canada

travelingjack · Post by **travelingjack** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:21 am

if i was to do some traveling around canada ,

can i get from Toronto to Calgary via coach / bus and any idea how long that would take

maybe id stop in a couple of places inbetween for a few days to see towns on the way

25 years ago i did Ottawa / Toronto / Quebec / Algonquin Park i was young and didnt plan

it well i want to put some reseach into this make sure i do it right i see more of the Country hence my Idea of Coach / bus and taking my time

Thanks TJ

Post by **LarsMac** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:42 am

Apparently, no.

You can take the train, though.

VIA Rail Canada: Train travel in Canada

travelingjack · Post by **travelingjack** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:53 am

LarsMac;1482235 wrote: Apparently, no.

You can take the train, though.

VIA Rail Canada: Train travel in Canada

Thanks. nearly 3 days to Calgary from Toronto wow just shows the vastness of the country .

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:54 am

No buses? Even local to local to local, etc? I'm surprised. Always heard great things about Canada's rail system though.

travelingjack · Post by **travelingjack** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:09 am

lots of research to do yet , not even sure i can afford will be next year this sort of time , i need to plan all travel and find places to stay etc will be there a month probably id love longer but ill be on a extremely low budget ...

Post by **spot** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:23 am

The bus from Ontario into Manitoba only runs twice a week but it can be done. Toronto to Vancouver by plane, bus, train, line 5601 bus, car

If you're getting as far as Calgary you might as well cross the Rockies and down to the Pacific, you've done most of the distance already. What you've seen is lots of flat bits, the rest of the way is lots of impressive gradients and the occasional very blue lake.

Post by **LarsMac** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:46 am

AnneBoleyn;1482237 wrote: No buses? Even local to local to local, etc? I'm surprised. Always heard great things about Canada's rail system though.

I took a look at the Greyhound website. They have bus service between Ontario cities and Toronto to US cities, but, but Bus service in Alberta is limited within that Province. You can take the train from Toronto to Edmonton, and then bus to Calgary.

Canada is BIG!

Though I have it from a friend that hitchhiking is still an acceptable means of transportation in the western provinces.

travelingjack · Post by **travelingjack** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 10:31 am

the main part of the trip will be after Calgary, but be nice not to just miss out the 3 days getting there i want to see the place , not just a blur lol if you know what i mean, ive a few contacts thu my sister i may tap for some info , may even be lucky to get the odd free bed , maybe lol , well early days im gathering info

Thanks

Post by **spot** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:41 am

LarsMac;1482240 wrote: Though I have it from a friend that hitchhiking is still an acceptable means of transportation in the western provinces.
And carrying an axe while hitchhiking is expected, on account of the bears.

Post by **LarsMac** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:24 pm

spot;1482272 wrote: And carrying an axe while hitchhiking is expected, on account of the bears.

I'm not gonna piss off a bear by smacking it with an axe.

travelingjack · Post by **travelingjack** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:54 pm

LarsMac;1482285 wrote: I'm not gonna piss off a bear by smacking it with an axe.

i rather take my chances with a bear that walk some cities after dark lol

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:16 pm

Sorry to pull an old thread forward and likely a rather obsolete one but this was really quite a hoot to read

I just thought I would throw in some Canadian travel tips for cross Canada travel.

The bus is the worst way to go, it takes forever to cross our country, the greyhound is the mail bus as well, and stops at every teeny little town along the way. Think of the pony express Canada style ahahahaha

Canada is Huge indeed. Do your research, what do you want to see, eastern regions, history, early Canadian civilization, big cities, Niagara Falls, eastern wine country, then stay east of the province of Manitoba and enjoy your trip to Eastern Canada. This can easily consume 3 weeks and you will never be bored.

Going west you say, skip all ground travel across the prairies from the Ontario Border to the western edge of Alberta. It is flat, it is field after field after field, it is dull. You will fall asleep you will think there is no end to it, you will be so excited to see the odd cow here or there. I kid you not, there are no hills, tree's, nothing (oh sorry, there is the province of Manitoba, the lakes are warm, the natives are more frightening than the bears and the bugs are mutants, they are huge and carnivorous yes both bears and bugs)

Once you hit central Alberta Canada gets interesting again, but still keep in mind if you are driving the distance between Edmonton and Calgary its 3 hours. Between Calgary and Vancouver its 10-13 hours both distances are by car, if you choose bus, it's much slower. we do not have a train between Calgary and Edmonton, but we do between Calgary and Vancouver. Western Alberta through British Columbia is gorgeous, mountains, forest regions and lakes, fresh water rivers, natural hot springs, BC has amazing wineries in the southern interior region. Right out to the west coast of Vancouver, big vibrant city it is.

As for being afraid in some of our larger cities honestly the worst city I know of would be Winnipeg and nobody goes there, it's a dump, and the homeless are unpleasant.

Our big cities are still quite safe by other countries standards.

