July 27

It’s about 5:00 p.m. on Sunday as I write this. We’ve had an event filled weekend to be sure. Jamie and his friends arrived on Friday afternoon and set up to camp for the weekend. I had saved them three sites and they were really happy with them. It was so good to see him…it’s been a long time. Cody and Jamie G, his friends for the past 25 years came with him as did a number of people who play in his band or are simply good friends. They seemed to have a good time even though Friday was a rainy, stormy day. Saturday was better and today is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. He and his buddies hiked up to the waterfall and the glacier near the campground…they had a good time just being out in the wilderness and away from the city, I think. Jamie’s tent had a broken zipper and it was so cold at night that he ended up sleeping in his car. I’m going to get him new camping gear for an early birthday present and maybe he’ll get some more use out of it this summer. He got pretty cold without a proper sleeping bag this trip. The nights around here easily get into the high 30’s/low 40’s F. Friday morning we actually had fresh snow on the mountain across from us. Summer in the Rockies, eh!

On Saturday, my niece, Kristine, her husband, Joel, and son, Caleb, arrived and set up camp next to us. It’s good to see them too and spend some time getting to know Joel and Caleb, and even Kristine again. I haven’t seen her in a long time and she’s grown into a lovely young working mom with a family to care for. I’m proud of all she’s accomplished. They are such a nice little family and Caleb will soon have a baby brother or sister to play with. They brought their dog, Dexter with them and he really enjoyed swimming after the ball out in the lake. He’s like an energizer bunny…keeps going and going tirelessly. He’s a nice dog though and is good pals with Caleb. Caleb reminds me of our grandson, Wyatt, a little bit...same colouring and such a sweet, gentle demeanor and wonderful innocent nature.

Last night I took Kristine with me on a run to sell firewood in the campsite. It was fun to be with her. We drove to the end of the campsite and some people came out to the truck. We thought they wanted wood, but really what they wanted was tell us about the campers across the road who had a chainsaw and were cutting down trees for firewood. I didn’t think twice about it and called the Conservation Officer to come and deal with them. Donna, whom I met for the first time last night, arrived and ended up giving them a fine for cutting the tree, which is likely well over $300. She also confiscated the guy’s chainsaw that he said cost over a thousand dollars and belonged to his friend. Oh well, that’s what you get when you when you act like a fool! How could anyone be so stupid. It was interesting to note that when Emmett, the other Conservation Officer arrived this morning to see how things were in the campground, that he took a drive through and gave the same site a ticket for not having their dog on a leash….that’s another couple hundred dollars fine. He didn’t know until he came back and told me what he’d done that it was the same site Donna had dealt with last night. Boy, those campers had an expensive weekend! I hope they learned something.

Tom and I got back to our campsite after our last wood-selling run at about 11:30 last night and Joel was standing out in the driveway watching something on the mountain across the dam. He pointed out two blinking lights, like flashlights or headlamps that hikers wear, that were moving slowly down the mountain. It was dark and they were coming through a treed area. Now stop a moment and put yourself in their shoes…it’s a dark, cold, moonless night; you are in a heavily forested area where grizzly bears and other animals like wolves and coyotes live and roam freely; there are all sorts of rocks, branches and holes to fall over or into; and you have basically lost the trail you were following. Would you be a bit scared? Yeah, I thought so! The hikers finally got down out of the trees and to the low spot in a deep V in the mountain. They didn’t go any further than that though and we could see them moving back and forth across the area. The problem was that they had come down the wrong way and were now trapped with forest and darkness above them and sheer cliff below them…they couldn’t get any further down the mountain. It was almost midnight and getting really cold…I called the conservation officer who had left only minutes before and she came back to investigate the situation. She went over the dam to have a look, but couldn’t see or hear them so she called in the Public Safety people (like Search and Rescue). They arrived quite quickly and had megaphones they could use to call up to the hikers. They eventually managed to get the hikers down but it was so dark by then that I couldn’t see whether they had to rock climb up and help them down, or just how they managed to get them off the mountain. In any event, I’m thankful for Joel’s sharp eyes in spotting them and that Search and Rescue was there to help the hikers, who must have been scared to death, freezing cold and tired as all get out by then. That will be an adventure they’ll never forget. (The mountain pictured here is the one they were stuck on…they got stuck about three quarters of the way down.)

We had our usual Sunday breakfast of pancakes on the grill over the fire (a “Tom” specialty) and then we went and cleaned up a few sites. It was almost noon and people were packing up and leaving. Too bad as the sun was shining and the sky was blue and it was a beautiful day. We came back and my brother Kim arrived shortly after that. He’s living in Calgary for a couple years supervising some new construction his company is working on. I cooked up a nice late lunch of pork chops and roasted potatoes for everyone and we enjoyed the afternoon together. Poor Jamie was so tired from his weekend of partying and not sleeping well (in the car) that he left for home and his bed soon after eating. I hope he gets a good rest tonight.

