Driving the West Part 1

Our wheels, Bessy. A 69 Ford Fairlane convertible.

My bevy of travel companions: my girlfriend Kathy, and her two friends Barb and Sue.
No room for the bear.

When we arrived in Alberta we ran into John Archibald (horizontal) and Steve Shipton (in black on the right).

Clean enough to drink.

Maligne Lake

Spirit Island, the most photographed island in Canada.

Sue in the snow.

Angel Glacier, Jasper NP.

On the top of Mt. Norquay, Banff, Alberta.

Takkawaka Falls, Yoho NP, BC.

Gotta love the bathing suit!

Picking apricots in our campground.

Lake Okanagan. 

Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park, BC.

Sunset at Tofino, on the western end of the TransCanada Highway.

Sue and Kathy eating freshly cooked crab purchased off a fishing boat.

Summer of 1974

I took a year off after grade 12 and worked at a health food factory making granola. I worked there with my friend Mike which made the job much more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been. During the year I finally got my driver's license. I saved some of the money I made to buy a car in which my girlfriend and I planned to drive across Canada. Kathy's two girlfriends, Barb and Sue, asked us if we would drive them to Banff, Alberta where they hoped to get jobs at the Banff Springs Hotel.

So, as soon as school finished for the girls, I quit my job and we set off in my burgundy 1968 Ford Fairlane convertible which was equipped with an 8 track tape player. I got my license the week before we left, insurance two days before we left and had zero highway driving experience. But, all the girls were licensed so we thought we were good to go. As it turned out I drove the entire trip (12000 miles!). Baptism by fire.

The first stop was in Waubaushene on the south east corner of Georgian Bay. Here we visited my grandmother and aunt at our family cottage and pitched our two tents for the first time. The next day we set out in earnest and drove north to Sault Ste Marie and around the north shore of Lake Superior. We continued on the Trans Canada Highway across the prairies until we arrived in Alberta. 

In Banff Barb and Sue found there were no jobs to be had and they decided to stay with us for the summer. We spent quite a bit of time in Banff and Jasper National Parks and with the freedom of our own car were able to explore more extensively. In Banff we ran into two Toronto friends, John Archibald and Steve Shipton. We drove the highway from Banff, Lake Louise, past the Columbia Icefields to Jasper. Then we doubled back to enjoy the drive again and turned west into British Columbia through Golden and Revelstoke. We spent some time in the Okanagan Valley, and in particular Kelowna before heading further west. We visited some other Toronto friends, Steve Moffat, and Wes Boron, who were living in Chilliwack.

Then we continued on to Vancouver. We camped there for a couple of days before taking the ferry across to Vancouver Island and the city of  Victoria. This is a beautiful city and we enjoyed it very much. From there we drove up the east side of the island to Naniamo before heading west for the final section of the TransCanada Highway to Tofino and the Pacific Rim National Park. Again, like in 1973 we camped directly on the beach and enjoyed the sites and sounds of the Pacific Ocean. It is beautiful, too bad the water is so cold!

We decided to return home via a different route....