Hyder to Edmonton

We left Hyder August 1st with over 3,000 miles between us and WashPA where we want to be by the middle on the month.  Since that is a lot of miles in a short time for us, (a normal day is 200 miles or less) we decided we would drive three longer days and then stop for two to catch up with laundry and other chores.

Going back up the Hyder spur there was still a lot of snow right off the road.  

We did see some wildlife on the way to Edmonton, another black bear.

The sign at the south end of the Cassiar.  We did the whole 450 miles and the road got better the farther south we drove.  We then turned east on the Yellowhead Highway toward Edmonton.  About 20 miles outside of Smithers we began seeing signs every mile or so for an RV wash.  Opus sure needed it after the trip down the Cassiar so we stopped and gave him a good bath.  No pictures as we were both working.

The first night we stopped at a rest area along the road to spend the night.  When we pulled in, surprise, surprise, there was Bjorn and Britta who had stopped to take a break.  We chatted a bit and they were on their way.  How neat!!

Many towns across North America celebrate their heritage.  Here, it was the railroad....

and here, I'm not sure, still interesting.  It may have been a mascot for the Prince George curling team.  Passing through Prince George, the largest city we had been in in quite a while, we stopped at Wally World to refill our larder.  Nanc was shopping and I was in McDonald's checking email and guess who walked in, Bjorn and Britta.  That is probablily the last time we will see them, though we tried to convince them to stop in WashPA on their way to Toronto.  Not really that far out of the way for someone who has travelled to Alaska from Germany. 

On  the second day after leaving Hyder we spent the night at another rest area along this river and had a fun evening with two couples who were staying there.

Darren is a gold miner who was on his way back to Edmonton after working his claim in BC.  He had buckets of sand that he had collected and planned to spend the winter getting the gold out of it.  Here he is showing me the proper technique.

He put a table spoon of sand in my pan and after a few minutes of working it I had isolated a few small specks of gold.  Very neat, but it sure is a lot of work.

Nanc, Tina and Ben (from Germany) and Joanie and Darren.  It proves again you never know what will happen or who you will met along the road..

On day three we drove through beautiful Jasper National Park.  Many of the vistas looked smoggy, but it was the smoke from distant forest fires.

More of Jasper.  We did not spend any time here as we had been here for an extended visit two years ago.

A bit of the smoke blew away for a better view of the mountains.

The road through Jasper is part of the Trans Canadian Highway so when there is an animal jam it really ties up traffic.  The ranger soon appeared to save the idiots from the wild elk.

A mom and baby goat running along the road caused another major jam.  Just our luck, it was also a holiday weekend.  In Edmonton we just took it easy for a couple of days and did some chores before three more long driving days to Winnipeg and the US border in North Dakota.  A very scenic and interesting beginning for our journey back to WashPA.