Samuel and Chutes

Yukon - Alaska trek 2007

Sunday, June 3

We’re off! Our long journey has finally begun, after weeks of preparation, researching, planning, checking, acquiring, packing, and dreaming. It’s great to get out on the open highway at last. I’m sure once we’ve been at this for a few days everything will be routine again, but we feel a bit rusty on some aspects of this process. Good thing we have our laminated checklist with every step of the hitching up outlined. Before long, we’re pulling away and leaving the busy city behind.
The added new feature for this trip is having the laptop with us, equipped with Streets and Trips and GPS locator to track our every move. Literally! We stuck the locator to the truck’s windshield with its little plastic suction cup and plugged the other end of the wire into the back of the laptop. When I opened the program, there was the map of the highway with the arrow, following the route along. A sliding switch allows you to view your progress from very close range or from somewhere so far above the earth’s surface, you can see the entire continent onscreen. I opted for a little closer to the ground, so we could read the intersections as we passed by them. The GPS locator finds its bearings from three or four of the 24 satellites orbiting the earth so you can read your exact location by degrees, minutes and seconds. Not only that, but it tells you how fast you are going and provides a little compass pointing your direction as well. Not too well versed in kilometers? No problem, switch to miles – and the program will tell you what kind of gas mileage you’re getting as well.
When I wasn’t glued to the screen I actually did get to take in some of the beautiful countryside, with peaceful cows grazing in the fields, rolling green hills and, as we got further north, the tall, asymmetrical pine trees towering above the others against a hazy blue sky.
It was a gentle first day in terms of distance; we arrived at Samuel de Champlain provincial park around 2:30 in the afternoon and found a site we could back into fairly easily. We’re next to a small river that tumbles over some stones nearby. As we set up, we could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance, so we felt a bit pressured to get everything in place before the storm hit. Our quickened pace made us quite warm, so we thought we’d put on the ceiling fan to cool us off . Which switch was it to turn on the fan? Oh yeah, this one...but it’s not working! Then we looked over at the microwave and there were no green digital characters on the screen – our power cord was not delivering any juice.
Well, it is early in the season. Maybe they don’t turn on all the electrical connections when there are relatively few campers. Since we didn’t want to unhitch the trailer totally from the truck, I volunteered to walk back to the registration office and report the problem. The storm was still at some distance and besides, a little exercise would do me good, so off I went. Funny, it seemed a lot closer when we covered the distance by truck. Ah, there it was! I stepped up onto the porch and approached the door – and laughed out loud as I read the hand-lettered sign: "Temporarily closed due to power outage."
Back at the trailer, we stowed away some of our last minute bits in suitable spots and took a bit of a rest. Since the rumbling thunder still seemed a ways off, we decided to look around the park a bit and set off on foot. Before we’d got too far, the rain started! It wasn’t too heavy at first, so we stopped under a beautiful pine tree and were quite sheltered. However, it was obvious the rain wasn’t going to let up, so we headed back to the trailer before it got any worse. We were just a little damp, but had we hesitated any longer, we would have been soaked to the skin! It poured!
Despite the promise of the park warden that the power would be on very soon, we were still cut off as supper time approached, so we opted for cold chicken sandwiches and raw veggies. At least there was propane for the stove so we could boil some water for tea afterward. Just as I got that underway the little green lights appeared on the microwave display to announce that we finally had power! So here we sit, quiet and peaceful in our home on wheels, listening to the thunder fade in the distance, and to the little birds chirping from the dripping branches, and to the steady gurgling of the stream nearby.
That, and the clicking of the computer keys as I record Day One of our long journey! Signing off!

Monday, June 4

Val slept in this morning – all the way to 7:30! For a guy who has been known to rise at 4:45 without aid of an alarm clock, this is a feat. He guessed it was because it was so quiet, but I also think it could be the quality of the air. It’s so clear and crisp!
It was still quite wet out, and pretty buggy, so we didn’t linger outside for long, going about the business of striking camp. We left the trailer hitched to the truck, so leaving was a cinch. Just pull out the chocks from the wheels, stow the stairs, unplug and drive off (well, there’s a bit more, but I don’t want to get too technical).
The park was quite near North Bay, so before long we were there. I couldn’t guess how many times we’ve passed through North Bay on the way to Haileybury, Val’s home town, and I always liked our pit stop there because you could breathe lungs full of clear northern air and know the sparkling lakes, craggy rocks and stately pine trees were just a few kilometers ahead.
This time was different, though, because we didn’t swing right onto Highway 11, up the rise and on toward Temagami; we drove straight ahead on Highway 17 toward Sudbury. It sort of felt like you were walking past the door of a dear friend and not dropping in to visit, as we crossed the familiar intersection and didn’t turn.
Our destination was Chutes Provincial Park on the other side of Sudbury, and as we drove along we could see we were getting closer to this mining centre just by looking out the window. No, not at the highway sign saying "Sudbury 150 km", but at the rocky surface of the earth, like a huge grey breastplate of some giant knight.
We had visited Sudbury with the kids in 1991 when we headed west for the Calgary Stampede, and in that space of time the vegetation had really changed the landscape. Before, it looked as barren and grey as the surface of the moon, but this time there was quite a bit of scrub bush and even a few pine trees that had managed to probe their roots between cracks in the rock and survive, even flourish. You were still very much aware of the expanse of rock, but the hard grey edges were softened with green.
Our computer program flashed red when we took the turnoff to Highway 17B that bypassed the city. "Off route" shouted the screen, with a large red exclamation mark! Still, Streets and Trips plotted our rebellious route with a blue line ringing the city and graciously restored our directions when we returned to our proper place on the other side of town. Of course, by doing this, we missed seeing Sudbury’s giant nickel. I made sure Val realized this was a grave oversight in the planning of this particular leg of the itinerary.
No one was at the kiosk at the entrance of Chutes Provincial Park, but since Val had reserved and prepaid our spot, and downloaded a map of the park noting our chosen site, we proceeded in and found it fairly easily. We felt a bit better when we saw the Reserved sign posted there, knowing it was for us. This early in the season, we could have picked any number of sites. Only two other couples spent the night in our area, and they both arrived after we did.
We decided to follow the hiking trail behind our site, as we could hear, and then see, the park’s namesake; a tumbling river frothed with white foam where it cascaded over the rocks. There was a quiet pool at the lower section where a flock of Canada geese were resting. That may have explained the next creature we saw – a handsome and rather large red fox ambling happily up the hiking trail ahead of us, in our direction! We stopped and watched, and if he saw us he didn’t seem to care, although he did trot off to the left into the field we had just crossed instead of meeting us. He had a big bushy tail. He was about the size of a German shepherd. Was he contemplating goose for dinner?
Back at the site after our stroll, we met a young woman who asked us if we could make change for a twenty so they could put exact change into their self-registering envelope to leave at the empty kiosk. She had a recognizable lilt in her accent which I correctly guessed was Swiss. She and her partner were from the Lucerne area and had scrimped and saved for months ("no socializing, no cinema") so they could take a year off to tour Canada and the US in a rented camper van.
We invited Georgette and Farid to have tea with us after dinner, and had a great time chatting about everything. They too are headed for the Yukon and Alaska, so we may encounter them again in our travels. They’re taking the Canadian route, so it will be interesting if our paths do cross again. We had a pleasant evening, but got to bed after our bedtime.