High Level Alberta - and Fire

In the West, we are now in forest fire season. Every year the fires seem to get started just a little bit earlier and they seem to be just a little bit more damaging. If one does not live in an area where forest fires are likely, or if one does not have family or friends living in such an area, I suspect that it all seems a little bit hum-drum. Perhaps if it is a spectacular fire such as the one at Fort McMurray a few years back, we might donate money to the Red Cross, but for so many Canadians, forest fires are just another natural disaster that someone else has to live through.

I am not any better than anyone else. Hearing about the constant litany of disasters both in Canada and around the world can get exhausting. There are times when I am a little bit envious of my grandparents who frequently would not have known about natural disasters until months after the event. They would never have had to worry about how the people affected by the disaster were managing. However, every once in a while something happens in a small corner of Canada that I happened to have visited and then I worry about the people that I met there and hope they are okay.

A few years ago, I spent a night in High Level, Alberta. I was on the way to Yellowknife, taking a slight detour on my way from Sudbury to Duncan, B.C. In that part of Canada, on the July 1st weekend, the sun barely sets. I suppose I could have hitchhiked all night but I was tired and needed a shower. High Level was just a small town, in the middle of nowhere about halfway between Edmonton and Yellowknife. Like so many of the small towns I pass through on my trips, I didn't get to see much of it, but as I watched the highway and the buildings along either side, I saw lots of people going into the indoor pool, people riding their ATVs along the trailsand people coming into town to do shopping. It looked like a nice town, a town where kids and parents played together.

There were two hotels/motels to choose from, one looking significantly newer than the other. I chose the older looking one. It was of an older "pan-a-bode" ( pre-fab log building) design that had clearly had seen better days. While it was dwarfed by the more modern looking and larger motel around it, the name got my attention..... "Sweet Dreams Motel". Who could resist staying in a place that had such a charming name? It was almost 9:30 and in spite of the fact that the sign said that the office was open until 11:00 there was no immediate response to the doorbell. In fact, I was about to turn away when I saw, through the office door window an older woman wrapped in a bathrobe approaching the door. For a moment I thought that perhaps the building had been turned into a residence and I had awoken a permanent resident. I apologize for disturbing her but her response was somewhat reassuring " Its O.K., that is what I am here for.”

She was not very empathetic about my slow rate of travel. When I mentioned that I was hitchhiking to Yellowknife she suggested that I was either travelling in the wrong direction or at the wrong time as many northerners were be heading towards urban areas (south) for the long weekend. But she had a friendly smile and it was fun to trade quips with here. I don't think she knew how to give a straight answer, for example when she gave me my room key, I asked her where it was. She just said, "go out the door and follow the numbers until you find it"!

The building looked run down. Whatever colour the milled, fabricated logs had been - they were now a dirty brown. There was at least one vehicle in the parking lot that looked abandoned. Its back end was jacked up and the tires and rims were off. It had last year's plates on it. Inside the room was interesting. It was rather dark and while everything was clean, it all certainly looked like it had been well used. But the bathroom was fine (if noisy as the family next door could be heard quite clearly), either of the two beds were comfortable and the curtains were double lined so that sunlight could not get through them. I had had a great night’s sleep and woke up feeling refreshed.

As usual, I could have stayed in bed an extra hour, had a leisurely breakfast, slowly wandered over to my particular stretch of highway and still have had time to get a bit bored. But then if I had stayed in bed I would have missed watching the town get ready for the Canada Day parade. All of the town fire trucks, the town maintenance vehicles as well as a few trucks pulling floats went by me, heading I assumed, to the start of the parade. Of course, there would be no fireworks...what is the point if it does not get dark.

And now the entire town has been evacuated because the forest fire just south of High Level is putting the town at risk. I hope the few people I met including the woman in her dressing gown who made me feel welcome are safe, and that the Sweet Dreams Motel, as run down as it was, remains standing to serve the traveller just passing through.

The forest fire in High Level is not just a place where another disaster is happening - it is a town with moms and dads and children. it is a placed that offered me shelter for a night. If my good thoughts and wishes were worth anything - everything will be okay.