Spell of the Wild

Chuck

This day starts great; no rain and the sun is trying to peek through.  A quick breakfast, grab my water bottles and I’m out the door.  Hmmm seems pretty nippy, better slide some long gloves (with fingers) over my bike gloves and maybe slip a windbreaker over my short and long sleeved Tee’s.  Still cool but I’ll warm as I get moving and the sun gets higher.  Betty has reviewed the map and says she will drive the RV to Wetaskawin and hook-up at the Prairie Breeze Campground.  We say goodbye and I’m on my way.  Immediately glad that I have the long gloves and windbreaker.   After a day off it feels good to be streaming along the highway, very little traffic, mostly flat, hint of a tail wind, nice.  Little towns slip into my tiny rearview mirror; Strom, Daysland, Bawlf.  The sun has disappeared, those black clouds that were in the distance are now upon me and the light misting is now a light rain and cooler.  I stop on the roadside to grab a chocolate bar to warm me.  A small car stops along side me and a lady asks if I need help.  She is Dutch and tells me of biking the Danube and the Rhine, Betty, Suz & I also biked the Rhine.  As we chat she says “You are shaking, and you’re all wet, you must be cold”, her husband invites me to come to their home to warm and wait until the bad weather passes.  I thank them and move on.  Now I am in exactly the situation that I avoided yesterday by taking the day off.  The road is wet, I am wet and visibility is terrible.  I decide to bike to the next town, Camrose, is 17 miles, I will wait there for Betty & Bren to come along.  My windbreaker is keeping my core dry, but my feet are soaked, gloves too and I feel cold water dropping on my head through the slots in my bike helmet.  What I am really concerned about is visibility; my glasses have water on both the outside and the inside.   When a vehicle passes, I sometimes get a wall of water, even when they try to give me a wide berth.  Finally, a large beautiful sign “Welcome to Camrose”  a mile later I see a Co-op gas station with a parking area big enough for an RV to maneuver.  I pull up by a pump which has overhead cover and call Betty.  Bren answers so Betty must be driving at this moment, they will find me.  Inside, I get some hot chocolate and go back out to direct them into a suitable area.  Some guy makes a crack about me fueling my bike.  After talking with a young couple, they invite me to wait in their van until I see the RV approaching, foolishly, I decline.   After few minutes, I am totally chilled and walk around to keep from shaking.  A Co-op worker, who provides full-service at the pump, suggests that I wait in their employee break room.  As we were talking, I see our “Home on the Road” and direct it to a space on the side of the parking area.  Betty is at the wheel, big warm smile, confidently wheeling that big rig with the Honda CRV in tow and both loaded with full bike racks.  Once inside the RV, I get out of the wet clothes, into as many dry layers as I can find and wrap up in blankets.  Betty moves us back into traffic and Bren has the map as they plan their route; I do not worry about it.  Warmth is wonderful!  By the time we reach Prairie Breeze Campground, the “chill” has passed, I feel human again. 

Betty goes to the campground office to make arrangements, she finds that they really do not have wi-fi as advertised.  We are assigned a campsite in a mudhole and as soon as I hook up the electricity, we blow a circuit breaker.  That’s it, we are moving.  The campground hostess says they have higher and dryer sites.  We select the highest & driest.  It only has 20 Amp service, most campgrounds offer 50 or at least 30 Amps.  We take it anyway, even though it means only one appliance and a couple lights at a time.  We are now hooked up, inside out of the rain and warm.  We decide to visit the Reynolds Alberta Museum which is only a half-mile away.  We had been told it was great and were looking forward to it.  Machines were the focus: cars, trucks, tractors, farm machinery, airplanes and more.  They had lots of vintage autos, mostly U.S. but some Canadian only and some European.  They even had a 1951 Studebaker, my first car, however, this one was not a convertible, mine was, it once held 14???  : ) .  We departed at closing time, it would take hours more to see it all.  Then, dinner at Barny’s Pub & Grill while Bren watched Boston whip up on the NY Rangers in Ice Hockey.  All is good!

