Kate and Sandy’s Epic Road, Part 2

Day 3: Shoal Lake, MB to Winnipeg, MB

After a good sleep, we pulled out of Shoal Lake and had a very brief stop in Gladstone for a classic photo-op.  Those of you who have followed our blog since Sandy’s 2008 cycle trip across Canada, may recognize the local icon beside which we are photographed.

Gladstone - Happy Rock
Get it?😀

We then continued the short hop into Portage La Prairie where we met our friend, Heather, from the GASP ride. She lives in an old house with the most amazing inlay hardwood floors, “the reason I bought the house,” she told us. Don’t ask me why I didn’t take a photo of the beautiful craftsmanship in her home. After a nice lunch together and a brief visit, we said our goodbyes and carried on to Winnipeg.

St. Vital is the Winnipeg neighbourhood in which Sandy grew up. We made our way to its beautiful municipal park, set out our chairs, had a little snack, and then went for a nice walk in the park. There are trails through stands of oak trees, a duck pond, toboggan run (well, in winter, that is), picnic areas, and a beautiful garden with gorgeous flowers of types I have never seen before.  There is a Peace Pole in the garden.  All Peace Poles have the inscription “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” in the language of the country in which it is located as well as a number of other languages.  Since first conceived in Japan in 1955, over 100,000 Peace Poles have been erected in over 180 countries.

Autumn colours already starting at the duck pond

St. Vital Gardens

Peace Pole, St. Vital Gardens

Just next door to the park lies the St. Vital Cemetery. How could Sandy be so close and not pay a visit to her Mom and Dad?  She wasted no time in letting her brother, John, and sister, Cathy, know she had visited their parents, and bragged that this made her their parents favourite!

Never too late to score points with Mom and Dad

The next item on our agenda was dinner at a terrific little Vietnamese restaurant we discovered when in Winnipeg two years ago. We were so impressed, we gave it our very first Yelp review. Mark our HUGE disappointment to find it was closed for the month!  Not to worry, though, Sandy’s favourite pizza place, Gondola Pizza, was just down the street.

Sandy very happy to get her favourite pizza 

After dinner, we headed south of Winnipeg to Sandy’s brother John’s acreage at Niverville where we spent the night. John’s “retirement” job is long haul trucking. I couldn’t resist literally climbing up into the cab (John had to give me a boost) and pretending to drive it. What a machine!

Kate "driving" John’s truck

Day 4:  Niverville, MB to Birds Hill Provincial Park, MB

After John pulled his rig out to start his next road trip, we pulled ours out to carry on with our trip. First up for the day, was an important breakfast meeting. We met Sandy’s troop mate, Norma, and her husband, Rick, at McDonald’s for a quick visit as they were on their way to do some shopping in Fargo, North Dakota. Norma had a box of stuff for us to transport to the reunion for her. In exchange, she loaded us up with homemade cheese scones and banana muffins, as well as some cucumbers from her garden. As we were already low on the baked goods I made and brought with us, this was quite fine by me!

Winnipeg is home to the company that made Boler trailers from 1968 to 1988. The fiftieth anniversary of the Boler trailer was celebrated this August.  Over 500 Boler trailers traveled to the ‘Peg for a special jamboree of these cute little RVs.  Needless to say, we saw many of them on the highway as they made their way home from this event. As they originated in Manitoba, it is surprising how many of them we continued to see here and there, especially considering that the youngest are now 30 years old. That’s a pretty ripe old age for an RV of any sort!!

We made our way all the way to Birds Hill Provincial Park, which is just 24 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg. What a gem of a place to be so handy to the city. The 35 square kilometer park “… is a mosaic of landscapes not commonly found in such close association, such as esker ridges, dry prairie, wet meadows, bogs, and aspen-oak and mixed boreal forest communities.” It was so nice, we decided to spend three nights there and get in a coupe of days of cycling.

Even the signs are outstanding

Days 5 and 6:

On Day 5 we hopped on our bikes and rode a lap around the inside of the park before heading out onto Highway 44 to Lockport. Manitoba may be friendly, but the highways are not very cycle friendly as most of them have gravel shoulders.

