Road to Calgary

So after many goodbyes and a final squeal out of Whitehorse, our long journey back down into the world of telephones that function and free wireless internet began. Just before hitting the road, we visited the deli in town. We had met one of the butchers there at the chicken slaughter a week previous. He was nice enough to show us around, the facility is monstrous, like phenomenally so. For whatever reason, the guy who built it decided he needed a facility that borders on a production only butchery. They do a lot of the meat for the hunters in the area, so it was explained to us that when season is open, moose and deer are coming in so often that the facility serves it's purpose. The Alaska highway was at least as beautiful on the way down as it was coming up. Stunning scenery and a really simple drive. We stopped in Dawson creek to have the car checked over, before buying provisions for lunching and dinner. Moving on, we drove over the border to Alberta, that is where the trouble began. We pulled up in a provincial park to cook caribou patties with a Chateau Lafite red wine glaze. We drove into the park, and pulled up off the road into what looked like parking spots, but alas, were we ever wrong. We had apparently driven "off highway in a provincial park" aka worthy of a 287$ fine. The gentleman who served us the ticket was lovely enough to give us no warning or just tell us to move the vehicle, which was so clearly pulled up just to unload it blows my mind. Regardless, we disputed the ticket and I've officially complained to both his superiors and the Alberta parks department, so hopefully his life is made more difficult because of his immature decision with us. I was astonished by his conduct. In any case, we cooked our dinner, which was amazing, for the record. And just for the safety of my neck and the continued respect of anyone here who likes wine, the Chateau Lafite was corked and good for nothing but cooking. Our trip had it's first bump in the road, which was annoying, but not the worst thing that could have happened. We moved on the Hinton afterward, where we found the travelers dream. Public library that has free wireless and plugs on the outside of the building. That's where I went on a blogging spree and relaxed for a day. Ate goat chops with sauerkraut. Surprisingly goat chops taste exactly like goat. Some people must love the flavour, for me it was definitely worth the experience, but they were so extraordinarily goaty I'm unsure if I would love a second round. The sauerkraut, also generously donated by Tom and Simone, was amazing and rustic and awesome. We got water from the local church, and moved on after Hinton. We maneuvered our way through the Rockies to Jasper. Fabian got hilariously angry about the park fees, because you have to pay just to enter, and it was 40$ for two people for two days. We hit Jasper, I swam in a glacial lake, then we made curry and slept. Bright and early in the morning, we did a huge hike, a little larger than we intended due to poor signage. Post-hike showers were in order, so we went to a local laundry with pay showers. Since we had such a healthy morning, it was fitting to have a few pints. We caught the World Cup final in a bar much divided between the impassioned Spaniards up front and the Dutch folks getting deeper and deeper into beers as the game went on. Spain won of course, but not without a good fight. We moved on to Banff post game, saw lake Louise and the many restaurants of the Fairmont there, then slept in a parking lot of a aboriginal museum by the river. Banff is an interesting enough town, but feels entirely soulless a bit. Reminiscent of Whistler, Tremblant or any other town built expressly for a ski village. From Banff we went to Canmore, visited a microbrewery called Grizzly Paw, hung around with the brew master for a while, and moseyed down the road to Calgary to start some good wholesome Stampeding.

Ucluelet

Arite. Going on another binge here. I'm already a week behind, but we're gonna play a game of rapid catch up. You excited? I am. So we start.....

Ucluelet is just south of tofino on the same peninsula-ish weird thing. Sacha's place is kind of in between and off to the side. For those of you looking for a more precise explanation, read a map out loud and pretend it's me.

Ukee, as it's to be referred to from now on, is a pretty amazing spot. Its like Tofino, only less touristed and expensive. We nabbed a spot on the Wild Pacific Trail and slept there a couple nights whilst we traveled the surrounding area. We walked the trail once after we got our fishing licenses, trying to catch fish and crab, with no success. The trail thereafter became the spot for our morning run and our home base for culinary experiments.
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We did a lot around the area, but the definite highlights include oysters and crab. The shellfish out here is stupid, and when you catch it yourself, super fresh. Oysters we bought from the wonderful folks at Fishfull Thinking, a wacky little fish processing plant, small scale but super amazing people and super welcoming even though we came by almost at close. The largest dungeness crab I've ever seen in my life garaunteed. 5 lbs. Ridiculous, this this dwarfed it's buddies in the tank. Other crabs included in this production were the 6 we caught off the government dock downtown. 6 in one hour. Insanity and the easiest meal I've ever purveyed for myself. We made bisque with the shells, busted out the meat and made a crab and gooseneck barnacle spaghetti. It was pretty phenomenal, and the local bear population thought so too. Not only did this guy come a-snoopin' once, but I woke up the next morning watching him saunter around the parking lot nonchalantly like it was no big deal he was a bear who could kill me in my immediate vicinity. To be perfectly honest he was terrified of us, understandably I know, we are some fearsome dudes. I almost ate him.



Cool having a bear experience I guess. We also had an oyster experience. The lady at Fishfull gave us a dozen of the biggest freshest monstrosities that call themselves bivalves. They were huge and so fresh the stood out of the shell. I opened 10 of them with my beater chef's knife, and broke about an inch off the tip on the eleventh. I recommend investing in a shucker for all those who plan to do their own pacific bay oysters. I invested in a screwdriver because I'm crafty like that and can use it to fix our van door, which has been uppity of late.

We also skipped over the bay to port albion, which is a native reserve and has a wild pack of seal-hating dogs. Or just life hating dogs, I couldn't really tell, but they chase everything. Almost caught an otter. We just hit the dock to do some unsuccessful fishing, and basically these dogs were sprinting around and jumping in the water whenever they saw a seal. The seals, for what I'm sure was good entertainment and nothing else, would pop up and bark and dive right when the dogs almost had them, thus keeping both parties relatively occupied. I didn't take pictures, but I wish I had. We got joined by this little native guy named Robert who promptly announced to us that his dad was in jail and that he liked fishing. He showed us a few pretty useful tricks.

After port albion we broke camp and bounced inland, tearing back across to the east coast just as the weather started to turn. Quote of the day goes to the BC liquor store cashier in Ukee who told us that "ukee isn't a fishing town with a drinking problem, its a drinking town with a fishing problem".