Chuck:

It is a zero day.  Raining, windy (30 gusting to 50 mph), temps 40 – 45 degrees; not fit for man nor beast.  We wrote the day off.  Not only are these very uncomfortable conditions, but also not safe: impaired visibility, slippery road surface and poor braking on bikes.  The visibility issue is really critical, in the best conditions drivers often don’t see bikers and with rain, foggy windows & mirrors, spray from vehicles, especially big trucks make for conditions that are difficult to see any vehicle and bikes are at the bottom of the list.  And, if that is not enuf, these weather conditions might be more than an already stressed ole bod needs.  Sickness is not on the agenda.  So admin chores, organizing of bike gear, some reading and bean soup cooking all day with a ham bone make for an enjoyable day off.  Unfortunately, tomorrow’s forecast is about the same.  Even worse; the bean soup is now history and the beer supply nearly depleted.

Dry Camp just inside Alberta

In both Saskatchewan and in Alberta we see lots of water – ponds, lakes and just water standing in the fields – probably from the snow thaw.  Must be a problem for the farmers who want to put in crops.

We’re into grazing country so we see lots of cattle or livestock pens.  When we were on our cross country horseback trip we would look for these so the horses could spend the night in a pen as opposed to tied to a picket line or the side of a trailer.  They liked these. 

Chuck:

The wind died off about 2:30 am.  About 7 am, Betty drove me the 5 miles back to the point I reached yesterday.  There was a light breeze; later as it grew, the direction was variable; mostly a quartering tail wind but sometimes a direct cross-wind.  As the day progressed, wind intensified and was mostly behind me, either quartering or directly.  I am on Alberta Highway-13, it is very “biker friendly”; the surface is serrated just outside the right white line and 18 inches to 4 feet of smooth paving to the right of that is for me.  Still most vehicles move to the far left lane if they can.  The terrain is changing from mostly gigantic grain fields to mostly cattle grazing; rolling hills with more trees and spotted occasionally with smaller grain fields.  For lunch, I stopped near a railroad embankment, hoping that it would block some of the wind.  Then a strange thing started happening: truckers honked and waved, local pick-up drivers nodded and gave a “thumbs-up”, even female drivers waved and smiled.  This was not normal.  After some consideration I determined it was only traffic from one direction that acknowledged me and that I was positioned on a curve in the highway so that vehicle drivers coming from the south could see me from a half- mile away.  My bike was leaned against a post nearby and I was sitting back on the grass with a sandwich in one hand and a water bottle in the other.  They were envious!  The sun was peeking through a partial overcast and spring was evident in every direction. Once I figured it out, I lingered a bit longer.

B & B found an RV Park in Killiam, AB and called me with directions.  I wheeled in and went into what is now becoming the routine:  brief exchange of each of our experiences since departing earlier, drink water, shower, drink more water, rest for about an hour, then do miscellaneous chores.  By then it is time for happy hour, followed by dinner (Thanks Betty), then a group effort cleaning up dishes etc.  All TV reception has been questionable, both Direct TV and use of a local antenna, so we each check email, read and sign off for the evening.    Good-night!

This is a picture of the salt that we would see along the road and in ditches in Saskatchewan.  We talked to a fellow who said they use it as road salt in winter.  The quality is not good enough for table salt.

We also came across fields where the stalks looked much whiter than the golden wheat stalk.  We never did find out what it was but perhaps some of you know.

Here you see Chuck against the typical backdrop in Saskatchewan.  Lots of gentle hills with golden fields.

