From
the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip, Part 3
From near Rocky Mountain House to Edmonton
(Oct 2023)
This is a 3-part blog about a day-trip from Edmonton Alberta to
the Brazeau Dam site, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It
is a bit long, so I broke it up into 3 parts:
-
To
Highway 620, from Edmonton, following the N. Sask River, more or
less.
https://dodecahedronbooks.blogspot.com/2023/10/from-prairies-to-foothills-brazeau-dam.html
-
Highway
620 in the foothills, including a stop at the Brazeau Dam Reservoir.
https://dodecahedronbooks.blogspot.com/2023/11/from-prairies-to-foothills-brazeau-dam.html
-
From
Highway 11 back to Edmonton, through the south-central farmlands.
The numbering
of the route subsections picks up from the first blog, starting at 7.
7) Highway 11,
to Highway 22 Intersection
At this point, Highway
11 is a nice paved two-lane road with wide shoulders. That isn’t
surprising, as two-digit roads generally have wider shoulders than
three-digit roads. That said, the three-digit gravel roads on the
prairie can be very wide indeed.
There seem to be more tankers,
headed west. Perhaps they are picking up oil from producing wells in
the foothills that are too small to rate a pipeline.
As it is was nice sunny mid-teens
Celsius day, we continued seeing more motorcycles. The time when
they can’t be used was fast approaching, so I guess people want to
tour while they can. There were also hawks wheeling in the sky –
probably a nice day to spot prey.
After a short time, we came to the
intersection with Highway 22 and turned north.
8) Highway 22, to Highway 12 Intersection
This is a nice scenic highway, but we
wanted to explore some other routes as well, so we would only be
taking it for a short time. Once again, we were back to seeing a lot
of hay-fields and other agricultural scenes, rather than the forests
within the foothills.
We got stuck behind a truck carrying
large diameter pipe at this point, which would dog us for quite a
while.
It was a short detour on Hwy 22; we
turned west when the road intersected Highway 12.
9) Highway 12, to Highway 792 Intersection
Highway 12 is another two-digit road,
so fairly wide and well-paved. It had fairly low traffic levels, for
a two-digit highway. To begin with, the land was very flat, though
there did appear to be hills in the far distance. Most of the
farmland seemed to be devoted to grain or hay. Some of the fields
had oil-field “rocking horses” pumping away.
We continued following the large
diameter pipe truck. I thought Scott was following it a little too
close, so I taught him about the rule for estimating a safe distance
between you and the vehicle ahead – find a landmark, note when the
vehicle passes that, then count until you pass it. At highway speeds
it is recommended that you keep that timing differential to at least
3 seconds, even better is about a second for every 15 kph (about 1
second for every 10 mph). At highway speeds that’s about 5 to 7
seconds. That’s not always possible, though on a relatively
lightly travelled highway like this one, it is quite doable. Scott
couldn’t recall his driver training course teaching that, so it was
helpful. He did not know that!
My iPhone battery was getting low,
preventing me from using the camera, so I plugged it into the car’s
USB port. That turned on the sound system and started playing a song
on my iPhone. Scott said that it defaults to doing that. I did not
know that! I turned the sound way down anyway. On a road trip, I
prefer quiet – just road noise and intermittent conversation. From
what I can tell, Scott’s the same.
An oncoming wide-load truck (hauling
hay) approached, just as we crossed a fairly narrow little bridge.
That required getting quite close to the right-hand guardrail, but
Scott handled it well. We had a laugh about it - “what are the
odds?...every single time.” Though obviously, that was an
exaggeration.
As we continued, the fields of grain,
hay and oil pumps were now interspersed with cattle. Some of the
cultivated lands were quite pretty now, featuring the pastel greens
mixed with earth tones of newly mown hay fields. It became fairly
hilly, so the undulations of the landscape enhanced the overall
effect. It is unfortunate that my iPhone camera was busy being
charged, so a word picture will have to do.
There was a traffic circle near the
town of Bentley. A truck that was now behind us turned took a
different route at the circle, so we were no longer in danger of
being sandwiched between two trucks, which had been a bit of a
concern for Scott. That can be quite irksome.
There was an interesting effect in the
sky. A shadow could be seen coming off of a cloud, directly opposite
of the sun, which was now to the west. On either side of the shadow,
were two brighter zones. I suppose that if you were well past the
cloud, it would look like the inspirational cloud pictures that you
often see, with rays of light streaming through them.
Not long afterwards, we came to the
intersection with Highway 792 and turned north.
