Week ending Jul 31, 2014 Crowsnest Pass

Friday morning we realized why we love the mountains; a  good sleep because the temperature is always cool over night. We are in a place were we need the heater in the morning and the air conditioner in the afternoon.   We stopped at visitor information to pick up a local hiking guide, as well as see if we could track down a lady we had purchased mugs from a couple of years ago while at the Butterdome Christmas craft show in Edmonton. Of course we couldn’t remember her name. The ladies at the visitor info gave us a few leads so off we went. After checking a couple of places, walking down main street, we finally gave up.  We will replace the cup when we find another ceramic mug that suits us.  We finally went back to the trailer to study the hiking trails.

Saturday we left for a hike to Window Mountain Lake. There was a warning that the last 2 km road to the trailhead can be difficult.   After much discussion we decided we could walk that. Are we crazy? Yes we are. The road was a pain to walk on and our truck would have easily handled it. There was more than enough parking at the trailhead. So after slogging up to the trail head we carried on. Once we hit the headwall, Joan said 'I give up'. John carried on up the headwall, but still didn't get views of the lake, so turned back. The good news was we were in an area of great scenery and we enjoyed the hike.

 Sunday was our day of rest.  We watched MLS soccer and Nascar racing.  Enjoyed the warm mountain air and were happy that we didn’t have to use the pool here as it was packed with screaming kids. It was too warm,even for us, to use the hot tub, which is a kid free zone.

Monday we headed for Castle Mountain ski resort.  Trever instructed there for a few years, but we had never been there.   We decided on a hike to Haig Lake.  After walking up Buffalo Flats run, we headed on to a seismic road. We enjoyed the trail until we got to a spot that dipped steeply down with an equally steep up on the far side.  We elected to follow the directions in the guide, which turned out to be a mistake. We could have followed the ski out, which must be new since the writeup in the trail guide,  and avoided putting ourselves through one of the steepest sections of the trail.  The trail took us along the edge of a cliff (the bottom of it) and all in all it was a great hike, with fantastic scenery. We sat on a spot the ski run on our way down to finish our lunch. As we sat enjoying the views Joan noticed a deer sharing the run with us, but as we stood up, it decided to depart into the bush.  We now know why Trever liked this hill so much.

 On the way back, we checked out a couple of provincial rec areas along the Castle River.

Tuesday was another hot day, should we go for a hike? Every time we are in this area we go to Chris’s Restaurant, so we decided on  a late breakfast rather than another hike.  We then picked up groceries for the next week and then headed back to the campground to enjoy the pool.  During the week there are very few people in the campgrounds, hence we have a “private” pool.  We have a list of hikes we want to do for another visit. Its always good to have a reason to come back.

Finally a hot sunny dry day to  move. What a shock, one of the few nights we have had before moving that it didn`t rain. We chatted to our new neighbours as we were getting ready to move. One group was on their way to Pontiex, Saskatchewan for its 100th anniversary . The other family was from Didsbury and on their way to Moyie lake. The last time we were at Moyie lake Karen and John dumped the canoe.  We finally got to Vulcan and settled in the town campground.  John set up the hammock and spend the rest of the afternoon reading and dozing in the sun.

On Thursday morning, we headed back to Stavely for our $10 round of golf.  

Karen texted us that she and Dominique are on their way to join us in Vulcan.  

Week ending Jul 24, 2014 Claresholme

We spent July 11th to the 17th in Olds so that we could visit with John’s parents and help them with some work around their house. On July 17th we left Olds for Claresholme. We met Sue, Jamie and Taylor at Airdrie for breakfast. Trever and Anthony couldn’t join us as they were working.  

Friday we walked over to pick up some info and get a hiking book. After a wander down main street, a stop at the hardware store to pick up some more bits and a stop at Sobeys for some groceries we headed back to the trailer .  

Saturday we completed a road trip. We headed west from Claresholme along some back roads to Porcupine Fire Look out. This wasn’t really a hike, you could drive pretty much all the way to the lookout. The public is not allowed to drive to the lookout, so we walked the last 1/2 km to see a decent view of the mountains to the west, although the smoke in the air made them hazy.   As we walked the last bit we were accompanied by numerous butterflies.

