A Bear Comes Calling

Dawson Creek, BC is mile 0 of the 1,390 mile-long Alaska Highway. So everyone stops there and takes photos of the two mile 0 markers. It’s a bit exciting. When we were there, two mounties happened to be present and answered questions. Then we began the trek. At first it was a bit disappointing. It’s not at all what I had imagined. Somehow I thought that the gently rolling farmland before Dawson Creek would abruptly stop after we left Dawson Creek behind, and we’d be winding our way through steep mountains, gazing off at dramatic vistas and seeing wildlife every few minutes. Instead, the scenery looks exactly the same both before and after Dawson Creek. 

But slowly the houses peter out, and farmland gives way to a sickly-looking spruce forest. It could be the spruce budworm, which doesn’t kill the tree, but weakens it. We took a short detour on the old Alaska highway to see the only remaining curved wooden bridge on the highway. This part was scenic. We spent the night in Fort St. John.

The next day we took a side trip to see Peace Canyon Dam and W.A.C. Bennett Dam. Of the 32 hydroelectric dams in BC, these two provide ⅓ of the power to the province. Peace Canyon had a very nice visitor’s center that not only explained the dam and its construction but also interpreted some of the dinosaur finds in the area. 

A very friendly young woman gave us an excellent personalized tour of the visitor’s center. Then we watched a video of how they shipped four humongous turbine rollers from Russia, where they were made. They had to build a special transport truck and roads to get the turbines, one at a time, to the dam. It took them two years. At the Bennett dam you go on a bus tour inside the dam itself and learn all about it from a tour guide. By this time it had started to rain. It rained the rest of the day. It rained all night. It poured rain in the morning. How could this much water fall from the sky? David got soaked emptying the holding tanks. This was beginning to get old. 

We continued along the highway. Still not very scenic. Eventually it began to get hillier. We could see the Rocky Mountains west of us. I saw a couple coyotes. The forests began to diversify. It stopped raining. There was quite a bit of traffic. Neptune complained all day. We watched the kilometer markers carefully and pulled into an unmarked road where you can camp for free in a former, unmaintained provincial campground. No one else was there. We picked a spot and had lunch. A car pulled into another slot a few rows down. The driver sat on his tailgate and ate lunch.

prickly rose

We debated what to do. It was still early, but the next campground was a bit far, and there was a trail I wanted to go on here. But the mosquitoes were insane. It started to rain. We decided to check out the trail. We put on our mosquito jackets and rain jackets, got our insect repellant and set out. Our neighbor from the car was walking by. He had a pair of binoculars around his neck. “Are you looking for birds?” I asked him. “Yes,” he said. “I just saw a black and white warbler, and I could confirm she was nesting because she was carrying food.” He was surveying nesting birds in the area for some organization and camping in his car. He wished us a good day, and we set off looking for the trail. The first one we tried turned into a rivulet. So we went to the other side of the campground and walked down another trail. We met the man again. He was holding a can of bear spray in his hand. “Did you see a bear?” asked David. “Not now,” he said. “But I’ve seen three grizzlies and about 20 black bears in the area in the last week.” He proceeded to tell us about a run-in he had had with a grizzly some years ago. To get away from it, he had jumped in some water. The bear jumped in after him and pursued him in the water. He barely made it out alive. In the course of the story, he referred to himself as “Birdman”. He told us some other stories while we stood there with mosquitoes swarming around us. It stopped raining. We continued our hike. David was concerned about meeting a bear. We walked slowly and looked carefully all around us into the woods. We got to a point where we had a good look at the large, rushing Prophet River and then we returned to our camper. By this time another RV had arrived, and two or three ATV’s were buzzing about. We decided to stay and hang out the rest of the day. Later that evening, Birdman walked over and talked with David about getting stuck in the mud, the metric system and other topics.

That night in bed David told me he left one of the windows in the bedroom partly open. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” 

“No,” I said. “A bear could stick his paw right through the screen.” David closed the window.

