-- From Dawson Creek to
The road tracklog
from
Dawson Creek to Edmonton
from 2011/08/08 to 2011/08/10
I left Dawson Creek, the day was not rise yet to go to Edmonton, AB, where I wished to make all the oil of my truck changed. I had thrown my reserved on a Volvo workshop, MAN is not represented in North America. The person in charge of the workshop agreed to do the work the next morning. I spent the night in an adjacent street. The 600 km Hwy # 43 were at 90% with two roadways without any interest if is not to discover the farming plain of Northern Alberta after dissipation around 10 am of the morning fog. The state of the roadway was degraded enough by place, on the move I still saw a wooden bridge of the railway line in use.
The road
Hwy #43
08/08/2011
Wooden bridge
Hwy #43
08/08/2011
The morning as of 7:30 am I was at the office of reception of Volvo Truck then I awaited my turn which came towards 1:30 pm. Work was carried out by a German workman established in Canada since five years. He knew MAN vehicles, work was made with competence and celerity. Around 4 p.m. I went to Rainbow Valley RV Park hoping for a site, it remained one, very short. Moreover the advertising announced a WiFi connection, close to the office, but it did not function as in Dawson Creek, misleading publicity .
The day of my 71st birthday I made my decision to offer me a visit of Edmonton by bicycle which I had not used from Australia, time spent very quickly. Alas, the state of cycle tracks, pavements and streets was right of my back hand. Hudson Bay Company has established a outpost in 1795 in this area inhabited by the Cree & Blackfoot tribes for more than 5000 years. It owes its rise with the Gold Rush in Klondike, it was the last site of civilization. The arrival of populations from East Europe was an important labor contribution, more particularly from the Ukraine areas I reported at the time of the visit in Fort St John the maltreatments undergone during the WWII. Then it was the epopee of the construction of Alaska Hwy. Today it is the back base of the oil companies. I began my visit with the Alberta Legislature, classical-style building with a dome preceded by a basin where the Centennial Flame of the city is.
Skyline
Edmonton
10/08/2011
Alberta Legislature
Edmonton
10/08/2011
Cycling along Saskatchewan River towards the west in a pretty valley I reached Royal Alberta Museum. It is not very large but it exhibits in four rooms of collections in very didactic scenography. I spent there the morning, it is worth much more. The first room is devoted to the abyss creatures which I discovered as well as the geology of the underwater.
Hydrothermal vents
Royal Alberta Museum
10/08/2011
Hydrothermal vents
Royal Alberta Museum
10/08/2011
The second room is dedicated to the wild nature of Alberta where I have the response to one of my interrogations, the charming seen quadrupeds at Hudson's Hope are Deer Mule. The caribou is called reindeer in Europe. The third room is assigned to the natural history, geology.
Wild Alberta
Royal Alberta Museum
10/08/2011
Finally the fourth room, the most interesting, is dedicated to the culture of the First Nations, Cree and Blackfoot. Beside the house of the Lieutenant governor of Alberta shows its opulence.
Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture
Royal Alberta Museum
10/08/2011
Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture
Royal Alberta Museum
10/08/2011
Alberta Government House
10/08/2011
In some blows of pedal I went in the center downtown to immerse me in Art Gallery Alberta, AGA, whose architecture is distorted. As of the entry it is announced No Photo. Each room has a cerberus who takes care. I must say that the collections of the modern art of Canada did not fill with enthusiasm me. I retained a sentence by Andy Warhol who was a friend of the very sulfurous Truman Capote: “The more you look exact at the same thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel”
Alberta Art Gallery
10/08/2011
Lonely Planet suggests visiting the Ukrainian district and in particular St Josaphat's Catholic Cathedral which I found with difficulty, it was closed, and Ukrainian Museum of Canada whose few objects are not worth displacement. I returned to Rainbow Valley harassed but satisfied with this day which ended in the rain.
St Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral
Ukrainian Heritage Site
10/08/2011
The GPS road tracklog
From Edmonton to Calgary
From 11/08/2011 to 14/08/2011
The following day was a small driving day to go to Hinton where the French-speaking hostess of Visitor Center told the sight of the spot, a pond with a beaver's family. I went there at once, I had patience there more than one hour without seeing a beaver's tail. After shopping at Wallmart I promised to go back there. Alas a violent storm with extraordinary thunder claps fell down on the city, the mountain is there. I bivouacked on the spot in the rain.
