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Lake Louise and Kicking Horse Pass

Page history last edited by Michael 7 years ago

back to the Index, or the Geography page, or Canada

 


Chateau Lake Louise

 

Pre-War  

 

     Chateau Lake Louise is an 11- or 12-story luxury hotel at the east end of the emerald-green Lake Louise. It was "winterized" in 1982 for year-round operation, in preparation for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Many ski lifts and runs were created at the same time. Parking lots, RV parks, smaller lodges etc. stood along Lake Louise Drive, which leads east 4 kilometers to Highway 1 along Louise Creek.

 

Looking west along Lake Louise towards the Lefroy Glacier.

 

     Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway, follows the Bow River towards Banff (another famous mountain resort) and Calgary. The "Village" where Lake Louise Drive meets Highway 1 had a year-round population of about 500 persons.
     Rail lines from Kamloops BC ran east into the Rockies, through Kicking Horse Pass (along with Highway 1), past Lake Louise, and finally south to Banff and east to Calgary (a major rail hub).

 


Post War

 

     No nuclear attacks were made in the Rockies, but highway traffic and fuel shipments ended within a day or so after the Atomic War. Cold weather and starvation drove the inhabitants of the Village (and the few hotel staff) away; the snow and ice gathered and remained for thirty years. The Lefroy glacier extended down to the east shore of the lake. The roof of the chateau collapsed at some point, and most of the interior above the second floor was destroyed.

     A few explorers passed through the Bow River Valley after 2050 -- scouts from the United Combine and the Purity Corps, and then more scouts from the RCMP and the government at Calgary.  21 years ago (in 2119) the Airborne Regiment established a base here, rebuilding bridges, refurbishing the chateau and repairing the rail line from Calgary.


Location

 

Dashed line is the original railway route.

 

The Current Infrastructure

     The chateau is now CFS Lake Louise, Alberta -- a secret research unit, and detention center. There are two wings:  one 55 meters long by 14 meters wide (the oldest, Painter wing), the other (main, or Barrot) wing is 75 meters long by 15 meters wide. Here's the plan of one of the mid-upper floors back in the 1980s:

 

     The ground level of the Painter Wing is mostly taken up by the Victoria Ballroom; in 2140 this space is serving as a stable.

     The Airborne Regiment rebuilt the roof, but their standard of construction for the upper floors is more "medieval" than "luxury". Above the second floor, most of the internal construction is wooden. The original elevators no longer exist, but simple chain-hoist lifts for cargo are installed in the shafts. Electrical lighting is installed, along with a simple telephone system.

     The railway line from Calgary ends where the Village used to be; Highway 1 continues west into Kicking Horse Pass.

     A kilometer or so north of the rail station is a dirt runway, with a fuel supply and simple hangar. After November, aircraft land on the frozen Lake Louise instead.

     There is a building about 100 meters northeast of the chateau with two large diesel generators installed; they aren't usually operated. Boilers in the chateau basement provide heat and hot water for the hotel; a smaller emergency generator in the basement can power some systems, but is unreliable and less efficient. Most of the time power is provided by the reactor from a Morrow Project V-150 armored car, parked inside the Barrot Wing.

 

Canadian Forces Present

 

     Three dozen members of the Airborne Regiment guard the prisoners and the area. They have a couple of small cannons (probably 37mm guns) and a couple of belt-fed 7.62mm Brownings. Captain Jules Breen is in command; he is not a "qualified paratrooper".

     In addition, 30 scientists, technicians and mechanics are assigned to CFS Lake Louise; a dozen cooks and other minor workers round out the station's staff. The Morrow Project prisoners aren't much help in the Canadians' attempts to understand or replicate the Project's technology.

 

Transport

 

     Present at Lake Louise, at the chateau or in the village:

  • three dozen horses

  • various horse-drawn wagons and sleighs

  • dogs and dog sleds

  • bobsleds, cross-country skis, toboggans, snow shoes, etc.

  • a V-150 with machine-gun turret (electric motor, wheels, turret, guns, ammo and radio removed by the Canadians)

    • the vehicle's autonav, computer and laser disc drive have been removed also, but they're in the security archives section of the chateau

  • a Viking aircraft (there's a pilot among the garrison) at the airstrip a couple kilometers away from the chateau.

  • a gasoline-fueled command car

  • a diesel dump truck ... it was originally marked CANFOR = "Canadian Forest Products"; it's painted yellow (though mostly kinda rust- or steel-colored).

  • a hard-to-identify bulldozer. Very slow.

     There's a good supply of gasoline, and some diesel, at the chateau, entirely stored in 55 gallon drums; a tank in the basement contains "heating oil" for the boiler; the generator building has a large diesel tank (you don't know how much, but probably thousands of gallons)

 

Detainees

 

     Note that not all the prisoners are members of the Morrow Project. The remaining eight Project members are:

 

  • two members of M-12 captured in 2138 (V-150 with 90mm cannon turret - the vehicle and driver were not captured, and two of the captured members later escaped from captivity). Their cache locations are not known to the Canadians.

    • Tony Wong:  a one-legged tank gunner, former Army sergeant -- lost his leg in the combat that resulted in the MARS team being captured.Has an A.A. degree in music, one-quarter Chinese. Has a B-flat/A clarinet.

