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1 to 15 September 2016 16 to 30 September 2016

Friday September 16, 2016

We are back on the road.
We are leaving Taber and going to Bellevue in the municipality of Crowsnest Pass.
We had to stop for gas in Fort Macleod. I use GasBuddy to find the cheapest gas on our route. After that, I use Google Earth to check if I can get in and out easily with the MH.
This place is good.

We are going through Lethbridge.

An old water tower? Condos? Restaurant? It is a restaurant!

As soon as we were out of Lethbridge, we saw the Rockies for the first time.
Can you see them?

The Old Man River is in the bottom of this valley.
A wall made of straw bales!

The Crowsnest Highway is a very nice road.

The things we see!

Ah, the Canadian Rockies.

Now we know! We know why it is so windy in the prairies. They have installed giant fans!!!

Pincher Creek? Here is why.
The town received its name in 1868 when a group of prospectors lost a pincer in the small creek at this location. These pincers would have been used as a mechanism for trimming the feet of the horses and thus had some value to the group. In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police came to southern Alberta. One of them discovered the rusting tools in the creek, and they named the area Pincher Creek.

They even have pincher (pliers) on both sides of the welcome sign.

Why stop in Pincher Creek? There is a Walmart close by...

More fans! It is very windy right now, I am not kidding.

Harvest time in the prairies.

When we arrived in the municipality of Crowsnest Pass, we drove by Frank's Slide.

We drove by many small villages.

We finally arrived at our campground.
WOW! The grass is very long. The place is deserted. We talked to the owner only to find out we are at the wrong campground!
For the first time in 6 years, I entered the wrong destination in the GPS. Not too bad, this is the only time in 6 years.

We finally get the right address for our campground, but we have to drive back 20 km!
Yep, 40 km for nothing!!!
Our new home for 3 nights.

A look at our site.

A view of the campground and my pretty Michele.

While we were driving the extra 40 km, we were hit by a big rock. Right on the top part of the windshield.
This is from inside.

From the outside.

We drove 180 km today. From Fort Macleod it was very windy. The wind was at 30 km/h. This was not fun to drive in and it is not good for your miles per gallons. Oh well! It is what it is...

The is is blowing between 20 to 30 km/h with wind gusts in the 60 km/h range.
The MH is moving even with the stabilizers down.

Saturday September 17, 2016

We did not sleep very well last night.
We were up at 3:30 am because the wind was shaking the MH. I had to go out and tie the MH mud flap to stop it from making noises when it flapped around in the wind. We even had to bring the slides in to stop the noise from the slide awnings.

Breakfast looking at the Turtle Mountain.

We are right at the beginning of the municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

Rain and sun.

We are in Blairmore for some yard sales.

We are also looking for some caches in and around Blairmore.

After lunch, we stopped at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre.

From Wikipedia.
The Frank Slide was a rock slide that buried part of the mining town of Frank, Alberta, Canada. The community was still part of the Northwest Territories when the incident occurred at 4:10 am on April 29, 1903. Over 82 million tonnes (90 million tons) of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain within 100 seconds, obliterating the eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway line and the coal mine.

For more info on the Frank Slide, click here.

Where are we?
Our campground is located at the red light on the left photo. The arrow is pointing at the campground and now you can see the municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

We visited the interpretive centre and after, we walked the trail onto the "slide". It is a 1.5 km long trail.
We are in the slide's debris of limestones

In the background, you can see Turtle Mountain and the scar left from the rocks that detached from the maintain.

Can you imagine the noise, dust and the ground shaking during the slide?

Pretty Michele working.

The valley of Crowsnest Pass.
From Wikipedia.
Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, French: passe du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border.

We do have many photos of the Turtle Mountain, but it is so impressive to see the slide!

It is ME!

A part of the trail is in the forest.

We really enjoyed our day. We have found 12 caches and to top it off, we talked to one of the cache owner, at his house where he had hidden a cache.

The wind is still blowing hard. It was 10 pm when we brought in the first slide. We brought the others in before we went to bed. We never had the MH shaking like that before and we do not like that at all!

Sunday September 18, 2016

The wind is still blowing strong.
I went to the office to pay for one more night, after talking to the owner, we found out it is very unusual to be so windy this time of year!!!
What I am looking at this morning, sun, rain, more sun and rainbows!

A view from a higher elevation.

We will be back on the road tomorrow morning, going where?

Monday September 19, 2016

The same photo, but a few minutes apart.
What a treat I got this morning!

We are leaving Crowsnest Pass Campground at around 9:40 h.

We love the Rockies. It brings back memories of the trip we took with my brother and his wife in 2007 and the other trip in the Rockies we took in 2009 with my sister, her husband and daughter.

Shortly after we hit the road, we cross into British-Columbia.

