Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 9 June 1997
Day 70 - North of Chauvin, Alberta
9 June 1997 (cloudy, changing to nice and hot; crazy, light winds; head --
morn; cross/tail -- afternoon; mileage = 55.1) -- X - We were up at about
7:00. We packed up and checked the post office. Closed. So we started west.
We got to a micro town, Wallboard, which was just a gas station and
convenience store. I talked to a young guy who'd smashed his hand rigging'
on an oil derrick (lots of stitches!) and his car was out of gas 10 km
away. April bought some snacks and chatted with the woman in charge. As we
were about to leave, she offered to cook us some bacon. Weird, eh? But
super nice. So I ate some real Canadian bacon and April petted the friendly
cat. As we left, their chocolate lab dog followed us VERY enthusiastically.
He wouldn't give up! We had a bit of a head wind, so we could only do about
12 mph on flats. This dog ran with us like that 1/2 hour. We finally put in a
powerful set that dropped him, but we rode through our break and harder
than we should have. We were tired! We dragged into Neilburg and mailed our
pictures and mail. We then found the park amongst the many 1st Streets (3
of them!). It was a nice day at this point and the mosquitoes weren't
life-threatening. We decided to experiment with mosquito sanctuary ideas.
April walked to the store to get some food and I built Fort Mosquito which
was our 2 bikes with the mosquito net over them and great! We cooked (for
the 1st time in quite a while) some spaghetti and noodles and ate a good
homemade lunch. Then we napped a bit. We left in the afternoon because
there were no bathrooms there. We used the toilets at the gas station and
hit the road again. We went through some serious valleys with some decent
hills. We finally made it out of Saskatchewan into Alberta. Apparently,
there were no more towns on our road for a long way. There weren't even
farm houses. Who mowed all this wheat? Rolling hills and trees and wheat --
we decided to stop for an evening rest and try out Fort Mosquito in rougher
terrain. It worked great even in medium mosquito area by the side of the
road. When we got going again, we found an official campsite 2 km away from
where we rested. Great. It wasn't on our map. Very handy, though, so we
popped the tent and here we are. This place is highly infested with
mosquitoes. The bug suit did great. I just need to protect my ankles. On
the way to this site, we saw a big weasel/badger thing. It was neat. I wish
I knew what it was.
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