10) Highway 792 Intersection, to
Intersection with Highway 611
Being a three-digit highway, Hwy 792
is back to being fairly narrow. For the first while it was composed
of rather old pavement, so the ride wasn’t as smooth as we had
become accustomed to. Traffic was quite light, though we continued
to see motorcyclists and trucks.
The land is quite flat around here,
though there is knob and kettle topography nearby, created by the
retreating glaciers thousands of years ago. Gull Lake, which is
fairly large by prairie standards, is not far from the highway, to
the west, though it was rarely visible. There is a small “summer
village” there, of a few hundred people. It is, according to its
website, the oldest summer village in Alberta, going back to the turn
of the 20th century. A few of the original cottages
remain. The lake has clear water and nice sandy beaches, also not so
common on the prairies, so the area has and does draw many visitors.
There were a few Greenhouse-type farms
around here, some of which I recognized from the farmers’ markets
in Edmonton. There were also some orchards and other vegetable
farms, as well as the usual grain operations. So, it is clearly very
fertile land around here. Basically, it was just a nice scenic
prairie road, under pale blue October skies.
There is a quick jog to the west where
the road meets Highway 53, but that is only for a few hundred meters.
After that quick jog, the road became rather winding. We passed a
small lake (Crestomere Lake) with a lot of ducks and gulls. I
suppose the former were migrating, while the latter are full-time
residents. After all, they do have a lake nearby named in their
honour.
At about this point, we found
ourselves following a peculiar looking truck that was moving quite
slowly, about 10 to 15 kph below the limit. It reminded one of a
Gypsy Wagon, or like something akin to the rig of the Beverly
Hillbillies. We assumed it must have been some sort of work-related
caravan and yes, indeed, it did turn off to a small oilfield
development in a short while.
The pavement was nice and smooth
again. The fields were often dominated by cows and horses now, along
with hay. I suppose the land wasn’t quite as fertile as it had
been around Gull Lake. There were also a few gravel pits, testifying
to the effect of the long-ago glaciers, and to the effect of human
beings, who need gravel, for industrial purposes.
We then intersected Highway 611, where
we took a short jog east, in order to pick up Highway 795.
11) Highway
611, to Intersection with Highway 795
Highway 611 is another short jog to
the west, about 15 km or so. It is a nice road, rather hilly for
this stretch.
We passed a fellow on the side of the
road, with a dog, who was waiting patiently to cross the highway. He
waved at me as we passed, very friendly that. His dog was of the
“Lassie” type, which is a type of collie, I believe. Who
wouldn’t like that?
We noted cattle on the hills, though
not so much on the hillsides themselves. Like golfers, they don’t
seem to like side-hill lies. That was followed by some llamas or
alpacas, with odd colouring. In this case, they were lower-half
brown upper-half white. Apparently this isn’t all that unusual –
they can come in a huge range of colours (22 natural coat colours).
Then came a herd of pure white cattle. There were some nice copses
of trees that had turned an attractive shade of yellow. All in all,
a rather colourful bit of highway.
We then headed back north on Highway
795.
12) Highway
795, to Intersection with Highway 39
This road was gravel to begin with,
and rather rough and “washboardy”. The ditches were barely below
the road level, so probably not great drainage. As is often the
case, the car “floated” somewhat on the gravel. But it was good
for Scott to get in some gravel road time. It was quite dusty when a
car passed (approaching or overtaking), though there wasn’t much
traffic, so the situation didn’t arise very often.
There were some corn fields around
here, which was different. Until recently, you didn’t see much
corn being grown in central Alberta. That had been a deep southern
Alberta specialty - Taber corn was an autumn institution in Alberta.
But with the prevalence of Farmer’s Markets, the market is now much
accessible to local farmers.
There were also “stock crossing”
signs. I have been delayed in the past, as a farmer took his herd
across a road of this nature. You just have to go with the flow,
when it happens.
As with many other parts of the route,
there were hay bales galore. Some of these were of the cylindrical
variety, while others were rectangular. These rectangular bales were
stacked together, creating one big rectangular structure. I estimate
that each of these were constructed of dozens, if not hundreds, of
bales.
And, as usual in Alberta, there were
plenty of oil pumpers going in the fields. This isn’t too far from
Leduc, so probably this oil is being pumped from the well-known (ha
ha) Devonian Formation.