We are still on the Crowsnest Pass Highway #3.

After we went over the Crowsnest Pass (1358 m), we start the long decent and follow the Elk River for a while.

We can see some fog above the river.

We drive by many small villages.

Hummm! Are we going to get rain later on?

A tunnel, the only one so far and it is not very long, maybe 30 meters.

We got rained on for about 30 minutes.

After two hours on the road, we made it to Cranbrook.

One thing is sure, they don't want you to get lost to get to the campground!

It was pretty easy to find. We will be spending 4 nights here.

With the rain we got on the drive here, the car really needs a wash.

We drove 180 km today. The map shows you the drive from Bellevue (right) to Cranbrook (left).

I have found this site www.flattestroute.com. When you enter your departure city and your arrival city, it will show you the route and the different altitude you will be driving through.
Like this trip, we started in Bellevue at about 1300 m high. Climbed a few times to almost 1400 m high only to come down to 800 m and back up to 900 m in Cranbrook. It is like a sideways view of the road you are driving.

I really like this information, it gives me an indication on what is ahead of us.
The Crowsnest Pass was easy to go over.

Tuesday September 20, 2016

Our campground is right in a residential area of town. We are about 1 km from downtown.
This morning we saw some deers feeding in the campground. The cat was not missing anything...

It looks like it was going to rain this morning.
By noon the sky cleared up and we drive to Fort Steele.

It is so beautiful, this is why I love the Rockies.

Fort Steele, here we come!

The entrance is a replica of the first brewery in Fort Steele.

Fort Steele...

Many of the building are original from the Fort, but some are replica or from other location in the region.
Like this water tower, it is a replica and it was located down the street.

From the top of the water tower, looking to the North, the Kootenay River.

Looking to the east, the police barracks.

To the South-West, the town of Fort Steele.

Police building with the Fischer mountain in the background.

Inspector Huot's room.

The room where the officers relaxed and entertained visitors.

Now the men's bedroom!!! Never forget that we are all equal, some are just more equal then others...

The Wild Horse Theater was built in 1972 to present plays representing the life around the turn of the century.

The government Building, built in 1887 right here in Fort Steele. The building was the office of the Gold Commissioner, Government Agent, Mining Recorder, Judge of the court of Revision and Appeals, District Registrar and the courtroom
Michele was found guilty (again) and sent to her cell.

This stable was built in the 1890s. It was one of many stables at the Fort.

From left to right, the General Store and the Dress Maker shop (yellow building), a Blacksmith shop, an Harness shop.
A closer view of the General Store.

Inside the General Store.

We visited many other buildings and all were very nice.

Logging Wheels or Michigan Wheels.

The Wasa Hotel is a replica of the Wasa Hotel located a few miles north of here.

The Hotel is also a museum.
Here are some of the medication given to people in those years!

Imagine giving this to your kids!

During a wind storm in 1998, a 400 year old tree was knocked over.
This tree has survived 8 major forest fires. Oh the stories this tree could tell us...

WOW! This water wheel was used between 1934 and 1936.

The McVittie house, Mr. McVittie was a surveyor. He surveyed most of the region.

He was the first to have "modern" conveniences in his home. Very modern for 1899!

The Assay Office. This is where assayers would determine how much gold and the quality of the gold in a sample during the 1897s.

An old cherry pitter.

We really enjoyed our visit at Fort Steele.

The view from the front of the MH.

We had a really good day!

Wednesday September 21, 2016

Once the light rain stopped, we headed to town to look for caches.
Can you see my legs?

One cache was under the "skirt" of the parking meter.

We have seen many murals in Cranbrook.

We look and we look, but we cannot find it!

Cranbrook was very difficult for us regarding caches.
Either we were not in the mood or the caches were missing!
So for today, 8 found and 6 DNF!

Our home!

Michele preparing the Devil's sauce for our chinese fondue tonight.

We have beef and lamb for our fondue.
Cheers!

This is what we looked like after our belly is full!!!

A good day!

Thursday September 22, 2019

I am at the "Canadian Museum of Rail Travel" this morning. Michele did not come because this is not really the type of museum she likes.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the museum.
The museum, opened in 1977, restores and displays vintage passenger trains - the transcontinental "Deluxe Hotels-On-Wheels". It emphasizes deluxe railway passenger cars design in various eras (1886, 1907, 1929, 1936) as well as deluxe railway hotel architecture.

A small area is dedicated to show you some of the restoration process.
From the right you can see the last coat of paint when the car arrived at the museum. Going to your left, you can see all the different layers that had to be removed to get to the original wood.

The museum has three sets of tracks to hold the many cars they have.

We are in the "Omemee" (1906) car.
At the turn of the 20th century, trains were considered "Deluxe Hotels-on-wheels".
This stained glass above the door is made up of over 1000 pieces.
What looked like overhead luggage compartments are actual pull down beds.