Fortunately, the drivers were good about
moving way over to pass us

At Lockport, we stopped for lunch at Skinner’s World Famous Hot Dogs. Believe it or not, that was even Sandy’s idea!

Kate loves a good hot dog!

Sandy tolerating her hot dog

We hopped back on our bikes for the short trip to Lower Fort Garry national historic site.  Established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1830, this was a major trading post for farmers and trappers. In 1871, it also served as the site of the signing of Treat Number 1 between the First Nations and the Crown. Many of the fort’s buildings were made of stone and still stand. It is the “…oldest intact stone fur trading post still standing in North America.”  Unfortunately for us, it closed three days earlier for scheduled maintenance as those old buildings need plenty of TLC.

We headed back to Lockport and stopped to check out the St Andrews Bridge and Dam.  This is a very unique structure, a camere curtain dam or movable dam. The dam and lock where built in 1907 - 1910 to enhance the river transport of goods, and provide boats with a way of traversing the rapids that were there. The dam is comprised of sections of wooden slats that are lowered to dam the river, and rolled up, like a roll top desk, to tame the mighty Red River and its nasty floods.  It is the only dam of its kind built in North America and the largest ever constructed. For more information, check out the link:

St. Andrews Bridge and Dam

Commemorating the opening of the dam, this mural is under the bridge that goes across the dam.

We made our way back to Birds Hill, cycling along the path that parallels the Red River Floodway. Two years ago, we cycled a good portion from the south gate of the floodway, now we started this ride at the north gate.  Along the 44km total length of the floodway, there is only one point that the pathway crosses over to the other side. A floating bridge allows one to cross over, but signs warn not to do so if there is any water on the path leading to the bridge. We were in luck, all was good and we were able to cross over right at Birds Hill.

Sandy crossing the floodway

Birds Hill Provincial Park is beautiful. We would definitely go back there if the opportunity presents itself.  You may want to put it on your list of places to visit if you are in the WInnipeg area.

Sunset at Birds Hill

Day 7 and Day 8:  Birds Hill to St Malo Provincial Park

Day 7, we left Birds Hill to make our way to St. Malo Provincial Park, about an hour south of Winnipeg. 

The small community of St Malo was having its summer festival the weekend we were there. Our camp spot was right close to the lake, so we had good viewing of the night’s boat parade with all the participating boats decorated with colorful lights.  One boat had a live band that played pretty good music all evening. 

Day 8, we noticed a bluish haze in the air and a noticeable smell of smoke.  Although nothing as dramatic as in Alberta, we were surprised that the BC smoke had made it all the way to southern Manitoba! 

After spending the afternoon exploring around the area by bike, we met the campers next to us. Three sisters-in-law, Heather, Char, and Lois, stopped by to introduce themselves. After a short visit, they invited us to join them in a game of Monopoly. I am not know for my prowess at that game, but was willing to join in, none the less. Sandy opted to commentate as we embarked on the rapid play version of the game. Mark my surprise when I seemed to be doing rather well, with a pretty thick stack of Monopoly dollars in hand.  We quickly had to pack it up, however, when the town’s fireworks started. Probably a good thing, cuz no doubt my luck would have changed and my Monopoly fortune would have evaporated as quickly as it grew. 

Our campsite at St Malo    

Although it’s a very small town, St. Malo had a pretty impressive fireworks display. For an unplanned visit to this location, we certainly had a lot of pleasant surprises:  boat parade, live band, new friends, a near victory at Monopoly, and fireworks.  Our new friends recommended that we visit the Santa Maria Grotto on our way out of town. Another pleasant surprise!  The church was built in 1854.  There is a path, with stops corresponding to the stations of the cross, that takes one down to a natural amphitheater in which pews are arranged looking up towards the outdoor sanctuary and the church above.  Our friends, Jan and Rick, would certainly appreciate this inspiring place of worship if they were along on this trip.

Santa Maria Church and grotto

Stay tuned for Part 3 as we start our trek into the United States.