Week ending Aug 27, 2015 Vulcan area

Friday we drove into Cochrane to pick up mail. We hit the snow that fell in Cochrane and Calgary.

What a difference a day makes, from 25 C to 1 C the next. We then did some shopping in Calgary and finally met Trev and family at Milestones in Southcenter for dinner. We were celebrating Jamie's 15th birthday. It really is hard to believe that our youngest grandchild is already 15. We had a wonderful dinner, Joan had a Cajun seafood dish (practice for this winter) John had a portabello mushroom chicken dish and kids had a variety ranging from burgers to seafood dishes. All meals were excellent, well worth a return visit.

Saturday was laundry morning. After lunch we went for a walk through town.  Our first stop was a fitness circuit that has been installed in the local park. We tried out most of the exercise machines. They are great and we will go back, a good way to spend an hour most days while we are here in Vulcan.

 About half the circuit

We then walked up to the hospital. We wanted to find out if we would have to go back to Calgary to get our test done after our annual Dr. visits scheduled for Tuesday. Most of the tests Joan always gets done are not available here, so that means a second trip into Calgary.  Saturday night was the Nascar Bristol night race.

Sunday we used the exercise circuit. Very handy. We then went for a walk along the golf course and enjoyed the mountain views. Although seeing them with white tops was not all that encouraging since we are planning to spend some time in Banff next month.

Monday Joan steam cleaned the carpets in the trailer. It is a job that needs to be done occasionally and only takes an hour. The people at the rental place are always shocked to see us back so quickly with the machine. We are starting to see evidence of the forest fires in Washington state as smoke is hanging in the air.

Tuesday was Doctor day. Our appointments were 11:00 A.M. in Calgary. We left Vulcan just after 9:00 A.M. and arrived in Calgary in time to park half way between each of our Doctors offices and walk. After the appointments we needed lunch. Joan's Dr. has the good taste to have his office next to the Rose and Crown, so we decided it was the best place for lunch. We had a great lunch and then headed back to Vulcan.

Wednesday morning we visited the lab to get our blood work done.  Luckily all we needed was the basic tests, so we don't need to go anywhere else.. After the lab visit we went walked to the Batter-Up Bakery for coffee and apple fritters for breakfast, since we had to fast. We went back to the trailer to do some planning for the future. While wandering around downtown  John noticed a fruit truck at the Esso station, so after lunch off we went to check their wares.  Because they only sell in larger quantities we passed.  We stopped at the furniture store here as we are looking to replace our chairs, but the new ones must be the right size, color, weight etc. We found one that is good, but it takes at least 6 weeks to arrive after its ordered if they don't have one with the appropriate fabric in stock . We will be on our way south by then. So we keep looking. Good news, as the forest fire smoke seems to be abating somewhat today.

We had planned on golfing at Keho Lake on Thursday morning. The forest fire smoke was really bad again, so no golfing today. Since outside activities were not in the cards we headed to Lethbridge to do some shopping. Joan got a haircut, we went to Costco and Best Buy. The items we wanted turned out not to work the way we anticipated, so we saved our money. On our way back to Vulcan we checked out some campgrounds in the little towns along the way. Vulcan still wins for suitability (ie. full service, wi-fi, clean bathrooms with decent showers, easy satellite set-up and all at a reasonable price). In our mind the best value for money in this area.

Week ending Aug 20, 2015 Twin Valley and Severin Reservoir

Friday was moving day. As the forecast was for grey drizzly weather we decided to see if we could get into Vulcan for the weekend. This was Vulcan's rodeo weekend so the campground was full. We then headed to Twin Valley Reservoir, a little gem of a place we discovered a few years ago. 30 amp power, but not much else, including cell service.  This seems to be the backup place when we need a campsite on long weekends, or any other weekend that all the places in the area are full.

Saturday was a bit of a dreary day, so we decided it was a good day to run into Cochrane to check on mail.    Naturally the only mail we had was a home lottery ad.   We did take the advantage of the trip to spend some time using  the library wi-fi.    While Joan was checking out kidney health cooking, John decided to download the upgrade to Windows 10 (advertised as the last edition of windows), which makes the primary interface the same as Windows 7, while still having some of the Windows 8 features available.  We'll see how this compromise works out.  

Sunday after the Nascar race we walked to the boat dock.  In the evening we watched the deer enjoy the grass in the campground.

Monday was moving day again. We chose Severin Reservoir, close to Standard. We noticed on our way past Arrowwood that our site was vacant, good news since a long weekend is coming. We arrived  at Severin Dam, just north of Standard, just after lunch.  This is not a very level area, maybe that's why there are very few people here. Oh well, we leveled well enough to get one of the main slides out, but left the tricky one in. We no sooner got our solar panels set up than the clouds rolled in. The TV is set up and with a bit of luck our solar panels will produce enough power to keep everything chugglng along happily. We do have a few electronics that need charging. The one really positive about this site is that our cell phone has four bars, a real treat, since usually dispersed camping in Alberta means no cell service.



