Our summer holidays have arrived as Marva has two weeks off work. We have been planning a camping trip to Alberta with our travel trailer to see our son Steve and the grand kids. Marva also wanted to see her sister Thelma and her husband Jim from Red Deer. Marge, the farm sitter has been booked and ferry reservations made. One small detail, we have to get the four sheep we purchased from Lumsden, Saskatchewan home to Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. No problem, they can drive home with us as I am sure the sheep will like camping.
We departed Saturday morning with Tilly and two Pomeranian puppies, "Diva and Charlotte", only to find our planned route across southern BC on Hwy #3 is closed indefinitely due to forest fires. The planned trip through the Kootenay's to Kimberly is postponed for another year. North to the Yellowhead Highway, we are going to Jasper National Park.
We departed Saturday morning with Tilly and two Pomeranian puppies, "Diva and Charlotte", only to find our planned route across southern BC on Hwy #3 is closed indefinitely due to forest fires. The planned trip through the Kootenay's to Kimberly is postponed for another year. North to the Yellowhead Highway, we are going to Jasper National Park.
We arrived Sunday afternoon in Jasper secured a campsite and setup for a three day stay. Jasper is truly a beautiful place to send time outdoors and the weather was perfect as it was dry but not too hot. We spent two days hiking around the Five Lakes and Mount Edith Cavell area. The third day was spent in Jasper Town shopping and seeing the sights.
Wednesday we headed south on the Icefield Parkway enjoying the scenery and stopping at the Columbia Icefields for lunch. We continued on into Alberta on the David Thompson Highway camping in the Kootenay Plains Recreation area. The next day we continued on to Fish Lake Campsite where we found a serviced site big enough for two trailers. The weather changed getting much colder and rained a little during the day. Steve and the girls (Hailey and Alisha) arrived Friday evening and set up their trailer. Thelma and Jim came Saturday morning and stayed that night with us in our trailer. We had a fantastic weekend of fishing, hiking and visiting around the campfire. It was a wonderful time for both Marva and myself being able to spend time with our family.
Monday morning found us on the road again heading East across the Prairies with mounting excitement as we get closer to the meeting our new lambs. We arrived in Lumsden Tuesday afternoon and setup in the municipal campsite. The first thing that struck us was the number of mosquitoes. We took off and drove around town and spent some time at the local museum which was a small town of period buildings and quite interesting.
The next morning found us at "Buster Hollow" where we met Colleen and her grand children. They introduced us to our two rams and two ewes. They were everything we had hoped for. We prepared the back of the truck with fresh straw bedding, put hay onboard and loaded the lambs. Colleen was wonderful with everything well organized and patiently answered all our questions. By noon we were out of questions and the lambs were tucking into the hay so we departed for home. We camped the first night at Medicine Hat and the second night at Banff. The park staff seemed to think it was unusual to be camping with three dogs and four sheep. They all came out to look at them and to take pictures. Marva and I spend the late afternoon walking around Banff town-site checking out the shops and gallerys.
The next morning found us at "Buster Hollow" where we met Colleen and her grand children. They introduced us to our two rams and two ewes. They were everything we had hoped for. We prepared the back of the truck with fresh straw bedding, put hay onboard and loaded the lambs. Colleen was wonderful with everything well organized and patiently answered all our questions. By noon we were out of questions and the lambs were tucking into the hay so we departed for home. We camped the first night at Medicine Hat and the second night at Banff. The park staff seemed to think it was unusual to be camping with three dogs and four sheep. They all came out to look at them and to take pictures. Marva and I spend the late afternoon walking around Banff town-site checking out the shops and gallerys.
Shortly after we got back to the campsite the park rangers found us and were quite concerned for our sheep as two wolves were seen in the campsite loop next to us. We assured them that we would not be taking the sheep out of the truck and built a large campfire for the evening. Tilly and I waited all evening but to our disappointment the wolves did not show up.
From Banff we drove to Chase, BC where we stayed at Karen and Ted’s Ranch. It is located in a beautiful setting south of town. We had a wonderful visit and meal with them in their new home. The ranch even has a RV hook-up which we used. Imagine how many "Babydolls" you could raise on 160 acres.
Saturday found us on out last leg of our trip. The sheep have not made a noise and seem perfectly content in the back of the truck. When we are stopped and even sometimes when we are on the move, they eat the hay. When travelling, they lie down and chew their cud. After three nights in the box of the truck it is hard to believe how settled in they seem to be. The trip over the Coquihala Hwy. was uneventful but we arrived in the Fraser Valley to the big wind storm that fell so many trees and knocked out so much of the power grid. The truck and trailer handled amazingly well even in the big gusts. The trip through Langley and Surrey was almost impossible with so many traffic lights out. We arrived at the Ferry to the Island just in time to make our reservations and we were home by 8:00 pm. We unhooked the trailer, off loaded the sheep into the new barn, but It appears that they may have preferred the truck.
Our trip of 4700 kilometers is over and I have proven sheep like camping. Now a new adventure begins, I am now a shepherd.
Our trip of 4700 kilometers is over and I have proven sheep like camping. Now a new adventure begins, I am now a shepherd.