Saturday June 24, 2006
Riding Mountain, Last Day
Today is our last full day at Riding Mountain, we leave tomorrow morning. This morning, we took a walk into Wasagaming townsite to check out the stores and buy a few things. There were a few folks walking around, but unlike Ontario parks, the place was not busy at all on the weekend.
Kasey had a great walk through town, a number of people and children stopped to pat him on the head, he loved it!
Some pictures of the townsite follow:
Friday June 23, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 5
Another great day in the park.
We took out the boat again onto a glass calm lake and covered the other side of the lake this time.
As with all lakes in the north, this lake has at least one pair of Loons.
This is the last full week of school, we noted a number of school buses during the week, each day a cruise boat takes students out on the lake. The white dot in the middle of the picture is the cruise boat.
This is what the boat looks like in the harbour, it the larger boat in the background:
Thursday June 22, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 4
Today was a much better day than was indicated in the weather forecast. The sun was out most of the day, with no rain at all.
We took the boat out on Clear lake (sorry, no pictures, we forgot the camera!) and took a marsh traill on the other side of town. The trail length was only 2 Km. but with the walk to the trailhead, we did 5 or 6. So Kasey is getting lots of exercise and some of us are losing weight!
The trail was neat, most of the boardwalk is floating in the marsh!
Wednesday June 21, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 3
Today was a day of doing chores and shopping, as it rained on and off most of the day.
Laundry was done, we sampled lunch in town and we bought a few items that we needed, to keep busy during the rain.
In the afternoon, the rain cleared and we walked about 1o Km. near the lake and through the cottages that they have here in the townsite.
This is Suzette's selection for an ideal cottage, it has an outside "Florida" room almost as big as the living room.
This is a view of the trail that goes along Clear Lake:
Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow, we want to get the boat in the water!!
Tuesday June 20, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 2
We made a decision to stay here for a total of 6 nights, we stay until Sunday morning.
The park has a large number of great things to do, we plan to cover as much of these as possible.
Today we went to the Bison enclosure. On the way we enjoyed seeing the wildlife (moose, deer, bear and a family of Canada Geese).
There are 7 little guys in this family!
The scenery and lakes are beautiful, this is a shot of Clear Lake in the morning.
The bison herd were out grazing, but they were a distance away.
We prepared the boat for a launch later in the week, today there is some rain in the forecast for the afternoon.
After supper, it's nice to walk into town to pick up an ice cream cone for dessert. Kasey waits impatiently for a lick of the cone!
Back to the campsite, then it's time for a camp fire.
Monday June 19, 2006
Riding Mountain National Park
The drive from Winnipeg to Riding Mountain was easy, I'd forgotton how easy the prarie driving is. The only issue is fighting the prarie winds going west, the fuel mileage dropped from 18.7 l/100 Km. to 19.2 l/100Km. as we fought the headwind west.
We stopped in Portage La Prairie to provision, there is a great Safeway store there, and then we hit Riding mountain about 3:00 pm.
The sites are full service (with sewer) and are relatively private. Thsi photo shows the road between campsites, there is lots of room, and with privacy brush between each campsite.
The townsite of Wasagaming has a great beach and promenade:
The beach and lake are quite inviting:
We plan to stay here for at least 3 days, more pictures later!
Sunday June 18, 2006
Winnipeg Manitoba
We made it into Winnipeg just after 2:00 pm this afternoon, dodging rainstorms all the way from the Ontario border. It's amazing how the terrain changes from Canadian Shield to prairie flat just a few klicks west of the Ontario border. With the flat terrain, you can make good driving time.
We are camped in a "KOA" style campground in the south east corner of Winnipeg, it's a good one night stop with full services. The name is the Travellers RV campground, it was formerly named Big Bend RV campground.
One thing that you immediately notice about the praries is the wind; it is always there and blowing, especially today where rain showers are moving across the praries. I'm not sure if you can see the dark clouds in the following picture, that's a rain shower coming towards us.
