It was grey but not raining when I woke, but even still, I was taking no chances. I hung everything to dry from the rafters in the picnic shelter (there was condensation on the inside of the tent fly, and also on the group sheet). I again harvested a cup of fresh saskatoons for breakfast and ambled around getting set for the day.
When I got to La Crete I got good and bad news. The good news was that the ferry started running again last night at 4:30pm. The bad was that the Mennonite Heritage Centre was only open Mondays through Thursdays, which was a big set back on my plan to learn more about the history of Mennonites and the connections to my families. I wandered around the historical village, trying to gather what I could, and eventually found a large poster detailing timelines of the various Anabaptist-Mennonite branches and colonies. At the least, this gives me a start.
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| The poster in La Crete |
On the ferry across the Peace I chatted with a Jensen, originally from Saskatchewan, living in La Crete for a number of years and moving on. He had known a number of Hildebrandts in the Mennonite communities in both places.
Heading South, I had a nagging feeling that the long, extra length of the strap on my jerry can might have gotten lose. I put this out of my mind and rode on until I found a gas station, not sure if I would make Manning on the fuel I had. I learned an important lesson then, which could have been far, far worse. The strap had indeed come lose, went back, and wrapped around near the rear disc brake. The wheel still turned freely, but it could easily have wound up in the spokes. I immediately secured it under the dry bag on the seat. These ROK straps are great, but the excess strap is something to be figured out before I use the longer ones again on the bike.
In Manning, I easily found the "Hoose" - a moose sculpture made with horse's hooves, or, as the guy at the visitor centre noted, a horse with the head of a moose.
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| The Manning Hoose. |
The day remained grey and chilly, strengthening my resolve to make a push for home today, which had been set at the ferry.
In Grimshaw, I chatted with the waitress and an older gentleman at the Chinese restaurant/diner, finding out a lot of stuff about the town and area and good travel advice. I shared some of what had happened on the trip so far, and what it was like to do it by bike.
When I filled up the bike, I happened to check the oil - it looked low in the sight glass, but I rationalised it away and rode off. 10km away I finally came to my senses that I need oil and could do some serious damage to my bike wihtout it. So, I rode back into town and found the right oil at the Shell, putting 400ml in to topit up. The KLR's are known to burn oil, and I'd been running it pretty fast today, which I've noticed tends to deplete its oil a little bit.
The road to Hines Creek was unremarkable, except that I saw 2 people riding KLR v2's at one point.
I'm starting to realise that, in Alberta, most of the time the road is just something that helps you get from Point A to Point B, so the destination is what's important, while in NWT, the road was part of the journey/adventure, with lots to capture your interest, to stop and see, or just amaze at.
Hines Creek was a nice destination; I saw the Last Spike (World'd Biggest Railroad Spike) and spoke with the half owner of the bike shop, who was out working on supports for a banner for Heritage Day next week. I also checked out their End of Steel Museum. This had some wonderful (and horrific) local history, including an old horse drawn school van for taking kids to school in the winter.
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| World's biggest Railroad Spike in Hines Creek |
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| The old school van. Instant win for "When I was your age..." stories. |
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| Inside the school van. |
On the road, all that was left was a bit more than an hour to home, but it had some of the more interesting riding of the day, winding down and out of the Clear Creek and Beatton River valleys, with there being signs of fresh (within the past 2 weeks) slides on the South banks of the latter.
It was with a sense of relief that I walked into my apartment and began messing it up with the unpacking. I was excited to see my tomato plant, which a neighbour has been watering for me, and which is extremely laden down with fruit.
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| My tomato plant, welcoming me home. |
It's also going to be great to get a real shower and sleep in my own bed, with no cares as to the weather or bugs.
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