Day 22 and 23 - May 12 and 13 - A GRAVEL ROAD CAN BE BETTER THAN SOME PAVED ROADS

 Day 22 - May 12

We were on the road at 6AM to beat the traffic to Fort Providence  😂  as we left, so too did the bison.

From Fort Liard most of the roughly 500 kilometre journey is on gravel roads but as the RCMP officer we met said, "It's better than a lot of paved roads! I shouldn't tell you this but I drove it at 130 kph!" We actually saw 5 bears today but only 2 of them were moving at a pace I could follow and capture. Got this one just as he was making his exit.

The Sambaa Deh Falls was a stop Sergei our pilot had recommended. The falls is actually the least interesting thing you see here. It's fairly high and a little loud but a mere trickle as waterfalls go. The surrounding canyon more than makes it amazing.

At the junction of Highways 1 and 3 the storied Deh Cho Bridge, the longest bridge in the north, crosses the mighty Mackenzie River. The thick ice at the river's edge reminded me just how far north we have travelled.

We had been driving for close to 8 hours so our approach to the end of the road today was most appealing, no matter what Fort Providence might hold for us.

One notable bonus is our motel room finally has a great view. The Mackenzie River flows right outside our window and though you can't tell from the photo, all that ice is flowing swiftly by with the current.

A quick little anecdote...as she left the grocery store a man watched Karen with a stern look on his face. He asked her rather concernedly if she was with the government group in town to examine emergency management and indigenous negotiation. When Karen answered no she was a tourist he broke into a huge smile and extended his arms with a resounding, "Welcome!" I wish I had a photo of THAT!

Day 23 - May 13

The plan for the day was a walking exploration of the town and river...and get a car wash! If I don't get the mud out of the wheel wells and under the panels the wheels will stop turning. It was a cold and windy day, so different from anything we've had before now. As mentioned earlier, the ice in the river is breaking up rapidly. Huge pieces are deposited along the shoreline at each bend in the river.

Our Lady of Providence Roman Catholic Mission stands proudly at the end of the road in town. The historic mission serves the local Dene community. Established in 1861, it is a significant spiritual landmark with a deep, often painful history related to early residential schooling run by the Grey Nuns. They worked as nurses and teachers in a number of the schools where they participated in the effort to remove children from their traditional indigenous ways of life in order to "civilize" them.

A very poignant memorial stands in the park in the mission fields at the end of the road. It contains a wall memorializing names and dates dedicated to the memory of the Dene and Metis descendants of the Fort Providence area. It is also dedicated to the orphans and children of the Mackenzie Valley that attended the Scared Heart Residential School. The bodies are buried approximately at the site of the memorial. 

Children's shoes and boots have been placed at the memorial to symbolize the loss.

Tomorrow we head for Yellowknife. The weather is not supposed to be good but we can't control that.

😎