Day 225 – 21st July 09
Posted by TravellingStrom on July 21, 2009
Tuesday – Grande Cache, British Columbia, Canada
I saw my first wild bear today, wow 🙂
So, the plan was to get down to the bakery and have breakfast while posting a bit of stuff, so after a great nights sleep in which I was not eaten by a bear, I packed up and was ready to go bright and early.
Ahh, now I had seen the notice in the window but I had no idea it meant today. They were closed for interior work, bummer! Oh well, I went down to Melissas Missteak for breakfast instead and eggs and ham means eggs and a ham steak, it was very nice and quite filling 🙂
As there was no internet, it meant I had a lot of extra time up my sleeve, but today I was heading north, so I figured I could find some internet where I am going, or maybe on the way. So, I headed first to the small loop road which is a scenic ride to Lake Louise. And it was very scenic as well as having some history about it.
There was also some history about the detainees during the war, mainly Ukrainian settlers.
The parkway is like all the others I have been on, very green and with restricted speed, that 60 is in kms. But, eventually I got back onto the main road where I was stopped by the road works again, this is where they were building another animal bridge.
I was surprised by this sign, I mean where do I go?
More spectacular scenery followed at another reflective lake.
Now I get amongst the icefields and glaciers.
Just after leaving here I spotted a car parked funnily on the side of the road, this usually meant wildlife and they were not wrong 🙂 I think this is a brown bear, it was quite placidly eating stuff and pretty much ignored all the cars and cameras etc! It was only about 30m away, cool eh!
Then onwards but stopping a lot because of the views, bloody camera strap 🙂
A short way up the road was a glacier that you could nearly walk on, but it has melted so much that it is a bit dangerous.
Watch out for five finger discount!
It was a bit of a hike up to the actual foot of the glacier and the wind was howling and cold, there must be some ice around 🙂
Back on the road again and just more of the same old, same old, no way, this is great 🙂
I got into Jasper and fuelled up before heading off again, just up the road a bit was a sign saying look out for Big Horned Sheep in the next 2km, well, they were chewing the grass just near the sign, so I guess the sign was in the right spot!
After Jasper I had no idea where I wanted to stay, but I recalled a name from my memory that I am sure Art or the guys from Edmonton told me about and that place was called Grande Cache. As I wanted to make distance I decided to head for that. I had checked the distance to Fairbanks in Alaska and it was over 2500km away, so while the weather was good, I needed to make tracks. And the ride from here was very fast and pleasant, no more mountains to ride in, except the valley floors, but it was fun.
I still had a ways to go, but no worries, just keep an eye out for wildlife and try to ignore the suns glare as I was heading west and into it. I eventually got into Grande Cache around 5pm, so it was not that late at all, but I was getting tired.
The caravan park was easy to find and I had soon started setting up camp, although the ground was hard and rocky, so I only used a couple of pegs for the vestibule, hopefully no cyclone would turn up tonight. Then I worked out a way to get my food off the ground. There are no bear boxes supplied here and although I was supposed to park the food 100m away, that would mean in someone else’s camp site, not nice!
I had been really unimpressed by my resized photos, the quality has not been the same since I did that registry reset the other week in Williston, so I went through all the settings again and found another check box which when I tested it, the photos were a lot clearer. This means when I post a picture of writing, the actual words are easier to read, great stuff! While working on the blog I was visited by this cute little chappie, he seemed very tame, I guess people have been feeding him which is a no no, I gave him nothing, that is a piece of paper he is chewing on, but he gave up after a short while and scampered everywhere, inlcuding all over me bloody keyboard!
I did some relaxing and reading, basically had a quiet night, but as the sun did not set until late, it was still light by the time I went to sleep. I used ear plugs, this way I would not hear any bears snuffling around my gear!
Day 327 miles and 526 km
Trip – 26,157 miles and 42,096 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 
GrahamD said
Great shots of the squirrel !!
Mhahahahaha!!
Sent that around the office.
Thanks M8
Cheers
Graham
TravellingStrom said
He was a cheeky little sucker I can tell you that, I am glad they have tighter controls on the feeding of bears and cougars and other meat eating animals
Cheers Richard
jantje aka John said
Nice pictures TS.
Specially the one of you and the Icefields in the back ground. Also the cute squirrel. I see that you are enjoying yourself. We are on our way ourselves and most likely ride some of the same roads. I’ll be following this blog. Happy and safe riding ahead. Richard.
Greetings from the guys and gals from Edmonton
TravellingStrom said
Hi there Jante
M8, that little critter was a funny thing 🙂
Cheers TS
Christine said
Hi Richard, any chance of a Canada map like your US map at the bottom of yr blog? Your pics are great – not sure what u mean re the sizing, except I only get to see partials of writing as if it’s only 1/2 the photo? 🙂 Cheers
TravellingStrom said
Hi Chris, I am not sure what you mean. I do not think there is a Canada map thingy, the states are huge like ours, they only have a few. I only added that because it seemed like I could cover the whole lot, that is no longer an option.