Tuesday was still partly cloudy.  What's with that?  We need full sun to get maximum production out of the solar panels. We went for a walk on the east side of the reservoir and watched the pelicans, herons, cormerants and numerous ducks, as well as people fishing. We had been told this is a good fishing reservoir. There is toxin producing blue-green algae in the reservoir so no boating for us.

Wednesday was a perfect sunny Alberta day. Our solar panels were happier than they have been in a long time. The weather forecast is for cloud and rain starting later tomorrow so time to move to a full service park. We really just spent the day doing nothing and enjoying the hot sunny day.

Thursday we moved to Vulcan. Our coffee stop was Pete's Cafe at Cluny. While waiting for our early lunch  a native fellow entertained us with stories of his elders. We arrived in Vulcan early afternoon, got set up, got groceries and called it a day.  We like this full service campground because it does not allow campfires and has okay wi-fi.  It is close enough to Calgary we can run in and see the kids and doctors.

 As a footnote, the Windows 10 upgrade, although it took several hours to get downloaded and installed, has gone reasonably well.  The only significant issue so far, has been that the Mail application, didn't keep the emails that had been previously downloaded from a couple of email accounts, and took a significant time downloading, particularly since we weren't on good internet for it.   All other files and applications seem to be working okay so far. We'll see how it all goes now that we are on internet in Vulcan for a few days. 

Week ending Aug 13, 2015 Enchant and Bow City

Thursday after making our yearly Dr. appointments we took advantage of the short walking trail provided by the campground. It took us just under an hour and within minutes of arriving back at the trailer the rain began again. We are glad that we are not out on the golf course.

Friday was golf day. The campground backs on the golf course so we just walked over. We discovered we had to keep a close eye on our ball as there was a hawk sitting in a tree keeping a sharp eye on the comings and goings of the golfers. When we got to hole 7 we encountered a group golfing ahead of us who were much slower than us, which was a first.  It turned out they were a couple teaching their 3 kids to golf.

Saturday we went on a recon mission. There was a campground that had been described as  quiet and  scenic with good hiking near the ghost town of Steveville on the Red Deer River. We decided to check it out. It was not at all suitable and did not have any hiking, all in all a dud. We stopped at Brooks to get some groceries.  We discovered that a Medieval Fair was in progress. If we had known that, we would have stopped in earlier and checked out the fair.  By the time we got there the day was almost over. We checked a few campgrounds on the way back to Enchant.  The first stop was the Rolling Hills Reservoir County Park  which turned out to be operated by the Eastern Irrigation District, not Newell County.  It was a bit pricey for what they offer.  Then we checked out Bow City Campground, which is on the Bow River with some hiking trails, a beach and a rather pleasant looking campground with trees will shade our trailer while not interfering with satellite reception. The weatherman is promising us temps in the 35 degree range, so we will definitely want 30 amp service to run the air conditioner. Shade trees in the late afternoon and evening won't hurt either.

Sunday was another day to watch people pack up and head for home. We are always glad to just be watching this procedure rather than being caught up in the madness. We went for a walk on the trails around the campground in the morning as we were expecting a warm day. We are pleased all our neighbours have left so that we can leave the door and windows open to allow some breeze flow through. No air conditioning here as we are on 15 amp service. We spent the afternoon watching the Nascar race.

Monday was moving day. off to Bow City. Check Bow city's history at http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/bowcity.htm Back to 30 amp service, a real requirement because the temp is promising to be in the mid 30's. As we were  heading into the campground another Titanium was backing into a site. It was the same lady that was next to us in Enchant. She had been to Taber campground since we saw her last and she reported that it was not a great park, and as it was in the valley the campfire smoke hung over the park, making breathing a challenge.   Once we were set up, one of the neighbours 4 cats came over to check out the owl.   It got pretty close before it determined the owl was artificial, probably because the owl wouldn't make eye contact.

We were surprised that there was standing water in the grove of trees around the campground, as it is a very dry area.  They keep the trees in good shape by irrigating the 'canal' that trees are in.
 

Tuesday, promised to be a hot day. We decided to take our walk early. This campground promised to have a beach, a place to launch boats and hiking trails. We walked down a dead end road. Finally found a place that we could get down to the river. It really was pleasant. We noticed all sorts of clam shells on the shore, but as we don't know much about fresh water clams we figured the smart thing is to not eat any. We were not able to find any traces of the coal mines that are advertised to be in the area.