    • John Garvins, a Marine CWO4 sniper/instructor, he was acting as loader/scout on the MARS vehicle. Has an A.A. in military science.

  • four members of R-12 captured in 2137 (V-150 with MG turret). None of them are veterans. Their cache locations are known to the Canadians (they have access to the team's computer).

    • Cleveland Carpenter; has a B.A. in History

    • Trenton Moser, has a B.A. in English

    • Jamon Rosenfeld, has a B.A. in Accounting

    • Ronnie Brady, has an M.A. in Education, with certificates for K-12 teaching (team leader)

  • two members of R-44 captured in 2139 (Commando Scout vehicle). Their cache locations are not known to the Canadians (the vehicle was not equipped with a computer).

    • Jonah Dyer, has B.S. in Nursing, with RN certification (the driver), and a bit of non-combat military experience in the U.S. Army.

    • Damon Chambers; he has an MBA (the gunner/team leader)

 

     Two members of team M-12 escaped from Lake Louise; they were

 

    • Giovanni Jensen, observer. U.S, Army infantry veteran (machine gunner) of the Vietnam War. 

    • Frank Wolfe, team leader; a U.S. Army tank commander in the late Seventies/early Eighties.

 

      And of course the team's driver was never captured:

 

    • Gene Ribera:  B.A. in philosophy, and a veteran of the Vietnam War.

 

     They were MARS trained, but not special forces, Rangers, or anything sneaky-petey.

     Also there were two teams contacted by radio, but which never showed up to be captured:

 

  • Recon team R-34 was contacted in 2138, apparently with a V-150 somewhere in California.

  • Recon team R-36 was contacted in late August of 2140; they agreed to proceed to Billings, Montana, but didn't show up by October. They apparently were equipped with a hovercraft. They were vague about their location, but generally "the South".

 

     A few Hand of Jehovah and Purity Corp folk -- spies perhaps -- had usually been held for a few weeks, questioned, and then either released, or sent to Calgary, or shot. Other prisoners:

 

    • a member of the People's Army, Walter Campbell, a trader and explorer captured in the spring of 2140. He was traveling with a team of Mountain Walkers acting as teamsters, packers, etc.; they were released and are hanging around the mountains.

 

     The Canadians know the exact locations of the caches for R-12 and R-44. Fortunately for the Project, that information was available at Hardisty after the Maple Revolution.

     Tony Wong and John Garvins know in a general way the location of their team's caches, but the actual coordinates were on their team's computer

     The members of team R-44 weren't able to destroy their envelope with cache locations, radio frequencies, and other "secret" stuff before they were captured. Again, they themselves know where the caches are in a general way (most are in California).

 

Lake Louise Village

 

     Fourteen people live here, about three kilometers east of the chateau. Only the railway station and telegraph office (in the same building) have electrical power; a field telephone connects the telegraph office to the chateau.

 

  • Bruce Campbell the telegraph operator, his wife, and two sons; they live in a house next to the railway station (with a repeater for the telegraph sounder).

  • Darby Wilson, the railway station master/switch minder/maintenance man/postman/general store operator; lives in a small house behind his store.

    • a diesel-electric locomotive arrives about once every couple of weeks  (can only go back towards Banff however ... the tracks end a few hundred yards northwest past the Lake Louise village)

    • an old GMC Suburban, converted to run on rails (and only rails -- it has no regular wheels now). Can easily seat five people, with four more in the cargo space at back. It has a big luggage rack on the roof. Gasoline engine. The station master runs down to Banff a couple of times a week in this vehicle, to fetch mail and groceries.

    • in the village, next to the railway track, is a tank with thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. There are usually a few drums of gasoline in a shed near the train station, also. The station master will sell gasoline or diesel for 25 cents a gallon.

  • two road-and-bridge mender guys, in a cottage near their equipment sheds. They use horses and wagons from the stable for their work.

  • Hooper Smith the livery stable owner, his wife, and two sons, in a house next to the stable

    • four riding horses, two draft horses, a wagon and two 4-person sleighs are available at the stable

  • Liam Murphy the tavern owner, Tim Martin the cook, and Sally Baine the prostitute have rooms upstairs at the tavern.

    • cold baths (well, not freezing) cost 10 cents; hot baths cost 20 cents

    • Sally charges $3 per hour for "full service" shenanigans, $5 for "perverted" stuff, and $1.50 for "not full service". Perversion includes more than one person at a time. Baths beforehand are mandatory.

 

     About 400 trappers, miners, Bow River Valley ranchers, and other "high country recluses" and their families come and go from the village from time to time; the tavern has two rooms to let. Before the snow gets too deep, the road-and-bridge mending crew, and the tavern cook, leave town, and don't return until spring.

     A rail plow based in Banff can usually keep the rail line open in winter. The roads are usually impassable to wheeled vehicles by January, and stay closed until March -- the local road plows aren't very capable. Sleighs, dog sleds, horses, and maybe even a snowmobile or two are used when the snow is too deep for cars.

 

Kicking Horse Pass

 

     Highway 1, and one of the transcontinental railway lines, passes west into British Columbia from the Rockies here. The two half-mile Spiral Tunnels allow the railway to climb the pass; the bridge between the tunnels, over the Kicking Horse River, fell into the river long ago. The tunnels themselves are more or less intact, though in need of repair. Highway 1 ran up "the Big Hill", which has largely been destroyed by landslides and avalanches.

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