August 15 - Manning, Alberta to

Hay River, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES - 335 Miles

Hurrah, Hurrah, We made it to Northwest Territories!!

As we came to the visitor center, we crossed the 60^o Parallel North, for which we got a certificate acknowledging that we are now in the exclusive "North of 60^o Chapter Order of Arctic Explorers"  How about that?

Yeah, so its a little hokey, but not so many people get this far north.  60^o North is the lower border of the "territories" of Canada, and we got a little history lesson of how that happened in the late 1800's.  To go farther north has always been quite an accomplishment.

We have come 2,450 miles since leaving Albuquerque, and remember, Norm rode 2,200 miles before meeting Deane in Albuquerque!

Would you believe that the temperature this afternoon got up to 88^o F?  And as far north as we are!  We expected it to be nice and cool today, which it was, until about noon.  Then the temperature just shot up.

The ride today was very pretty, going through forests of fir, spruce, birch, and aspens.  There were some large wheat and canola fields, but not too many.  The most amazing thing to us was that the aspen trees already have their leaves starting to turn color for Fall!  Someone told us within the last two days that there were four seasons in Northwest Territories - June, July, August, and WINTER!  So, I guess we now know what that means.

The other thing we noticed was that the fir and spruce trees are getting skinnier and skinnier, and shorter and shorter.  This is the same thing we saw as we went north to Alaska.  We credit the skinny part to not being able to support larger limbs with so much show, and the short part to both the short growing season and to bad soil or permafrost limiting the roots.

We stopped to see a majestic falls in the very large Peace River.  What a sight.  However, we saw that the Canadian Park bureaucracy has gotten the same kind of  "over-cautious-safety-syndrome" as US bureaucracies have.  At the well groomed Park trail to the falls, a large sign first said, in big bold letters, "Hazardous", then had warnings to this effect:  "The cliffs are unstable, the rocks are slippery, forest fires may occur, the animals bite, and the bears may get you." -- But, "Have a Nice Day".

We are staying in the town of Hay River, which is right on the "Great Slave Lake", and is a shipping point for barges of grain down the Mackenzie River, the "longest river in Canada".  This is significant, in that the Mackenzie flows north, into the Arctic Ocean, where the grain must be loaded on ships for transport around the world.

Tomorrow we are going to ride a ways around the west side of the Great Slave Lake and across the Mackenzie River.

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