So this would seem to be the Ontario post as we're on our way out of it. Also like Ontario, it will be huge and take a long time to get through. You have been warned.

After having lunch with Dave in Winnipeg, we headed east. We were a little misty eyed when we hit Ontario. It just felt like we were home. Again, the terrain changed almost instantly as the road began to cut through huge amounts of rock and the lakes became abundant (it was like watching tennis. Lake on the right, lake on the left, lake on the right, lake on the left).

Our first stop was at Blue Lake provincial park between Kenora and Dryden. It was just as we'd expected from Ontario Parks; a well signed, well maintained campground (other provinces should learn how to put signs up on the highway).



Once again, there was only 1 or 2 other groups in a campground made for 200-300. We ended up at a spot that was as close to the lake as possible (no beach sites this time) and proceeded to freeze our west coast climatized butts off. It wasn't as cold as Jasper or Lake Louise but it was supposed to get warmer in Ontario! We were promised warmth! Anyhoo, it warmed up the next morning and we took a walk around the fen (a fen is, as we were told by the park brochure, somewhere between a bog and a lake). Fens are so acidic that bacteria have trouble living in them. This has the effect of vegetation and animal matter from decomposing at extremely slow rates, if at all. It was, of course, beautiful.



We drove from there to Thunder Bay where we stayed in a Days Inn. It was our first glimpse of Lake Superior and it didn't do it any justice. We didn't see much of Thunder Bay as we got in late that night, only the standard drive around the city trying to find a hotel that didn't have any of the following:
1. A karaoke bar attached
2. A bar of any sorts attached
3. Large amounts of derelict cars in the grassy areas surrounding it
4. The standard (No)/Vacancy neon sign on the front where the No was either missing or looked like it had never been on

The next day we headed east along the trans-Canada and came across the Terry Fox monument just outside of Thunder Bay right around where his cancer relapsed, causing him to stop the Marathon of Hope.



Considering it happened about 27 years ago, it was still remarkably powerful. It is, as Colleen said, hard to think of many people that have done so much by themselves, especially at such a young age. He single handedly started a fund-raiser that raises millions of dollars for cancer research every year, but more importantly raised awareness.

We stopped at a little bay on the edge of Lake Superior. Warm water! Huzzah!



We planned to drive down to Neys provincial park, just west of Marathon, but, luckily as it turns out, it was closed for the season. We ended up heading a little further down the road, into Pukaskwa National Park, south of Marathon. This was the nicest place we've been so far (if I may resurrect my previously created word, the awesomtasticest). We had always just thought Lake Superior was just this huge, cold puddle. As it turns out, every bit of shore could be a Group of 7 painting. Stunning and rocky; waves crashing and spraying as we found out on a "short walk to the beach" that turned into "hike till it's dark".





It too was quiet, but busier than the more recent places. And red squirrels and chipmunks galore! We were a short walk from a gorgeous beach,



where, that night, Colleen went for a swim, proclaiming it to be great for swimming. The next day I found out that the sun must have been particularly warm the previous day. But oh so refreshing!



We continued on to Agawa Bay in Lake Superior provincial park the next day and were greeted with the prospect of another beachfront campsite. We set up tent, walked down the beach for what seemed like an hour or so,



got back and during the making of dinner, Colleen saw a flash on the horizon. Then another. We quickly ate, set up our lawn chairs and proceeded to enjoy a famous Lake Superior thunderstorm.

The precursor


For about an hour we were treated to flash after flash with only the occasional thunderclap from the big ones. At it's peak it was constant lightning across the sky. Eventually driven into the tent by the ensuing rain and a particularly large flash above us, we continued to enjoy the show as our tent, surprisingly, doesn't block the light too well. The rain apparently stopped sometime in the middle of the night as when we woke up the tent was completely dry (a camper's dream!). Also, the Ontario heat was back and we enjoyed a day of about 25 degrees (Celsius for all you naysayers out west).

Then, onto Chutes provincial park, between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. Nothing fancy, but nice and warm with lots of little wildlife to keep us company (one red squirrel wanted to stow away it seems).





Upon waking up we went for a walk along the river to see the falls.



Fall had somehow snuck up on us as we looked about in awe at the leaves changing colour. Colleen figured out that we hadn't seen an Ontario fall (i.e. a real fall. Where it gets colder) since 2003. We'd forgotten how brightly the leaves change colour and promptly exclaimed that fall is our favourite season (ignoring the evil duo of "back to school" and "winter's coming". Let us have our daydreams, we're unemployed and homeless!)