The writing and working desk.

This washbasin is very special. When you flip it back, it becomes a chair, when you flip the seat of the chair, you now have a toilet!

These luxury cars were not for the general population, they were for the rich people.
Gourmet meal were served in very nice dinning sets and the gourmet meals were prepared in a very small kitchen...

One of the many cars waiting restoration. It can cost up to and above $500,000.00 to restore a single car to its original glory.

They even had bathtub in first class!

Some of the cars waiting for restoration.

A snack/dining car from the 1970s. The colour were chosen by the railroad company to attract younger customers.

Isn't beautiful?

A first class dinning car.

Many times, when a railroad company decided to change and re-purposing a car, let's say from dinning to workshop, they would allow personnel to take home what was not needed anymore.
When this car was turned into a workshop, an employee took the hutch home as a wedding gift to his new wife, she did not like it and it ended up in the chicken coop.
It sat there for the next 30 years. One day a son decided to move it and found some marking on the back of the hutch. Knowings it used to belong to a railroad car, he contacted the museum and gave it to them.
What a beautiful piece of furniture!

Like many museums, they some time restore only half of the piece to show the two "side"...
Remember this is the same car, on the left, the "modernized" of 1948 and on the right, the "original" woodwork from 1929-30.

The setup for the daytime travel.

The setup for nighttime travel.

I really enjoyed this museum. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and you could tell he had a passion for railroad cars.
He was also very good at passing the information.

In the basement of the museum, they have a display of miniature, working trains.

We are slowly starting to pack-up and get ready for traveling tomorrow.

Another good day!

Friday September 23, 2016

We are lucky, we only hit construction once today.

Since we are in the Rockies, we go up and down a lot and for long distances.
What a name for a village, Yahk!

It always brings a smile to my face when I see a yellow bridge!

One of the many rivers we drive by.

As we near Creston, we start to see orchards and roadside kiosk selling fresh produce from the local farms.

Our destination, why Creston? Why not!

The downtown, do not blink or you will miss it!

Grain elevators are not just a thing of the prairies...

Creston is not in the valley, but on the side of the valley. The valley is used for agriculture.

What a neat little place.

Ah! Home!

I take it you got the play on words?
Pair-A-Dice/Paradise...

On the way in...

Once we are registered, we drive the MH to the gas station to fill up on propane.

Now that we have propane, we head back to the campground. Our site in the one on the left.

After we are all installed, we head to town and the information center. Why is it so hard to "sell" your town to tourists???
I guess some people are just not good at it...
We still have time to take the last guided tour of the Kokanee brewery.

On the right is our guide.

I am not going to show you big stainless steel vats, it is boring.
Here we can see the bottle pasteurizing section...

I am surprised to learn that they "can" more beer than bottle beer. What I am trying to say is, they produce more can beer then bottle beer.
Something else I learned, no matter where you are in Canada, the Kokanee beer is only bottle or canned, here in Creston.
Now if you drink bud or Keith beer, it is made many places in Canada.

The tour is like any breweries tour. You don't really see much of the actual beer.
On the positive side, for $3 for the tour, you get one beer and you cannot buy more!!!

Me, twice, with the sasquatch. The mascot of the Kokanee beer.

We have traveled 108 km today.

The road was very nice with very little traffic. We could drive a little slower (85 km/h) for long periods of time.

The campground looks nice.

Saturday September 24, 2016

Some photos of our site.

What we see from the MH.
As you can see, no red leaves, just yellow leaves in the fall.

Time to look for some caches...

This is the second time we have to go inside a library to look for a cache.
When you are not used to go in a library and know how the system works, it was a little hard to get going, but Michele found it...
The library staff are fully aware of the cache.

Another cache was located in this birdhouse. There is another birdhouse below and that one is for kids.

Another cache was located near the border with the United States.

We even stopped at a local cheese factory and bought some cheeses.

Michele suggested we have lunch at the Tim's Fish & Chips.

We ordered one meal with two pieces of cod. We had enough food for both of us and it was only $15!

Supper was very light, our belly was still full from the Fish & Chips...

We found 11 caches today.

Sunday September 25, 2016

We are going to the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area for a bike ride and look for caches.

This area is to protect the river delta wetland of the Kootenay river.

At the start of the trail, we cross this bridge, nothing special about it until you read the plaques on either side of the bridge.

All I can say is, if they built a bridge in is honor, he must have been one hell of a good person and soldiers
Google his name for fun, you will be surprised!

The view from the bridge.

The bike trail is an old railroad bed.

The wetland of the Kootenay.

One of the birds we saw.

Today we found 21 caches and rode our bike for 11 km.

What a week, from Crowsnest Pass, AB, to Cranbrook, B-C and now Creston, B-C.

