O Canada! Thompson to Winnipeg, Manitoba — Day 9 — 2014-07-11

Day 9 – We spent the day driving the 466 miles (738 km) from Thompson to Winnipeg, stopping along the way when we would see something that caught our attention.

We wanted to get an early start, since the drive would take most of the day especially if we stopped along the way. So we were at the motel’s breakfast room as soon as the doors were opened. After a good breakfast, we checked out and hit the road.

A couple of miles from the motel and on our way out of town, is an apartment building I had read about. On its blank, north-facing wall, is a wonderful mural. It is said to be the largest, photorealistic mural in Canada. The subject is a wolf, and it’s size is 86-feet (26-meters) x 62-feet (19-meters)! The mural is a giant reproduction of Robert Bateman’s painting, “Wolf Sketch”. It was painted in 2005 by Winnipeg artist, Charlie Johnston, and was primarily funded by MB (Manitoba) Hydro, the major electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada.

Thompson has set itself up to be the home of the world predator title. Here is a short newspaper article explaining this challenge. Everywhere we went, there were these 6-foot (2-meter) tall wolf statues, painted and decorated in all sorts of clever ways. Walter and I had seen this in other cities with horses, bison, and pigs. Very clever way of advertizing for a city to attract tourists…

Even as we were leaving the town, I was seeing flashes of dark rose-red flowers on the roadside. These were Asclepias incarnata or Swamp Milkweed. We have this species at home in the Carolinas, but I wasn’t sure of my identification, so I found a place to pull over, and I made a few images:

Driving on a few more hours, we began to see patches of blue flowers along the road. I knew these were Campanula rotundifolia or Harebells, groups of sky-blue, bell-shaped flowers on a 1-foot (30 cm) tall stem. What we were seeing, however, were very dark, royal blue flowers. These were absolutely gorgeous, so the next time I spotted one of these groups of flowers, I had to pull over and take some photographs of it:

The wind was constant and strong, so even my best shot shows some movement of the flowers.

About half-way to Winnipeg, as we neared the city of Grand Rapids, we began to see lots of wildflowers in the clearing between the road and the woods. One of these was Astragalus canadensis or Canadian milk-vetch, a plant with a nice creamy-yellow flower. This is a species that can be found in every one of the lower 48 except New Mexico, although don’t remember ever seeing it in South Carolina:

Nearby, blowing in the wind, were the tall, pink, flower-covered stalks of Hedysarum alpinum or American Sweet-vetch:

Across the road, we could see orange “torches” blowing in the wind. It was now a good time to photograph the Lilium philadelphicum or Wood Lily. These were a ubiquitous sight all over Manitoba. Some plants had as many as five or six flowers, while most had just a single flower. The color of the flowers ranged from light orange, to a deep, red-orange:

This was turning out to be a great stop for us! Looking down, I saw a PlataPlatanthera aquilonis or Northern Green orchid:

And just down the road a bit, were large numbers of Medicago sativa or Alfalfa. This is the same plant that produces the seeds whose sprouts we eat on fresh salads. The colors ranged from a light lilac to a rich, deep purple:

As we got closer to the northern section of Lake Winnipeg, we started seeing drifts of white flowers at the edge of the woods. I thought these might be Parnassia palustris, but after I gathered my camera gear, crossed the water-filled ditch, and scrambled over fallen trees and tree limbs, I found out it was Anemone canadensis or Canadian Anemone:

Just a mile or so from Long Point Road, an access road to a northern section of Lake Winnipeg where we had found a number of Cypripedium reginae or Showy Lady’s-slipper orchids, I saw something that caused me to slam on brakes and then do a U-turn. What I saw was a huge population of Showy Lady’s-slipper orchids in the ditch and next to the woods. I figured they would be well past bloom at this point, but somehow these were a bit late blooming, and were in great shape. The ones on the edge of the ditch were a lighter color, and although I was looking for a pure white, alba form, I did not see one here:

By now, the wind was really fierce. From the edge of the ditch, where I was photographing the lighter-color orchid flowers, I could see a group of darker flowers just into the woods. But to get there, I had to wade through water and then fight my way through dense spruce and tamarack. I was thinking that the trees would make a good wind-break, but Oh NO! It was even worse in that cubby-hole than out in the open. I set up my tripod, but couldn’t focus on the flowers because they were being violently tossed left and right. Every few minutes or so, the wind would die down a bit, and I had to be set up and ready for it. Here are a few shots of this 20-flower group taken in between gales:

I even managed to get a fairly close up shot of this group:

About this time, Walter found his way into the woods to get some shots of this gorgeous group of orchids. While he was waiting for the wind to drop down a notch or two, he pointed down and said that one of the flowers had just blown off and was lying on the ground! That’s how hard the wind was blowing. In the meanwhile, I had propped up some double-flowered stems and managed to get a couple of shots of those:

I’m really amazed that any of the shots were usable. I probably took 50 shots of this group, of which only a handful were any good.

We were just finishing up when two of our group, Nancy and Kathy, drove up and asked what we were doing. I pointed them to the large orchid group in the woods and then wished them luck.

We headed on toward Winnipeg where we would be staying an extra night before leaving for the Native Orchid Conference symposium in neighboring Minnesota. More about that in a later blog entry. As we neared Winnipeg, we crossed the Fairford River at a bridge over the gates of the control structure in the river. The water flow was fierce, due to the enormous amount of rain that Manitoba had experienced during the past month. However, we saw something that quite amazed us. At the edge of the river, there were eight or nine large, white birds — Pelicans! These were Pelecanus erythrorhynchos or White Pelicans. Now, I’ve seen these inland, but not in the middle of North America! Apparently, they breed in Manitoba. Who knew? Quite the surprise to me:

Here is a shot Walter managed to capture of a “skiing” pelican:

We continued on our way and finally reached Winnipeg around dark. We still had time to catch some supper and go back to the room and download today’s images. Tomorrow, we would be heading to a restored prairie site south of Winnipeg where the large, Platanthera praeclara or Western Prairie Fringed orchid reigns supreme…

–Jim