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August 23, 2008

Trip West Part II

Day Five - Spruce Woods, Souris and Moose Mountain

Manitoba is very much full of canola. After leaving Winnipeg, we headed west and took a southerly detour to Spruce Woods Provincial Park. It is a very popular place cause it's got a river and trees...which tend to be lacking in that area of Manitoba. From there we took the Red Coat Highway west, weaving our way pleasantly across the province stopping at a little joint called Souris. It just happened to be that time of day where we felt like a stop and Souris was there. It also turned out that Souris has a very long swinging bridge. I cannot recall if they may have claimed it to be the longest in Canada or not but it was pretty long. I told Nat we had to check it out as, being from Renfrew, I am automatically a swinging bridge connaisseur. Most people from Renfrew may not know it but they also qualify to be a connaisseur if, at some point in your childhood, you jumped up and down on the bridge causing a wave-like motion to scare the shit out of your mother. Needless to say, I am almost an expert. I had had hopes of refreshing my qualifications but as you can see (or struggle to see in the picture), Nat chose to remain on solid ground.

Not knowing where you're going can sometimes be a bit of a drawback for a roadtrip. We had a destination: Jasper/Mt.Robson. Luckily, we didn't have much of an idea what route we were taking other than it being westerly. I'd have to say that this can be a very positive component of a great roadtrip due to the element of surprise inherent in rockin up to places you've never even heard about. Moose Mountain was one of those nice surprises. It is a Provincial Park based around a series of hills containing lakes created by the last glacial movement. Again, it is one of those things that is appreciated more in the prairies where lakes are not as plentiful as Ontario. I can also appreciate this from living in Central Australia where the only lakes are salt flats and if you can find a waterhole that doesn't smell like manure, it's perfect (chances are, you've swam in it anyways before you've discovered if it's aromatic). Kenosee Lake has been a vacation spot for a long time. Back in the day, when the wealthy went holidaying, they usually headed for ocenfront. The aristocrats of the prairies didn't exactly have that option so they built holiday homes around Kenosee. My only comments: nice campground, wish I could have checked out the golf course and thoroughly enjoyed the canoeing evening.

Day Six - Dog River and Moose Jaw

Looking down the map, or westerly at least, we noticed that with a slight change in lattitude we could enjoy a nice stop in Rouleau, Sask. Now, if you don't care about the home of the Dog River River Dogs, skip this paragraph. For the rest of the fans of Corner Gas who already know where we were headed - enjoy. Driving into Rouleau, you see a sign saying 'home of Corner Gas'. The next big icon is the Dog River grain elevator sitting right next to the iconic Corner Gas and the Ruby. We parked up to take some pictures and were met by a member of the Dog River Police Department, ie. security. Nice guy. He let us know where we could take pictures and what was out of bounds. It turns out that they were filming that day (on sets downtown) so there were limits on where we could walk around. After that, he sent us on our way, but not before signing the guestbook presented by the DRPD. After getting some great shots at the Ruby and the station we headed into Rouleau to find some other iconic buildings. There was the FOO_MAR__T, and the Dog River Police Station, which was previously the Scotiabank in town. It is only an exterior set, but a smart entrepreneur has set up a cafe inside and sells some great Corner Gas swag (paraphenalia, not aussie style swag). We had hoped to have a pint at the bar in town as well, but they were filming at the time so the taps were not flowing...for us, at least.

After saying goodbye to Dog River, I mean Rouleau, we headed off to Moose Jaw. I'd never been to Moose Jaw before and had no idea of its seedy past. From several tourist posters, I'd gathered that there was some connection between Moose Jaw and Al Capone. Now, since returning to Canada I've been hearing on the radio that Sleeman's in Guelph also had some sorta loose connection to Capone so I reckoned that this one was worth checking out. Downtown Moose Jaw is quite an historic place with plenty of old buildings and classic architecture. Tunnels of Moose Jaw is a tourist attraction that has been rated one of the best in Canada. We decided to check it out and found that there are actually two different presentations to try. There is the Chicago connection or Passage of Fortune, which deals with asian immigrants and their struggles. We decided to check out the gangster one. The tour starts out in a cafe across the street where you meet your tour 'guide'. Now, this type of tour involves a guide who dressed in period dress and interacting in character. It is not for everyone but does add a little entertainment to the information. I won't spoil the tour for anyone, needless to say it is quite quirky and enjoyable with some very interesting architecture. After the tour we stopped for a beer and checked out the local news. I couldn't help but notice an ad for Watchtower Glass. It was the address that caught my eye - 420 High St.; I shit you not. Turns out they are glass blowers by trade who had an existing business and had some mates who were constantly harassing them to check out a rental property they had. Fate it was.

After Moose Jaw, we hit the road to take advantage of the long summer's daylight. We were hoping to get as far as Medicine Hat, to stay as close to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump as we could but that plan was 86'd by some tornado warnings in the area. When the storm started looking real bad we took the nearest exit and bunkered down at a motel in Maple Creek. We spent the night sharing some pints (and tequila shots) with some local cattlemen. Great bunch of blokes, including a gentleman by the name of Tad Minor. Tad was an auctioneer who spent some time in Australia and had some great stories.

Day Seven - Recovery from Tornado....and Tequila

We were supposed to catch up with Tad around lunchtime but unfortunately, I could not find the cattle yards where he was working. We continued on through Seven Persons and saw some of the damage left in the wake of the tornado. Pretty chilling to see grain bins and tremendous lengths of irrigation pipes tossed around like marbles and pickup sticks. Those farmers had a much worse hangover than I did at the time. We settled in at Fort Macleod which turned out to be where Brokeback Mountain was filmed.

Day Eight - Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and Cowtown

I was really looking forward to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, being a UNESCO heritage site. My tastes in tourism have changed a lot since I was younger and now major historical sites or incredible geology and nature tend to top my list of favourites. We started exploring the area in the cultural center, a large concrete structure built directly into the bluff side and spanning several floors. It was full of information on the buffalo, the culture of the first nations people that inhabited the area and of course, the standard rape and pillage of the land by the white settlers. The highlights of the center would definitely be the movie detailing the practice of the buffalo jump (careful enticement of herd of buffalo into stampede off a cliff) as well as the photos of white buffalo hunters standing upon a mountain of buffalo skulls. That put the scale of the near extermination of the plains buffalo into perspective. After the cultural center we headed outside to walk some of the trails. We walked the clifftop one first, which provided an incredible view of the plains spread out below the bluff. Walking the trails below the cliff you could almost imagine the thunder of hundreds of hooves and bellowing of buffalo as bodies rained down over the cliff. We finished up our tour of the Buffalo Jump we headed to Calgary where we caught up with Thudds and Harden.

Rest of the Trip - Calgary to Jasper

The next day Thudds took us out to Canmore to have a look around. It provided some breathtaking scenery as we headed up a mountain road towards some glacial lakes. You could not ask for a better day (as the morning's rain had subsided to sunlight) and we were lucky enough to have a mountain goat pose for some great pics. The tour of the area ended at the '88 Winter Olympics park. It is still an athletics hub of Calgary and proof that ski-jumpers are insane. When you see the height of those towers in person and the drop in the hill below, you really wonder how they ever decide that it is a sport and not just a very unsuccessful form of suicide. We hung out with Marc and his roommates for the rest of the weekend before we finally got back on the road and made it to Jasper. The icefields expressway which winds its way through the mountains from Banff past the Columbia Icefields and eventually to Jasper is an incredible drive. A few of the mountain passes provide some hair-raising switchbacks that provide a breat

Posted by Dr.Unk at August 23, 2008 2:26 PM

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