Day 68
Day 68
From Cypress Hills looking north
ROAD REPORT: My projected route is AB-10 out of Drumheller, south on AB-56, a brief stretch of TC-1 (Trans-Can), on to AB-36, a brief stretch of AB-3, on to AB-36, then AB-61. This puts me back on the Redcoat Trail. From AB-61 to AB-501 via a short jaunt on AB-889. AB-501 will take me into Saskatchewan , where it turns into SK-13. All of this is the Redcoat Trail. After crossing into SK I'll make a detour off the Trail onto SK-21 and to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park for a 1 week stay.
While on AB-56 I noticed that I had forgot to gas up, my gauge was barely above the red. I found a village called Husser and stopped at a CO-OP bulk fuel station. The garage across the street had the pump keys and filled me up. The tank took 233 liters, (61.5 gal), my tank only holds 283 liters. Later on AB-36, about 12 km north of the village of Vauxhall , I blew the inside dual on the left side. I limped into Vauxhall at about 40 km/hr. The local CO-OP tire store had a new Michelin in stock and installed it for me. The casing also ripped the mud flap mount loose when it came off. I pulled it all the way off and it's now in the back seat of Toad.
Shortly after I hit TC-1, (this is supposed to be the freeway across the nation). I couldn't run in the right hand lane, it's too bumpy due to cracks repaired with tar. The other roads were in better shape.
Almost as soon as I turned onto AB-61 I hit a 2 km long construction area. The have the whole road torn up. The max speed you can make on this stretch is about 40 km/mi, and most of the time you're creeping along at 20 km. After that it was smooth sailing until I hit AB-501.
The MS Streets and Trips didn't tell me that AB-501 is dirt and gravel its total 50 km length. It also showed a jog onto AB-41 for about 1.2 km then back onto AB-501. Not true! I turned onto AB-41 and followed it until I hit the U.S. border, 27 km away! I knew something was wrong right away but I couldn't find a place to turn around. After backtracking, I found that 501 actually continued straight across 41, no jog. Something to watch out for on this road, cattle sleeping in the middle of the road. This is open prairie, no fences.
Actually the dirt and gravel road was in better shape than that short stretch of TC-1 I was on. As long as I kept the wheels in the dirt tracks and not on the gravel I could make about 60-90 km/hr. After crossing the SK border the road turned into 2 lane paved but the pavement is all patches. Since I hadn't seen a car in either direction for hours, I straddled the yellow line where it was smoother. The further into SK I got the better the road got. By the time I got to Consul it was pretty good road and I was back up to 100 km, even though the posted limit was 80. Which brings up a point, I've been through 2 Provinces now and, except for in the big cities, still haven't seen a cop.
Another point, after you leave Manyberries (a little hamlet at the end of AB-61) and hit 501, there's no gas stations. In fact there's nothing except prairie and cattle. I didn't even see any homes or other structures. The few cars and trucks I passed all waved at me, even the rancher's patrolling the cattle waved. The cattle seemed a little confused by my rig though.
When I got to Cypress Hills, my car was encased in mud. I'm hoping for a thunderstorm to wash at least the windows off so I can drive it tomorrow. My site is electric only but at least it's 30 amp and I can also get the satellite from here.
RV PARK REPORT: CYPRESS HILLS INTERPROVINCIAL PARK – Center Block (SK)
When I arrived it was about 6 in the evening (Central Time Zone) but the shack at the entrance was still manned. It cost me $7 for a day pass for the car and no charge for the RV. I was told how to get to the campground office where they would take care of assigning me an RV site. This campground is “first come, first serve”, no reservations. I had figured that, since it was a Wednesday, even this late in the day, I should be able to get a spot. At first the staff at the campground office told me that there were no full service (they have only 10) or electrical sites available (they don't have elec & water). But then they found an electrical site in the Terrace area that was open and I could fit into, if I didn't mind a pull-in site with the fire grill and table up the slope from the site. I figured that a “pull-in” was one that you pulled into front first so I said OK.
Come to find out, a “pull-in' is a wide spot on the road where you parallel park your RV with the electrical box, fire grill, and table off the road and, in this case up-slope from the RV spot. Since my spot was on the right side of the road, this worked out fine. My slide-outs are on the right and I ran the electrical under the coach.
The deal with these “No Reservations” parks is; you can pay by the day or for your entire stay. If paying by the day, you have until 11 AM to renew or you're out. So by 11 the park knows who is staying and who is going. No matter how you pay, you can also move to a different site the 2 nd day if you want. 2 PM is the check-out time so you may have to wait until then to make the actual move. I thought about moving but decided not to, I'm getting satellite here and there's no guarantee that I would at another site. In fact I probably wouldn't because all the “off the road' sites are heavily wooded.
The second day I went into town (Maple Creek) and got the car washed and picked up some groceries. The only internet access is the Library and it doesn't have a place to hook up my laptop. While returning to the car after shopping I noticed some wires hanging down under the car. An inspection showed that the wire run for the tail lights had been pulled from its clips and chewed up pretty bad. When I got back to the RV I sleeved the whole thing with some plastic wire mold and tied it up with tyraps.
After I got back I realized that I should have taken the bike in for a wash also. Oh well, I'm not planning on riding it in these hills anyway.
I visited Fort Walsh and the Indian Massacre site and went into Eastend and visited the T.Rex research center. The dig site was closed to visitors due to slippery conditions caused by the recent rains.
This weekend is “Open Fishing” weekend, meaning that I can fish without a license, which I did, but got skunked.
WEATHER REPORT: Weather has been great! mid 20's with one or two showers. There has been a breeze most of the time but it's not noticable when you're buried in the woods.
Next stop is Thomson Lake Regional Park , a short (3 hour) jaunt up the trail.