Bear Sightings and Big Miles: A Saskatoon to Fort McMurray Long-Distance Moving Story

If you've ever spent a significant amount of time on the road, you know that long trips are rife with wild stories and anecdotes. This is also the case for long-distance moving, although for the movers involved, there's usually less of a concern about the fund adventures of the road and more of an emphasis put on completing the trip with all of the owner's possessions safe and in tact.

Two Small Men mover Calvin Toews remembers one particular move from Saskatoon to Fort McMurray not for it's difficulty or the contents of the truck, but for a special road-side visitor.

“I’d been working in field construction and blind services before I got into moving,” Calvin says. “I’ve been with Two Small Men for almost six years now, so I’ve seen a lot of different jobs. But that one definitely sticks with me.”

The trip kicked off in Saskatoon, where Calvin is from. Marked by it's distinctive prairie surroundings, the area around Saskatoon is full of long stretches of open highway and remote towns with plenty of space in between them. For the Two Small Men crew, it means spending hours on the road in service of long-distance moves our of the city.

“This was one long trip,” Calvin explains. “It ended up being about five days all together.”

It may have been a simple residential move on paper but in practice it was anything but. It might have been the pick up and drop off of one client's possessions that started and finished the move, but along the route they worked in several other smaller moves in the interest of efficiency.

“We were picking up from Fort McMurray and then moving the customer’s stuff to Prince Albert," he says. "So it wasn’t just one straight shot. We were combining a few jobs along the route.”

This is typical when it comes to long-distance moves. The two small men move coordinators will account for timing and geography and come up with a plan and route based on that.

“They usually send the closest branch they can,” Calvin says. “It just depends on where the job is and what makes the most sense distance-wise.”

When they had made it outside of Saskatoon and started heading north, the trip quickly became less smooth. The guys had to push their limits every day.

“We’re limited on how many hours we can drive in a day,” Calvin explains. “About thirteen hours. So that’s part of why the trip stretched out over several days, along with doing other jobs along the way.”

And in the middle of the monotony, a furry friend suddenly appeared.

“We got turned around at one point,” Calvin says. “And that’s when we saw the bear.”

And it was no cub.

“It was a grizzly,” he says. “A big one.”

The bear was closer to the road than anyone was comfortable with.

“It was on the side of the highway, coming through an S-curve,” Calvin recalls. “You could see the scars on its nose and everything.”

They felt frozen in the moment.

“We didn’t get out or anything,” Calvin adds with a laugh. “Definitely no pictures. You just slow down and keep moving.”

This was a special sighting, even for veterans of the road.

“You don’t see that kind of thing very often,” he says. “That was a first for me.”

They eventually made it to Fort McMurray, which couldn't be more different from Saskatoon. Much more of an industry town, the area has it's own kind of interesting reputation.

“It’s got a lot of hills,” Calvin says. “And it feels like it’s either on fire or flooding. That’s kind of how people talk about it.”

In Fort McMurray, the surrounding forest is thick and dense, and the winters are brutal and long. But Calvin was just happy they had made it.

“It’s about six hours north of Saskatoon,” Calvin says. “Once you’re there, you really feel how far you’ve come.”

The move in Fort McMurray was nothing compared to the drive up there.

“The job itself was pretty simple,” Calvin says. “Nothing too crazy once we got there. It was really the trip that made it memorable.”

And that's the thing about long distance moving. You've got to be both physically and mentally strong.

“When you’re doing long-distance moves, it’s not just about lifting and loading,” Calvin explains. “It’s planning, timing, and making sure everything stays on track over several days.”

As they headed back to Prince Albert and eventually to Saskatoon, the moving crew digested everything that had happened.

“It’s one of those stories you don’t forget,” Calvin says. “Not every move comes with a grizzly bear sighting.”

As Calvin explains, you always have to be ready for whatever the road throws at you.

“You never really know what you’re going to see out there,” he says. “But you deal with it and keep going.”

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