This afternoon, Charlie and I headed out from Quesnel and started our journey back towards Alberta. We were taking our time but as the sun was setting we had to make camp. We found a beautiful Recreational Site, Lasalle Lake. We were very fortunate to get in, campsite set up and still enjoy a little daylight.
The lake was very calm and a great setting to reflect on our day. We also did a toast to Allen as we sat by what would end up being our last campfire for this journey.
The night was perfect and an excellent camping evening from campfire to a slightly cool evening.
October 01st, 2018
Got up this morning and got on the road at a good time. We slowly made our way towards Rearguard Falls. We had taken a few side roads to explore, but this was the first official stop that we enjoyed.
These falls are the end of the 800 mile journey for the salmon migration from the Pacific Ocean. Only the largest and the strongest salmon make it this far ... unbelievable.
We then made our way to Mount Robson Park. Mount Robson is in the background behind the mountain goat.
This is the park information center and a circular historical walk behind the building.
After visiting the Information Center we drove across the road onto another side road and parked near a bridge to do a hike to Hogans Camp ...
,,, and Overlander Falls. The funny thing is that we hiked in about 40 minutes and when we got to the falls, there was a sign indicating a parking lot only about 5 minutes from the falls. HaHaHa
The Overlander Falls has an interesting story ...
After leaving this region, we ran into some snow. At first it looked like just a little bit, but then I saw most vehicles had a lot of snow and ice on the front. This concerned me.
We made our way to Jasper and stopped at the information place. It turned out that the road from Jasper to Banff was snow covered with icy sections. This is not good for us as the tires on my truck were 75% worn and were summer tires. We had planned on camping between Jasper and Banff, but we now altered our plan.
We made our way towards Edmonton. Even though this was a longer way around, we checked the road reports and all channels indicated that the road was either bare or just wet from Edmonton towards Calgary.
We talked about camping somewhere along the route, specifically near Red Deer.
Well, about 45 minutes north of Red Deer we ran into snow again and it was not letting up. We again had to alter our plan ... do we try to get to Lethbridge or hotel it near Calgary?
After driving for about an hour through snowing conditions, we made a decision to spend the night in Airdrie (just north of Calgary). This turned out to be an excellent decision as the snow was getting heavier and was now sticking to the roads. We passed an accident along the way and in the last two hours most vehicles were only driving about 60km an hour. I was so glad we finally got landed ... a good night sleep was needed.
October 02nd, 2018
The next morning we got up and saw that a great deal of snow had fallen and it was still snowing. I must state that my stomach was in knots as we had to decide if we drive the remaining way to Lethbridge or stay in Calgary.
According to the weather reports it was not going to stop snowing until the following day. After great deliberations, we decided to get on the road at 10:30am. I trusted my brother in making this decision and what road to travel on as he had spent many a year travelling on this road. While driving on the Calgary Ring Road, I was not feeling like this was a good choice. We lost track of how many vehicles were in the ditch and the road was ice covered.
Once we got to the south side of Calgary the highway conditions improved immensely and continued to improve all the way to Lethbridge. My brother had certainly made a good choice in the time leaving Calgary. We were so happy to get landed in Lethbridge. We came to find out that the storm that we drove through was the worst snow storm every recorded in history for this day. Not the part of history that I wanted to be part of. LOL
END OF THIS JOURNEY ...
Well, this ends my journey to northern Alberta, the Yukon, Alaska, northern and central BC. After meeting so many lovely people, seeing over 75 bear, hundreds of eagles, moose, elk, caribou, deer, variety of fish and birds, some amazing historical sites and scenery, I cannot believe it is over.
I may not have found any gold, but I am certainly rich in what I have seen and what I have accomplished. What an awesome adventure ... to fulfill my childhood dream ... to sleep in a tent for over two months ... to mostly eat from my own cooking and not from restaurants ... to hike and photograph such amazing and breathtaking landscape and wildlife beauty. I am fortunate to have been able to do this and I feel so blessed.
I will have a few more day adventures in Alberta before heading back to Nova Scotia in November.
Thank you all for following me on my dream adventure, your support has been very inspirational for me.