Entry tags:
Kicking Horse Pass - wowsers.
So. I travelled again, and I was going to moan about it, but you've already read those moans, and while they are as heart-felt as last time, they aren't any more interesting to read, so let me talk to you about the Kicking Horse Pass.
The Kicking Horse Pass is the scariest part of the TransCanada through the Rockies, hands down. From a family function in the early eighties, I drove my cousin's car back to Calgary from Oliver BC, with my cousin and two aunties in the car. I was driving because, as a BC girl, I was *obviously* accustomed to driving on unflat, unstraight roads, unlike the rest of the car's occupants, who were prairie girls to the core. Corners bad, hills bad, hilly corners really bad - curvy hills - aaarrrrrggghhhhh!
Anyhoo. Accustomed or not, the Kicking Horse Pass is/was extremely curvy, extremely hilly, with a large helping of cliff faces to one side and depths of serious inconvenience to living on the other. Even creeping along, one feels one is playing Russian Roulette with a full complement of bullets.
We made it back to Calgary just fine - and I nightmared about that drive for several weeks. Yes, sitting straight up in bed with the no-sound scream. As a control: in general I didn't and still don't nightmare very often. Usually every couple years or so.
This time we went through the Kicking Horse Pass on the way to Calgary. I hadn't been through the Kicking Horse Pass since sometime mid nineties, and there have recently been some *amazing* modifications. See here:
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/
They are building cantilevered sections out from the sheer canyon walls, smoothing out the kinks, and making it four lanes. MAKING IT FOUR LANES!! Holy Mackinole. When I last drove it, it was barely wide enough for two cars to squeak past each other, while saying 'scuze me pahdon me as they went. Wow.
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/construction/traffic-management//
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/about/photos-and-videos/
There is a video from 1966, which looks familiar from when I was a kid in the back seat (without a seatbelt, I might add), and it didn't look any different in the mid-eighties (when, yes, we were wearing seatbelts, but self-consciously) - except for new slide damage of rocks on the road, and washouts under the pavement, and the trees were taller. The only real difference was/is the amount of traffic on the road. This is Highway One, I remind you, and is the fastest way for transports to do their transporting thing.
The Kicking Horse Pass was completely closed for our return trip on Monday, and merciful heavens, after the slowish detour (secondary road, not as many passing lanes, blah blah blah) down to Radium from Banff, back up to Golden, the sections between Golden and Revelstoke, and then Revelstoke to Sicamous, are also loaded (*LOADED*) with more construction. Slow going.
The Kicking Horse Pass upgrade is setting the gold standard for the rest of the highway through the Rockies. It is going to be super duper, but but but - more is needed. Another very treacherous piece is between Sicamous and Salmon Arm - multiple accidents weekly. It, too, is dangling on a track carved into the cliff face.
But Kicking Horse Pass - wow.
The Kicking Horse Pass is the scariest part of the TransCanada through the Rockies, hands down. From a family function in the early eighties, I drove my cousin's car back to Calgary from Oliver BC, with my cousin and two aunties in the car. I was driving because, as a BC girl, I was *obviously* accustomed to driving on unflat, unstraight roads, unlike the rest of the car's occupants, who were prairie girls to the core. Corners bad, hills bad, hilly corners really bad - curvy hills - aaarrrrrggghhhhh!
Anyhoo. Accustomed or not, the Kicking Horse Pass is/was extremely curvy, extremely hilly, with a large helping of cliff faces to one side and depths of serious inconvenience to living on the other. Even creeping along, one feels one is playing Russian Roulette with a full complement of bullets.
We made it back to Calgary just fine - and I nightmared about that drive for several weeks. Yes, sitting straight up in bed with the no-sound scream. As a control: in general I didn't and still don't nightmare very often. Usually every couple years or so.
This time we went through the Kicking Horse Pass on the way to Calgary. I hadn't been through the Kicking Horse Pass since sometime mid nineties, and there have recently been some *amazing* modifications. See here:
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/
They are building cantilevered sections out from the sheer canyon walls, smoothing out the kinks, and making it four lanes. MAKING IT FOUR LANES!! Holy Mackinole. When I last drove it, it was barely wide enough for two cars to squeak past each other, while saying 'scuze me pahdon me as they went. Wow.
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/construction/traffic-management//
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/about/photos-and-videos/
There is a video from 1966, which looks familiar from when I was a kid in the back seat (without a seatbelt, I might add), and it didn't look any different in the mid-eighties (when, yes, we were wearing seatbelts, but self-consciously) - except for new slide damage of rocks on the road, and washouts under the pavement, and the trees were taller. The only real difference was/is the amount of traffic on the road. This is Highway One, I remind you, and is the fastest way for transports to do their transporting thing.
The Kicking Horse Pass was completely closed for our return trip on Monday, and merciful heavens, after the slowish detour (secondary road, not as many passing lanes, blah blah blah) down to Radium from Banff, back up to Golden, the sections between Golden and Revelstoke, and then Revelstoke to Sicamous, are also loaded (*LOADED*) with more construction. Slow going.
The Kicking Horse Pass upgrade is setting the gold standard for the rest of the highway through the Rockies. It is going to be super duper, but but but - more is needed. Another very treacherous piece is between Sicamous and Salmon Arm - multiple accidents weekly. It, too, is dangling on a track carved into the cliff face.
But Kicking Horse Pass - wow.