Delayed departure

Day 1 – Keith

Leah and I had planned on leaving on the Friday, making our way to the Thompson Creek campground just outside of the park but due to winds in excess of 60 km and gusting to 90 km we decided to delay departure for one day and instead went and had a wonderful brunch at Chartier and did some shopping. It was a great relaxing way to start the trip.

We are on the road again

Day 2 – Keith

I woke up to some pretty hard rain coming down in Beaumont, after quickly checking the hourly forecast I realized that I was safe to sleep in, so I did.

We packed the remaining items on the bikes and after saying our goodbyes our kitties, we were off. I wanted to take roads that I have not previously taken so we headed down highway 2 to highway 12 outside of Ponoka. Let me tell you, highway 2 has to be my most hated highway even more so than highway 1 leading into Vancouver. We were only on it for a short period of time but it sill left a sour taste in my mouth.

After getting onto highway 12 we made quick time to the turnoff to Silvan Lake. We approached the roundabout and seeing the traffic coming from that direction decided to stay all the way to highway 22. I have to say we made the right choice. The road was free of others and had some great vistas when coming over a hill.

We made our way into Rocky Mountain house and went into town for fuel. I was feeling a little bit of unease due to the wildfires in Jasper with a slight worry that we may not find a camp site due to the evacuation so we decided to forego hitting Rival Trade Brewing, South East of Rocky and just kept going instead.

We made great time to our destination and quickly found our favourite campsite in Thompson Creek, site 36. We have stayed at this site now three years running and just love the location.

After setup we poured a beer and began our time relaxing in the Mountains. Shorty after making a wonderful supper of grilled cheese and ham we looked across to the neighbouring campsite to see a big black bear. We looked for a minute and then made some noise that the bear took note of and left like a good bear does.

Nowhere to be Nothing to do

Day 3 – Leah

Today’s plan was to do… pretty much nothing. We succeeded and then some! I pulled myself out of bed and went quickly in search of coffee, I’d forgotten the ins and outs of how our fancy-dancy little espresso maker works. With Keith’s help I got some much needed caffeine into my system and started to feel like a human being again rather than a mindless zombie. We made a simple breakfast and wandered to the creek, we wandered back to our campsite to get our chairs and then sat by the creek with our feet in the water reading our books for most of the afternoon. We had considered doing a small hike behind our campground but had a good case of the lazies, so didn’t bother. We sat in the campground and read our books some more, played some games, and chilled out. Oh what a glorious feeling to chill out! We have both been going full tilt at work, so it has felt wonderful to be outside of cell service and to unplug from the world. Our entertainment was butterflies and chipmunks, can’t complain about that! We took a wander through the campground and counted less than a dozen campsites that were filled. Seems that the concern about overcrowded campgrounds was unwarranted. That’s ok, it is likely to be busier in the next few stops we make, so having fewer people around is most welcome. Today has been a whole lot of glorious nothing, it’s wonderful. It usually takes me a few days to get the “aaaahhhhh” big sigh where I feel Ike I can fully start to relax while on holidays. Being tucked away in a secluded spot surrounded by trees has really helped to expedite that feeling. I like the “back to the basics” that camping is, other than the damn bugs that think I’m delicious, it’s wonderfully relaxing.