On our way down toward Granum we came around a corner and stopped. There on the edge of the road a mother deer. She didn’t seem very bothered by our presence. She headed into the bush on the side of the road by the time we got next to her. This back road was quite interesting, narrow, windy, gravel and hilly. We saw lots of bear scat on the road, but to our disappointment no bears. Eventually we arrived out of the Rocky Mountain Provincial forest preserve.  Joan commented that there was an interesting rock to the left of the road. John said yes, take a second look,  and stopped the truck. There were 4 deer sitting in the shade of the rock, one in fact sitting in a cavern of the rock.  What a beautiful group of deer, all with a great set of antlers.

 Our next stop was Granum, a little town that had been recommended. We had been told the campground was great so we had to check it out.  The campground looked ok, not to our taste, narrow sites, too many trees, only 2 sites with full service and more costly than the one we are presently in at Claresholme.  Just to remind people whose memory is starting to fail (as ours is) this part of the province has a constant wind.

Sunday we finally finished fixing the blind we had started to repair while staying in Olds.  A couple pulled in next door to us and we discovered they are from High River. Interestingly the flood from last year has effected them in a way most people don’t think of.  We know you can’t get  a mortgage right now in High River, but these folks are older, retired, have a fully paid off house. They decided they would look into getting a reverse mortgage. No such luck, reverse mortgages are not being offered to people in High River.  That flood has had some long term effects.

Monday we did another walk through town.  There are numerous murals around town, and we didn't have the camera with us a few days ago.  They are really nice here, with more vibrant colours  than  many other paintings we have seen in other communities. 

 We stopped by the ranchers memorial 

as well as the airplane that commemorates the air force training done at the Claresholm airport during the war. Over 1800 pilots from all over the commonwealth  were trained here.  Early Monday afternoon George (John’s brother) arrived to visit with us for a few day.

Tuesday we drove into High River to have lunch with Sue and the 2 youngest boys.  Trev and Anthony are both working long hours.  We picked up our mail.  After lunch George, John and I headed for Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.  John and I had been there many years ago, prior to it becoming a National Historic site.  The trails have been expanded as has the exhibits in the building. As we were walking on one of the trails we had to stop and wait for a deer to decide which side of the trail he preferred.

Wednesday we spent the day doing some cleaning and  John put conditioner on the rubber seals around the slide outs. Wednesday night we had a great thunder storm with a bit of rain. Not a surprising event as we usually have a wet trailer to pack up. 

Thursday morning after packing up we left for Crowsnest Pass and Lost Lemon RV Park.  The last time we stayed at this RV park was when Trev and Karen were young, sleeping in a tent, John and I slept in the van. The kids were refusing to settle down, we had warned them about bears, so John walked up to the tent and scratched on it and then said “Papa bear says go to sleep”, scaring the kids half to death, . They remind us if that experience to this day. The RV park has been upgraded since then. Full service, nice bathrooms, laundry, showers, a pool and satellite connections, so John didn’t have to set up our dish.  While we were setting up we were reminded about the pleasures of campgrounds in mountain valleys, we are next to a creek and the train tracks are on the other side.

Week ending Jul 10, 2014 Eagle Valley, Emerson Bridge District Park

Eagle Valley is a peaceful campsite and the weather is spectacular.  We feel like we are on vacation as we are just sitting around enjoying the warm weather.  Of course we are also watching Wimbledon and FIFA.  What a great life. Our plan is to relax here until Monday, as this is the first weekend of summer holidays and experience has taught us that with the school kids out trying to find available campsites  over weekends has its challenges. 

Monday we moved on to Emerson Bridge Regional Park, a small county park on the Red Deer River north of Brooks.  

Tuesday morning we walked along a path to the river. Not a well trodden trail, but we watched a couple of owls fly along with us.  Finally one owl and a crow had a few words and eventually they flew off together. 

Wednesday we decided to explore the area. We wandered down some country roads, out first point of interest was the Finnegan Ferry that took us across the  Red Deer River. 

