goodbye to BC and Alberta Hello Saskatchewan

We were up early again today (Friday June 8)and on the road early. Fernie is a pretty quiet place at this time of year but must be very busy come ski season. We did take time to drive down to the centre of town and also checked out the old nurses residence that is now a bed and breakfast—it is a lovely old heritage house.

From Fernie we followed the Crowsnest Highway with our first stop at Frank which is one of the 5 small towns that make up the incorporated municipality of Crowsnest Pass. On April 29, 1903 in the early morning, thirty million cubic metres of limestone crashed down from the summit of Turtle Mountain. This rockslide covered 3 square kilometres (1.2 square miles) of the valley in less than 100 seconds. Close to 70 residents were killed in this slide—the primary cause of the Frank Slide was the mountain’s unstable geological structure. Underground coal mining, water action in summit cracks, and unusual weather conditions also contributed to the disaster. The huge bolders are still on both sides of the highway below Turtle Mountain.

We also stopped at Lundbreck Falls, just off the highway, where the Crowsnest River plunges over a 12-metre overhang. The Rivers are all so high right now so it is an impressive display of water power. It was here that we first saw the huge 3 armed windmills on the farms.

We took time in Fort MacLeod to visit the RCMP fort ( we missed the turn off so Ron did his u-turn manoever only to discover that he was on a one way street the wrong way. Fortunately the shoulders were wide and the next turn not too far away. The Police had made their way here from Manitoba along the Red Coat Trail.

WE continued on into Lethbridge where the ladies at the info centre gave us a terrific tip for lunch at a farm just 1 km off the highway—the Broxburn Cafe where they make their own bread, pies, grow a variety of veggies and fruit and use it all to make their food. We treated ourselves to their house pie—broxberry pie which was red current, black current, Saskatoon berry and strawberry—yum. Ron needed a sleep after all that wonderful food.

We carried on the Crowsnest Highway to Medicine Hat . According to legend the name was established after the Cree were defeated by the Blackfoot Indians on the banks of a southern Alberta river—the medicine man deserted the Cree when he lost his headdress in the river—the Cree saw it as a bad omen, stopped fighting and were killed by the Blackfoot. This site became known as “Saamis”, which translates as “Medicine Man’s Hat.

We left the Crowsnest Highway at the border and moved on into Saskatchewan. We are now in Swift Current and stopped for the night.

Tomorrow we will go to Morse to visit with our neighbour Heather’s parents George and Myrna and then on to Regina to visit with our curling friend Heather Price.