And as for the axe and the bears... scrap the axe, it would serve you no use. you do NOT want to be that close to bear ever. Air horn, bear banger, pepper spray, shot gun, much better idea

However there are other wildlife out this way that are dangerous, a moose, huge, giant antlers, huge hooved feet and aggressive, steer clear, elk, and deer smaller, still do not confuse these with bambi, those hooves are deadly, observe them from afar.

Badgers, skunks, porcupines, nasty do not hand feed, they will either bite, scratch, spray or stab you.

That aside....

Canada is awesome and I think anyone who visited would truly enjoy themselves.

I am always willing to offer up further travel trips for those considering Canadian visitation.

Post by **LarsMac** » Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:40 pm

minks;1498597 wrote: Sorry to pull an old thread forward and likely a rather obsolete one but this was really quite a hoot to read

I just thought I would throw in some Canadian travel tips for cross Canada travel.

The bus is the worst way to go, it takes forever to cross our country, the greyhound is the mail bus as well, and stops at every teeny little town along the way. Think of the pony express Canada style ahahahaha

Canada is Huge indeed. Do your research, what do you want to see, eastern regions, history, early Canadian civilization, big cities, Niagara Falls, eastern wine country, then stay east of the province of Manitoba and enjoy your trip to Eastern Canada. This can easily consume 3 weeks and you will never be bored.

Going west you say, skip all ground travel across the prairies from the Ontario Border to the western edge of Alberta. It is flat, it is field after field after field, it is dull. You will fall asleep you will think there is no end to it, you will be so excited to see the odd cow here or there. I kid you not, there are no hills, tree's, nothing (oh sorry, there is the province of Manitoba, the lakes are warm, the natives are more frightening than the bears and the bugs are mutants, they are huge and carnivorous yes both bears and bugs)

Once you hit central Alberta Canada gets interesting again, but still keep in mind if you are driving the distance between Edmonton and Calgary its 3 hours. Between Calgary and Vancouver its 10-13 hours both distances are by car, if you choose bus, it's much slower. we do not have a train between Calgary and Edmonton, but we do between Calgary and Vancouver. Western Alberta through British Columbia is gorgeous, mountains, forest regions and lakes, fresh water rivers, natural hot springs, BC has amazing wineries in the southern interior region. Right out to the west coast of Vancouver, big vibrant city it is.

As for being afraid in some of our larger cities honestly the worst city I know of would be Winnipeg and nobody goes there, it's a dump, and the homeless are unpleasant.

Our big cities are still quite safe by other countries standards.

And as for the axe and the bears... scrap the axe, it would serve you no use. you do NOT want to be that close to bear ever. Air horn, bear banger, pepper spray, shot gun, much better idea

However there are other wildlife out this way that are dangerous, a moose, huge, giant antlers, huge hooved feet and aggressive, steer clear, elk, and deer smaller, still do not confuse these with bambi, those hooves are deadly, observe them from afar.

Badgers, skunks, porcupines, nasty do not hand feed, they will either bite, scratch, spray or stab you.

That aside....

Canada is awesome and I think anyone who visited would truly enjoy themselves.

I am always willing to offer up further travel trips for those considering Canadian visitation.

Good advice. We have most of those critters here in Colorado. Bears are actually fairly predictable. I been around them most of my life. Well, mostly Black Bears. I suspect the big Brown Bears, and Grizzlies might be a bit more cranky, than the average Black Bear, but still the point is to pay attention, and don't get them excited. They are not real friendly.

The most scary encounter I ever had with wildlife was a family of Ra****s that I surprised, once. They had found a Salmon on the creek bed, and were prepared to defend it with every drop of my blood. I managed to convince them I didn't want their fish, and I was harmless. It actually is harder than you might think to outrun Ra****s.

Post by **spot** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:50 am

minks;1498597 wrote: Canada is awesome and I think anyone who visited would truly enjoy themselves.You left out the snakes.

minks · Post by **minks** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:37 am

Lars,

Well I have to say I would never tell a tourist a bear is rather predictable. Bears may be predictable, but humans are not. We have come across so many people who wish to see a bear when they come to these parts of the country. My only comment is, .... go to the zoo and see them in their city habitats it's the safest way to see them.

Love your rac**** story mind you.

Even the lowly gopher I suspect would attack if provoked, and likely a bite from them would hurt.

I think I am cautious of the wild life because I have seen so many stupid human tricks around the wild life, people trying to feed the wild life, trying to get close to wild life for photos etc. Just stupid.

I once was on a bike trip outside of Banff and we were on the road heading up the mountain, on the high side of the road up the mountain side was a herd of elk. This man was trying to take photos's of his small child in front of the herd. We tried to advise him that if he spooked the herd, they would likely head forward which was down hill, and trample his child, but he blew us off so we rode past and hoped for the best. Stupid human tricks.

s

minks · Post by **minks** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:45 am

Spot lol,

ok we do have some snakes yes, in the mountains near me, not to many that would even take on a human, they are shy.

Of course in the prairies and badlands there are rattle snakes, I don't have much advise there as I have never encountered one.