Tom went to clean the last of the sites while I cleaned up around our campsite and got the trailer organized after all our company. It was sure nice to see everyone. Kristine and Joel will stay another night, but everyone else has gone home now. The weather is supposed to hold for a couple days so we’re going to enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe go fishing tomorrow or take one of the hikes in the area…or maybe just hang around and enjoy the day. There seems to be new/different flowers blooming every day now and I enjoy taking pictures of them and eventually will use them to draw from or scrapbook with. The latest I’ve found are the trilliums that seem to have suddenly blanketed the forest floor. They are a lot smaller than the ones I remember growing on the coast, but are plentiful and very pretty.

We went for a hike up to the waterfall on Monday...it was a wonderful little walk and so beautiful through the forest...I'm posting some pictures....this one of Oso after the hike is pretty cute!

As I sit in my lawn chair on the stone patio outside the fifth wheel, I can see a few teenagers on the shore across the lake. I can always tell when someone goes in the water because the splashing is accompanied by high pitched screams….the water is COLD, but they are having fun even so. I’m afraid I’m not as daring as they are…I’ll wait till we go to Mexico this winter and do my swimming in those lovely big pools where we can lounge in the sun afterwards and sip on a margarita. Yup…I’m enjoying retirement immensely!

Spray Lake July 18

July 18, 2011

Well the sun is finally shining here at Spray Lake. The place is even more beautiful when the weather is nice. People are out boating and fishing and hiking. We even watched, with our binoculars, a group of about a dozen people climb the mountain across the lake. It’s a huge mountain but has a trail up about three quarters of the way and then they have to rock climb to the top. It took them about four hours to get to the top and about two hours to get down. It was a pretty amazing accomplishment and you could tell they were pretty happy when they reached the top. There’s a long ridge that runs along the top of the mountain and you could see them clearly outlined against the sky. Awesome!

We’ve had campers from all over the world. Quite a few Australian kids work at the ski hills in the winter then at the parks in the summer. We’ve had a lot of Dutch and Belgian as well as French. There was a group of young people from Argentina, Columbia and Mexico in one of our sites this past weekend…they were fun to talk with.

On the weekends the campsite is full and we usually have several parties camping in overflow. During the week we only have about 15 or so campers each day so it’s nice and quiet and we can get our work done. I’d like to start painting picnic tables this week…we’ll cross our fingers that the weather holds and we can do that. This past weekend was pretty quiet even though we had a few large groups camping. It’s nice when we don’t have to worry about people making a mess or being noisy and disturbing the other campers.

We went for a walk yesterday and found some tracks. Not sure if they are wolf or cougar...sure were big...far too big for a dog. Didn't seen any other animals but lots of sign/scat of various kinds.

I’ve been able to finally get to my artwork. I’m starting with just some crayon work and soon will try some acrylic paintings. It’s so inspiring to be here in the mountains with all of the animals, but with the weather being so cold, I haven’t been able to set up my paints yet but hopefully will this week. Tom has been busy carving out a sign for our fifth wheel with our names on it. He’s done some woodburning on it as well as carving and it has turned out pretty nicely. He’s got some creative/artistic bones in his body too.

We saw three lovely white tailed deer last night just below our campsite. They were munching on plants growing in the “front yard” but I think Tom moved too suddenly once and they put their tails up and off they went into the bush. They are healthier looking than the mule deer. The little doe that hangs around at the campsites at the end of the trail is fattening up a little bit but needs more meat on her bones than she has right now. She’s as friendly as they get though and I was able to hold my hand out and she came right up and licked my fingers. I’m sure she thought I had some wonderful kind of food for her.

Last weekend we had a couple guys camping and they were a bit messy about what they left in their site. A friendly little squirrel decided to raid their camp and I saw him carry back a whole Reece’s peanut butter cup. Next time he ran back into the site he came back with a whole unopened KitKat bar. Don’t know if we’ll have a sugar crazed squirrel on our hands or not now!

Time to go…will write more later.

July 15

Some of the campers like to stack the rocks on the beach or in the campsites into inukshuks or make words out of them like the one on the left. One had initials and a heart around it, and another that we found laid out on a white sheet said "Lisa, will you marry me?" Kind of cute!

We had a bear in the campground yesterday. We didn’t see it but two different groups of campers reported it. It was first sighted down at the trailhead to the Goat Creek Glacier hike and then again about half an hour later at the Overflow camping area. It was a big black bear and seemed quite shy. I reported it to the Conservation Officer and answered a few questions they had about it. They like to track all bears near people just in case there’s a problem with it. I’m glad this guy moved along as the last thing we need is a problem bear around here. When I phoned Ian, our boss, this morning, I told him about the bear too. He said the grizzlies should be out soon and to keep an eye open for them. He said it would likely be mama’s and cubs…hope we get to see them…not too close of course!

We went fishing the other day and caught a couple of nice lake trout. They were about 16-18” long and tasted really good bbq’ed over our campfire. They are biting on smelt and seem to love it. One camper stopped in yesterday to say he had caught a nine pound lake trout. I don’t doubt what he says but would like to have seen the fish.