The next morning around 5:30 a.m. we heard some kind of scuffling outside. I thought a bear or a person was trying to get into the truck. “You have to go see what it is,” I said. David got some clothes on and opened the door. A big black bear was standing on the other side. David slammed the door in his face. I looked outside and saw the bear leaving. He looked back at us, then headed to the other campers. They had a fairly large dog who was sitting outside. The dog watched the bear approach. The bear saw the dog and decided to head into the woods. The dog ran after it. I thought maybe the bear would eat the dog, but the dog returned unharmed. Meanwhile, David couldn’t get the door open. He had to climb out the window, disassemble the door handle and reassemble it. He had closed the door so hard, something had slid out of place. He fixed it. We could see muddy bear prints on the side of the trailer near our bedroom window. Well, finally things are starting to get interesting.

We got an early start this morning. In Fort Nelson we emptied the tanks, got fresh water, went to the visitor’s center and used their free wifi to call VISA to ask them to allow us to use our card again and got gas. We paid $5.40 a gallon (1.429/liter). 

Stone sheep

caribou 

While David was emptying the tanks, Neptune, unbeknownst to us, jumped out the back of the truck bed and tried to get into the trailer, but the door was closed. Some people walking by noticed him and asked David if it was his cat. I was in the truck reading. I looked in the mirror and saw Neptune jumping at the trailer door. He climbed up the door handle. David approached him, and he ran. David called me to help, but by then, Neptune had jumped back into the truck. Neptune was uncharacteristically quiet the rest of the day and didn’t try to get out of the truck every time we stopped as he usually does. 

On this day we finally got into some very striking scenery: big peaks, rushing rivers, steep cliffs, sparkling lakes and wildlife. We saw five more black bears, several caribou and maybe a dozen Stone sheep. We took a short hike to some erosion pillars and mistakenly drove a mile down a narrow, gravel road thinking it led to a campground. It led to a creek bed. David had to back out the entire way (with the trailer.) I stood on the bumper with a walkie-talkie and helped him stay out of the bushes.

We camped in another former provincial park right off the road, near a crystal clear river with a huge beaver dam. What a great day and not a drop of rain!

Passing through Alberta

We spent only a few days in Alberta on our way to the Alaska Highway. We plan to see more of it, including Jasper and Banff national parks, on our return trip. On our way to Elk Island National Park in Alberta we stopped in Vegreville to see the largest pysanka (Easter egg) in the world. It’s 31’ high and slowly turns in the wind. The pysanka is a traditional icon for the Ukrainians, who immigrated here in large numbers in the late 1800’s. 

We thought maybe the rain had gone, but we were in for more. It rained all night and continued raining the next day. It would pour, drizzle and then let up for a bit before repeating the cycle. 

Between downpours, we drove around Elk Island park looking for bison. We found plenty. The bison roam freely so it’s not always possible to see them. We saw several lone bison strolling along or beside the road and an entire herd in a field. Later that day we got a glimpse of the Woods Bison herd, which live in a separate part of the park from the Plains Bison, presumably so the two sub-species don’t interbreed. 

We saw our first moose who disappeared quickly into the woods. We managed to squeeze in a short trail through a marsh and along a lake. The pink, prickly wild roses, the official flower of Alberta, were abundant and often the only other color to offset a sea of green. Bluebells were also plentiful in the woods, and yellow flowers bloomed in the sun. It poured rain all night. Also, it was colder (lower 50’s) than it had been. 

The next morning, it was--can you guess?--raining! I had planned a big day of sightseeing in Edmonton, but we weren’t really motivated to do anything outside. 

We visited the legislative building and got a private tour with a friendly, knowledgeable guide. She did a great job educating us about some aspects of Canada. We drove along both sides of the North Saskatchewan river, which runs through Edmonton, and then headed to Starbucks for wifi access because, although the campground we were staying in supposedly had it, it was unusable.

The next morning we woke up to a surprise--sunshine! Yay! We thought the rain would never stop, but it did. We drove for about three hours, then stopped for lunch at a rest area. As we got out of the truck and headed to the trailer, David said, “What’s that hissing noise?”  He leaned over the tire and discovered that it was leaking air. “I’m sure glad we stopped when we did,” he said. He was able to plug the leak successfully, and after lunch, we were on our way. June 21st--still light at 10:30.

