Northern Montana and the Canadian Rockies - Part 10
Eventually, we managed to tear ourselves away from this pretty place and make our way back down. The route down was pretty easy but still a lot of fun. The trail had dried up a little bit, but it was still fun to splash through the puddles and river crossings. We used the CBs to chat to each other on the way down. Our conversation ranged from American and Canadian TV to why America doesn't have cool potato chip flavors. We had to get out of the way of a couple people heading the opposite direction at one point, but otherwise it was uneventful.
We eventually made it back to the parking lot and started airing the tires back up. We stood around and chatted for a while, and I noticed my serpentine belt was making a little chirping noise. It wasn't much though, so I wasn't too worried considering the water and mud we had just driven through. By now, Lola was nice and coated in a good layer of Alberta mud.
We talked about our route ahead. The guys were all going to head home, but Beret and I were pushing north. When I started doing route research for this trip, the one route that kept popping up was Alberta Highway 40, also known as the Forestry Trunk Road. The Trunk Road is a 1000 km stretch of mostly dirt road running it's way from Crowsnest Pass in the south to Grande Prairie in the north. I had been told it is the best pure overland route through Alberta. It snakes through the wilder and less touristy lands of the Rockies foothills. And I was brimming with excitement for this fantastic drive.
We checked our Backroads Mapbook got some good information from the guys about our upcoming route. Per their recommendation, I only aired back up to 28 psi in anticipation of the coming washboards and gravel. We decided that running from Waiparous up to Nordegg was doable in the time we had available, as it was 5:30 PM at this point. They had to deal with a minor mechanical issue, but urged me to continue on. So I emptied my jerry can into the tank and set off. Guys, you were awesome. I'll never forget what you did and how hospitable you were through the whole thing. Thank you!
We turned north on the Trunk Road and I was immediately awestruck. This route truly is a pure overland route. Miles and miles of backcountry highway, very few people, beautiful, wild scenery, wildlife, and some good Alberta history. It's an overlander's playground. This really is a road of roads.
At 28 psi, Lola absorbed the bumps admirably. But the sun was setting, and we had some ground to make up in order to reach Nordegg before night was completely upon us.
As we approached the end of this leg of the Trunk Road, I noticed my brakes grinding a bit when I was nearly stopped. I figured it was just mud or rocks and didn't think much of it. We pulled into Nordegg at around 9:00 PM and hastily set up camp. We tried in vain to find a slip to pay for our campsite, but we eventually gave up and decided we would just pay for the site in the morning. As Beret cooked burgers on the stove, I set the tent up. To my dismay, this revealed that the tent was still dripping wet from the 36 straight hours of rain we had been graced with in Banff. I got everything set up with the windows open wide, hoping it would dry out. It didn't. We ate dinner and contemplated our night. I was fairly concerned about the tent being as wet as it was, and I hoped the night would be kind to us. Before long, we cleaned up and decided to head to bed. That night in Nordegg was bitterly cold. Colder than I had expected, and with our tent being soaked, it wasn't insulating at all.
I was just about to drift off when I heard a car approach. The door opened and I heard an old man's voice. The campground manager had come to talk to us about the site. He profusely apologized for not having any pay slips out, and asked if we could handle it then and there. I obliged, and he seemed pretty grateful. He even shared with me some good local information about places to go and things to see, which I sadly never got to use. We parted ways happy, and I crawled into bed, ready for sleep.
We had been well prepared for the cold nights up in Canada, but this night hit us harder than we expected. I woke up that morning cold. Not unbearably cold, but cold. The weather was supposed to remain good for that day, but it was due to rain the next day, so the temps weren't getting any better. But I figured I could tough it out. Strike one.
We got some breakfast in us and I fueled up in Nordegg. I got back to camp and helped Beret get everything packed up for our second day on the Trunk Road. I double-checked my maps, checked the tires, and we headed north once more.
About an hour into the drive, we came upon a side road that I had originally planned to take. As it turned out, that road was closed because a portion of it had been washed away. Had I been with another vehicle, I would have felt interested in pushing through, but being just us, we decided to pass. Out came the Backroads Mapbook. It guided us north to an intersection. We misread our position and thought we were off course. So we backtracked and found out we weren't really that off course, so we backtracked our backtrack and came to the intersection once more. We read the map and found where we thought we were. Some local guys in a Land Rover Discovery I were having a snack on the side of the road, so I decided to go ask them if we were headed in the right direction. It turned out we were, so we pushed on.
Shortly afterwards, the road got huge. It had widened to the width of a four-lane highway. Not long after, we discovered why. Huge dump trucks and massive pieces of mining and logging equipment cruised past several times, their tires alone dwarfing Lola's roof racks. It was pretty cool to see. We were in a hurry to get to Jasper, so I apologize here for not pulling out my camera as much as I should have.