Beaver
Hinton
11/08/2011
Beaver Boardwalk
Hinton
11/08/2011
Maxwell Lake, Beaver's lodge
Hinton
11/08/2011
In the early morning I returned to Beaver Boardwalk, then I waited in the fog and the coldness, 9°C. Finally a beaver came to play in the pond with large snaps with its tail, great moment.
 |
castor, beaver |
 |
In the move to Jasper I took the Maligne Road to admire the very famous Maligne Lake under a light not very satisfactory.
Maligne Lake
Maligne rd
12/08/2011
Not far I undertook to walk towards Mona Lake and in the way Lorraine Lake. On a branch over a no-name small lake ducks romped.
Mona Lake
Maligne road
12/08/2011
Duke pond
Maligne rd
12/08/2011
About midday I returned my steps and I met on the roads some “goats” by no means to startle by vehicles.
 |
Mule deer |
 |
Maligne ?
Maligne road
12/08/2011
I strolled along Maligne Canyon from the first bridge to the fifth bridge return of which the upstream part is very spectacular by its narrowness, its depth and the noise of the torrent in the falls and the potholes.
 |
Maligne Canyon |
 |
At the end of the afternoon I reached Jasper, tourist city, I went to the library for Internet. On Hwy # 93 a control at the entrance of the Park made me understand that it would be impossible to bivouac out of the campgrounds, I returned on my steps to find a carpark on Hwy # 16.
Montagnes Rocheuses
The Canadian Rockies,
Icefields Parkway Hwy #93
Ice Parkway Hwy # 93 is specifically reserved for tourism, commercial vehicles are prohibited. The 287 km from Jasper to Banff cross a landscape of sharp-edged mountains, turquoise lakes, tumultuous rivers and howling waterfalls howling unique in the world. The glance does not cease being filled with wonder at such a spectacle even when the sky is obscured with clouds.
As of 8 a.m. tourists, in the motor homes or not, tourist buses were already on the road and in the sites pouring their noisy troops. My first stop was in very dramatic Athabasca Falls then along the road in spots indicated by signposts, alas carparks already were very encumbered.
Athabasca Falls
Icefields Parkway Hwy #93
13/08/2011
Athabasca Falls
Icefields Parkway Hwy #93
12/08/2011
En route
Icefields Parkway Hwy #93
13/08/2011
Most interesting was Columbia Icefield and Visitor Center with interpretive signs on the retreat of the glaciers since 1800's.
Columbia Icefield, Athabasca Glacier
Icefields Parkway Hwy #93
13/08/2011
After it was a trap so much tourists were numerous. In Lake Louise I turned in round to find a place to park my truck, impossible, as in the Moraine Lake. I gave up and carry on my road by forgetting Banff to go to Canmore where Claude & Alain had mentioned me a bivouac spot which I located with a map of Visitor Center, Quarry Lake Park. Never to traverse this splendid road a weekend.
Calgary
I left Quarry Lake Park as of early dawn pushed outside by the organizers of a Sunday sports meeting. And it is so much better, because at the exit of Canmore I attended a rising of the magic sun, pink light on the mountain and solar disc above Lake des Arcs.
 |
En route Hwy #1 |
 |
As of the opening of the counter of Calgary Tower I took height, 191 meters high, to have a bird's eye view over the city whose center is very reduced. I wished to visit museums, alas they are closed on Sunday, funny people that these people there!
Calgary Tower
Calgary
14/08/2011
City bird's eye view
Calgary
14/08/2011
I strolled in the center to take pictures of the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre, copy of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and a sculpture of the suffragettes on October 18, 1929 having obtained the voting rights for women.
Museum
Chinatown
14/08/2011
 |
18/10/1929 Calgary |
 |
Further away Fort Calgary Historic Park in barrack of the end of the 19th century gives the tone as of the entrance with a diorama –The People- made up of an aboriginal, of a representative of North West Mounted Police –NWMP- of Chiesa -Church- and of a pioneer. The most important room tells the story of the importance of the birch canoe in the trade of Aboriginals then trappers and finally Hudson Bay Company – HBC- I retained two quotations.
Fort Calgary Historic Park, The People
Calgary
14/08/2011
Fort Calgary Historic Park
Calgary
14/08/2011
 |
Fort Calgary Historic Museum |
 |
At the beginning of afternoon in the sun exactly I visited the Heritage Park Historic Village which recreates a colony at the bottom of a HBC Fort and a village of the end of the 19th century with buildings of the era, some animations punctuate the visit at certain hours. In evening I failed on the carpark of Walmart then McDo to publish the pages of my website.
Heritage Park Historical Village
Calgary
14/08/2011
 |
Heritage Park |
 |
Fort Calgary Historic Park
Calgary
14/08/2011