We continued east yesterday to Samuel de Champlain provincial park near Mattawa, ON. Also a nice park that we didn't really get to look around, the weather looked like it was going to foul up on us, but the ever appreciated wind picked up and blew it over, keeping us dry and letting the sunset



and half-moon show through. Again, we were beset by chipmunks and red squirrels. They're everywhere! and cute. and completely unafraid of you unless you make sudden movements (as illustrated by the one chipmunk who decided he was going to do circles around our legs, occasionally jumping on/over our feet as we washed dishes this morning...sorry, no picture).

We're now in Ottawa, at the public library. It kind of snuck up on us. We've got lots of family here that we'd like to visit with so hopefully we'll get to see at least some of them on our way back through in a week or two. It's a beautiful day, and we'd love to be looking around the city, but we've got to get going. Quebec and the Maritimes await.

Day 15

Sept. 14 - Day 15 (Two weeks!?!?!)

Let me start this off with a big thanks to Gayle and Frank LeBlanc, Colleen's aunt and uncle in Calgary. We called 2 days ahead to see if they wanted to get together when we went through Calgary and they offered a fabulous dinner and having us stay the night with them (breaking the string of 9 consecutive nights in a tent and 20 nights in a sleeping bag). Dinner was great; all of Frank and Gayle's kids (Danielle, Nikki and Jean-Marc) were there with their kids and soon to be kids. It was great meeting everyone. I'm still not hungry after experiencing Gayle's "need to feed". Thanks to both of you.

So we're in Winnipeg (woohoo! the Peg!) staying with Dave White of Western/UBC/Ultimate Frisbee fame. Big thanks to him too! It was awesome catching up with him and many laughs were had when the picture of the real "Full House" house came out. We didn't really intend to get through Saskatchewan that fast, but it's not that wide. After leaving Calgary we went to Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park, about 50 km north of Swift Current, on Lake Diefenbaker. Whoever said Saskatchewan was boring doesn't know what they're talking about.



It was a gorgeous drive and surprisingly the terrain was quite varied (it didn't vary up very often, but there were quite a few, what I'll call, crevasses deep enough for full grown trees to hide in and almost make it up to road level).





The wildlife changed pretty much instantly (porcupines, antelope, vultures eating skunks and loose gravel) upon entering the province and "The Land of Living Skies" lived up to it's name. The campsite was gorgeous, pretty much right on the lake, and very empty.



There were no bugs, just the odd cow mooing in the distance. We spent a while at night, laying on the beach, watching the galaxy open up above us, catching glimpses of shooting stars and what was either a pair of satellites in the exact same orbit or UFOs (cue X-Files music).

We left Saskatchewan Landing on Tuesday and headed to Little Manitou Lake to check out a lake with the same mineral concentration as The Dead Sea. We didn't really know what to expect from the lake and, due to the cold, only sat on the beach and tried floating our legs in the actual lake and opted to spend more time in the indoor, heated mineral pool in the hotel. It was amazing. It was actually hard to sink in it. You could tread water without moving your arms or legs, just bobbing there, completely vertical. It also made for a spectacular race across the deep end of the pool (won by myself!) that may have startled the rest of the occupants of the pool (The Tour Bus Crowd) whom likely had an average of a 40-50 year head-start on us (but who cares, I won!). It was as if there was no resistance in the water. We swam faster using just our arms than we would have in a normal pool using our legs as well. The water had a rather "whisky-brown" colour to it which was, at first, slightly disconcerting but afterwards we found it had infact healed our "wounds". Skin became quite soft and strangely my aching muscles ached just a little less. On Wednesday, the weather changed to something entirely familiar to us, drizzling rain and has stayed that way since.

We were entirely surprised when we crossed the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border. We hadn't properly said good-bye to Saskatchewan (sniff, sniff). We were also surprised by the almost instant change in terrain. We went from fields of wheat to forests and lakes literally at the border. And the city names got funnier too.



We stopped that night in Dauphin (The Sunshine City!) in the rain (how appropriate). We had wanted to get a little further that day, but it was dark and we saw the ever welcoming camping sign on the side of the road. We turn into what looks pretty much exactly like a city park with a bunch of spots, in the middle of a grassy area, for RV's. It was rather empty, so we pitched the tent in the rain and enjoyed Manitoba (cue grumbling). There was a little river running through the park called the Dead River. I'm sure if we'd been there a month earlier we'd have been carried away by mosquitos. (Lots of stagnant water)



We're off to check out the sights of Winnipeg this morning, then meeting Dave for lunch then heading east to Ontariariario.


Note: it's a windmill

Day 10

Ok, big one here!

When last we left our adventures they were heading from a drive-thru campsite in Squamish in the general direction of Osoyoos, BC.