Another fine day for riding north, temps in high 60’s, 20mph winds out of the south and SW. Shoulders of SK-14 varied from none or ragged broken asphalt on the down side to smooth and 10 feet wide. When the shoulders are not useable, I ride about 2 feet inside the white line. If it appears that approaching traffic and overtaking vehicles are going to meet at my location, I get off the road if at all possible. With the wind at my back it is easy to hear big rigs approaching behind me. Much of the time I am cruising along with no vehicles on either horizon. It is a good feeling with the sound of the wind and tires singing on the roadway. About noonish, I was at a junction of a road going to Macklin and there was a monument, kiosk and wide parking area; just right for lunch. Betty and Bren were still behind me so I gave them a cell call and about 15 minutes later they pulled in, just in time for lunch. The monument is a 32 ft high likeness of a horse’s front leg bone. Macklin is the home of the International Bannuck Championship Tournament. Evidently, German Russian immigrants settled here and made a competitive game of setting up these horse bones and throwing more horse bones at those the opposing team had set up. At that time, there were horse bones aplenty and it was cheap entertainment for the entire community. Last August, over 220 teams competed. Oh yes, Bannuck translates to “bones”. Brendan said it must be Russian because the German word for bone is “knochen”.

At lunch time, I had ridden about 50 miles, the plan was for B & B to drive ahead about 20 miles and look for a good spot to dry camp (just a parking place, no hook-ups). As we crossed into Alberta the road shoulders were a little better. We coordinated via cells and they found a small roadside pull-off area, asphalted but only about 30 ft wide. Great! Betty drove back about 5 miles and waited for me at the junction of a road to Metiskow. The tailwind made it a good day, 88 miles probably will not be exceeded on this entire trip.

Betty drives me (we are in the car, while Bren sleeps back in the RV) back to the point they picked me up “on the fly” yesterday afternoon.  It is 23 miles from the RV park in Beggar, we decide they will wait there and when I get there I will help unhook and get the caravan road-ready, in return I get lunch.  Today is even better biking than yesterday; light traffic, wider safety lane, and best of all the wind has shifted and it is now a quartering tailwind.  I am back to the campground in short order.  Betty and Bren have just finished washing the car and Betty fixes lunch.  At the north edge of Beggar, Saskatchewan Highway-4 angles to the NW, which will mean a tailwind (does it get any better than this??).  We decide to meet in Wilkie, it is 20 miles past Landis, which was Plan-A.  The miles just zip along, really fun, I don’t want it to end.  Well not really, at about mile 50 I am glad to see a final countdown. 

Bren drove the RV today, entering Wilkie, they found a large parking area used by tanker trucks to reload with water for field use.  The manager showed them a place that would be well clear of any truck traffic.  They were easy to find.  A hot shower, a little rest time, cold beer followed by a ton of great pasta; what could be better.  Hmmm, Betty likes NCIS which is on Tuesday evenings and we have no TV reception.  We are not close to any local broadcasting and wind-break trees are blocking satellite signals.  Oh well, it was still a great day.

Our nice dry camp at a school bus maintenance shed.  It was a holiday weekend so no activity. 

Chuck leaving for the day’s ride.

A good day, I launched out of the RV and 100 feet later was on Saskatchewan Highway-4 riding north.  Today is a national holiday in Canada, Victoria Day, early morning traffic is almost non-existent.  A light wind, cool morning, no traffic, good riding.  The miles fly by, saw some antelope ‘playing’ (no deer).  Betty and Brendan passed me and drove to Rosetown where they waited in the parking area of a large grain elevator operation.  They always try to select a location that is easily visible from the highway so I won’t miss them.  It might be hard to hide our rig in some of these small towns, many times the highway is their main street.  While having lunch, Brendan spotted four antelope crossing the elevator area, apparently they were being chased by some kids on a 4-wheeler.  The animals escaped into a field and the kids went off to find some other diversion.  After lunch and I rested, then I continued biking north.  Betty and Bren waited a suitable amount of time (until they got bored) then drove north.  Fortunately, when they caught up to me there was a field road which enabled them to almost get off the highway.  We loaded my bike, I jumped in the RV and we drove on to the next town.  Betty had located a campsite in Biggar, SK (she uses a “Good Sam” Travel Guide, and ‘mental telepathy’).  It is a beautiful little campground with trees for windbreaks all around and within.  Brilliant flowers in hanging containers, bright green grass, pale green trees with leaves trying to push out; it is spring in the north country.  We sit in lawn chairs enjoying the warm sun: happy hours.