Mile Post 162

We have made it onto the Alaskan Highway but are staying at a small campground with electric for two days to give highway workers time to repair the highway farther up north. Apparently the heavy rains did a number on the road west of Watson Lake and washed a section away. We are hoping that all will be a go soon.  The visitors center back in Dawson Creek was trying to suggest everyone just stay there until word of the completed repairs came through.  Some of the campgrounds and communities closer to the washout were said to be overwhelmed by the backlog of travelers.

Slow Internet but at least enough to check e-mails and if you bring along a good book to read you can sit on the porch and upload pictures for blogs.

So now there will be a little catch up of earlier photo opportunities.  After my less than delicate meal in the restaurant (with the falling water glasses...) we stopped for ice cream cones.  Now, why Mitch had to sit separate from everyone else....?

Here is a look from the city water front up towards the Prince of Wales Hotel. The hotel was not open for the season yet...so we saved ourselves some money.  The general consensus was that I was not ready for High Tea anyway.

 And without paying for a table or a view, here is what the lake looks like from the front of the hotel.

There were several wildlife sightings around the city and and campground, which is about the same size as the whole town. Liz and I both saw fox making his way across the campground, we saw deer bedding down in a quiet day use city park and the ever present Ground Squirrels.  The GS were literally everywhere throughout the campground...not just occasionally popping up but by the tens....  There was one not three feet from my rig door right next to the electric pole. Besides the visual of the little guys popping up and down, there was also a constant chirping, squealing chatter going on back and forth.  Stuart was besides himself. He had never met ground squirrel. His Ohio squirrels always just run up trees. These guys are everywhere and I can't chase them and when I do get near I hole, they are gone.

 Herschel is asking for interpretations of what this guy is yelling.  I was thinking it had to be something about Stuart's "Mother".....because, Stuart, took offense at all the remarks. Stuart said they were all very personal and he thought that they needed a rapid and enthusiastic response.

 Liz, Nan and I took the boat cruise around the edges of the Upper Waterton Lake.  We didn't see a bunch of wildlife but did learn about the geology of the area and the history of the region.

Looking up from the boat is a picture of one of the twelve remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. Back in the early days there were over two hundred. There were a couple that I could have hiked to but I will leave that to Kate and Lucas.

There are more backpacking and hiking trails in the park than there are roads for motor vehicles.  From the boat, we could have gotten off in the Montana end of the lake and hiked the thirty or so miles over to the Going to the Sun Road.  Here is a picture of a back county hiking shelter. It reminded me of the "run ins" that you have out in the pastures for the horses.  Just enough to keep some of the elements at bay. 

 With the wind around the lake I was guessing that those sides would feel pretty nice.  On the boat ride we learned that the lake functions like a wind tunnel and the lake is known for its windy conditions.  I just remembered the guy saying that the winds had been clocked once up to 100 mph.  

Later that night as a storm came through that kept all the rigs rocking, I was hoping that this storm was not THE storm with the winds. 

This beautiful rock has Birdie to thank for its picture being taken. When we were up at the hotel looking around she saw it and said it reminded her of a sea turtle.  As I walked closer to it I saw lot of other things....

I first saw the woman on the bicycle as we drove into town. It is a small town with very little traffic but she was peddling along with three border collies next to her. The next day as we were taking a break from doing laundry, I saw her again with four border collies following along. She said that she does us her dogs for herding and as you might guess they were very well trained.  She had trailing roped on all of them but she only held on to one or two of them. "Rudy" likes to walk down the middle of the road.....

Not too many picture from the drive across Alberta and the Walmart stays. Alberta is beautiful though. It started out reminding me of Kansas and then changed into rolling green hills of Southern Indiana and ended up reminding me of the treed landscape of northern Michigan.  All of it was green and lush looking this time of year.  

We are planning to make our way up the highway tomorrow but not sure how far we will drive. Driving through the mountains takes a different kind of energy and, well, you also have reasons to stop and stare off at the scenery even more. 


For now we aren't sure whether we will be in a provincial park, a private campground or boondocking along some deserted road...  These are "jello plan" days.