We managed to get to Osoyoos only to find that the campground we were planning on staying in was full (honestly, in the middle of the week in September?). We ended up at a campground/RV park where we could literally swim into the U.S. It wasn't what we'd come in wanting, but it worked and the water was supremely warm (especially compared to where we'd be heading, but I'm getting ahead of myself)

After Osoyoos, we headed north towards Vernon, BC (north of Kelowna) and stayed at a new provincial campground



where we talked to the campground managers. A nice older couple, the husband, who told us he'd lived in the area his entire life, suggested that, if we had time, not go straight up to the Trans-Canada and told us of a more scenic route. Are we ever glad we talked to them. It was possibly the nicest part of the drive so far. Nicely paved roads that curved through the amazingly diverse country side of BC. At two places the road just ends and there's a free ferry to cross to the other side of the lake. And we finally managed to stop at a hotsprings...luxurious!





We ended up taking this route up to Revelstoke, BC and from there into Glacier National Park where we spent the night.



It was amazing to be that high up and still be in, technically, rain forest. We got to see where the Canadian Pacific Railroad once cut through the Selkirk mountains (apparently the toughest pass they had to find on the whole line). It was pretty cold, but not as cold as the next two nights.

After Glacier National, we went east through to around Lake Louise and from there, north along the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. This drive went right up the Rockies, along a stretch of glaciers, lakes and mountain passes that were amazingly beautiful.



The weather, however, was extremely unpredictable. It went from brilliant sun to rain, back to sun, then to snow (snow?!?!? yes, snow! in September...boooooooo!!!!). We had originally planned to camp in one of the 10 or so campgrounds along this stretch of highway, but almost all were closed (the exceptions being the first and last ones...nice). We ended up at the last one, which was about 2 km south of Jasper. We are REALLY not sad about this. It's an enormous campground (probably 300-400 sites) and we were warned upon entering that it was elk mating season and not to get between a bull elk and his harem. Now, we thought we'd just hear them in the distance (which we did. A loud whistling noise pretty much all night) but in the morning, while I was making coffee, I looked up and there were two females right across the road from our site.



They weren't afraid of humans at all (as the ladies in the next site could attest. Their breakfast the previous morning was interrupted and eaten by a group of females as they were sitting at the table) and let everyone take plenty of pictures.



After making sure I'd gotten at least one good one, I woke up Colleen and shortly after her emergence from the tent an enormous bull made his appearance. Like the females, he didn't mind having his picture taken if you kept your distance (there was one couple who didn't listen to the rangers and were fake charged a couple times while taking pictures/video from about 10 feet).



He kept chasing his harem, but they were playing hard to get. It was an amazing experience to see them that close. Also, when you wake up in September to frost on your car roof, you start to wonder why you're in a tent.

The next day we drove down to Lake Louise where we stayed the night at the Lake Louise campground (much quieter, equally as cold. Come on Ontario warmth!). The lake is, of course, beautiful, but we found the town lacking in affordable supplies (e.g. $4.00 cans of chili? ummmm...no).

We've stopped in Banff on our way to Calgary to visit some of Colleen's family. From there, Saskatchewan.

Also, I seem to have left all of our notes on gas usage, odometer readings in the car. So, though it seems we haven't had to fill up, I can assure you we have, but not as much as we thought. Also, DON'T fill up in Saskatchewan Crossing (the "village"/"trap" in the middle of the Icefields Parkway). They know they're the only gas around and charge appropriately ($1.37/litre...guh).

Day 5

Tuesday, Sept. 4 - Day 5

We're back on the mainland today. Had an awesome time on the island (as usual) at what is probably the best/nicest/awesomtasticest (yes, I made that word up) campsite we've ever stayed at, the Mussel Beach Campground. Turning off the highway before Ucluelet we had about 3 km of nicely paved road followed by about 5 or 6 km of "rough road" (read: there's some hardpacked gravel to fill in the spots between the pot holes)

We got there around 7:00 or so on Friday, extremely tired. Thursday night/Friday morning saw the 2 of us getting a grand total of 4.5 hours of sleep due to an amazing amount of oversight in how long it takes to actually clean out an apartment. We ended up not leaving the apartment until 11:30 am and thought, with it being the long weekend, that we'd be out of luck with catching an early enough ferry to let us get across the island before dark. We got into line at 12:30 and caught the 12:50 ferry!

We made a quick stop at Cathedral Grove in the middle of the island. Gorgeous place, with enormous, ancient trees and a beautiful lake off the end.





Got to the site and had a choice of sites. Ended up going with one that was essentially a private beach site (technically the beach was shared, but there was enough of a divide between us and our neighbours that we didn't see them unless they were out walking on the rocks) and set the tent up right there on the sand.