The ferry was able to carry 6 vehicles, but on a Tuesday morning we were its only passengers. We had to wait for it to arrive from across the river.  The trip took about 10 minutes.  After chatting to the operator we were off to our next destination, which was a real "Gem", a hamlet with about 6 houses, a fire hall and community hall.  Then we checked out Countess, a community that exists because of its museum that is open on the occasional Saturday and Sunday.  Then we carried on to Rosemary. Our first stop was its community RV park. Only a dozen sites, but very nice with water and power.  The bathrooms are coded, so only paying campers can use them, so even though we couldn't check them out we assume they must be reasonably decent. Experience has taught us that coded bathrooms are well kept up. We then stopped at the bakery on main street to pick up some whole wheat bread. He only had white bread today, tomorrow was the day he was making whole wheat. We had never encountered that type of schedule before.   John was very disappointed as the bakery did not have any cinnamon buns either. Oh well on to Duchess for a lunch stop.  We hunted for a bakery in Duchess with no luck, not even one that only had white bread. There did not appear to be a community RV park to check out.   We didn't see anywhere that looked promising for lunch. We might have been a bit early to find a place with lots of customers, so we headed to Brooks. We stopped at Boston Pizza, then got diesel and headed back to Emerson Bridge to watch the semi-final FIFA match between Argentina and Netherlands.

Thursday, we are hanging around the campground, posting the blog, doing dishes, and enjoying the weather.   Tomorrow we return to Olds for a week. 

Week ending Jul 3, 2014 Regina, Assiniboia

Friday morning was Dominique's graduation exercises. 

The entire program took about 2 1/2 hours. She had marks high enough to get a 2,000.00 scholarship, that will be a big help towards her university tuition.  After the program we went out for lunch then stopped by Peoples Jewelers to pick up an angel necklace she had chosen as a grad gift.

We hate to flog a dead horse, but how wet is the campground this year? We had some neighbours pull in and after levelling their trailer they drove off.   Odd, we thought, but people do things in different orders.  They came back in short order with brand new rubber boots. Aha - In order to plug in his utilities he had to wade through a fairly deep puddle. The ducks are truly loving this weather.

Saturday morning we stopped by the Regina farmers market. One of the vendors is a garlic grower from Yorkton that we had discovered last year when we stayed in the Yorkton area. She had excellent garlic.  However,  she was not in attendance this week, just our luck. We then headed back to the East end of Regina.  While Joan went for a haircut John stopped by the bank and Bulk Barn. Karen and Dominique came over mid- afternoon and we played a game of Monopoly. Karen acted as banker and won the game handily.

Sunday was a rainy, rainy day.  We watched a duck swimming by the fence behind the trailer

while  Karen and Dominique dried out their basement, since the sump pump hadn't come on when the water rose.   Then they came out to the trailer, had dinner and we had a monopoly rematch. John and I must be aging because again we lost.  This time Dominique was the winner. 

Monday we moved to Assiniboia. A rainy morning, with Joan wading up to her ankles in order to unplug the electricity (no rubber boots). By the time we arrived in Assiniboia the rain had become a drizzle. Luckily we were heading west from Regina as numerous highways to the east were flooded. Thanks to Joan’s sister Carol and her husband, we had a free campsite on the mobile home lot next to them. They BBQ'd and we visited with all their family.

On July 1st after stuffing a turkey and putting it in the oven  David, Carol John and Joan headed out to St. Victor to a petroglyph site that David is taking care of.

  

On the way back we stopped a watched a mother antelope laying in the field watching her young that was probably hidden in the tall grass close by.

On Wednesday while Dave was working, Carol , John and Joan went to the Shurniak Art Gallery, which has some very interesting paintings.  Bill Shurniak was born in Limerick, nearby, and worked for CIBC in domestic and international posts in Canada, Jamaica and Hong Kong, where he collected art of many local Saskatchewan artists, as well as international artists. 

Thursday we left with Lac Pelletier as our destination. We gave them a call once we got fairly close. No luck with a site for the next four nights, to carry us through the weekend, so we carried on to Eagle Valley, a campground/rv park along #1. On our way we stopped in at a favourite stop of ours, "No. 1 Scoop" at Tompkins.  It is a funky little ice cream stop that has some of the most unusual ice cream flavours. We had heard that it had closed, but much to our delight it was still up and running. Over the years this has become a break stop on our trips along this stretch of the Trans Canada highway.

We got set up in the campground, and after having supper,  succeeded to get a satellite signal on the second attempt of the day, so can now happily stay for 4 days.