My Alberta: Bay Tree

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I found Bigfoot. But I found something else too.

I wasn't looking for Bigfoot.

I was working, driving through the Peace Country, when I stopped in Bay Tree, Alberta.

And there he was.

Bigfoot.

Obviously I had to take his picture.

But the longer I was there, the more I realized Bigfoot wasn't really the story.

The people were.

There were truckers like me. Tourists passing through. Farmers. Ranchers. Tradespeople. Local people coming and going.

Some were getting fuel. Some were getting something to eat. Some were stopping for coffee. Some probably knew half the people walking through the door.

And for a little place that you could easily drive right past, there was a lot going on.

Food.

Fuel.

A general store.

An ice rink.

People working.

People travelling.

People living their lives.

And, apparently, Bigfoot.

This is exactly why I started doing My Alberta.

I spend a lot of my life behind the wheel of a truck. Most of the time there is somewhere I need to be, something I'm hauling, a clock I'm watching and another highway ahead of me.

It would be really easy to just drive through these places.

See the sign.

Bay Tree.

Keep going.

But then you miss something.

You miss the people.

You miss these little communities scattered across Alberta that most people in Edmonton or Calgary may never think about.

And you miss how important places like this can be.

In a city, if one gas station or restaurant closes, there is probably another one down the road.

Rural Alberta is different.

A little general store can be a gas station, restaurant, post office, meeting place, information centre and somewhere you run into your neighbour.

It's part of the community.

Standing there watching everybody coming and going, I realized something else.

There were people from completely different worlds crossing paths in this one little place.

A tourist and a trucker might have absolutely nothing in common.

Neither might have much in common with the rancher who has lived in the area his entire life.

Then you've got tradespeople working somewhere nearby, farmers coming in from the surrounding area and somebody like me who just happens to be hauling through the Peace Country.

For a few minutes we're all in the same place.

That's community too.

Not everything has to be complicated.

And not every My Alberta story has to be about something wrong.

I've written about homelessness, addiction, recovery, housing, Indigenous history and some of the difficult things happening in our communities.

Those stories matter.

But Alberta is also this.

Little places.

Ordinary people.

A general store along the highway.

An ice rink.

A cup of coffee.

Someone filling their truck.

A conversation with a stranger.

And a giant Sasquatch standing outside.

I'm starting to think the best part of this series isn't going to be the places I planned to visit.

It's going to be the places I didn't.

The places I find because work takes me down another highway and something makes me stop.

Because you can drive across Alberta your entire life and still not really see it.

Sometimes you have to stop the truck.

Get out.

Look around.

Talk to somebody.

You might discover an entire little community you didn't know was there.

And if you're lucky, you might even find Bigfoot.

My Alberta.

Land. People. Stories. Home.

Discovering Alberta, one community at a time.

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