Shaftesbury sideways ferry.

Rendez-vous RV Park, Peace River, AB (2 stars)

We drove a nice scenic loop today, starting with the Shaftesbury Trail in Peace River. It follows the river and the pavement ends at the Shaftesbury Ferry. Lee notes this is one of the more unconventional ferries he has seen. It consists of two pontoons lashed together pushed on one end by a small tug boat. The deck is actually positioned at 90 degrees to the pontoons. As such, the tugboat pushes the vehicles on deck in a strange fashion, being lined up with the river rather than the ferry landings. We used it twice, stopping in Tangent Park to eat our lunch.

We then drove to Grimshaw to see the start of the MacKenzie Highway display. There are examples of the Caterpillar tractor and sleds that used to haul freight as far as Yellowknife at the mile 0 display. It is hard to believe that the equipment was used as late as the 1940's before a permanent road was built.

What an interesting ferry. Certainly the smallest we have ever seen. The Shaftesbury Ferry is officially a tug driven steel barge. It is 18.9M long (ramp to ramp) x 16.6M wide. When we pull the RV, we are a total of 17.98M (18M) long. Needless to say we will not use the ferry with Chuck and the Schooner. Chuck was imposing looking on it's own. The ferry does not have a departure schedule. The ferry crosses the Mighty Peace River when it is full or when there are no more cars appearing over the crest of the road. If only one car is waiting when it docks and the vehicles on board leave, then they load the one car waiting and take it across the river. So simple.

The weather was a perfect day for enjoying some of the Peace Country area of our province. As we stood on the bank of the river after our picnic lunch, I saw a small black bear across the river, heading into the bush. Fortunately he was heading up the bank on the other side of the river. It was a very peaceful day.