Days 14 - 17

Day 14 - June 12th We left Jasper around noon for Hinton. The breakfast sandwiches at the Coco Cafe were an excellent way to start the day. It was time to bust out the self-sufficient trailer. 80Ibs really slowed Dan down... perfect for Jordie's pace. The terrain was really enjoyable with the mountain goats, big horned sheep and the Rocky mountains in the background. we were starting to feel a little run down from the Jasper stay, so we rallied 70km to Hinton for some camping, maccaronni and tomato soup, and an early night (7:30).

Day 15 - June 13th We left the KOA camground at a descent hour. Probably because we went to bed at 7 the night before. We reached the Obed Summit at around 10:30. It's the highest point on the Yellowhead Highway. We hit Edson around 2 and had lunch at Subway. Jordie insisted that we stop at a grocery store to buy lunch items for the next two days. She bought canned salmon and snopeas and wraps. I checked out the the tourist information centre and the lady suggested that we head another 45km to Nojack campground. It turned out to be 60km and we finally arrived at 6. Jordie cooked her famous mushroom soup and we made it to bed around 8. It was our furthest day ever 160km (unintentionally).

Day 16 - June 14th Nojack to Stonyplain was supposed to be flat according to Glenn... But it wasn't... The trailer pulling wasn't easy. It was rolling hills and rolling hills... Sure enough the prevailling winds were not in our favour. The winds picked up in the afternoon and slowed us down exponentially. We were happy to find a the Lion's Club campsite. They tried to tell us that it was too muddy to camp but we told them that we didnt' care. Lucky for us, it stayed dry the whole night. But before bed, Dan's cousin Drew took us out for a few beer. We had some drinks and lots of laughs and called it a night around 11:30pm.

Day 17 - June 15th We left Stony Plain at 9 this morning. The sun was shining which made it easier to roll out of bed, especially after cousin Drew took us out for drink or two... Riding through Edmonton proved to be quite difficult today. After jumping a couple of curbs, Dan managed to snap a couple of spokes and blow a tire... and then another... and then Dan started a hissy fit. After fixing the second flat, we made it through the city. Adam (our mutual friend) picked us up 40km east of Edmonton at Elk Island Provincial Park. We loaded up Adam's truck and headed back to town to Gerard's (Dan's brother's) place near U of A. So we are sitting here having some brew pops with Dan's other buddy Dean Biller who came up from Red Deer to cheer us on. The plan tomorrow is to go from Elk Island to Vermilion. We should be in Lloydminster Sunday and hopefully that will be our next update. Adam will be our support vehicle/driver until Sunday.