Monday September 26, 2016

We are having another "do nothing" day.
I am with my friends...

Quiet, they are sleeping.

I finally took the bikes out of the car to put them on the bike rack. This way we may use them more often.

Many campgrounds have one or more work campers. A work camper is a camper doing some work for the campground owner and getting a free or almost free campsite in return.
Here is an example, this man is cutting down a tree, he started at 11 h am. He did not finish until 4 pm. Not the fastest worker in the group, but no money exchange is taking place, so he can work as fast or slow as he wants. Nothing wrong here!

Just some photos of trees I liked.

We are almost packed up for tomorrow.

Tuesday September 27, 2017

While talking to my neighbor the other day, he told me about the highway we will be using to get to Christina.
If we stay on Hwy #3, we will have to go over 3 passes before we get to Christina Lake. If we drive on Hwy #3A, we will only have to go over 1 pass. It does add 40 km to the trip, but the driving will be easier.
Here is the difference between the two roads.
On the left is the Hwy #3 and on the right, Hwy #3A.

It is not that we are afraid of going up and down mountains, it is just that given a choice, we prefer the flattest route.

So, here we are on Hwy #3A, going to Kootenay Lake Ferry.

It is a very winding road. We are driving next to the Kootenay Lake.

The stop for the photo of the lake.

A monkey?

This time it is an orange bridge!!!

We pass this house built with 500,000 embalming bottle (empty). We did not visit because our neighbor told us it was not really worth the money to visit.
We still stopped and took a photo and drove on...

I can tell you that when you see road signs like this, you slow down!

Once at the ferry, we had to wait for about an hour for the next ferry.

I use this time to read by the lake with this very nice view. Can you see me?

These two MH are from France and they are going around the world.

We are the second to enter the ferry.

We are in the middle of the Kootenay Lake. We are going on the Kootenay river.

Looking south, the arrow indicates where we came from.

The only pass we have today. It is a very steep accent.

Here is a video showing you the road. Click here for the video.

We arrived in Christina Lake right at the bottom of the Paulson summit. The brakes on the MH got a little hot on the way down.
This campground is not the best we have been in or the worst either. For $75 for 3 nights with 2 services, you cannot complain.

It is an OK campground, but when the lady in the office only has 3 teeth in her mouth, you wonder about the town folks! She was a nice lady!

Wednesday September 28, 2016

It is an older campground. The site were made for RV that were 25 feet, 30 years ago.
On the brighter side, the sites are all level and the cost is good at $75 for 3 nights.

We are looking for caches today. After finding a few, we decided to stop. We had big, ugly bugs on us too many times, so we stopped and went back to town.

We drove around town for a while.

Do you remember the rock we took on the windshield?
A crack started to go down. It does not come in my line of sight when I drive, so we are good for a while.

A while back I bought a few cook books. I am trying one of the recipe.
Roasted potatoes & chicken.

It turned out very good!

Christina Lake is a small resort town with cottages and campgrounds.

Thursday September 29, 2016

A "do nothing" day.
Almost, we still went for a short hike to the Cascade falls.

The trail is at the bottom of an old canal. Many years ago, the canal was used to get water to a power generation station.

A view of the Kettle River, the cascade canyon and the falls.

The trail is not very long, only about 1.5 km to get to the falls. Part of the old power station.

The hikers!

We always find it beautiful to watch falls and water flowing at the bottom of a canyon.
It is impressive to see the power of water over time as it sculpt the rocks.

Back to the starting point.

Now we are going to the bridge over the Kettle River.

The canyon and the Kettle River.

And the other side of the bridge.

Back at the campground, I continue working on the web page update.

WOW! I can tell you we have not had a week this busy in a long time!

Tomorrow we are heading to Osoyoos.

Friday September 30, 2016

We wanted to leave at around 9:30h, but for some reason, we are ready to leave at 8:45h.

Got to empty our "dirty" water...

We only have to drive about 150 km to get to Osoyoos.
The road is very good and very light traffic.

We have 2 passes to get over today.
Shortly after leaving Christina Lake, we started to go up.
This is the road we are taking.
The "A" shows you the first pass. From Christina Lake, about 500 meter high, we go up to a little over 1000 m. It is a very steep climb, but we take our time, we are in no rush. After the pass, we go down to about 600 m.
Then we go up again to over 1200 m. From "B" to "C" is it a very steep decent. I am in second gear all the way down. If I am not careful we can accelerate 10 to 20 km/h in seconds. We had no problems going down.

Now the photos of the trip.

When you are in a valley, you always have a river or a creek by the road.

Now we are going up to the "A".

Now the "C", we are going down to Osoyoos.
As we get closer to Osoyoos, many of the residential roads have animal names. The statues represent the name of the roads!