Conquering the Pacific Northwest: Beyond the 49th Parallel

Approaching the Canadian border on U.S. Route 95 was nerve wracking! Chris and I had married less than a month earlier but we had only told a single person, who was not my dad. We roll up with the top down and my dad jumped at answering every question from the agent. Not knowing any better, he explained that was my fiancée. Satisfied the agent welcomed us to Canada.

After driving a few miles we pulled off the highway to find a geocache. Here Chris discovered bear-proof trashcans. These metal cans are bolted to the ground and have hinged lids that require a person to push a lever inside a handle to open. Opposable thumbs are required! We saw hundreds on the trip and have now noticed them in West Virginia!

Our motel in Cranbrook was a blast from the past. The Nomad Motel dates back to the 1950s. the heyday for family road trips. The layout of the motel, design of the pool area, and the neon sign were all telltale signs. I was in love! Even better, it was owned by a wonderful couple with the most adorable daughter. Despite the age of the motel we were impressed by the unique solar unit used to heat the pool and virtually all of the lighting was eco-friendly. Most meaningful to me was the connection with a part of our collective motoring history. Dinner was next door at Greek restaurant, Apollo, run by another local family. The food was fantastic and satisfying; it perked us up to go for a quick drive through the rest of town. We discovered what looked to be a comprehensive railroad museum. I will have to return to review it, don’t wory! It took no time at all for everyone to fall asleep at the hotel, and it would be another early morning!

I demanded A&W for breakfast! A&W is very different in Canada and I’m mildly addicted to their breakfast sandwiches and poutine. I was absolutely in heaven chomping down on my breakfast sandwiches.

We made a brief stop at the restored pioneer town of Fort Steele in pursuit of a geocache, making our way to a picnic table near the edge of the cliff. We had a sweeping view of the Kootenay River and a railroad wye. Surveying the view we found one train on the main track and one approaching the main track on the wye. A long howl filled the air as the train on the main track loaded with coal came to a stop as quickly as possible. We realized we may be witnessing an actual train wreck. With what appeared to be less than the length of a locomotive the train on the main track yielded to the one on the wye. There is a very good chance if Chris and I hadn’t been there this secret would have stayed within the railroad.

Two trains having a close call along the Kootenay River, as seen from Fort Steele

A lasting souvenir of this stop was severe mosquito bites. There was a single general store near the Fort and figured we could pick up a canister of bug spray to prevent more. If there was ever doubt about the capitalistic tendencies of Canadians It evaporated here. $17 for a medium-sized can of bug spray. I slapped a $20 bill on the counter. Odds were favorable we would be bushwhacking before we came across another store.

Chris and I noticed that the main roads in Canada had rest areas far more often than their American counterparts. One rarely had to drive more than 30 minutes between pull offs that at least had pit toilets, trashcans, and picnic tables. The vast majority of these areas also had impressive views. One such pull off on the way to Radium Hot Springs was along Columbia Lake. The mosquitos would have eaten us alive. Thankfully, now lathered in bug spray, we stopped to use the facilities and discovered an adorable relative of the squirrel: the marmot. Marmots are a bit larger than your average squirrel and they live in rock piles or underground burrows. Alternatively, they live in the gap on the underside of a jersey barrier. The friendly animals stole our hearts with their chubby bellies and chirps.

A friendly marmot poses next to it's home at a pull off rest area

From here, the day featured an all-star cast of Radium Hot Springs, Banff, Lake Louise, and the Kicking Horse Pass. We encountered more animals, two five-star hotels, glacier fed lakes, and revisited family stories. Stay tuned!