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.