Thoughts for the day
Having been basically house bound since mid May, I decided it was time to get away.
Getting away to me means really getting away. So I loaded the trusty Buss, the dogs and off I went. I ended up not far from Great Slave Lake, in northern Canada. The lake is the second largest in North America and the sixth largest in the world.
This is a very remote area of the world. There are few roads, fewer settlements and little if no wifi or cell phone coverage.
Perfect!
I stayed in a wonderful campground that amazingly had 30Amp electrical service and pull through camp spots. I was the only camper in this nine spot area and could hear the muted roar of the nearby Louise Falls. At this time of year, I was able to walk around without the aide of any kind of artificial lighting until almost midnight.
This location has two falls within two kilometres of each other, both with spectacular views of not only the falls but of the river gorge. A short, to me anyway, two hour drive, brought me to Wood Buffalo National Park. Three thousand free ranging Wood Bison live in this habitat. Again, at this time of year the scenery is fantastic, the weather wonderful, the bugs plentiful.
Another short drive, about forty-five minutes, from the campground brings you to the second largest settlement, Hay River, pop around 5,000. This is the end of the rail line on the edge of Great Slave Lake. Barges are used to transport goods across the lake to the smaller communities around the lake and to the capital, Yellowknife, in the summer. In the winter, roads are made across the ice for transport trucks to cross directly to Yellowknife saving a lot of time as the summer road skirts the edge of the lake and is very long.
While the campground as I said was very nice, those used to all of the amenities had best be warned. There is water available, but not to fill your tanks. I have been camping for many years, so this was no great hardship for me. I fill up a big pot, put it on the stove and use it to wash dishes etc. There is a clean and nice public shower and clean pit toilets for use. There is also a dump station for your grey and black water, but again, no water for flushing.
Planning for fuel is also a must. Settlements are far apart. I can go about 500km on a tank with the Buss, but I would not recommend going below half a tank if you can. For those with small tanks pulling trailers, a jerry can would be advisable to take along.
Now to my grumpy stage.
This is something I have noticed not only on the most recent trip, but my cross Canada trip last summer, my trip to Phoenix this spring and my trip to Austin a couple of years ago. I usually stop every couple of hours to get the kinks out, have a bite to eat or a snooze. When the dogs are with me, it is a must. On the major highways there are rest areas set up for this and most other highways have areas at regular intervals that a person can stop and walk around a bit. Each of these have at a minim a large trash receptacle. Why then are people so lazy that they have to toss their trash along the side instead of walking mere feet to the trash bin? I’ll give an example.
As you cross from Alberta into the North West Territories, there is a very nice information and interpretative center on the NWT side. It has clean washrooms, a large parking lot and plenty of trash bins. I observed two people get in their vehicle, which was parked right in front of a trash bin, drive past three other trash bins, then toss their empty coffee cups into the ditch as they entered the highway. I mean, give me a break! That is beyond being lazy, that is being ignorant! I wonder what they would think if I tossed my garbage on their front lawn?
The country is beautiful, the scenery fantastic. The roads for the most part are good and traffic the further north one goes, becomes less. For those looking for something a little different and off the beaten path, I highly recommend the trip. I’ll be going back. This time for a longer time. I barely scratched the surface of what there is to take in up there.
