Edmonton-Athabasca-Calling Lake-Wabasca-Slave Lake-Edmonton
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The purpose of the trip was partially, to see how my wife Helena would handle a longish car trip after her minor stroke in 2018. Following that, there was the long layoff from trips, due to Covid lock-downs. So, the other purpose of the trip was just to get away, hit the road, after all the interminable Covid disruptions.
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Traffic was quite heavy leaving St. Albert, on Highway 2. There was the usual rural north-central Alberta scenery (quite pleasant - farms, rolling hills, etc.). Traffic got much lighter as we got farther from the city of Edmonton.
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We stopped at an abandoned “Knotty Pines” motel location (long abandoned, by the looks of it). It was a quick break to eat our Peter’s Drive-in burgers and fries, that we had picked up in Edmonton before leaving. We couldn’t find any more conventional rest stops. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant enough impromptu stop, with a nice graveled service road just off the highway, that ended in a loop with which to to get back to the highway, ample places to park, and an abandoned motel building for atmosphere. Kind of historic, in a way.
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Once in Athabasca, we located a motel “Hillside Motel”. It was quite a nice place for the money. The owner/operator was a friendly lady, the rooms were well furnished and reasonably sized. As a bonus, there is very good water in Athabasca – soft, like “silken hands caressing the skin lovingly” (my wife's words, more or less) while bathing or showering. We picked up some wine at a liquor store, and chatted with another friendly lady, who worked there.
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The next day, we picked up some subs at a Subway (no other restaurants were open, as far as we could tell). There was another friendly lady there, a customer, with whom we chatted.
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We had another look at the Athabasca River walk (which we had seen in a previous trip, some years earlier). However it was rather foggy near the river. It seemed like the park area and walkways had been expanded. I added a photo from a trip that I did about a month later with my son, just so the reader could get a look at the scenery. That's why the trees have shifted from September to October colours.
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Then, it was off to Calling Lake. I had made this drive with my brother Jim many years before and remembered it as a very pleasant drive. This was still basically true. We stopped at the Provincial Park there, drove around, took some photos, etc. It is a nice lake, with a reasonably big park. There were not many people there, given the time of year.
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We then drove the Wabasca loop, which involved driving for about 3 to 4 hours: first north, then west, then south to Slave Lake. It was a very pleasant drive, all roads were paved, mostly in good shape, some recently re-surfaced. There was very light traffic; I thought it a a good place for a new driver to get some hours behind the wheel, so I went there with my son the next month for that very purpose.
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There were a number of First Nations communities up there. They seemed to be fairly prosperous and well-maintained. There were no obvious signs of deprivation and poverty that the newspapers like to emphasize.
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There was a fair number of trucks, especially logging trucks, on the route. Obviously, there was quite a bit of logging going on in the area. One logging truck was in the ditch, I wasn't sure if it was an accident or he just pulled off the road for a rest (not much in the way of shoulders on the highway at that point). However, a bit later, a vehicle with flashing lights went by. At first I thought it was a pilot truck for a wide load, but there were no other vehicles following, so it may have been an ambulance, assuming that the truck in the ditch was the result of an accident.
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Some stands of trees in the area had evidence of recent forest fires – blackened skinny trees with no leaves or needles, that sort of thing.
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As we got closer to Slave Lake, many more oil-field type of vehicles and trucks with wide loads. They could have been heading for Fort McMurray or they could have been headed for the Peace River country. Either of those areas have a lot of oil exploration and development.
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There seemed to be some sort of big oil industry meet-up in Slave Lake, so there were no rooms at the places that we checked. Thus, we decided to head back to the city (Edmonton), as it was only mid-afternoon and we figured that we should be able to make it back before dark. When it comes to getting accommodations at Slave Lake, I never seem to have a lot of luck.
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The highway (55, I think) seemed to be expanded and improved since the last time that I went through. Very pleasant day, sunny but not too hot.
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Again, there were no obvious rest-stops, so we ate the last of our submarine sandwiches standing around the hatchback of the car (a Communauto car-share vehicle), in a parking lot of a Husky gas station in Westlock.
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Traffic got heavy as we neared Edmonton, but we got home before six in the evening. There is a relatively new freeway system (the Anthony Henday, named after a mapper/explorer of the 1800s) that I always find confusing, which causes a bit of a delay in getting home. Upon returning home we had a couple of beers and/or wine on our deck, to celebrate our successful little road-trip.
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And here's a link to a related book or two that you might like:
On the Road with Bronco Billy
What follows is an account of a ten day journey through western North America during a working trip, delivering lumber from Edmonton Alberta to Dallas Texas, and returning with oilfield equipment. The writer had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a professional truck driver, which he eagerly accepted. He works as a statistician for the University of Alberta, and is therefore is generally confined to desk, chair, and computer. The chance to see the world from the cab of a truck, and be immersed in the truck driving culture was intriguing. In early May 1997 they hit the road.
Some time has passed since this journal was written and many things have changed since the late 1990’s. That renders the journey as not just a geographical one, but also a historical account, which I think only increases its interest.
We were fortunate to have an eventful trip - a mechanical breakdown, a near miss from a tornado, and a large-scale flood were among these events. But even without these turns of fate, the drama of the landscape, the close-up view of the trucking lifestyle, and the opportunity to observe the cultural habits of a wide swath of western North America would have been sufficient to fill up an interesting journal.
The travelogue is about 20,000 words, about 60 to 90 minutes of reading, at typical reading speeds.Amazon U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK
A Drive Across Newfoundland
U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NMR9WM8
U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NMR9WM8
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07NMR9WM8
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07NMR9WM8
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07NMR9WM8
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07NMR9WM8
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07NMR9WM8
Newfoundland, Canada’s most easterly province, is a region that is both fascinating in its unique culture and amazing in its vistas of stark beauty. The weather is often wild, with coastal regions known for steep cliffs and crashing waves (though tranquil beaches exist too). The inland areas are primarily Precambrian shield, dominated by forests, rivers, rock formations, and abundant wildlife. The province also features some of the Earth’s most remarkable geology, notably The Tablelands, where the mantle rocks of the Earth’s interior have been exposed at the surface, permitting one to explore an almost alien landscape, an opportunity available on only a few scattered regions of the planet.
The city of St. John’s is one of Canada’s most unique urban areas, with a population that maintains many old traditions and cultural aspects of the British Isles. That’s true of the rest of the province, as well, where the people are friendly and inclined to chat amiably with visitors. Plus, they talk with amusing accents and party hard, so what’s not to like?
This account focuses on a two-week road trip in October 2007, from St. John’s in the southeast, to L’Anse aux Meadows in the far northwest, the only known Viking settlement in North America. It also features a day hike visit to The Tablelands, a remarkable and majestic geological feature. Even those who don’t normally consider themselves very interested in geology will find themselves awe-struck by these other-worldly landscapes.
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