Canada Closed until US Gets Covid 19 Under Control

[weibo]

If they have multiple days in Leduc there is another small National Park northeast of there about 45 minutes to an hour and an aerial park at Snow Valley (urban skihiill) in Edmonton probably about 30 minutes as well.

[rideit]

Yes, they are there for five days, kiddo in Goalie Camp all day, though. Ill suggest things. Not sure how much time they want to spend in Deadmonton, though.

[Ted Striker]

There's a good taqueria is Edmonton, crazy as that sounds.

Tres Carnales

[grinch]

Are there any rad bike-friendly trails between those two points? Thinking about bringing the camper back next year. Or is it all National Park?

You could definitely have a few good days between ll and jasper. Really just one trail in lake louise but moraine lake highline trail is fun. Nordegg , like Wiebo suggested, has built up pretty good system at baseline mountain(i havent been since racing days 20+ yrs ago but i hear its quite good) and jasper has a number of good traditional type backcountry mtb trails that you could spend a few days exploring. Aside from that golden(kickinghorse, mt 7) is 1hr west of lake louise and banff/canmore is 1hr east of lake louise , k country another 1/2-1 hr east of canmore and invermere/mt swansea is 1 1/2 hr south west of lake louise. Lots of options if you pick youre route and just leave a day for travel/sightseeing the icefields parkway inbetween riding days. Maybe add in a hike or scramble on the parkway day. A lot of reasonable hiking options to inject into that travel day. Youre pretty close to the alpine from the highway on the parkway

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[rideit]

Cool. How would you say trail conditions/weather are in June? We would want to beat the smoke.

[ex-powderbroker]

They drove, I’ll suggest it.

Elk Island park?

Also, edmonton has good food, if they like middle eastern check out the Bedouins..... chef's fkn kiss, it's unreal.

[rideit]

That place looks absolutely outstanding. Is it anywhere near the Mall?
She also heard that Edmonton was 1/2 Indian…any suggestions for that?

[grinch]

Cool. How would you say trail conditions/weather are in June? We would want to beat the smoke.

June is good. Most everything will be open.
Also like Wiebo said, valemont should be kept on your possible options. Friends just got back from there and had a great time. Might be the best option if it fits your schedule. BC rainforest dirt and forest canopy is better than anything east of the divide

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[skaredshtles]

They are taking the huge four wheeled buses onto the glacier today, should be fun if it doesn’t crash.

That is also a very good time.

[summit]

Any updates on how letting in vaccinated US tourists is going?

Just as importantly, how are the Whistler area trail conditions with the dry/hot summer?

[t.odd]

Personally I'd stay the fuck away from the BC interior right now...extremely fast changing fire situations pretty much everywhere, Kelowna area they're asking tourists to leave and/or not come. the fire extents maps are sobering. https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.c...2ee385abe2a41b

Sea to Sky is dry and loose and generally pretty blown out, but at least it's cloudy and cool today.

[shirk]

https://www.emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.c...r-region-of-bc

https://drivebc.ca/#listView&severity=Major

Both Highway 5 and Highway 3 have major closures due to wildfire. That basically cuts off the coast from all interior access.

Lots of people re-adjusting travel plans to the Island and Sunshine Coast...causing these areas to be busier than normal and extra ferry delays.

[DanoT]

This is from Sunday Aug 15, just before they closed the Coquihala Hwy near Merritt:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1427102793202946050

[phatty]

You might want to check EmergencyInfoBC before running the gauntlet. Lots of peek-a-boo (now we're open; now we're closed) highways and towns. The interactive map is more or less kept up to date.

There's also driveBC.ca for highway conditions and cameras.

We made it fine, but it was like driving through the apocalypse with huge flames next to the road. I was surprised they let it stay open. Big smoke between Cocquihalla Summit and Merritt and between Merritt and Kamloops. Smoke at Shuswap is bad but getting better as the rain moves in. While the weather will suck for us, hopefully it will help. We're just here for family regardless of the weather.

If a regular (e.g. Not coming to visit family for the first time since Covid) tourist, definitely stay away. We might head to Calgary if it stays this bad.

[liv2ski]

Wow, the west coast is on fire. Maybe I can visit my family in October.

[BCMtnHound]

We drove north on the Coquihalla on Saturday, got an excellent view of some of the candling on the July Mtn fire. The ladies in the vehicle were suitably unnerved. Communities a few km's to the south of us have been placed under alert for the Sparks Lk fire, with half of them directed to head our way if forced out. It's going to be a long season. Wife and daughter are contemplating heading back down to Victoria to escape the smoke and tension until her next shift rotation.

The tourist thing is interesting. Highway is chockablocked with RV's and other tourist traffic, mostly a mix of BC and AB plates. Victoria and Hornby were the busiest I have ever seen them, again, all Canadian tourism. Ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay was packed, with many WA plates on board - suppose they came in via the Port Angeles-Victoria route, maybe customs was easier that way?

People being strange too. Coming into the forestry office here and dropping off their names and the remote rec sites they are planning on staying at, with the expectation that we will be going chasing after them in the event of a wildfire. Like family reunion kinda lists of people! :O They don't take it too kindly when the front counter lady tells them that we don't do that service, and they demand to know who is providing this safety check-in service for them. Front desk directs them to the local RCMP detachment. And maybe re-think the plan to recreate with the entire extended family in the backcountry during a southern interior firestorm. And believe it or not, COS and the twig pigs are still issuing campfire violations at some of those rec sites.

[phatty]

Hwy 5 is pretty rough right now. It was like 9pm at 5 in some spots.

[kevin267]

suppose they came in via the Port Angeles-Victoria route, maybe customs was easier that way?

The bc-Washington ferries haven't been running unfortunately

[BCMtnHound]

The bc-Washington ferries haven't been running unfortunately

Interesting. I just made the assumption as the border had only been open a couple of days by then, but without the ferry running I guess they came over from Vancouver and were already headed back.

[rideit]

So, kiddo is super stoked. He was a little nervous about being the only yank, but apparently the other goalies think it’s super rad that he came up there for camp. Making friends already.
(Full disclosure: he wants to go to McGill and move up Narth eventually).

[weibo]

Hey rideit, does your boy qualify for Canadian citizenship? If so McGill is cheap and could be super cheap with a strategic residency plan.

[rideit]

He does not, but McGill will still likely be cheaper than other schools that he is interested in.

[DanoT]

He does not, but McGill will still likely be cheaper than other schools that he is interested in.

Does your son speak French? While I think the classes at McGill are mostly in English, living in Quebec and not speaking French will be quite limiting socially.

[teamdirt]

Does your son speak French? While I think the classes at McGill are mostly in English, living in Quebec and not speaking French will be quite limiting socially.

Not really- Mcgill is an english school in Montreal located in english Montreal. Its a big district of Anglis hosers. Once your outside of Montreal English does not fly.....

[rideit]

Does your son speak French? While I think the classes at McGill are mostly in English, living in Quebec and not speaking French will be quite limiting socially.

He speaks Spanish fairly well, and will study French. He already knows the conjugations. But yeah, lots of people in Montreal (and McGill) can barely say Mercí properly. I speak some French (studied in Alsace), but never used it really in Montreal.
He does speak goalie, so that will help.