Saturday we got up, had coffee on the beach and looked around (it was a little dark the night before). Site faced South-South-East with a view of the Ucluelet lighthouse. There wasn't much sand for a beach and swimming was out of the question as it was pretty much solid rocks for about 100 meters, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

At noon we headed out to find some surfboards so that we could live up to our promises from the previous post. We checked 2 or 3 places in Tofino before we found one that had any boards left. We rented the boards for 24 hours (actually 26 because the guy felt guilty about making us wait while he fixed a fin on Colleen's board...on an aside, he looked like one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings...Merry or Pippin, can't remember who's who). We went down to the beach and promptly proceeded to lose all sensation in our feet. The day's surfing went as follows (actually so did the next day's):

Colleen:
Catch a wave, don't quite get up, fall
Catch a wave, get up for half a second, fall
Catch a wave, get up, ride the wave to shore looking like a rockstar, make a nice dismount, ta da!

Jeff:
Get run over by a wave
Get run over by a wave
Catch a wave, get run over by said wave
Somehow throw out shoulder walking back out to catch another wave
Catch a wave, ride it most of the way to shore, have the nose of the board go under, get run over by the wave
Catch a wave, decide it's time to get up, fall off side of board
Catch a wave, get up for approximately 1/8 of a second, fall, watch surfboard go flying overhead, thank a higher being that I'm still alive

After a couple of hours, the cold got to us and we headed in, dried off and cranked the heat in the car on the way back to the campground. Once we got back we decided to check out the, as advertised, "hot showers". Best...showers...ever. Open air, plywood walls, blue plastic tarp for a curtain, but absolutely amazing. Looking up at the sky with steaming water was superb.

Day 3 at the site was more surfing with a dash of whale spotting from our campsite. We saw a couple whales off in the distance with the odd one "jumping" out of the water causing quite the splash.

Check-out day was raining overnight so everything we hoped would be dry to pack up ended up being soaked. We saw a couple dolphins a little ways out from the beach in the morning as well as a local bear rummaging for breakfast just across the bay.

We made our way back to Nanaimo to catch the ferry and once again got lucky and only had to wait about 45 minutes. Once across, we drove about 45 minutes north to Alice Lake to crash for the night. It ended up being the camping equivalent of a drive through. Drive in-->Setup tent-->Sleep-->Packup and leave. We've been there recently so we didn't feel too bad about not seeing anything. And right now we're doing laundry (because our towels, which haven't had a chance to dry in 4 days, stink) in a laundromat in Squamish, BC.

Next stop, somewhere between here and Osoyoos, BC.

T-Minus 2 days

So our stuff is on it's way to Ontario, my camera's back from repairs, the satellite radio receiver's setup in the car and my back is suitably sore from sleeping on a 1.5" thick mattress pad on our bedroom floor for a week (the pad works great in the "wild", but not so much on crummy old carpeting). I've woken up to Colleen sleeping off her pad, on the floor, the last 2 nights...she may be on to something.

We've managed to find people who want pretty much everything we didn't take back. It's all worked well for us the last 3 years and we hope it works just as well for everyone else. Good karma!

We're heading out on Friday around noon Pacific time, catching (hopefully!) the 2:15 ferry to Nanaimo and heading to the west coast of the island to do some surfing (Colleen) and falling (Jeff). We're camping on the beach near Ucluelet until Monday.

Also, great timing summer! Way to show up as we're leaving.

T-Minus 1 Month

The lease expires in one month. One month left in Vancouver. It doesn't quite seem long enough to say good-bye to a city we've grown to love, but we're excited to head back nonetheless. While we'll miss Vancouver, we'll be able to use our vacation time for coming back out as opposed to the current situation of using the majority of our vacation time heading back to see the family.

We're getting more and more excited about the roadtrip. Figure it's about 10,000 km from Tofino, BC to St. John's, NFLD then back to T.O., which, over about 30 days, averages out to just over 300 km a day. Shouldn't be a problem for most of the trip while we're on the highway (3 hours a day? what?) and gives us the flexibility to stay for a couple days at certain spots here and there if we want to.

So this is the beginning. In one month, we'll be on the road with the only requirement being "Head sort of east, at least". And while stopping only at Tim Horton's sounds like a Canadian dream come true (inspired by a true story!) I don't think we could take 30 some-odd days of double-doubles and chocolate-glazes (no dental insurance in two weeks!) so don't bother suggesting it.

Stay tuned. I've got one map up with where we currently are (note, this will only be updated when we find somewhere to get online). Colleen's also suggested generating a map with the path we've taken so far. Sounds like a good idea so I'll see how complicated it is and try and get that running.