Bleriot Ferry and Beyond

 Bleriot Ferry and Beyond

A short steep descent and one arrives at the Bleriot Ferry landing, the final crossing of the Red Deer River. This time there is even another vehicle on the ferry waiting to debark! Traffic! After a wait of maybe a minute the ferry is ready to board. 

Similar drill as previous  ferries, but a slower crossing, at least 5 minutes to cross but only because the ferry was operating at a slower speed. The Red Deer is less wide at Bleriot as many river miles upstream from Finnegan. 

Red Deer River at Bleriot

There were even a couple other vehicles waiting on other side to board!

Three Ferry trips completed in a little over 6 hours all in. Looks like no problem to travel to all 6 in 2 days.... 

From Bleriot the next river ferry is the Klondyke Ferry that crosses the Athabasca north of Barrhead. 

Trochu Golf Course

Heading north up Highway 21 its hard to miss what is claimed to be the worlds largest golf tee at Trochu. At 40 feet tall it may well be.

Not far off the direct path to the Klondyke Ferry is the town of Elnora. Elnora was where my oil and gas career reached a satisfactory conclusion. I felt the need to visit the site of the 9-20 well a little east of town on Highway 590. The well was drilled by Bashaw Oil in 2013 and encountered almost 30m of oil charged Devonian Nisku reef, initial flow was over 1000 bbls/day. Doesn't get much better! 

Bashaw Elnora 9-20-35-22

A short homecoming video of Elnora 9-20 is at the Link below:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VHiSFYdmtHg&feature=youtu.be

Elnora also has a grand rodeo (Brama Rama) in August each year, another link of some interest from 2013 below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH3d54Zwv24

Genesee Power Plant Near North Saskatchewan River

From Elnora, the path went westward to Innisfail then north to Sylvan Lake, Rimbey, Genesee, across Highway 16, Onoway and onto Barrhead. A 4 1/2 hour drive. Fueled up in Barrhead in anticipation of spending night at Klondyke Ferry Park prior to crossing Athabasca River on ferry in the morning.

From there La Crete Ferry is only another 400+ miles and almost 7 hours away.... 

Wilcox Campsite

A few minutes north of Barrhead the wheels fell off. On entry to Highway 769, a sign on road side declared that the Klondyke Ferry was closed! A phone call to the operator confirmed this to be true. Flood waters on the Athabasca River forced closure of the service due to high water level😢. Another call to La Crete operator advised that the La Crete Ferry across the Peace River was closed due to LOW water levels? Go figure British Columbia must be filling the new dam. The remaining Shaftsbury Ferry reported that they were closed due to equipment issues. Sadly the long drive to La Crete and onto Shaftsbury will have to wait for another time.... Barrhead became the evening destination at the municipal campground. Decent facility.

Athabasca Glacier

In the AM decided to take head home via Grande Praire, Hinton, Jasper and Columbia Icefields then back to White Post Lane. Another 13 hours on the road and over 1200 kms of highway. 

The night was spent at Wilcox Campground near the Columbia Icefields. The campgrounds between Jasper and the Icefields were either closed due to trees down from massive snowfall 2 days previous or full due to the others being closed. 

There was still snow on the picnic table at Wilcox camp from the storm! A campsite was had.

Yours Truly on Summit of Mount Columbia June 23, 1994

It occurred to me, as I passed the Athabasca Glacier, that 29 years ago to the day, June 22nd, 1994, that my friend Mark Balog and I had started skiing up that glacier in another attempt to summit Mt. Columbia. We crossed the Columbia Icefield to the trench and slogged onward up to the base of Mt. Columbia, the highest peak in Alberta. 

We arrived at our 'camp' (a hole in the snow with our feet in our pack, pictured below on descent) at 11:30PM and waited out the few hours of darkness. 

Climbing Notes June 23, 1994

Columbia Camp June 1994

At 3AM on June 23, 1994 we started kicking steps toward the summit and arrived at 4:30AM. A fine cup of soup was enjoyed on the summit as we watched the sunrise. We were back to our vehicle at the highway by 10:50AM, less than 18 hours round trip. No doubt my finest Alpine achievement! I had previously made 7 unsucessful attempts at climbing Mt. Columbia, the learning from those failed attempts provided the insight on how to get it done. Good weather is critical, as are good snow conditions. A lot of luck and good partner very important. At 39 years old I was never in better shape, I had completed the Haute Route in France/Switzerland less than 2 months prior.... "The older we get the better we were"

Bow Lake

Left Wilcox campground early, vistas on the Icefield Parkway were spectacular. Bow Lake a mirror for the towering peaks. Coffee at Lake Louise and back to White Post by noon. A little over 2000kms all in. A long drive. Not quite the adventure planned but a good one never the less.