~to sum it up, i’d say we spent the summer moving our house around and organizing and re-organizing our stuff.~

august 20, 671m, edmonton. august 21, 534m N 51˚51 W 105˚5, lanigan, sk.

after beaverlodge we headed into grande prairie and thrift-stored! i found sweats, jeans and a short-sleeved purple sweater. we were able to stay with emma’s friend avril in edmonton so we had a short day of driving. avril treated us to a bed, a movie!, delicious pizza, great conversation and showers!

we found a sally-ann in saskatoon on day 12 and scored loads of great things.

our last night on the road was spent in lanigan, saskatchewan. we knew we could camp for free there because we’d stopped at a rest area on the way up that had no ‘no camping’ signs. sweet. lots of grassy secluded areas worked out to our advantage.

last day on the road we pulled over on a country road to pee and lucked out, finding an old-falling-apart farmhouse. photo shoot! after taking excessive amounts of pictures we circled around to the back of the house and i looked up startled to see a huge vulture sticking out of the attic window. it swooped down at us so we ran out of there quick.

we got home to winnipeg in the evening, and after dropping emma off i headed back to my house. i was amazed to feel good being home. last year after returning home from travels, i really didn’t want to be here, i wanted to still be on the road. this time around i was expecting the same, and earlier in the trip was dreading the return to un-trip-mode. but it’s ok. i was surprised to find myself not contacting anyone though. i really felt the need for self-time. i guess that would be expected after spending an intense 2.5 months constantly with another human, but it surprised me nonetheless.

so, i almost completely forgot! here is an animal tally of the river portion of the trip:

7 moose and one calf. 3 elk. 5 beavers. approx 77 bison. 6 wolves (one white). 9 black bears. a baby seagull! (it plooped out of the bushes beside where i was peeing).  5 eagles and 2 babies in nest (i think there were more eagles, but we weren’t so diligent in counting them). 3 loons. 2 porcupines. many cranes. 2 caribou (plus one more on the drive home). a muskox!

the map shows the whole of the river travels and the first portion of our drive home.