in a Minnesota winter. We were also surprised to see it was anchored by just four stores- Nordstrom’s, Sears, Bloomingdale’s, and Macy’s and that there were very few stores we didn’t already know. The mall was three levels high and it very much reminded me of taking your average indoor mall and stacking up three of them. The one difference to that model is that there’s an amusement park in the middle of the mall. The roller coaster looked like fun—and in fact reminded me of the old wooden coaster in Hershey Park that scared me as a small boy. Otherwise, it looked like a small-town amusement park.
We had lunch at California Café and I had a very nice artisan’s cheese sampler with the best grapes I’ve ever tasted. They were Bordeaux mini-champagne grapes.
That evening we planned to stay at the Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club in St. Cloud, MN and in fact set up at the Sam’s Club. Then we noticed construction equipment in the parking lot. Sure enough, the construction folks were massing for a night shift. By eight PM the construction equipment noise was loud and we realized this wasn’t a good idea. We drove around the block to the Wal-Mart only to learn that that’s where they were working-- -the Sam’s Club lot was only a staging area. So much for St. Cloud.
We drove another hour to Alexandria, arriving there about 2330. That Wal-Mart lot turned out to be one of the best we’ve seen yet—a very large lot beside an open field and traffic lanes were far from our parking spot. What a super spot!

Sunday, 6 August-
This morning we headed up river after crossing into Minnesota. We took a mid-morning break at Wabasha, MN and happened upon the National Eagle Center, which at this point is a small downtown storefront with three live bald eagles plus a gift shop. They are apparently planning to put up a building more reflective of their name nearby. As we left town, we saw a pickup parked in a convenience store lot with a sign saying “Candy Corn”. We stopped and talked with the corn-seller and learned that candy-corn is another name for sweet corn here. When he learned we were travelers, he offered us some free ‘candy corn’, “the best you’ll ever taste” he said. We demurred given that we don’t have an easy way to prepare it. But he had an answer for that too--- “just take it into the convenience store and use their microwave”. Quite the salesman, he was.
Later in the day we made it to Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Fine Arts Center, a ‘gem’ according to our guide book, and that it was. We particularly enjoyed the late-19th century art (and I’m more convinced than ever that someday the experts are going to wake up to the fantastic work of Jean-Leon Gerome and mount a show of his work).
After the museum we drove around Minneapolis and St Paul more or less randomly to get a feel for the city.
We stayed the night at Lake Elmo Regional Park where we stayed in the ‘equestrian center’ campsites—a few bucks cheaper ($14 vs $18) and very nice and quiet. As we were getting oriented to the park, we stopped at the Lake Elmo Pond which is a popular swimming area and noticed something didn’t seem ‘right’. Everyone was out of the water and groups of people seemed to be huddled together and looking toward the water. A minute later we heard approaching sirens. We had happened upon a tragedy. We learned later that an 11-year old Hmong boy had been pulled from the water by relatives and lifeguards begun resuscitation efforts. His relatives, unable to speak English, indicated there was another boy missing, so the lifeguards set up a human chain of volunteers and found his cousin, a 12-year old. The 12-year-old died and last we knew, the 11-year old was in critical condition in the hospital.
Late in the evening we walked the periphery of the park, a two mile walk.

Detroit area and on to the Upper Mississippi River

(posted from the Wal-Mart parking lot in La Crosse, WI)

(this post covers 30 July to 5 August)

