The Great White North Part 2 (British Columbia to Alberta)

The Canadian Rockies

The drive from Sasquatch to our next destination was going to be the lengthiest of our trip thus far. Our next major stop was Calgary, which is north of Montana and is smack dab in the low-mid part of Alberta. I really wanted to go to Edmonton, but the drive was far too many kilometres out of the way with little in between to make it worth while. Maybe I'll make it up there when the Oilers are playing to make the trip worthwhile.

The drive was beautiful, and since we had no real plans for the day except drive until we didn't feel like it anymore, we stopped here and there and checked out some of the nice scenery. The Rockies were really pretty up there. The pine trees flooded the mountainside and made the rock peaks stand out all the better against the open blue sky.

We came around many of bends and smelled a great burning smell. At first we were scared and thought it was coming from the car, but it smelled of nothing car related. Soon after the aroma arrived it vanished like Eric Lindros. We would then drive some more and the smell would mysteriously come back and disappear just the same until one time around a bend the mystery was solved. The forest opened up and a river was waiting for us. The water was completely jam packed with cut timber floating about. Logging is one of Canada's major exports, and as soon as I saw the logs the smell jutted back the memory of burning and cutting wood.

Driving the Rockies went very smoothly as Canada on the whole has a very well thought out highway system. Unfortunately they are also doing major maintenance on some sections of the roadways, but we had decent luck maneuvering through them. The road workers were a crazy mix of people. There were a lot of women working construction, and not just holding the stop and slow signs, they were actually working big machinery and working their lady Canadian asses off. I found this very interesting, for some odd reason, that it was such a mixed bag of workers. Signs on the side of the road even said to "watch your speed because my mommy works here" that had a picture of a mom road worker with her kids. There were also a lot of young people, male and female, which were by my estimate were no older than sixteen or seventeen. These younguns were proudly holding the stop and slow signs like they were hockey sticks. It seems like the sign holder was the entry level work and that's why so many young people were working them. All in all the roadways and road workers seemed to be doing well in Canada and it definitely made our time driving along with them an easy ride.

Following the mountainous Rockies we entered east British Columbia, which was primarily open rolling hills that were covered in grass and farmlands. The farming towns were all very interesting and had a very small town tightness to them, all the while being very spread out. If there wasn't a farm or ranch on the horizon there was a lake or river of some sort. The lakes and rivers were plentiful and most looked crystal clear. They ranged in size from slightly bigger than a pond to so big you can barely see the other side. They all looked nice but we had a schedule to keep. We needed to make to at least Salmon Arm, BC. Yes, you read correct the town is named Salmon Arm, like if there is a guy walking around with a salmon in the place of where one of his arms should be.

The drive from Sasquatch to Salmon Arm was roughly four hundred twenty five kilometres. We took a pit stop in Kamloops to stock up on some supplies. We needed butane for our stove and some random food was on our list as well. Finding the butane was a nightmare as we went to about four stores before finding a good camping and outdoors store that had it in stock. Among some of the stores that didn't have the butane was a Canadian version of Walmart called Real Canadian Superstore. Canada has Walmarts but I guess they need their own version as well. After spending way too much time driving around Kamloops we headed to Salmon Arm.

Unfortunately we found no good camping in Salmon Arm so we drove a bit further on the highway since we still had some good daylight ahead of us. We had read of a free campsite along a lake so we set out to find it. The campsite either did not exist anymore or we made some wrong turns somewhere. I am going to place the blame on the people who put up the street signs, since some of them were in really bad locations or not there at all. So, after looking for the campground for a good amount of time, we gave up and drove down the highway some more.

We stopped by a national forest site but there water line was broken and they had some other difficulties on the grounds so we went another twenty kilometres down the road to one last site. If this site wasn't any good we were gonna double back and stay in the national forest.

Luckily, the Eagle Creek Campground was pretty amazing. It was only fifteen bucks and had running water, showers, and FREE firewood. This was easily the best deal and best campground we have stayed at so far. The sites were set up pretty good and we took advantage of the free wood and even took a couple of pieces with us for good measure, just in case we ever get stuck without any. The owner had a great setup and had the perfect mix of bare essentials without all the flash of other campgrounds. If I owned a campground, I think I would model it after the one in Eagle Creek.

In the morning, following a nice fire cooked egg and sausage scramble, we packed up camp and headed for the showers. The showers looked like they were recently re-tiled and were exceptionally clean. The one improvement I would suggest would be to put a bench outside the shower stall. With all said and done, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and if we ever need to camp in that area, you know damn well we will be back there.

Our next day was another grand day of driving through Canada. We planned to stay just shy of Calgary so we had a good four hundred and twenty five kilomtres to cover. We found a Provincial Park On the Bow River in Alberta. We were excited to learn that they had showers, but then bummed when we found out after getting a site that they were pay showers. Since we had showered that morning we decided to save the cash and hold out another day or two. The Bow River was a nice area but the campsites were not so great. The campground was poorly designed as everything was really spread apart except for the sites themselves. The sites were crammed all together and the nearest washroom and trash bins were spread wide apart, as there were only about two of them for the well over one hundred sites they had, plus the main bathroom with the showers at the front, which was another trek in itself. I'm exhausted just thinking and writing about it. Anyways, we made the best of it and prepared for sleep for we had a big day ahead of us in Calgary.