Day 10 - Sunday May 28/17

(Written and Posted Monday May 29/17)

Birds Hill Provincial Park, MB (near, NE of, Winnipeg) to Riding Mountain National Park (near, just S of, Dauphin). 

Today we travelled 377 km. It seemed that we were travelling up a slight grade almost continuously as we headed west and north (a check online of a topographic map of the province suggested that this was true), and as well battled strong winds from the northwest. As a result of these two factors, the truck stayed in 5th gear (instead of 6th) most of the way just to maintain 80-85kph!! We travelled through solid overcast and intermittent rain all day.

Total distance travelled to date is 3,052 km (which includes about 200 km of sightseeing without the trailer).  So our daily average is about 285km/day travelling over 10 days.

Wildlife Report: We saw pelicans again, in large numbers, at our lunch stop at the Portage Spillway just outside Portage la Prairie (photos),

and as well prairie dogs at the same location (sorry, no photo - check the web!).

We saw a Great Blue Heron when we stopped at a heritage cemetery (see below)

On the way into Riding Mountain National Park a doe and fawn crossed the road in front of us and slipped into the bush, and a small black bear beside the road bounded off into the forest as we passed by.

We were again struck by the ‘flatness’ of this prairie landscape, and also by the rich-looking black earth on the huge farms (photos)

Three other stops along the way:

The Old Baie St. Paul Cemetery: A heritage cemetery at a crossroads amidst farm fields, preserved and dedicated in memory of an RC priest, Fr. Georges-Antoine Belcourt, a Canadian Jesuit from QC, who was a strong advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples and Métis. This stance brought him into conflict with both the Hudson Bay Company and the Church. He was relocated by the Church to North Dakota! Later he was relocated by the Church to Rustico, PEI, where he founded The Farmers’ Bank of Rustico, the first community-based bank in Canada! A true social activist! (in our humble opinion!). He was designated a National Historic Person by the Gov’t of Canada in 1959. (photos)

St. Paul’s Anglican Church, also in Baie St. Paul, a delightful little country church, established in 1910  (photo)

And a heritage hockey arena at Poplar Point: This village celebrated 100 years of hockey in 2013 (photos)

We chose to go into Riding Mountain National Park via the East Entrance off hwy 19, which has the last remaining historical entrance gate of the park, built as a relief work project 1934-35 during the Depression, in a traditional rustic design using local materials. (photos)

It was an interesting drive into the Wasagaming campground in the park - 35 km of dirt road that wound up the Manitoba escarpment, and was quite muddy and very rutted in places. The truck and trailer bore the evidence of that drive (photo)

The park is huge, and the campground well-designed. This is our first stay in a National Park on this trip, and our first experience of a full-service campsite (electric, water and sewage hookups).

We arrived at the campground about 6:30pm, and chose to just level the trailer side-to-side, but stay hooked up to the tuck (with a slight back-to-front slant!) because we were feeling tired out. After a long day of driving, we had supper - comfort food of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and had an early night to bed!

Oh, and we were successful in our quest
for a new camp coffee perc - at Canadian
Tire in Winnipeg. It makes great coffee! (photo)

Today we are having a quiet day ‘in camp’ - so there may not be a blog post for today!