Saturday, August 5--
Temperatures have moderated to the high-80’s in the daytime (but with lower humidity than earlier in the week) and lows are in the high sixties. Until last night, the challenge has been to cool the van down enough to sleep once we stop for the night. The comfort point seems to be 80 degrees on the inside thermometer and it’s common for the thermometer in the sleeping area of the van to read 105-110 during the day of late. Once we park the van for the night, I’ve been opening up the doors and the hood (to let engine heat escape) and I hang our portable Fantastic Fan between the seats to push hot air out the open back doors. So far that has worked OK but mostly because I’ve been able to find shade in the campground. We’ve had to avoid Wal-Mart parking lots because of the lack of shade and the intense heat coming off the asphalt.
Our campground for last night is in Pike’s Peak State Park on the western bank of the Mississippi. This area has native American ‘effigy mounds’ and in fact the Effigy Mounds National Monument is only a few miles north. Effigy Mounds are earthen burial and ceremonial mounds built by the Indians starting as early as 1000 B.C. and continuing until 1300 A.D. If I understood correctly, the earlier mounds were circular or linear mounds of earth several feet high and often contained a body and perhaps that individual’s daily implements of living or sometimes just the implements. Later, the Indians began making the mounds in shapes, most often in bear and bird shapes.
This morning we walked at Pikes Peak and saw one burial mound plus a pretty little waterfall you could walk behind (Bridal Veil Falls) and overlooks of the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.
We then drove to Effigy Mounds National Monument and toured the visitor’s center to learn about them. All the mounds here are accessible only by trail and we decided to go see the Marching Bears mounds. These more remote mounds are about two miles from the road and require a steep walk up the several-hundred-feet-high bluff. We were pleasantly surprised by the great trail; it was a nice forest road covered entirely with wood chips. The walk in was a steady uphill and took an hour. We were in no rush, though, and took our time, enjoying two indigo buntings we saw flitting around the bushes and trying a few scrumptious blackberries. The mounds were on a hilltop overlooking the Mississippi and were arranged across an opening about two football fields in length and one in width. Though this area is called the Marching Bear mounds, they are the same standing-bear shape as elsewhere; there are just ten of them more or less in a row plus three bird mounds and two linear mounds.
The mounds are intriguing but also a little frustrating in that nobody really knows how they were used. Obviously there was quite an effort made to build the mounds in the first place. But what then? How often were they visited? Were the visits part of a general rendez-vous or did small groups or even individuals visit them? They are on a hilltop and under a canopy of trees now but even so local people interested in them have from time to time outlined them with lime and taken photos from the air. Did the Indians outline them in some way so they’d be visible from the ridge across the river? Very interesting, these mounds.
After our visit to the Marching Bear string of mounds we headed back and along the way took a side trail just to see where it went. Along that trail we saw more mounds, all round or linear in shape. That added up to a five mile walk for us and we were glad to see the van when we got back down to the river.
We had an in-van snack of apples and peanut butter then crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin and into the historic town of Prairie du Chien. While today it’s pretty much just a small Wisconsin town of 6000 souls, the area was first visited in 1673 by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliette as part of their discovery of the upper Mississippi. The town itself was founded by voyageurs and was a fur-trading and trader rendez-vous center.
We continued driving up the right bank of the Mississippi on SR 35 past hundreds of thousands of acres of the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge. I imagine that’s quite a sight during the fall bird migrations.
We made it to La Crosse, WI where we are spending the night at the Wal-Mart and, as luck would have it, we even had a good wi-fi connection in the parking lot so I was able to check our email and do this blog update, my first of this trip.

Friday, 4 August-
We drove into Dubuque today and went to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. We had intended to only be there for the two hours recommended by the guidebook but we must be slow tourists--- we spent five hours there. We enjoyed the giant maps of the river; hydrologic models demonstrating river formation and the effects of different flood levels on Dubuque; steamboat, riverboat and keelboat displays; touring a Corps of Engineers Mississippi side-wheel dredger; seeing a bull-boat; seeing a good Lewis-and-Clark section; seeing catfish of the world; and seeing a good barge-tow simulation program in action. A new fact we learned? Some steamboats had ‘grasshopper beams’, which are wooden beams it can deploy off the front of the boat to help lift the front of the boat up in order to cross shallows. Another fact? The typical 300-acre family farm in this area produces about 1500 tons of grain. That’s one barge-full. Mississippi barge tows typically run 15 barges in this section of the river and up to 45 barges in the lower Mississippi. The barges run 24 x 7 and their crews work a six-hours-on/six-hours-off schedule for 30 days straight then get 15 days off, then do it all over again.
After our day in the museum, we drove on to Guttenberg, where we sampled the local ice cream (“Just like your mother used to make!”), then on to Pike’s Peak State Park just south of McGregor, IA. The campground was crowded this Friday night but the site was only $11.

Thursday, 3 August-
After sleeping in a bit, we had breakfast and a shower and started driving in cloudy and misty weather. We toured the Mississippi Palisades park overlooks, first stopping at Oscar’s Overlook. While we stood at the overlook, the sky cleared—almost on cue. It turned out to be a wonderful day, with low humidity and a high temp of 80. (At the next overlook I saw a North Carolina car with a bumper sticker I liked: “I’m NOT a Hillbilly, I’m an Appalachian-American”.)
As we checked the map for the next segment of the scenic drive up the river, we noticed the town of Anamosa, Iowa only an hour west. We had picked up a brochure about touring the towns along the river and had seen that Anamosa is the home of the National Motorcycle Museum. And more good news—there’s scenic road all the way to Anamosa and most of the way from there back to the Mississippi. That made it an easy decision to go.
The drive to Anamosa was an eye-opener. Iowa is beautiful! We enjoyed mile after mile of gently rolling hills through cornfields, soybean fields, neat little farms, and tiny little don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it towns. And the motorcycle museum was great. They have two hundred bikes, almost every one of them interesting. From the turn-of-the-century motorized bicycles and British classics to Japanese ling-lings to the original Easy Rider Captain-America bike—very cool!
Late in the afternoon we drove from Anamosa across the Mississippi to Galena, Illinois to see some classic architecture. We only did it as a drive-through, however, given that it was late in the day. On the way out of town was another Culver’s restaurant so we sampled another Butterburger—just to be sure the one in Dixon wasn’t a fluke.
We decided to stay back across the river again near Dubuque, Iowa so we could visit a museum there the next day. As we crossed the river we could see a city-run campground nearby and gave it a try. It happened to sit beside the Dubuque Greyhound Races and Casino so we walked over and watched a few greyhound races—a first for Labashi—and walked the bicycle trail around the park area. The campground was Miller’s Riverview and our site there was $12 for the night. It was OK; there was quite a lot of railroad and boating noise but things settled down nicely after midnight. And we had some more late-night visitors. A couple of guys in an old car showed up near us around 0430 to scavenge the trash cans for beer bottles and aluminum cans. Why it makes sense to do that at 0430 escapes me (and I didn’t ask!)

