Naked and Afraid : Spray Lake
Has anyone ever seen the TV reality show “Naked and
Afraid”? It’s where they drop two
people, naked, into a survival situation.
Always in a warm climate but with many survival challenges such as
finding food, water and shelter. When we
first arrived at Spray Lake, I flashed on to that show…here we are in the heart
of the Rocky Mountains, in an isolated campground still covered with a couple
feet of snow. On the way up here a rock
must have hit the drain for the water tank under the fifth wheel and we lost a
substantial amount of our water so had to conserve pretty drastically the first
few days till we could haul some water in.
Our propane is going fast due to the cool (cold at night) weather and
boy have we got our work cut out for us in the campground. The good news…we are, thankfully for us and
for anyone who comes to the campground, not naked!!! |
| My best friend these days, courtesy of Mary Walters! |
Thanks to Wilma's Mom, Mary, for knitting toques for Tom and I...they've come in handy this spring.
The scenery is
absolutely spectacular. We are at the
very north end of Spray Lake in Kananaskis Country just south of Canmore,
Alberta. There is a dam at the top of
the lake which we cross to get to the campsite and when I look out the window I
see the dam backed by one of the Three Sisters mountain group. If any of you have talked with me about being
at Spray or read the blog before, you’ll remember my telling you about the
climbers on the mountain and how we can watch them get right to the top and see
them stand along the saddle in the mountain like tiny colourful bugs…it’s
pretty cool!
We’ve seen lots of animals already. We’ve had a moose come right through the
campground, seen deer, moose, elk, big horned sheep and red fox on the road so
far….and I did see a grizzly bear. He
was just a little guy and was down at the Boulton Creek campsite where we go
for supplies. He was gorgeous, healthy
looking and his coat shone beautifully in the sunshine…and I didn’t have my
camera…that will not happen again…I’ll be ready with it for sure next time. |
| Camp Dog |
The lake water level is low, still covered in ice for the
most part and the power company is working on the dam. They’ve got a huge crane and are lowering a
man-cage with a diver in it to inspect the dam walls (that’s got to be a cold
job, don’t you think!!). After last
year’s flooding, in which the campground managers had to be air-lifted to town
due to slides on the roads which isolated them further, I expect the dam took a
bit of a beating. I hope they get it
done soon and let the lake waters rise so we can go fishing…the lake trout are
calling to us!
We open today (Thursday, May 15) though it’s still cold and
snowy in the sites and we’ve got a bit of work to do if we expect people to
camp this weekend. The bobcat was up and
plowed snow to make space for parking and camping in most of the sites, a boom
truck came with a huge load of firewood for us to sell and a couple of hearty
young men who work at Boulton came up and shoveled out the fire pits and set
the picnic tables in place in the campsites.
We opened up the registration booths and got supplies yesterday so all
we have to do now is put paper in the bathrooms and sweep the squirrels out of
them (they like to nest in there where it’s dry).
 |
| Moose tracks |
Oso likes being a camp-dog especially when he gets to sit in
his favourite chair with his blanket over him…it does get a bit chilly if you
aren’t moving around. He sniffed out the
moose that went through the campground alerting us to its presence…he’s got a
good nose for that kind of thing. Those
specially trained bear dogs the conservations officers bring in sometimes have
nothing on him!
We have a campfire every night and cook our food on it or on
the bbq…Tom brought his smoker so hopefully we can smoke some fish this
summer. Though it’s been a cold start to
the year, it’s going to be a fabulous one at Spray Lake. We’ll meet some amazing people, see some
incredible scenery, and experience this beautiful wild country first hand…I
can’t believe we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to do this again…and
so the adventure begins!
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