By resizing I mean, I take my photos at the maximum size of the cameras ability at 7.2M pixels. But for my blog I need to drop the size so they fit on the page, I also need to add a watermark and I need to do this for sometimes 150 pictures a day. I do not always use all of them, but I need to choose which ones to use after they have been resized.
There is a bit of your email I hav eno idea about, can you expand on what you mean with this bit please?
“except I only get to see partials of writing as if it’s only 1/2 the photo?”
I do not understand what you mean by this.
Cheers Richard
Christine said
Hi Richard
I’ve emailed you some screen dumps so you can see what I mean. My screen’s around 15″.
Cheers
TravellingStrom said
WEll, 15″ is too small, just ask all the guys.
No seriously, that should be fine, I am working on it, when I get power and a decent place to sit!
Cheers Richard
Glenn T said
Hey Richard, Glenn from Dardanup (if you remember me) I have read and been advised by the MIL that rabies is a very real problem over there and some “wild” animals that show friendly tendancies could be infected?? something to be aware of. Anyway great shots, we are really enjoying your trip.
Cheers,
Glenn & Terry
TravellingStrom said
G’day Dardanup and all the other UPs over there, I remember you, I drank rum with you, well your rum actually 🙂
I am unsure about rabies, but I guess if I stay away from the sharp bits of all the animals, then I should be OK.
Cheers TS
TravellingStrom said
Hey,
I’ve found a great place with a lot of cool stuff that may interest you, please take a look http://kristin.growbi.us
See you around, TravellingStrom
pirate63 said
g’day rich,awsesome report and pics,i am also getting half a picture when you take it of a info sign,but i think its because you are cutting out the french part of the sign,stay safe.
cheers clive,bris vegas
TravellingStrom said
OK, thanks
DS said
I get the pictures cut in half on some computers but looking fine on others, not sure what is causing it to happen but glad to see it’s not just me… On the ones where I see half of the pic I can set the screen resolution to a higher setting and then see it all, it’s like the web page isn’t resizing correctly for some screens…
TravellingStrom said
Hmmm, all the pictures are resized to the same size, that is 680×680, so there should not be any cropping at all. As my laptop is a wide screen, I cannot see what you are all talking about and no one has given me an example yet either 🙂
I do not think it is at my end, but I cannot fix if I cannot see.
Cheers TS
DS said
Properties show them to be 690 X 520, I’ll try to get you a screenshot of how the cropping looks when I see it again…
DS said
On another computer I have with same motherboard and monitor, (only difference between the two is video card) they show in properties to be 680 X 510… So it seems your blog page frame resizes them to fit what they are being viewed on…
TravellingStrom said
Well, that should not happen, because although the blog page is variable width, the pics should fit. On my wide screen lappy I have heaps of white space to the right???
TS
TravellingStrom said
Hey,
There are a couple of stories I wanted to share with you, please, read more here http://www.echn.com.cn/ad.php?2b2a
Best Wishes, TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom said
Hi DS
Well, considering I have resized all to 680×680, it is weird how they are now being cropped, I will maybe have a chance today or tomorrow to try something else.
Cheers TS
Mum said
Hi Rich, re half the picture on view: maybe, it’s what I mentioned some time back? If I watch your day’s journey in Firefox, I need to right-click most images to see the ‘actual size’ picture you posted. Only the ones having your Watermark ‘vertical’ display are OK in Firefox. Using IE I can see all of each picture without having to right-click – so that’s a good thing I can say about it :-).
TravellingStrom said
Well, nothing has changed as far as I know from my end, the pics are the same size as before, so I am stuffed if I can think what the cause is.
R
ybg said
If you get bit or you find precocious little buggers like that squirrel licking your cheese, then head off to the Dr., otherwise your OK. Rabid critters will wander into your camp drooling or shaking like a methadone addict waiting for a clinic to open on a Sunday morning.
Next time, let the little guy type a line or two, I’d be interested to see what he’s got to say.
ybg
TravellingStrom said
Yeah, he may make more sense than me sometimes 🙂
Chris said
Richard, here is a link to a site where you can create your Canadian Prodinces visited map. Mexico too if you get down that way!!
Safe Travels,
Chris.
http://www.epgsoft.com/VisitedStatesMap/
TravellingStrom said
Thanks Chris, I will see if it is worthwhile, as I won’t be heading east again, I have already missed Quebec and others out that way.
Cheers Richard
Jan Ferrari said
My god I am speechless…the scenery