We then reached the point where Hwy
795 crosses Hwy 39. When we got to that intersection, there was a
car across the highway that wanted to turn left onto 39, while we
wanted to go straight through on 795. Though we had the
right-of-way, Scott waited for the other driver to go ahead. That’s
a situation with which I am never very comfortable. The rule always
seems counter-intuitive to me. The car that has to cross 2 lanes of
traffic has the right-of-way of the car that only has to cross only
one lane of traffic? That just seems wrong and I tend to be
uncertain about how the other driver sees things, so I tend to let
them go first, if they seem at all inclined to do so. Perhaps that’s
not a good idea. Anyway, in this case, the other driver seemed quite
annoyed with us waving her, judging by her expression. So it goes.
Now that we had crossed 39, the road
became rather winding again. That made it difficult to overtake and
pass cars, though someone behind us did just that. There was a slow
pickup truck ahead of us, which forced the issue somewhat. But Scott
decided not to pass, since we would be turning off to head east again
very soon.
But before that, we came across a sign
for Calmar Stables and Ranch. I didn’t see any horses, but the
property was obviously set up for training racehorses. I had never
heard of it, but a later internet search showed that it had had a son
of Seattle Slew (triple crown winner) “enter stud” there, so
that’s pretty legit. Plus, they had some winners at Woodbine and a
Canadian Derby winner in Edmonton. The latter has a pretty good
purse, so, yeah, a pretty serious horse-racing operation.
There were also a few dairy farms,
which I suppose tend to be closer to cities. I had a friend in high
school whose uncle ran a mid-sized dairy operation. We visited it
once – it was interesting and almost clinical, with the spotless
milking machines and other sanitation measures. I am a fan of
keeping milk local, even if it costs a bit more.
We then went by a barn that looked
like it had been hit by a missile, as the roof was half off and ready
to fall down. I imagine it was a bad windstorm and maybe some
lightning, that had clobbered it, though.
Once we got to Calmar, we switched off
driving again and headed east on Highway 39 (it was the second time
we intersected it, as follows a slightly odd route).
13) Highway
39, to Intersection with Highway 2, then
to Edmonton
This is basically the stretch drive,
heading for home. It is a rather busy route that connects with the
main highway in Alberta, Highway 2, in Leduc, which then leads to
Edmonton. That’s why we switched off drivers, as the last bit is
pretty hectic for a driver still learning.
Once we hit the city, we did the now
traditional “Peter’s Drive-in” run and reported back to my wife
and his mother, supplied with burgers and fries.
Overall, it was a good trip and one I
would heartily recommend to anybody who likes a route with relatively
low traffic, good sight-lines and a lot of varied scenery, from
prairies to foothills.
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Further Reading
If you like road trips, here are a couple more on Amazon, just
$0.99 (99 cents U.S., equivalent in other currencies). Once every
three months or so, they are free, so keep looking if you want to
save that money for your retirement years. :)
On
the Road with Bronco Billy
Sit back and go on a ten day
trucking trip in a big rig, through western North America, from
Alberta to Texas, and back again. Explore the countryside, learn
some trucking lingo, and observe the shifting cultural norms across
this great continent.
Amazon
U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/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
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK
=======================================================
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.
Driving North - On the Road to Northern Alberta
and the Northwest Territories: A Driving Journal
Have
you ever wondered about a road trip to the far north, north of the
Sixtieth Parallel? Well, here is your chance to read about three
road trips, through the Peace River country and the northern Rockies,
all the way to the shores of Great Slave Lake, just south of the
Arctic Circle.
Just
$1.99 on Amazon, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.
Amazon
U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B074LZDQ9F
The
highways in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories give one
the opportunity to drive pretty far north, without a lot of elaborate
preparations and extreme expense. Starting from Edmonton, one can
drive as far north as Yellowknife, NWT, without leaving the hardtop,
so an average vehicle can do the trip. There are a reasonable number
of fair sized towns along the way, so accommodations are not much of
a problem, either. The same goes for food, gasoline and other
essentials.
One
can also link up with the Alaska Highway, and the Dempster Highway,
and make it all the way to the Arctic Ocean. But that’s another
story.
Trip
number 1 involved driving north through Alberta, visiting several
areas of interest along the way, then into the Northwest Territories,
to Hay River on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake. The return
trip featured a drive through the north-central foothills of the
Rocky Mountains.
Trip
number 2 was a combined air and car trip. We went to Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories by airplane, then rented a car to explore much
of the area of the north shore of Great Slave Lake.
Trip
number 3 was a return to Hay River, with a different travelling
companion. This allowed one to retrace steps, compare and contrast,
and focus on some areas that we had not had time to explore in depth
on trip number 1.
