Doc McCoy
Untitled Offroad
So I forgot I wrote this thing but I originally meant to post it here and on the Untitled Offroad forums. In addition to the Continental Divide trip I did with my daughter and the Colossal trip I tailgunned with Addison/Rickashay and the Tamarack Media Co crew, I also went 'cross the Canadian Prairies. Here are the words and pics from that trip ... hope ya like 'em.
The Long Way to Winnipeg Beach (or portions of the Trans Canada Adventure Trail in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in August of 2017)
So I've got a problem underestimating how much time the "long way" is going to take. I VASTLY underestimate it time and time again. It happened earlier this summer on the way down to Denver along the Continental Divide and it happened again along the Transcanada Adventure Trail from here to Winnipeg.
If you're unfamiliar with the TCAT, I highly recommend checking out the great work being done over at Gravel Travel . They've got a route that spans from Coast to Coast (including Vancouver Island and Newfoundland). I'd love to do the whole thing some day but I now realize it might take a number of months to complete. To give you an idea ... I drove from Calgary to Maple Creek. A drive that should take just under 4 hours ... in just under 15 hours.
Here is a close up of my route to Maple Creek;
I will say this. The route is amazing. If you are not in a hurry to get somewhere. I always try and shoehorn these trips in with another trip or vacation (one with hard times and dates) in which I cannot possibly hope to complete the route properly. Not the best way to do it but it does get me out there. If you had the time? It'd be spectacular. Joining up with the route just east of Calgary, turning south before Strathmore. I immediately knew it was going to be interesting when I saw I sign that said "No Exit" just 1km south of where I turned off.
The GPX track that I had obtained indicated there was most certainly an exit. I stopped near the sign and cross-referenced the Backroads Mapbook (henceforce the BRMB) and it did have a line that also continued on. My GPS apps on my phone were not as sure. I gambled and continued on. I was rewarded when I got to the end of the gravel and a patch of truck wide tracks continued on through the field along what was clearly a road right of way that was undeveloped. Having seen that before with different signage before, sometimes "No Exit", sometimes "Summer Road" and sometimes "Road May be Impassible", I felt comfortable enough to continue on. Glad I did.
South of Carseland and just across the Bow River is where I joined up with the Bow Irrigation Canal. One of a number of irrigation canals that snake through the province providing water to the farmers and ranchers of southern Alberta. This one just so happens to have a service road that runs along a good portion of it. It's a change from the typical Alberta North-South / East-West roads the prairies are filled with. And while not a true river, you almost never travel along the water's edge in this province.
Following along the canal from Carseland to Milo and the north end of McGregor Lake Reservoir. I passed by more birds than I think I have ever seen. Falcons, hawks, ducks, robins, sparrow looking things, geese and even cormorants. I live beside the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and still it has nothing on this canal. Unfortunately, me driving the cruiser through their undisturbed living areas caused most of them to flee in panic as I approached so getting a sharp image of some of them proved difficult. Especially the cormorants which I think I might have only seen for the first time on this trip.
As I navigated around the shores of McGregor Lake it appeared that I would be on regular roads again for a while. Neither the tracks nor the map seemed to indicate that anything unusual would be taking place. I passed various oil and gas leases and a bunch of very nice home situated just off the shore of the lake. And that's where I lost the track. Completely couldn't find it. I doubled and then tripled back and forth. The GPX track had been amazing accurate up until this point and I was frankly confused as to how it could've let me down. Stopping to get my bearings and to cross-reference the BRMB again I noticed that there was a road that just didn't seem to be there in reality. I zoomed WAY in on the GPX track and drove slowly back up the road once again to see if I had missed something. That's when I saw a patch of grass that looked like it may have been a road at some point. A few hundred feet further down the raised section of grass was a gate with a sign. "Use Road at Own Risk"
The above image is of an actual road right of way. You have to open, and then obviously close behind you, a few gates, but it is a road. So after seeing the sign, opening the gate, closing the gate behind me and continuing along a set of very vague tracks in the grass, I could see I was back on top of the GPX track. Insanity.
It was such a pretty drive and I passed a number of old dilapidated old farm and ranch buildings. Tried to check out some of the dams of reservoirs in the area but they were either inaccessible from the route or uninteresting as they were mostly just berms with siphons. As I continued south and approached Travers Reservoir a bunch of windmills rose from the prairies in the distance.