Unusally Soggy Saskatchewan

In Saskatoon, the biggest town in Saskatchewan, we went to the Museum of Western Development, which has an indoor prairie streetscene depicting “ 1910 boomtown”. An entire street is represented with all the “businesses” you would have found, complete with buildings, (fake) horses and carriages, (fake) people, fire truck, furnishings and items of the time period. All it needed for authenticity (besides replacing “fake” with “real”) was mud and sunlight. (It was indoors with poor lighting.) 

There was also an assortment of antique tractors and cars, a wind power exhibit and a dinosaur skeleton. David was keenly interested in the tractor collection, which pretty much showed its evolution. 

He said, unlike a car, you can easily see all the workings of a tractor on the outside. The museum also followed a typical family from when they immigrated to the province in the late 1800’s through historic events, including the Dust Bowl and the Depression, down to the present day. As you can imagine, it took several hours to see. 

We went to the Berry Barn to taste Saskatoon berry pie. David said it tasted like blueberry pie, just not as sweet. I thought it tasted rather pasty and gummy. It may be an acquired taste. 

Downtown is located along the South Saskatchewan river. We rode bikes on the Meewasin Valley trail, which follows the river through town. Lots of other people were out walking and biking. One of David’s tires was wearing out, so he had to take it easy. The following day he went to a bike shop and bought a new tire. The campground we were staying in had lots of voracious mosquitoes.

From there we visited Batoche National Historic site where the Métis fought a decisive battle with the Canadian military for their rights in 1885. They lost. 

This site was way off the beaten path. To get there you drive through pretty, green, rolling prairie dotted with ponds. Each pond has a few ducks. Homesteads are few and far between. When we were ready to leave, the GPS wanted us to retrace our steps back to the highway. Looking at the map, I could see it was shorter if we continued on. The GPS wasn’t happy with this decision and kept telling us to turn around. Before long, David was also uncomfortable with our course mainly because we were towing the trailer. “But I can see where this road intersects the highway,” I said. Then the road turned to dirt. I didn’t have a very detailed map, but if I looked closely, I could see that part of it was unpaved. “Only a few miles,” I said. We came to the point where we were supposed to cross the river. There wasn’t a bridge, just a tiny, platform ferry. “We can’t go on that,” said David. “Okay,” I said. “Just keep going. In a few more miles you’ll come to a bridge. Also, it becomes paved again.” The road got more narrow. “There’s nowhere to turn around anyway,” said David. After eight miles of dirt, the road did become paved. 

After several more miles, we came to a narrow railroad bridge. Trains no longer used it. So we did get across and on our way to Prince Albert National Park. Good thing it hadn’t started raining yet. We would have been driving through mud. As it was, I thought it was fun.

Prince Albert NP is a lot like Riding Mountain NP in Manitoba. There’s a little town on a lake inside the park. The forests are mostly spruce and aspen, with their Tiddlywink leaves. Both parks have resident bison. We spent a couple days hiking and driving through the park. 

We saw our second black bear, several elk including a mama and baby strolling through the campground and a few deer, but we didn’t have time to take the 4-hour round-trip drive to see the bison. 

The day we arrived it was pouring rain, but the rain let up enough so that we were able to take a few short, soggy hikes in the woods that afternoon and drive on one of the main scenic roads. The next day was beautiful, sunny and warm so we drove on another scenic road and hiked on a couple trails. 

The scenery was pretty, but the mosquitoes were vicious, and the trails were muddy in places. The rain soon returned but not before David got in a bike ride on a muddy, difficult trail with horse flies that bit him through his shorts. It poured rain all night. 

The next day it rained most of the day but let up long enough for us to visit Fort Battleford where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had an outpost from 1876 to 1924 to enforce Canadian law and oversee the Indian treaty signed in 1876. 

The First Nations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan had lived on the bison for centuries, but by the 1870’s, the massive herds were close to extinction, and European settlers were arriving in droves. The Indians had no choice but to sign treaties and agree to farm. However, the Canadian government didn’t uphold their end of the bargain, and the Indians faced starvation and disease. Violent uprisings erupted. Like the Métis, the First Nations eventually lost. The Métis were descendants of French traders and Cree women. They had their own culture and language (Michif). They, like the Indians, were marginalized and discriminated against. The people of both groups suffered years of mistreatment, poverty and discrimination, just like native people in the U.S. 

