Tall Fat Maritimer on the Prairie – Volume 1

My plan is to try and make this a regular article on CUNB. We’ll see how far down the rabbit hole people want to go with me.

Greetings from Cow Town!

As a few of you are aware, I took a big gamble in my career, and life, in accepting a permanent job with a consulting company out west-specifically, Calgary, Alberta. On April 27th, I left my wife and three girls behind in Fredericton in order to make the solo drive across Canada with everything I would need to live and survive in the big city. I will be returning mid-July to help my family pack up our life and make the drive out across Canada once again.

I thought it might be fun to give you guys a bit of a rundown of the journey, the interesting sights (with some photos), and some initial thoughts on geocaching in this part of the country.

I didn’t get a tremendous amount of caching in as I wanted to just get the driving behind me. But I did want to get at least one cache in every province as I drove across.

I did this drive over a 5 day period, starting out mid afternoon on Sunday the 27th and arriving in Calgary, Alberta May 3rd. The first leg of my journey I deliberately timed so that I could drive through Montreal. Quebec at night and Ottawa< Ontario early morning to avoid rush hour traffic. I stopped occasionally and had one 2 hour cat nap at an information centre parking lot; I arrived in Sudbury, Ontario less than 24 hours after starting out.

Two quick notes: I was told on the north western route through Ontario to stop every time you see a gas station as you never know when the next one will be, and to watch out for bears and moose. Both statements were true. For being the TransCanada, I was surprised at how rural the road was once outside of the major cities; two lane road, somewhat in disrepair at times, lots of trees and wildlife. At one point there was a Black Bear sitting in the ditch, so close I could have rolled down my window and slapped him on the nose! The stretch from Sudbury to Thunder Bay had large hills, curves, and lots of truck traffic kept me on my toes. The views were magnificent of Lake Superior (which unfortunately, because of the rain, I didn’t bother stopping to photograph), and the area boasted what I believe to be one of the largest provincial parks I have ever driven through-it seemed to go on forever! The big highlight was stopping at the Terry Fox memorial. For anyone coming out this way, you have to stop here. It was a big moment for me having lost my father to cancer over 4 years ago. It is simply amazing to see this tribute to an incredible young man, and shows how one person can make a difference in people’s lives that is felt for decades.

On April 30th I drove from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, Manitoba and passed by an interesting sign which read “All waters from this point on flow to the Arctic Ocean” which was really cool. Also got a pleasant phone call from my brother and sister-in-law telling me I was an uncle again. Approaching Winnipeg I started to see the transition from rolling forested hills to flat prairie. From May 1st to May 2nd I went from Winnipeg to Regina, Saskatchewan, then Regina to Strathmore, Alberta. Not much to say except for how flat the land is. I was surprised to see no on/off ramps off the 4 lane, unlike back east with all of the overpasses and ramps. All roads come in at right angles. It has to do with line of sight; there is plenty of time for people to see traffic because of the flatness, so they can just enter/exit and even cross all 4 lanes without issue.

I arrived in Calgary, Alberta on May 3rd to start my new job May 5th. The city is logically organized into quadrants (NE, NW, SE, SW) with numbering instead of names, so a city street is 32 Avenue SE, for example. It takes some getting used to. With over a million people and being the 3rd largest city in Canada, traffic is a nightmare at almost all times of the day, but especially at the evening rush hour. The Rockies are only an hour’s drive away, and provide amazing views backdropped against the city skyline.

That is it for now. I am busy with orienteering and training at my new job, but when I have free time my plan is to explore more of the city and the surrounding area and provide further updates on the caching out here. There are a few events coming up, including a long running 24hr car caching relay event with three events tied in to it at the end of the month. I am hoping to attend at least one of these events, if my work schedule permits.

Next step: buy the largest belt buckle and cowboy hat I can find to assert my dominance in the office.

Cheers,
Mark aka forestfauna