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!!!