We did go to the Bison handling station and it was very interesting...The Parks staff told us the day before that we would probably not see any Bison as they do not hang around there much...but as we were driving in, there was a herd of them not far from the station. Cool! At any rate Ryan explained how they collect them in November to check their blood for parasites and other issues, weigh them and take their DNA and a bunch of other tests. There are about 500-600 head of Bison in Grasslands they work with. They are pretty much left to their own to roam as they please. We saw a number of single Bison on their own and asked Ryan about them...they are either young or old pretty bulls who have been sent away from the herd by a much stronger bull. Apparently the fights can be pretty gruesome.
Now you probably see I have been calling them Bison and not Buffalo...wellll...they are in fact Bison not to be confused with their African and Asian relatives the Buffalo. We have called them Buffalo for years probably because it rhymes better in the song Home, Home on the Range...go ahead, sing it ...you will see...
Ryan told us how they handle them to cause as little stress as possible. He practices low stress handling developed by Temple Grandin. She is an autistic woman who has gone on to gain an undergrad degree, masters and PhD in animal science and who teaches at Colorado State University. She revolutionised practices for handling cattle. Claire Danes portrays her in the movie Temple Grandin.
So...I have to say here that to this point Simon has been not sussed by Bear, Elk, Deer, Long Horned Sheep, Mountain Goats, Bison, Wolves...but he was just about driven crazy by the Prairie Dog in Grasslands...here he is on "dog" watch...if you look closely you can see two prairie dogs that have his attention...So after 3 days of scorching heat we set off to Cypress Hills Alberta...so we thought. Apparently there are a couple of sections to Cypress Hills and when we pulled into the Cypress Hills Campsite in SK the park staff informed us that in fact we were booked in Cypress Hills section in Alberta...back in the van for another 1 1/2 hours.
A couple of days later were back in the van headed to Crooked Lake Qu'Appelle Valley SK. (which was closer now that we were in SK).
Driving through SK is not as boring as some may think. I love the wheat fields and old barns...It is not hard to find what I think is a classic picture of SK .
After a nice evening in our campsite were off to Portage la Prairie.
We stopped that evening at Miller's Campsite for the evening...a nice spot not without a few rules as we notices upon driving in...
We also got to cook hotdogs that night on a fire for the first time in three weeks because of the fire situation
Pancake Bay was out next stop on Lake Superior. For Maritimers it is as close to the ocean as one can get on the middle of the country...
We had a lovely walk on the beach that stretched for over a km....and that is where we spent our last night on the trail. We headed back through Algonquin Park stopping at Henrietta's Bakery of course, and landed in Manotick on Thursday Aug 3.
All in all we: logged over 7700 miles (12,000 km), spent 43 days on the road, saw only 2 days of rain in that time, met some fantastic people, saw incredible scenery, hiked some amazing trails, encountered more bear than we needed to, discovered great craft beers and very good Canadian wines, experienced too many public toilets for my liking, and discovered a Canadian Wanderlust that we plan to continue...
Thanks for following "...from here to there and back again..." It was AMAZING!!!
Thanks for sharing your adventures! I enjoyed reading about your trip!
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