Cowboy Trail, Alberta Canada

My Disclaimer: Our recording of our journey through Canada and Alaska will be in a bullet point format.  We have not had wifi or cell service at our end of day destinations. The reliability of having these services is not very good. So in the evening after dinner when my eyes are the heaviest, I’m doing a brain dump. 

Tuesday May 30

• Left Priest River Idaho 8am
• Weather in the morning in the middle 50’s and clear
• Filled up with diesel ($2.729/g) and propane ($2.35/g) in Priest River
• took hi way 2 to sandpoint and connected  with 95 north
• lonely roads, not much traffic this far north.
• crossed into Canada at Kingsgate British Columbia
• asked; what is our travel plan, carrying firearms, alcohol, large sum of money, looked at passport and let us go.
• Brain change to metric
• Roads went from ok in US to nice in Canada
• Stopped at a bank in Cranbrook to use an ATM to get some Canadian money. Exchange rate on the world market, USD/CAD = 1.35, we got 1.27
• Outside of Cranbrook took highway 3 east through the Rockies into Alberta
• Stopped at Alberta Visitors Center, saw an ultra-RV from Israel. The young couple with four children are driving to Alaska and then down to Argentina.
• Lost an hour, went from Pacific time to Mountain time
• Got to our campsite at 5pm, Mountain time.
• Spent the night at Lundbreck Falls Provincial Park. $30 CAD
• It was a hot 85F in the evening with direct sunlight on the slide out side of the RV.  The sun feels really intense.  Took a very long time for the AC to cool the RV.

Wednesday May 31

• Left Lundbreck Falls Campground around 8am
• Got back on Highway 3 east and then in a couple of miles took Highway 22 north
• Weather early morning in the upper 50’s and clear
• Very nice drive up the cowboy trail (highway 22), it was all big ranches and no commercial property.
• Stopped at Bar U Ranch, National Historic Site, just south of Longview, AB. Weather very mild and clear. Got there at 9:30a and left at 1:30. Admission-Free
• Had lunch there. Denise had an Angus hamburger, and I had a blacken spicy grilled chicken sandwich.  Excellent.
• Took many pictures.
• Listened to a cowboy poet and storyteller. He was very entertaining. He was also a leather smith, making saddles worth $5000. Has one and half year backlog.
• Listened to a lady about trail cooking back in the late 1800’s. when it was the open range. herd size around 15000 head of cattle and 200 horses.  horses were for the cowboys. there were usually only about 20 cowboys to watch the herds.  horses were rotated. Today oil is the biggest industry in canada and cattle is the second.  We tried campfire coffee and tea.
• We received a free Canadian National Park pass, it is their 150 birthday.
• Filled up with Diesel in Cremona, AB $1.079/l CAD
• Weather 3pm clouding up, got a few sprinkles on the windshield, still mild in the upper 70’s.
• Pulled into our campsite around 4:30pm
• Spending the night at Sundre Municipal Campground, Sundre, AB. $28.20 CAD

Thursday June 1, 2017

• Weather, still cloudy when we got up but the temperature in the upper 50’s, comfortable. No rain overnight.
• Before we left Sundre Municipal Campground, we emptied black and grey tanks, filled the fresh water tank and washed the windshield of splattered bugs. We were on the road by 8:30. Still traveling highway 22 north, the cowboy trail.
• Weather, clouds cleared and a blue skies overhead by 9:30, temps in the low 70’s.  The road and land indicated that it must have rained last night along our route.  Mud everywhere.
• Uneventful drive to our next destination, Wabamun Lake Alberta.  Arrived at 12:30.  We are here to visit with my cousin Maurice and his wife Alice in Edmonton.
• When we disconnected Tacoma from the Landwander, the Blue Ox adapter plate on the Tacoma was loose. We dodged a bullet, if this would have come off, the Tacoma would have disconnected from the RV and off it would have went on its own.  Spent an hour re-tightning all the bolts. Good thing I brought my torque wrench, torque each bolt to it’s spec.
• We are staying at Wabamun Lake Provincial Campground. $38 CAD, had to pay $5 extra if we want to dump our tanks.  This is our last dump before we get onto the ALCAN on Monday.  The campground is infested with mosquito and the road are narrow with soft mud.  I think from now on, we will not use the provincial campground anymore. Not near the quality of the US state parks.