More Summertime Travels

 The usual route from home base in Alberta to some of my favourite camp spots in B.C. gets a bit boring after a while.  So this time, it was decided to head northwest, and enter the mountains west of Rocky Mountain House.

First stop along the way was my old fire base camp - that I managed for four years for Alberta Forestry.

I just wanted to chat to the new manager and see what was new.  Unfortunately, he/she wasn't around, but I had a good chat with a couple of helicopter pilots, and saw a few firefighters lounging around on a 5 or 10 minute get-away response time.

There were a couple helicopters there on standby.

We've camped a lot along Abraham Lake, which is actually a reservoir on the North Saskatchewan River.  But in the past we've had to stick close to the eastern end to remain in decent cell coverage.  But with the new Starlink along for the ride, it opened up possibilities all down the lake.

The government now collects a $30/person/year fee to camp in the foothills area.  But they have been doing a lot of work improving some random camping areas and constructing brand new trail head parking lots and facilities.

Previous trails that risked scratching the sides of your truck can now be traveled easily with even the largest rig.  The sites are not developed, so they retain their original rustic (and often rough) terrain.

This camping area used to be just rough bush trails.

It now has new outhouses, food storage lockers, and some garbage bins.

I had the Starlink on the roof for the first while. but it got windy, so I put it back on the ground as a precaution.

Across the lake, on top of yonder mountain is a fire lookout that I worked at briefly in 2017.

 

Friend Don, of Driving Miss Donna fame showed up, so we solved a few world problems for the next few days.

 

Some good hikes in the area.

Original, unimproved access to camp spots by the river.

To be continued - westbound, back to B.C. ...