Alberta Bound (Part I): Lake & Riverside RV Camping!

Hi everyone, so we are on the road again and this time we are headed to Alberta which is the province next to ours and we are going to be visiting a couple of really interesting places. On route we will be staying at various provincial parks so we hope you enjoy this trip with us and enjoy the video. We meant to stay at Manning Park and we couldn't keep our reservation because it was too cold. Yeah the weather, we arrived at Manning playing the camp for the first night and it was just too cold and miserable looking so we headed further on to Princeton. Yeah and stayed at the municipal campground on the river which was a great experience. Yeah it was better than I expected, a little close to the highway perhaps, bathroom is older but immaculate, there is a new building that will open soon, yeah it worked out well. This is how our fridge looks for an 11 day trip, packed full, there is no space, hardly. Every day is breakfast in bed, in a van. As soon as we get up in the morning Finch always goes to sleep. Carried on from Princeton to our next location which was Kettle River Recreation Area. We spent one night there and actually ended up having a great camping experience this time because we got a nice private campsite and that campground was a little quieter than it was last time we were here, of course early June, mid week so it wasn't full and yeah it was pleasant. The weather was good, I got a little bit of a hike in, the river was probably a little too high and fast for a paddle or I would have, Mickey would have probably had to pick me up about 30 kilometers away in Grand Forks or something. It's late afternoon, 3.30, I'm going to go up there, there's a little red flag, did that hike a couple years ago I guess, anyway it shouldn't take too long, it's about I think if memory serves about 3 kilometers to work my way up there, Mickey is going to stay here and have a nap. I said it when I thought it was best return, I thought it was 3k each way but that's not from our campsite. Beer, SBCA Kolschta, thank you, that's good. I don't think there's anything better than getting up at camp and making yourself a cup of coffee and sitting and listening to the birds. As for the services at this park, this park does have pit and flush toilets scattered throughout the campground and also they do have a washroom building with showers, which is nice, as well as a sunny dump. This is a nice trail along the river behind the campgrounds, it's beautiful. Breakfast of champions. Strawberries, fried eggs, vegan bacon and bakes. So we're just leaving Kettle River Park and we're heading over on highway 3 east to Moi Lake Park near Cranbrook now. Gordon got me an oat milk latte from the coffee shop in Greenwood, I can't remember the name of it but we'll put it down, and it's really good, so it's totally worth the stop. We did an overnight stay at another campground we've tried before, which is Moi Lake, and that was very pleasant as well. It actually is a fairly big campground, wasn't that busy. Just an overnight stay. So we're at Moi Lake Provincial Park, and I'm just making a quick dinner of one pot pasta, and this is actually a Martha Stewart recipe, so I'll put a link in the description below. There's some tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, leaves, and pasta in there. And Gordon's getting some pan fried sole, I'll start cooking that in a minute, and I've got some smoked tofu for me. And I'm just going to add kale in at the end, because we need some greens. That's the campsite, there's the main road over there that goes from Cranbrook off to Creston or Trail, and down the lake. I should really be out of my pack raft this morning, but I don't think we have enough time for me to paddle, get some things done, and then be out of here by checkout time. From there we were heading to what was sort of a destination we'd aimed for in our trip, which was Castle Hill Provincial Park in Alberta. And that was incredible. So we had a quick stop in Fernie, and picked up a few groceries, and now we're off towards the BC-Alberta border. And we are heading to Castle Provincial Park, and we do have a reservation there, and we'll go check it out. We're not sure about the temperatures though, it looks like it might get quite cold, so we're going to see what it's really like over there, and then we'll make a decision. Wild rose country. This is our spot, it's not all that level. We're going to back up a little bit more, just actually warming the van up a bit. Mickey picked a good spot, as you can see. We're on the lake, we'll walk down there. There's a trail at least around part of the lake. I think we're a little over 1400 meters, so, you know, darn close to 5000 feet. Beautiful though. View, isn't it amazing? This is Beaver Mines Lake Loop B campground. We're in B39, I think. And look at this, it's so amazing. So tonight we're having a Tuscan creamy butter bean kind of stew sort of thing, and another Instagram recipe I will link down below. And yeah, it's actually quite tasty, and we're having it with nice sourdough bread from Kermes. It's a little after dinner, and I'm going to go for a paddle. And this is a new camera we're using, and I think I might be a bit overexposed. We'll see. I apologize if that's the case. Wow, very nice. Campsite's right there, some right along the water in there, and then all along in there some very close to the water. Let me think, Finch. Oh, there he goes. There's a dog barking. So Gordon's off on his hike. He's going to do Table Mountain this morning. Nice thing