Wednesday, 2 August-
After a few hours more of visiting with Labashi’s sister, we got underway for points west. The route plan is a generic one--- head for Chicago, then turn northwest toward Minneapolis-St. Paul, then toward Fargo, ND, then Regina, SK. As we were deciding how to get to Minneapolis, I noticed that we could go due west from Chicago on I-88 toward Quad Cities and could cut up to Savannah, Illinois and the start of the scenic (dotted-line) road running up the Mississippi, then break off toward Minneapolis. Sounds good.
We ran into a traffic slowdown on I-80/I-94 below Chicago but were out of it within an hour and once we made the turn onto I-88 traffic was back up to it’s regular 65+ pace. By Dixon, we were hungry and stopped at a Culver’s fast-food restaurant (“Home of the Butterburger!”). We lucked out—butterburgers are great!—very much like the original Wendy’s burgers; meaty and juicy. About a half-hour before dark we arrived at Mississippi Palisades State Park above Savannah. We were pleasantly surprised at the $10 rate in this nice campground and found it nearly empty— perhaps not a big surprise given the day’s high temperature of 95. An interesting thing happened there and I’m still not sure what to make of it. As I was sitting outside with a cold Gatorade trying to cool off before bed-time I heard what sounded like a mid-size dog growling in the nearby woods. I didn’t pay much attention to it. But later, after dark, the growling started again. It seemed to come from the same place and would only last for a minute or two of low, intense growling; then it would stop. That happened five or six times and was pretty close. I decided I’d better close the van doors since we only had screening covering them. There didn’t seem to be any immediate threat to us but then again I wasn’t comfortable going to sleep with that noise so close by out there either. Sometime later I distinctly heard something brush up against the lower part of the back door of the van, then a few seconds later a similar sound low along the left side of the van. In retrospect, I think those two things were unrelated—the brushing sound was either a raccoon on patrol or perhaps even a dream. Labashi slept through it, after all, and she tends to be a very light sleeper. In the early morning hours, the heat lightning we had been seeing last evening turned into a thunderstorm. So between the dog/fox/coyote/boogeyman and the thunderstorm, I didn’t fall off to sleep again until daylight and then slept heavily.

Tuesday, 1 August-
After another Starbuck’s walk-and-read, I worked with Dad on resolving some problems with their DVR system. Then we drove an hour west to visit Labashi’s sister and family. We spent a pleasant afternoon and evening visiting. Labashi cleaned up on Monopoly and we laughed our way through a game of ‘The Worst Possible Scenario’. Temperatures were still high and very slow to cool off so we gladly accepted an offer to sleep on a mattress in the rec-room.

Monday, 31 July-
I took an early-morning walk to a nearby Starbucks for a coffee and to read the very good Detroit newspapers then hiked back to the house in steam-bath humidity—and it was only nine o’clock in the morning! While Labashi plied her Mom and Dad for family history information, I worked on Mom’s computer, hoping to resolve a problem with it running so excruciatingly slowly as to be unusable. I downloaded utilities to clean off junk files and run a virus check and found and quarantined a virus and then ran a disk de-frag and response times improved to the point its usable again. By afternoon, we had record-tying high temps outside (96) so I was very content to just keep puttering around on the computer. That evening we had another of Mom’s great meals, this one of meatballs and pasta.

Sunday, 30 July-
We finally got underway on our Saskatchewan trip today. Our goal for the day was to drive the 500 miles to the Detroit suburbs to visit Labashi’s parents for a day before moving on. The drive was pleasantly uneventful though hot (95 degrees and no a/c). We were on the road for nine hours so it felt great to get there, cool off, then enjoy a great shrimp dinner and conversation with her Mom and Dad.