Saskatchewan - Alberta - back to B.C.

 

Found a few photos on the cutting room floor after the last blog post.

 

On the way back from Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan, there was time to check out a historical railroad trestle near Wainright, Alberta.  I had seen the signs on the highway on previous trips, but didn't have the time to stop.  This time I did.

 

This time, I stopped, enjoyed the views over the Battle River, and read the plaques about the Fabyan trestle that was completed by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad in December, 1908.  As I admired the construction from well over a hundred years ago, thinking it was just a historic trestle, much to my surprise, a mile and a half long train proceeded to cross over it!  Apparently, a new concrete deck, and ballast was added in 1981, but otherwise there have been few changes!  The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway declared bankruptcy in 1919, and the line was taken over by the CNR (Canadian National Railway), and the line became the company's mainline across the country.

 

Check out my aerial video of the trestle below - go full screen!

And, some more photos found on the cutting room floor!

I did an aerial survey of a local dam, reservoir and power station.  There was a group of White Pelicans resting on the end of a long narrow island in the river.

 

 Not wanting to disturb them by getting any closer, I simply used the amazing zoom features on my UAV to get the much closer looking image, and video - from this very same spot!

 
 And a video of them ...

Paid a visit home on the way from my Sask camping spots to my BC camping area, and spent a total of 3 nights at home, giving me time to mow the grass, fill the bird feeders, and take care of a couple of loose ends.

 Haven't seen any Hummingbirds at home for a year or so, but there are plenty at the lake to provide entertainment.

There is a lot of driftwood along the shore of Revelstoke Lake.

I'm always amazed to see small plants and even trees trying to take root and grow in the nooks and crannies of some of the big old driftwood logs. 

 

Scenic aerial video at Revelstoke Lake, B.C. (full screen recommended)

(too bad - I had to reduce the resolution on this video to 480 from 1080 so it would not exceed the size limit)

Took some more night time photos with my iPhone 14 handheld.  These were taken at 01:24AM, and were about 3 second exposures.

My camper just visible 1/2 way up the shore ...

The End  ;-)

Summer Travels - Part 3

 The weather forecast said the next few days in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan was good.  Of course that meant that pretty much all of the day's drive was rain, rain, and more rain!  But the farm fields sure needed all they could get - as well as the forest fire situation.

 

As usual, the back road into the park was the road taken.

Soon, the 'on duty' black bear showed up roadside as a greeting party!

  

On the road to the Narrows, another of the Park's ambassadors showed up to see if there were any food scraps around.  There weren't.

  

Hoped to take advantage of my cat-free days  :-( and do some overnight hiking for a change, so headed up to Kingsmere lake.

 

The forecast looked good, so I hoped to make it up to Grey Owl's cabin on Lake Ajawaan, with a very early start.  Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the trail office won't let you book a back country site for 'tomorrow nite', only 'tonight', so anyway, that resulted in a late start up the trail.

Made it as far as Sandy Beach campground, and set up the hammock right on the shore - for the breeze, to keep the mosquitoes at bay!

  

The weather forecast turned out to be completely wrong however, and the next day produced a lovely thunderstorm, rain, and strong winds, so it was wise to just rest up for the day and see what happened.

  

 

After the hike, most of the time was spent biking around the townsite of Waskesiu, and spending time along the Narrows road.

 

Back at home, my mosquito control squadron was hard at work!  Very few mosquitoes here - maybe they are the reason ;-)

 

 

 Back to BC, in the next installment!