The forecast is for thunder showers this afternoon and evening and then a stretch of nice warm sunny weather…yahoo! It’s so much more fun when the weather is nice…more things to do too. I’ve read nineteen books since we’ve been here…that tells you what the weather has been like. The books are mostly mystery type novels that I’ve picked up at the thrift store. A few historical editions and a book containing bear stories. It was kind of cute and makes you think about encounters with those animals.

We went into Canmore yesterday and did some shopping. I was glad to get back home…though Canmore is a fun little town, I think I’m getting quite used to the peace and quiet of the mountains and lake. Funny how even a three person line-up at Safeway wares on the patience when you’re used to being alone with only the sounds of the birds singing and water lapping on the shore of the lake. Maybe I’m becoming a hermit.

The weekend is coming and some people have already registered and set up their campsites then left to finish off their work week. They will arrive later today or tomorrow and stay for the weekend. It's funny how we used to look forward to weekends and now it just means a busier time for us. We both like it during the week when it's quieter and the campers are fishermen and not party people.

This heron and his buddy have taken up residence just below our campsite. They are out every morning walking along the water's edge picking up whatever they can to eat. There seems to be a lot of little fish for them to catch...we often see them in their beaks. I tried to get a picture of them in flight but all I got was the tail end of one of them and their reflection on the water. Guess they are just too fast for me.

We took our recycling to town the other day and got a lot more money for it than we thought we would. There are three recycle bins in the campground and normally on $250 plus change. Not bad for a couple weeks of cans and bottles. Guess it's worth the extra work!

Time to take a run now and clean some sites...will write more later.

Spray Lake July 11

July 11, 2011

They say that if you just wait a few minutes the weather in Alberta will change from winter to summer… we keep waiting but we’ve only had a handful of nice days. We had such a storm here the other night and the wind was blowing so hard we had to get up at about 1:30 a.m. and roll up the awning (no easy task when gusts are trying to blow you down the lake!) It was raining and so windy with thunderstorms and lightning. We heard on the radio there were tornados around Red Deer and at least we didn’t have that here, though it almost felt like it. Some of the campers slept in cars instead of their tents. Last night was windy and stormy as well, but not as bad as the night before. Today is cloudy and looks like we’ll get some sprinkles though it’s mild and not so cold as it has been. When the sun comes out though, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

It’s hard not to look at the mountains around us and wonder how they were formed. There are such strange striations in some of the mountainsides and then some of the tops of them are almost like a mesa. You can quite clearly see how they were pushed up from what must have been a relatively flat piece of ground. It’s really quite interesting. Tom has taken to naming some of the mountains. One looks like a Mayan ruin and he’s named that “Chichenitza” and the other is a sharp peak on a somewhat rounded mountain…he’s named that “the Pope’s nose”. There was a group of what looked like university students out the other day looking at the rocks on the mountain across the lake. They had all sorts of equipment and came in a couple buses so something must have been interesting there for them. We’ll have to go across and have a look.

The lake is still rising. It’s now up to the high-water mark and is supposed to come up even further. The area between our campsite and the water (our front yard) is grassy and covered with flowers and other alpine growths. There is a ground cover that looks like kniknik but is shorter and has a tall stem with a yellow flower on the end sort of like a buttercup. Indian Paintbrush are just beginning to bloom and that adds a lot of colour to the front yard. Little white flowers I can’t identify are here and there as well. I wish I’d thought to bring my wild flower identification book and my bird book. There are lots of different birds up here too. The ravens keep us entertained. There are three huge ones that hang around the dam which is right beside us. Oso likes to go and chase them if they are resting on the rocks…they pretty well ignore him until he gets right close to them and then they’ll just fly away. He had fun chasing the killdeer as well though they seemed to have moved on now that the water has come up so high.

We had a company picnic on Sunday at Boulton Creek. It was really nice to meet some of the other campground managers and people who work at the park. We’ve been introduced to some but haven’t had the time to sit and get to know any of them. The weather was nice down there and we had a lovely time. It was a pot-luck and Tom brought his home made salsa...was a big hit as usual. I did a Japanese cabbage salad and everyone liked that as well.

There was an older couple and their grand-daughter camping here last week. He was quite an interesting old Italian guy. We had a few good chats with him, and when he left he brought us some zucchini and grapes along with a bottle of home-made wine. He was a nice fellow and really enjoyed the campsite and fishing in the lake.

We've had a few interesting encounters with campers. The other night three vehicles arrived at 2:00 a.m. and proceeded to park their vehicles in a campsite already registered to some other guests. We found out the next morning that they had set up five tents on the beach just below the registered campers and started a fire. That's really against the rules here.

I had to go and charge them for their tents (more as punishment than anything) then tell them they had to leave as well as call the conservation officer. The Conservation Officer came and gave them a $300 fine for having a fire on the beach and ruining vegetation. They moved to a real campsite and were nothing but trouble from there on in...being too loud...not paying for the site...all sorts of things. I got to be a good policeman though and finally got their money and got them straightened out. It kind of reminded me of dealing with problems at the college.

I'm down in Canmore today doing laundry and getting supplies for the week. Canmore is a fun little town...very touristy and trendy with lots of fun shops to wander through. I'll do some of that while the laundry is washing and drying. Looks like the sun is coming out....yeehaw!!!