Swift Current – Chaplin

By Deanna on July 13, 2013 • ( 1 )

Today: 92.25 km

To date: 1,792.75 km

To go: 6,007 km

Started the day with a heaping pile of French Toast at Smitty’s….. Siggy somehow packed away a stack of 5 pancakes and a plate of sausages… Alex had waffles with vanilla ice cream and whipping cream…. a cyclist’s appetite is disgusting!

We took a break in a little town called Herbert – I quickly discovered I have no skills when it comes to playing hacky sack so designated myself photographer and captured some of their crazy moves!

This whole area has a lot of birds – it is part of the Western Hemisphere Shore Bird Reserve – a network that includes some 32 million acres of habitat crucial for the survival of shore bird communities.

Coming into the small town of Chaplin was a unique site. Both sides of the road were covered in a white ice looking build-up. Siggy thought it was a ski jump…… It was salt. The main industry of this town is harvesting the sodium sulphate deposits of the lake – and I guess this is either the waste product or the salt itself… I am not quite sure, but it was quite a sight to see!

Chaplin is an incredibly small town – only one street is paved – and I think there is maybe 10 streets in total. Both campgrounds look completely abandoned and we learnt from the one diner that the main one was not opening this season, and the other one is now free. After a delicious home-cooked perogie meal, we headed over to the swimming pool to see about cleaning up a little. We were 10minutes before closing, so the girl just let us use the showers for free. We then decided to camp right behind the pool and seek some shade from the rec centre buildings. Another wonderful night of free camping!