about Alberta Parks is that checkout is at 2 p.m., so we've got pretty much almost all day to just relax. And I get to enjoy our beautiful campsite and the gorgeous views. Ah, so peaceful here. Good morning. It's much later than I hoped. I'm kind of disappointed with my start this morning. It's about 8 o'clock. I thought I'd get up and be on the trail by 6, but often when we travel with Finch, he gets up about 2.30 and keeps us awake for a couple hours. Otherwise, he travels well. I'm heading up the trip to Table Mountain. We'll see if I get it done. I do have time. It's just we want to carry on somewhere else today, too. So anyway, it's a beautiful morning. That's my whining for now. It's so nice out. I shouldn't complain. I might even just go to the viewpoint. Sun's just coming over the mountain on my left. And yes, for those who wonder, I'm carrying both an ear horn and bear spray. We forgot our hiking poles, unfortunately. A bench. That last section was steep. I'm just about two kilometers from the trailhead, roughly. Beautiful morning. I left. It was about six degrees. Beautiful section. There's a canyon. Sun coming up. Another steep section. That's my route up. I was just coming up. So nice. Not much higher to go, actually. Not bad at all. There's a road coming in. Lake we're at over to the right. Pretty much looking west to the Rockies. Spectacular. As we often say on this channel, amazing. I'm just shy of the viewpoint, which is up over there. But I'm just past my 4K turnaround point. It was about one hour. So I'm going to honor my commitment to myself and turn around. A beautiful, beautiful hike. Next time we're here, I definitely will be on the trail by, say, six in the morning. So I can do the whole trip. Did a screenshot to where I got to. So you can see. But this is good. Roughly an hour here. Probably the same time back because it's steep. Take a few more shots of the mountain peaks from here. Even just coming here, even up to that little ridge, which is about 4K according to my watch. Just spectacular. And by the looks of the trail, that's where a lot of people stop at. It doesn't seem to be that well worn along here. But you can see once you get up on that ridge, it's beautiful. Trail is just on my left, but I can't go, not at least go out on this little bump. This is a pretty good compromise. Spectacular view. Didn't get to the summit in a couple hours. Worth hiking on a day like today. Pretty much heaven. All right, let's just take a look at what this little bump looks like. Hey, there's our lake. Can't see where we're camped. That's where I was paddling yesterday. There's a little pond down there. Oh, and by the way, I forgot to bring my camera with a zoom lens. I rushed to get out when I realized I slept in. So the couple of pictures I've taken were off my iPhone. So quality probably not as good. But even with this camera, I think you'll find it pretty darn spectacular. OK, I'm going to head down and I don't think I'm going to film much. Make time. Summit awaits. Maybe next year. Maybe later this year. All right, that last section was steep. At one point, the only time I could keep enough points of contact on the ground was to use my butt as part of the point of contact. The other problem I have is my right arm. The shoulder muscle has been pulled quite badly. So it's very difficult for me to do anything with my right arm. Even doing that short paddle yesterday was quite a challenge. Cut through there and through the worst of it. I'm just doing a light run. Save some time on this beautiful part of the trail. Passed a few people on the way up. Popular hike. Quite a few folks here. I'd say most are in their 20s. I really wish we'd spent more time there. We only had one night. And so, you know, it's definitely the kind of park that you want to spend a few days in. Where we stayed was Beaver Mine Lake. Beaver Mines Lake. Yeah. And we were in loop B. And there's like, I think, four loops. So there's A, B, C, and D. Ours was great. Yeah, we really enjoyed it. Lakeside and almost out of our own private beach. Yeah, and depending on what you want to do. There are other campsites in that provincial park. And again, I think it's one that not a lot of people are aware of. Maybe folks in Calgary would be more cognizant of it. But some nice hiking in the park. I know there's some equestrian opportunities in the park. Mountain biking in the park. In the winter, there's skiing. There's a ski resort at the end of the road. Yeah, it was very nice. We'd been there once before. Hadn't been able to stay. Couldn't get a place. This time, we actually had a reservation. We kept all our reservations, almost. Except one. The first one. Manning. Yeah. And actually, we started reserving maybe a few weeks ahead of time. So, you know, you'd think that at that point, we wouldn't be able to get any good sites. But I actually was able to get some really good sites. Yeah, I think it's still before. I mean, it was early June. So school's still in. You know, a lot of the fellow travelers were gray-haired travelers, I suspect. Not all. Yeah. So we hope you enjoyed this part one of our trip heading towards Alberta. Or Gordon's called it on our community posts. Alberta-bound, if you follow our community posts on our YouTube channel. So you can look forward to some more of our adventures on this trip. And if you enjoyed this video, please be sure to give us a thumbs up. And subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already. And the three of us, we just know. Pinch us all snug, I love my Mickey right now. We'll see you next time.