After that I joined back up with the irrigation canal and continued southeast.
The Long Way to Winnipeg Beach (or portions of the Trans Canada Adventure Trail in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in August of 2017)
So I've got a problem underestimating how much time the "long way" is going to take. I VASTLY underestimate it time and time again. It happened earlier this summer on the way down to Denver along the Continental Divide and it happened again along the Transcanada Adventure Trail from here to Winnipeg.
If you're unfamiliar with the TCAT, I highly recommend checking out the great work being done over at Gravel Travel . They've got a route that spans from Coast to Coast (including Vancouver Island and Newfoundland). I'd love to do the whole thing some day but I now realize it might take a number of months to complete. To give you an idea ... I drove from Calgary to Maple Creek. A drive that should take just under 4 hours ... in just under 15 hours.
Here is a close up of my route to Maple Creek;
I will say this. The route is amazing. If you are not in a hurry to get somewhere. I always try and shoehorn these trips in with another trip or vacation (one with hard times and dates) in which I cannot possibly hope to complete the route properly. Not the best way to do it but it does get me out there. If you had the time? It'd be spectacular. Joining up with the route just east of Calgary, turning south before Strathmore. I immediately knew it was going to be interesting when I saw I sign that said "No Exit" just 1km south of where I turned off.
The GPX track that I had obtained indicated there was most certainly an exit. I stopped near the sign and cross-referenced the Backroads Mapbook (henceforce the BRMB) and it did have a line that also continued on. My GPS apps on my phone were not as sure. I gambled and continued on. I was rewarded when I got to the end of the gravel and a patch of truck wide tracks continued on through the field along what was clearly a road right of way that was undeveloped. Having seen that before with different signage before, sometimes "No Exit", sometimes "Summer Road" and sometimes "Road May be Impassible", I felt comfortable enough to continue on. Glad I did.
South of Carseland and just across the Bow River is where I joined up with the Bow Irrigation Canal. One of a number of irrigation canals that snake through the province providing water to the farmers and ranchers of southern Alberta. This one just so happens to have a service road that runs along a good portion of it. It's a change from the typical Alberta North-South / East-West roads the prairies are filled with. And while not a true river, you almost never travel along the water's edge in this province.
Following along the canal from Carseland to Milo and the north end of McGregor Lake Reservoir. I passed by more birds than I think I have ever seen. Falcons, hawks, ducks, robins, sparrow looking things, geese and even cormorants. I live beside the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and still it has nothing on this canal. Unfortunately, me driving the cruiser through their undisturbed living areas caused most of them to flee in panic as I approached so getting a sharp image of some of them proved difficult. Especially the cormorants which I think I might have only seen for the first time on this trip.
As I navigated around the shores of McGregor Lake it appeared that I would be on regular roads again for a while. Neither the tracks nor the map seemed to indicate that anything unusual would be taking place. I passed various oil and gas leases and a bunch of very nice home situated just off the shore of the lake. And that's where I lost the track. Completely couldn't find it. I doubled and then tripled back and forth. The GPX track had been amazing accurate up until this point and I was frankly confused as to how it could've let me down. Stopping to get my bearings and to cross-reference the BRMB again I noticed that there was a road that just didn't seem to be there in reality. I zoomed WAY in on the GPX track and drove slowly back up the road once again to see if I had missed something. That's when I saw a patch of grass that looked like it may have been a road at some point. A few hundred feet further down the raised section of grass was a gate with a sign. "Use Road at Own Risk"
The above image is of an actual road right of way. You have to open, and then obviously close behind you, a few gates, but it is a road. So after seeing the sign, opening the gate, closing the gate behind me and continuing along a set of very vague tracks in the grass, I could see I was back on top of the GPX track. Insanity.
It was such a pretty drive and I passed a number of old dilapidated old farm and ranch buildings. Tried to check out some of the dams of reservoirs in the area but they were either inaccessible from the route or uninteresting as they were mostly just berms with siphons. As I continued south and approached Travers Reservoir a bunch of windmills rose from the prairies in the distance.
After that I joined back up with the irrigation canal and continued southeast.
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