John spent part of the afternoon working on the trailers roof. He will get the paint all pealed off eventually. When he started feeling overheated he would come in and enjoy the air conditioning with Joan. Just before 6:00 P.M. the campground caretaker came by to discuss our stay. We had paid for 7 nights (self registration is in  effect here), but there is a family reunion booked for the weekend, so we can not stay for the full 7 nights. He told us we can stay until Friday, so we changed our registration.

Wednesday is predicted to be the warmest day of the week. In the morning we went in to Brooks, picked up some beverages, ice cream and some fresh veg's. All the hot weather requirements. By the time we got back to the trailer it was already almost 35 degrees C. By mid afternoon it was really hot.

Thursday morning we walked to the trout ponds we had heard about from our Titanium neighbour and the campground caretaker.  They were just around the corner from where we went down to the river on Tuesday.  They are the result of the coal strip mining. We wandered around the ponds and found them to be an interesting area.  One of the larger ponds is stocked with trout.  Trout escaped from some of the other ponds into the Bow River, so they quit stocking the rest. 

The area is covered with 'Silver Sage' plants.

When we got back to the campground we spoke to the people who moved in last night. They are part of the Lane family reunion taking place here this weekend and the reason we have been kicked out. It turns out that she is one of the grandchildren of  George Lane,  the well-known rancher in southern Alberta,  who owned the Bar U ranch, which is now a historic site, and all the land in the Bow City area. The campground we stayed in many times in High River is named after George Lane.

Both the neighbours and our campground caretaker told us that there is no reason we can't camp by the ponds this weekend, as lots of people seem to disperse camp in that area, so we will head there tomorrow. 

Week ending Aug 6, 2015 Longview - Enchant

Thursday morning dawned sunny and warm so we packed lunch and headed for Ptarmigan Cirque. On our way to the trailhead we encountered numerous mountain sheep along Highway 40. We enjoyed the hike and although seeing signs of bear we did not see any bears. There were many people, including some from a bus and a van, on the trail, so seeing a bear would have been surprising. We noticed that there were many traps set out by the University of Saskatchewan to capture Columbian ground squirrels to study the impact of climate change on them.  Thanks to good optical zoom we were able to read the trap labels without leaving the trail. There were a couple of researchers checking them out from time to time. We stopped at the top of the trail for a snack and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We watched a few chipmunks eating the flower seeds. One came over, begging for some of our peanuts. 

Cirque view from the highway

Ground Squirrel in trap

Waterfall

Ground Squirrel not in trap

Down Highwood Valley from the Cirque

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at Mist Creek for lunch beside the Highwood River which really is a babbling brook at this point.

Friday just after 10:00 A.M. we headed into Calgary. Joan's tablet had quit working so a trip into  Best Buy was necessary.  Within seconds the tablet was back in working order at no cost.   We then got groceries and supplies for the weekend, as we are expecting Trev and family for a BBQ lunch on Sunday. It was another warm day, and our neighbours in the campground had campfires so we had to keep cool with our air conditioner.

Saturday John went back to do some work on the roof of the trailer and Joan started preparations for tomorrows BBQ. It was a nice day to laze around the campground.

Sunday Trev, Sue and boys came out for a BBQ. We spent the day visiting with them.

Monday we watched the trailers pouring out of Kananaskis. We were very glad that we decided not to travel on the Monday of the long weekend.

Tuesday we went to Cochrane to pick up our mail. John's new US$ credit card arrived as well as the explanation of our seniors benefits. We stopped at the Country Corner Cafe at Millarville for lunch.  We figure it has been about 15 years since we've had lunch there. Our next stop was the hospital in Black Diamond so that John could get the wax cleaned out of his ears. It was then back to the trailer to put away a few things in preparation for tomorrows move.

Wedneday was moving day. We have always wanted to stay at Enchant as John's parents recommended this park numerous years ago.  After a grocery stop in High River Co-op we stopped for coffee stop at Vulcan. The PetroCan in Vulcan always has a great selection  of specialty coffees and we make a point of stopping there for our coffee break when we are in the area. Shortly after 1:00 P.M. we arrived at Enchant. This place has always intrigued us because it is a town of 250 + or - but has a campground with 150 sites. After driving around and we found the perfect site next to another  Titanium. The lady in the Titanium was from High River.  She sold her house just after the flood and is now a fellow Titanium full-timer. We got  set up just in time to see weather warnings on the satellite TV.  Works for us as it means campfires may be kept at bay. By 6:00pm the rain started.

Thursday after raining most of the night dawned bright and sunny, although there are still thunderstorm warnings in effect for this area. Today we booked our insurance for the winter to take advantage of  Medipac's  early booking discount.