Starting the return trip through Manitoba

It’s hard to keep the blog going having been home for a few months now – but here we go.

Grasslands East - Hector on the route
Hector all excited about the rest he’s going to get at the Red Buttes.
Grasslands East - Red Buttes Linda
Linda at the buttes.
Grasslands East - Red Buttes route Linda and Hector
On the return we took the easy route following the fence line.

The park staff had told us the easy way was to follow the fence, so that’s what we did. A big surprise awaited us as we crested a hill.

Grasslands East - Elk on Red Buttes Route
These two bounded away as we approached.

We could feel the bounces of these two when we startled each other.

It was time to move on and we had to figure out a way to dump the black water tank without damaging the threads. Linda suggested using the bottom of the screw on wine glasses. I pulled them apart and realized they were too big. Frustrated, I sat back and moved the waterproof camera. Realizing that the tripod mount threads might work, I tried that and behold! It worked!

Temporary Fix for Black Tank

We went to a beautiful park in Manitoba called Turtle Mountain.

Turtle Mountain - at the bgining of the athletic trail
Linda looking at the fitness trail map.

What a beautiful park, we’ll definitely have to go back. There was a fun fitness trail by the lake. We only walked the trail but Linda and I tried some of the stations.

Turtle Mountain - Linda on the athletic trail
Linda trying out one of the stations that requires strength.

These stations reminded me of some of the stations somewhere else that I cannot remember.

Turtle Mountain - Hector and Puck looking out the door together
Hector and Puck wanting to come out.
Turtle Mountain - the lake
The beautiful lake at Turtle Mountain park…if we make it back there we’ll do the trail around the lake. It looked beautiful.

We had the opportunity to stay at Turtle Mountain for a couple of nights but a ranger somewhere told us about a place on the Manitoba border, thus, we started to head that way. In hindsight we should have stayed.

Woodlawn Park - the river
A view from Woodlawn Park.
Woodlawn Park the other view of the river
The other way.

We found Woodlawn Park (an easy place to stop late in the evening…a little crowded for us) when we went to Daybreak Mills to pick up some einkorn wheat. This is the original wheat and only has 14 chromosomes. As I love making bread, this is a better choice and Daybreak Mills is a great place to get the wheat or even the flour. They are wonderful to deal with as well.

Baldur MB - Pierre and Hector by the grain elevator park
A little park in Baldur Manitoba.

As we drove to White Hawk Lake we stopped in a lovely town called Baldur. They had the nicest public bathrooms we’d ever seen.

Baldur MB - The fancy public bathroom
This is a public bathroom in a park. There are a lot of restaurants that could learn from this.

We kept moving towards the Ontario border and West Hawk Lake.

West Hawk Lake sculputre and history
West Hawk Lake sculpture explaining the origin on the lake.

We made it to West Hawk Lake but the park was closing as we went in and the gate person told us to find a site and pay for it in the morning. We went looking and found lots of sites that were too close together and had lots of people.

West Hawk Lake our campsite entry
Our private site. No services and little sun.

We found this one site…fairly secluded but no sun. We were only going to be there one night, and we could easily survive that.

West Hawk Lake - Hector sees a deer
Hector found this guy on the afternoon walk.
West Hawk Lake our campsite
Because of the grade, we had to unhook…but at times like this I don’t move the truck that way we can easily hook up and head out.

It was a nice park and in the summertime I can see it being great fun for kids.

West Hawk Lake - Linda on the morning walk
Linda’s morning walk with Hector

We woke up early enough to go and check out the park and the lake.

West Hawk Lake - beach view

It’s a pretty place and we could easily stop there off season…we move onto Ontario.