Evening Thoughts Medicine Hat, Alberta

Border Eco-diversiy Tapestry.

A new Road trip. This time, third night from Crescent Beach, South Surrey eastwards along southern British Columbia, Canada – crossing the Rocky Mountains to this overnight in Medicine Hat, Alberta where I sit in a restaurant and write my evening thoughts. I can see why the eco-diversity extending out from Vancouver has fueled the concept of “Hollywood North”. Numerous 2-6 hour drives take you into countless environments for movie sets. In less than 901 km or 560 miles we have gone from the West Coast through fertile farm valleys, through forested mountains, to semi-arid, award-winning wine and fruit country winding higher to river and lakes like inland seas with their own kind of salmon, to ranch lands where we crossed the Continental Divide then up to ski and fishing resorts.

And that is just British Columbia. Never more than 100 miles, 150 km north of the Canada – US border (longest demilitarized border in the world) we meandered and stopped at whim. What a luxury. As we approached Crow’s Nest pass, the magnificent Rocky Mountains ruled the landscape. Young in mountain time, they are still thrusting upwards. The grandiose, ever-changing vistas in my opinion are more beautiful than Banff and Jasper and rival my favorite mountains – Wyoming’s Grand Tetons and the Colorado Rockies of my youth.

History we traversed – Native American lands, Kettle Valley and other rail lines and waves of immigrants who built them. In the Kootenays, Doukhobar settlements (google this, you may be surprised), places where draft dodgers entered Canada from the US Viet Nam War era, also sites of WWII Japanese Internment Camps. Memory snapshots – specialized cheese farm and sales, pine beetle devastation through Manning Park not so pronounced as there is much new growth and how nature prevails, dozens of marmots running across the road as we approached a winery, large numbers of world-class wineries in Osoyoos, kind hospitality of long time friends, marked difference in real estate prices compared with the west coast, cheaper gasoline prices farther you go from Vancouver, reminder of the rare opportunities car travel provides.

Resources that shape development both current and historic – natural gas and oil, gold, silver, coal, lumber, farms, cattle, agriculture….wind power, eco tourism. Crow’s Nest Pass into Alberta was less formidable than I had anticipated. The winding Hwy 3 through these terrains had already covered several mountain passes. But the east side of the Rockies is markedly different. Low hills, grasses, larger proportion of sky to landscape. Then flat fields, many with 20-30 wind turbines scattered across several horizons. And the mountains just seem to disappear. You look back and they are gone. Or suddenly a range is running west to east to the south of your drive. The old man and his very tidy curio and second-hand shop which must have taken hours to sort and set up displays. A cool rest stop with a pristine river gushing and dancing. Intricate webs of bug splatter on the window. Hospitality. Kindness of shop keepers to travelers. How difficult it is to get iced tea without sugar and additives? See future post.

Musings of lifestyles bring questions. What jobs do the people have and how do they survive? How difficult is it to live in some of the isolated ranches during the winter? How did those pioneers in wagons and on foot ever make it through this land without roads and amenities? What would it be like to live in a small very rural town all of your life? How did they ever erect those electric lines and poles? Are there lots of Scots drawn to live here because the mountainous regions are like the Highlands on steroids? Why do the arts flourish in unexpected places? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but it does remind me that road trips are relatively inexpensive life or perspective changing experiences that I highly recommend.