CloseQuarters

  FERNIE We have learned that when you have no reservations for camping and need to get a first come first serve site you need to get there before 11am, or shortly after. For this reason we left Brooks early. We tried for 9am, but did not get out till closer to 11. Ugh. I was stressing that we would not get a site. We arrived around 2:30ish and were so happy to get the last tenting site. Yay!  Great provincial park- flush toilets and warm showers included. We thought Cumberland was a great biking location, well it has nothing on Fernie. It is a town of 6500 and it is surrounded by mountains. If you have the Trail Forks app, take a look. So many trails, all throughout and so close to town. The ski hill is only a 3 min drive from the city centre. No 45 min windy road to get to it.  The next day we went to town to rent bikes as we had slept in and didn’t want only a partial day at the ski hill for downhill mountain biking . We rented regular bikes from Gear Hub to expl...

TOAD RIVER We are now making our way to visit family and friends in Alberta. We tossed around the idea of visiting the NWT at the beginning of our trip when we were not able to go to Haida Gwaii, but since the fire there is bigger than the size of the PEI, and all of Yellowknife is getting evacuated we did not entertain going anywhere near there now. We drove 2.5 hours from Liard and are now in Toad River for a couple of nights. The drive is a beautiful and full of wildlife. We saw so many Moose and Caribou, also 1 small grizzly bear. Adam, trying to make his moose calls from the car, only served as entertainment and made us all laugh. It still makes me giggle, as the moose did not make any type of reaction. Upon arriving we found a great campground. The kids did not help this time, as they needed time apart. Wyatt lost his emotions over not being able to put his hammock where he wanted (basically in the neighbouring campsite).  Oh the joys of close quarters. Whoa the wind her...

LIARD 7 hours in the car is a long day with the kids, so we planned our route to Liard Hot Springs with a stop over in Watson lake. Here they have the famous Sign Post Forest.  I was not prepared for such a forest. And to my surprise, people make this a destination and show up with a previously created sign with a family name or somewhere they are attached to and want to post. Upon seeing so many awesome signs, we decided to make our own as a family. We did not have any supplies, so we were rummaging through the car, wondering what we could use. People had used anything from toilet seats, to wood signs, to metal or plastic. Adam found a larger stick, that we could carve into. At the Visitor Centre, they gave us acrylic paint and permanent markers to help  make our sign our own. Adam carved our last name, year 23- one of Wyatt’s favourite numbers, Gibson carved his G and I carved a sun in the corner. We painted it, and hung it in the forest for everyone to see.  Along the...

  HAINES JUNCTION We arrived last night and I have to say what a cool visitor’s centre. The National Park Kluane), the Yukon Territory, and the First Nations Cultural Centre have combined their resources and are all under one roof. So much interactive fun, as well as great wealth of knowledge. They helped us pick a camping spot at Kathleen lake along the border of the park. We have booked a flight on a plane with skis to see the park from the air tomorrow. It even lands on the glacier! Kathleen Lake Campground is a Parks Canada campground and has presentations a few times a week. Gibson and I hit up one last night, with the topic being about the Boreal forests (around the globe) with special focus on Kluane National Park. I truly learned so much. The park, in association with all the partners involved, is actually planning to do some prescribed burns in the park as of 2025 because fires help to start regrowth. Funny to think that way when our province burns every year.  I di...