Wednesday, August 10, 2016 (Iron Horse Trail Campground, St. Paul, AB)

We were up at 6:00 this morning...not really that unusual for us...but after coffee, there was no lolly-gagging around. We had a quick breakfast and got ready to hit the Iron Horse Trail. It was shortly after 8:00 when we left...heading east. It was a bit foggy out but the cloud covering seemed fairly light and we were hoping that the sun would break through.

Normally we're riding mountain trails, so this was very different. As the trail is an old rail bed it's more like road riding with lots of straight sections, sometimes with nothing to look at but trees and bushes. At times cruise control would have been nice...

There are many gates along the trail with signs to keep them closed between April to October because of the free range cattle...so we had these little bridges to get us around the gates...

Beaver lodge...

Then at times the trail opens up with fabulous views...

 Our first stop was at the Edouardville Staging Area...pretty mucky due to the heavy rain yesterday...

                                                         (Click to enlarge photos)

 Over an old trestle...

Our first view of the North Saskatchewan River in the distance...

 Plenty of signage on the trail, Rest Stop Ahead...

We pass beautiful farms and ranches...

 Communities along the trail really cater to folks using the multi-use trail...This is something we are sorrily short of back in BC...

There are specific trails that lead into town...for gas, dining, hotels etc...

 The trail was pretty muddy and full of pot holes in many spots...

The trail used to go to the right but now has a bridge because of a washout...

 Lindbergh...

Potty break. All of the trail outhouses look like grain elevators...

They are off loading an excavator in the middle of the trail. We are passing the Lindbergh Salt Plant (on the right)...more pictures and more about that later (on our way back)...

North Saskatchewan River...

Time to move aside girls...

More mud...

North Saskatchewan River...

Metal plates have been laid down on this mucky section...

Lots of muddy cow tracks...

The trail follows the river for quite awhile, but views are fleeting...

Heinsburg...the end of this leg of the trail system ...

Rail station...

CN, Canadian National. This area is also a campground...

Water Tower...

Three hours and 66.5 kms (41.3 miles)...and we have made it to the community of Heinsburg and the staging area for the southeastern arm of Alberta's Iron Horse Trail...

After a rest and a look around, it was time to turn around and head back...

A totally different view going in the opposite direction!

Finally the sun is starting to come out!

 This is the Lindbergh Salt Plant - Windsor Salt...

They were curious...

At Elk Point, we took advantage of being able to drive right to a gas station to fuel up...too cool...

The trail that takes you to the gas station across the street...

Elk Point Grain Elevator...

One of the many roads that we had to cross...

Large marsh...

 Look at all that blue sky!

There are also hundreds of geocaches along the trail system. Today's mission was to ride the Iron Horse Trail, so we didn't take time to geocache..well, except for a couple....

There's the little canister hanging in a tree...

And another geocache...

 Very cool bird condo....

And were back!

This is the St. Paul Staging area. There are even ramps in some of the staging areas to back your pick-up truck to off load your quad....

And a small fishing pond. Our rig is across the road from it just to the left of the tree, left...

We arrived back at our trailer at 2:15...pretty well exactly 6 hours and 134 kms (84 miles) after we left. A great day out on the quads seeing the area. This is the muddiest we and are quads have ever been. The weather had been good...but now big thunder clouds were forming..a.typical late afternoon occurrence in Alberta this summer.

We unloaded the quad boxes and got all our stuff put away...then it was showers, dishes (no, we didn't have time to do them this morning)...and time to download the 178 pictures from the camera so Steve could get to work editing!