We passed much of the mining activity and continued our way north. We pushed past the tiny town of Cadomin and found ourselves in an area with far fewer trees. That eventually opened up to rolling hills and a massive mining operation. It was really cool to see, and it only reinforced the whole "overland" aura of the place. We passed the mining operation and found our way to a tunnel. Strolling casually through the tunnel was a Bighorn Sheep, known as a Rocky Mountain Sheep up here. We slowly followed it through. When we emerged from the tunnel, we came upon a nice guy in a Dodge truck watching the sheep graze on the road. He was a curious guy, and asked us a bunch of questions about our trip.
We chatted a short while before continuing on our way to the north. It wasn't long before we reached a paved highway and aired the tires back up. About 40 minutes later we found ourselves in the city of Hinton. The plan was to gas up here and go into Jasper. We pulled into the station and waited for a pump. I gassed up, and Beret went in to pay.
Unfortunately, despite us calling our credit card companies and telling them we were, in fact, headed to Canada and they shouldn't worry about any charges up north, they apparently didn't take that to heart. Or there was a problem with areas outside the parks in Canada. Either way, our cards got declined. Beret had to call her card provider and get it straightened out so we could pay. She eventually did, but we weren't very trusting of our cards at that point. We started to feel uneasy. Strike two.
After filling up in Hinton, we made our way into Jasper National Park. Jasper is a land of unparalleled beauty. The mountains and lakes are very impressive, and Beret and I were eager to explore it. Not long after entering the park we crossed paths with this enormous bull elk grazing just off the road.
Beret and I were discussing our options as we rolled towards Jasper. We were feeling a bit discouraged, as our money source was now questionable, we knew the next couple nights would be very cold, and our time and food was limited. But, we decided to soldier through and check out Jasper. The town itself is quite a cool place. It's not quite as cosmopolitan as Banff, but very pretty and well cared for. We stopped to check in at the tourism office, and we were very disappointed at what we saw.
The views were almost totally obscured. The fires burning down in Glacier and Waterton Lakes were pushing huge clouds of smoke as far north as Jasper, which had decimated the view. Strike three.
Beret and I had a little chat. We were a little unsure of whether we would be able to pay for things, we knew it was going to be quite cold once more, and we couldn't see any of the views we came to see. We were gutted, but we knew that going back south to Montana was the right thing to do. I was really sad about our decision, but it didn't make sense at that point for us to keep going. We had just enough Canadian cash to get us back to the border, and enough time to make it to Montana before it got too late. So we made our plan and left Jasper behind.
I am still sad we didn't get a chance to see Jasper, but we have already decided to return as soon as next year.
The drive down was exciting. After an hour heading south from Jasper, we found ourselves on the massive and dominating Icefields Parkway. The landscape rose up around us and astonished us as we continued onward. The Parkway is surrounded by huge mountains and flowing glaciers. Even through the thick smoke, it is an amazing sight to see. Sadly, our time and distance crunch demanded our attention, and we didn't even stop for a photo. I am truly gutted at this, but at the time it was the right thing to do. We are determined to go back next year though. We drove straight through to Lake Lousie, where we filled up and continued on our way. We headed back through Kootenay National Park to Radium, where we filled up one final time before making our push to the border north of Eureka. We also stopped at a local grocery store to stock up on ketchup chips before we left
The drive was serene. Despite the smoke, Canada still managed to awe us with it's awesome beauty. We were sad to leave it.
Now let me tell you about the moment I earned the right to call myself an overlander forever. We hit the border at about 10 PM. It was fairly deserted and had very few cars, so there wasn't much of a wait in line. We pulled up to the booth to the amazed looks of the border patrol agents. They looked at Lola, in shock at her appearance, still caked in mud from Alberta's back roads. The agent looked at my truck and said, "Holy *******. Where have you been?" We told him we had been exploring Alberta and BC. He looked at me and said, "Sorry, we can't let you in."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously. The dirt and mud up there has things we don't really want. So I'm gonna have to send you back to Canada to wash your truck. Head right over that way, please."
I had just been denied entry to a country because my truck was too dirty.
We got some information that the duty free shop on the Canada side had a pressure washer he let people use. So We went over there to use it. No one was around, so we pulled up and decided to hose the truck off. As it turns out, the "pressure washer" was a sprayer attachment on a garden hose. The store owner came out and asked us what we were doing. We offered to pay him $5 to use his hose, and he gladly accepted. We then spent the next 45 minutes hosing off the truck. We had to pull out a wash cloth and scrub with it, and that was left behind in Canada. So you're welcome weary travelers. If you come upon a dirty washcloth at the duty free shop north of Eureka you need to use, that was us.
We pulled back up to the border, the agent took a cursory glance at Lola, and waved us through. We were back on American soil.