Riding Mountain, Last Day
Today is our last full day at Riding Mountain, we leave tomorrow morning. This morning, we took a walk into Wasagaming townsite to check out the stores and buy a few things. There were a few folks walking around, but unlike Ontario parks, the place was not busy at all on the weekend.
Kasey had a great walk through town, a number of people and children stopped to pat him on the head, he loved it!
Some pictures of the townsite follow:
Friday June 23, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 5
Another great day in the park.
We took out the boat again onto a glass calm lake and covered the other side of the lake this time.
As with all lakes in the north, this lake has at least one pair of Loons.
This is the last full week of school, we noted a number of school buses during the week, each day a cruise boat takes students out on the lake. The white dot in the middle of the picture is the cruise boat.
This is what the boat looks like in the harbour, it the larger boat in the background:
Thursday June 22, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 4
Today was a much better day than was indicated in the weather forecast. The sun was out most of the day, with no rain at all.
We took the boat out on Clear lake (sorry, no pictures, we forgot the camera!) and took a marsh traill on the other side of town. The trail length was only 2 Km. but with the walk to the trailhead, we did 5 or 6. So Kasey is getting lots of exercise and some of us are losing weight!
The trail was neat, most of the boardwalk is floating in the marsh!
Wednesday June 21, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 3
Today was a day of doing chores and shopping, as it rained on and off most of the day.
Laundry was done, we sampled lunch in town and we bought a few items that we needed, to keep busy during the rain.
In the afternoon, the rain cleared and we walked about 1o Km. near the lake and through the cottages that they have here in the townsite.
This is Suzette's selection for an ideal cottage, it has an outside "Florida" room almost as big as the living room.
This is a view of the trail that goes along Clear Lake:
Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow, we want to get the boat in the water!!
Tuesday June 20, 2006
Riding Mountain, Day 2
We made a decision to stay here for a total of 6 nights, we stay until Sunday morning.
The park has a large number of great things to do, we plan to cover as much of these as possible.
Today we went to the Bison enclosure. On the way we enjoyed seeing the wildlife (moose, deer, bear and a family of Canada Geese).
There are 7 little guys in this family!
The scenery and lakes are beautiful, this is a shot of Clear Lake in the morning.
The bison herd were out grazing, but they were a distance away.
We prepared the boat for a launch later in the week, today there is some rain in the forecast for the afternoon.
After supper, it's nice to walk into town to pick up an ice cream cone for dessert. Kasey waits impatiently for a lick of the cone!
Back to the campsite, then it's time for a camp fire.
Monday June 19, 2006
Riding Mountain National Park
The drive from Winnipeg to Riding Mountain was easy, I'd forgotton how easy the prarie driving is. The only issue is fighting the prarie winds going west, the fuel mileage dropped from 18.7 l/100 Km. to 19.2 l/100Km. as we fought the headwind west.
We stopped in Portage La Prairie to provision, there is a great Safeway store there, and then we hit Riding mountain about 3:00 pm.
The sites are full service (with sewer) and are relatively private. Thsi photo shows the road between campsites, there is lots of room, and with privacy brush between each campsite.
The townsite of Wasagaming has a great beach and promenade:
The beach and lake are quite inviting:
We plan to stay here for at least 3 days, more pictures later!
Sunday June 18, 2006
Winnipeg Manitoba
We made it into Winnipeg just after 2:00 pm this afternoon, dodging rainstorms all the way from the Ontario border. It's amazing how the terrain changes from Canadian Shield to prairie flat just a few klicks west of the Ontario border. With the flat terrain, you can make good driving time.
We are camped in a "KOA" style campground in the south east corner of Winnipeg, it's a good one night stop with full services. The name is the Travellers RV campground, it was formerly named Big Bend RV campground.
One thing that you immediately notice about the praries is the wind; it is always there and blowing, especially today where rain showers are moving across the praries. I'm not sure if you can see the dark clouds in the following picture, that's a rain shower coming towards us.