Post by **spot** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:53 pm

I met a very fast three foot garter snake once which was headed downhill on the banks of the Frazer, it was quite a surprise.

Post by **LarsMac** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 7:18 pm

Rattlesnakes are easy. Don't sneak up on them, and don't step on them. They usually will leave you alone, since you're too big to eat.

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:57 am

Oh Spot, what a story, a garter snake is probably more afraid of you than you would be of it lol. The Fraser canyon you say, are you sure the snake wasn't falling, there are some steep slopes there.

Lars thanks good advise I sincerely hope to never meet a rattle snake.

ZAP · Post by **ZAP** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:45 am

Reading these posts bout racc*ons I was surprised to see (as I did before on my post about the same referring to the skunks post) that this site won't let you spell out rac****. Apparently that is because some use that as a slur against black people.

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:40 pm

rac**** rac**** rac****

ok lets' see what we come up with when I hit send here.

Speaking of rac****s my first husband had an uncle who raised mink on a mink farm, yes true story. and he tried to raise rac****s one year well the sneaky rac****s they let them selves out of their cages, snuck across the farm to the neighbors and started to kill the chicken farmers chickens. The chicken farmer was livid but did not know the uncle tried to raise the rac****s he figured he only raised minks so uncle said nothing ever and was never accused of having killer rac****s because they all escaped.

Not much of an interesting story but I figured I would try applying rac**** often and see if I get censored.

ZAP · Post by **ZAP** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 4:23 pm

minks;1498835 wrote: rac**** rac**** rac****

ok lets' see what we come up with when I hit send here.

Speaking of rac****s my first husband had an uncle who raised mink on a mink farm, yes true story. and he tried to raise rac****s one year well the sneaky rac****s they let them selves out of their cages, snuck across the farm to the neighbors and started to kill the chicken farmers chickens. The chicken farmer was livid but did not know the uncle tried to raise the rac****s he figured he only raised minks so uncle said nothing ever and was never accused of having killer rac****s because they all escaped.

Not much of an interesting story but I figured I would try applying rac**** often and see if I get censored.

Yep! It does not like the word"****" or c*o*o*n

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 7:13 am

does anyone even use the word c o o n any more. I agree it's not a nice word mind you.

G#Gill · Post by **G#Gill** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 7:15 am

You would think that it could differentiate between the individual word "c_o_o_n" and a word that has those four letters incorporated in it somewhere. It's the same with "n_i_g_g_e_r" and Arnold Swarze****** ! :wah:

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 9:22 am

oh Gill too funny.

my mom when she was a young girl had a black cocker spaniel and it's name was n I g g e r. Can you imagine calling out to your dog in the part now days if that was your dog's name ahahahahaha how times change

Post by **spot** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 11:11 am

I seem to remember Guy Gibson, the squadron leader of the Dam Buster raid, had a dog of the same name, which probably keeps the film off TV screens in America.

Nobody seems to mind genuine historical references in England.

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:28 pm

you know all through time there have been "nicknames" for races, isn't it interesting that people get over offended by some of them.

We should learn to understand, a name/tag/generalized term is only as offensive as we let it be to our own self.

ZAP · Post by **ZAP** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:44 pm

G#Gill;1498865 wrote: You would think that it could differentiate between the individual word "c_o_o_n" and a word that has those four letters incorporated in it somewhere. It's the same with "n_i_g_g_e_r" and Arnold Swarze****** ! :wah:
Actually Arnold gets a pass because his name is spelt (notice my British spelling of spelled?) 'Swarzenegger.' Let's see if this site differentiates between "I" and "E".

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:55 pm

LOL did you all know that spelt is a grain

Spelt (Triticum spelta), also known as dinkel wheat, or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat cultivated since 5000 BC.

ZAP · Post by **ZAP** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:57 pm

minks;1498907 wrote: you know all through time there have been "nicknames" for races, isn't it interesting that people get over offended by some of them.

We should learn to understand, a name/tag/generalized term is only as offensive as we let it be to our own self.

My dad was one of the worst bigots you can imagine. He had a name for every race and group that wasn't like him. You couldn't even call him a WASP because he was an atheist. Yet, he had Native American blood, so what would we have called him? Injun-Redskin? I looked up what a slur is for Native Americans and couldn't come up with much. I did find a whole bunch for other ethnic groups and some of them are x-rated so read at your own risk. www.rsdb.org/full

ZAP · Post by **ZAP** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 1:13 pm

minks;1498911 wrote: LOL did you all know that spelt is a grain

Spelt (Triticum spelta), also known as dinkel wheat, or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat cultivated since 5000 BC.

I didn't know that Minks. Thanks for that most enlightening information. I wonder if it's less fattening than other types? LOL. (I'm very calorie-conscious now since I've been on this 6 week trip and eating enough to feed 5 people. Gotta go on a diet tomorrow.)

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 1:30 pm

lol Zap. Diet's blah,

apparently Spelt is nutritional

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-ben ... spelt.html