Days 26-27 (June 9-10). Saskatoon and Edmonton

From: Saskatoon, SK

To: Edmonton, AB

Miles today: 343, 0

Total miles: 6459

Saskatoon’s economy is based mostly on farming, but also somewhat on potash mining (that is, potassium, used in fertilizer and hundreds of other products), and oil.  It is located on the South Saskatchewan River, and is wooded.  It is a nice little city of about 300 thousand.  The Saskatchewan license plates read “Land of Living Skies,” and the photo on the left from one of the many bridges illustrates this.

Saskatoon skyline from one of the bridges over the South Saskatchewan River

Edmonton is another story entirely.  It is a Big City, with well over a million people in the metropolitan area. It has the sprawl and traffic jams that come along with it, along with a terrific skyline and an economy that is clearly thriving.  It is on the North Saskatchewan River, which meets up with the South east of Saskatoon.  When joined, these rivers form “the Saskatchewan River,” which continues flowing east to the remnant lakes including Lake Winnipeg, and from there into Hudson Bay and then the North Atlantic.  Here is a shot I took of the Edmonton skyline I took over the North Saskatchewan. 

The Edmonton Skyline from across the North Saskatchewan River

Edmonton is an industrial city, based heavily on petroleum.  On arriving in Edmonton from the east, I drove through what must have been ten miles of refineries and storage tanks.  It was as if Bay City, Texas, were a neighborhood in Houston.  To its credit, I smelled nothing, and during the rest of my stay I was oblivious to this section of town.  This is where I am having my motorcycle readied for the Great Northern Leg of my adventure, mostly by replacing the tires with some that are (hopefully) more suited to the non-paved roads I will soon encounter.  I took the opportunity to rent a car and drive around a bit.  Here are some photos from downtown Edmonton.

Scenes from downtown Edmonton.  Left; central plaza.  Right: Alberta Art Museum.

A taxi driver I talked to said that the winters in Edmonton last about two months longer than those in Toronto (he has lived in both).  Despite this, Wikipedia says that the winters in Edmonton are milder than Saskatoon and Winnipeg, both of which are further south.  The taxi driver added that what really surprised him were the temperature changes; he talked about temperatures of 20 degrees (Celsius) during the day, and dropping to -20 at night.  I also mention in passing that as I write this at 10 pm local time, on June 10, that it is still light outside. 

Geologically and ecologically, the swath of land between Saskatoon and Edmonton is a transitional region between prairie (to the south) and taiga (to the north) called Aspen Parkland.  It was hard to tell on the drive between the two, because farmland carved out of Aspen Parkland and farmland carved out of Prairie look pretty similar.  I have noticed that most of the trees I have seen lately, outside of the cities, are either Aspen or evergreen.