We stayed in WalMart that night. It poured rain all night. 

Suspicious Americans in Manitoba

Red River greenway, E Grand Forks, MN

That would be us, according to the Canadian border agents in Emerson, Manitoba. Two middle-aged, unemployed Americans traveling to Alaska with two cats in a travel trailer is right up there with boarding an airplane for highly suspicious activity deserving the third degree. Where are you headed? What’s in Alaska? What do you do? Unemployed? What do you live on? Do you have any firearms? Do you have large amounts of cash with you? Where do you live? Where else have you lived? 

We were “interrogated” by four different agents who asked pretty much the same questions, often several times. Two stern-faced custom agents pulled on their black gloves and asked us for the keys to the truck. We went outside. One man stood in a military stance, legs apart, looking tough. The other asked us more questions. “Are you sure you don’t have a large amount of money in an envelope you forgot about somewhere in your trailer?” he asked me. I tried to visualize where this cache might be hidden that I had forgotten about. Nothing came to mind. “Yes, I’m sure,” I said. I didn’t know why I would have a large sum of money with me. I’ve got an ATM card and credit cards. Why risk having lots of cash? What would I do with it? They asked us to lift up our shirts, lift up our pants’ legs and pull our pockets inside out. 

Winnipeg

Then they wanted us to put David’s wallet and the contents of my purse on a bench, get the cats out of the truck and stand at a distance while they went through all of our belongings. “Do you know what we’re looking for?” they asked us. “No,” said David. “We’re looking for drugs, firearms and large amounts of cash.” They acted like we actually had these items with us and treated us as if we were indeed guilty. One man opened two little cosmetic pouches I have in my purse. Maybe he thought he would find a miniature gun? Not much room to stuff drugs or cash in there. He examined all the pockets in my purse. Then they scrutinized the truck. The cats were very unhappy in the cat carrier. Neptune almost got out because one of the zippers failed. 

Legislative building

After the men were unsuccessful in finding contraband in the truck, they disappeared into the trailer for about 15 or 20 minutes. You could hear them banging around in there, opening drawers and cabinets, looking in the compartments under the bed and the settee and who knows where. We stood outside with our hands crossed over our chests, fuming. When they came out, they were grinning. They told us they were done and we could leave. “Have a nice trip,” said one of the agents. “Thank you,” said David. I just glared. Anything out of my mouth would have been sarcastic: “Find something amusing? Didn’t find the stash of catnip I hid in the locker? The cats get high on it.” Better not to provoke insignificant people who have a bit of power and are full of their own self-importance. 

Can you spot the 2 bear cubs?

Our unpleasant entry into Canada on this trip put a damper on our spirits for awhile. David kept calling them names. But eventually we pushed it out of our minds and resumed our adventures. We spent the next few days in and around Winnipeg. Then we traveled west to Riding Mountain National Park for a few days.

Riding Mountain Nati'l Park

Upper Fort Garry

 The weather was glorious except for one rainy morning in Winnipeg. We went bike-riding and hiking. I picked up a 24-pound bar of pure gold worth $500,000 at the Royal Mint. (It’s chained and guarded.) 

We visited several national historic sites along the Red River. 

We saw a flock of American white pelicans, a herd of bison, a black bear and her two cubs, a female moose and other wildlife. 

wild turkey struts by

Trailer failures so far in case you’re interested: 1. One of the etched glass panels in a cabinet door broke. (Dishes crashed into it while we were bouncing down the road. David taped it. We’ll replace it when we get home.) 2. One of the trailer tire fenders cracked and was flapping in the wind. (David glued it. We’ll replace it at home.) 

3. The kitchen sink was never caulked and so water gets underneath it. (This isn’t new, but for some reason it’s been more of a problem. David will try to caulk it from the top, but really the sink needs to be removed so it can be done properly.) 4. Our brand-new spare trailer tire came off when we went over a particularly bad spot in the road too fast. The cable holding it underneath the trailer broke. Fortunately, we realized the loss around 10 or 15 miles down the road when we stopped to view the Inglis grain elevators. We rushed back and found it leaning against a pole by the side of the road where someone had placed it.  Isn't that great?