Crossing the Divide

Today, Thursday March 9, 2006 I crossed into British Columbia through the Yellowhead Pass, on the Yellowhead Highway, on the boundary of Jasper National Park:
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I went to the office Monday morning and tried to clean up a few more things. I had coffee with Claire, in a shop near the U of W to say goodbye. I spent most of the day packing the car, and going through the house. I got ride of a few things – emptied the last things from the fridge into the garbage. I dropped the digital TV box at MTS, visited my parents again, and left Winnipeg. I got to Russell by 9:00 PM. They had WiFi with Siemens USB adapters. Setting the adapter up was tricky – their written instructions made sense but the process involved typing a file path to a CD when Windows set-up called for the Windows CD. All the other hotels had hard wired Network cabling or simpler WiFi adapters for guests.
On Tuesday morning the weather reports and Saskatchewan highway reports warned there had been freezing rain along the Yellowhead from south of Saskatoon as far as the Alberta Border. I drove to Yorkton, and then southwest to Regina, and took the TransCanada to Moose Jaw, Swift Current, and Medicine Hat. The weather on that route was good. There had been snow around Regina and Moose Jaw, but the ground seemed almost dry past Swift Current to Medicine Hat. I put the snowpacks away in Medicine Hat, and dug out my light hiking shoes.
On Wednesday, I had a short travel day. I went to Edmonton, and stayed with Randy. A visit, catching up, a break in the trip. It was sunny part of the way, cloudy from Calgary up to Red Deer and Edmonton.
This morning was ugly. It was snowing heavily, which had not been forecast the night before. I left Edmonton in near blizzard conditions – heavy snow, high winds, but temperatures just below freezing. I put my snowpacks on again. I drove through that for about 50 k and it ended. I had dry good roads the rest of the way into Edson, Hinton, Jasper and then Valemount in BC. Along the way, I crossed the BC border (see above). There had been snow in places along the Yellowhead in BC, for a stretch near Blue River, but the roads had been plowed and the sunshine had melted and dried up most of the residual snow and slush.
The roads were dry the rest of the way in Kamloops. According to weather reports there has been recent snow near Kamloops but there is nothing evident in the City this evening.

2 thoughts on “Crossing the Divide”

  1. That picture makes me think of the only part of the Rockies i had gone through, going east from San Francisco to Reno. I think it was the Sierras. It had about the same type of verticality and the pines were very simular. No snow there then and my little Chevy Sprint did great in the mountains with two people in it. i got 62 miles to the gallon on the way down out of the mountains, but I was coasting alot.
    I hate travelling in the winter. My mom better not die until the summer, she’s going to stay frozen until the snow goes.
    What are snowpacks?
    garth

  2. Snowpacks = feltpacks. Mine are well used Sorels (the originals by Kaufman – remember the TV Commercial with the photographer on the ice flow?). Snow boots with a removeable synthetic felt liner, rubber waterproof lower region, leather or synthetic fabric uppers, waffle soles for traction on snow and ice. Rated to -40 or something.

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