How Quickly Things Change…

How Quickly Things Change…

So this was me, the hardest working Campground Manager in the world, sitting in the sun on Sunday morning and this is what our campsite looks like today, Wednesday morning!

Yes, it seems that Winter has arrived very early this year…so early in fact that we didn’t have Autumn yet.  It started snowing Monday then took a break yesterday and started up again today.  We have about a foot of snow outside and it’s still coming down hard.  And, believe it or not, we have campers.  There is a young couple from Winnipeg who started riding their bikes in Banff yesterday and are heading for Mexico.  I’ve mentioned before that the Great Divide trail runs through this campground.  The trail starts in Inuvik and ends in Terra Del Fuego at the very toe of Chile, and believe it or not, some people ride the whole thing.  This young couple though are only going as far as Mexico…if they can get through this early winter snow.  They are tenting of course and we were a bit concerned about them so I went down early this morning to check on them.  They were warm and cozy in their tent but there was a foot of snow covering everything they owned and all the ground around them.  I asked them to come down to our place to warm up, have some breakfast and make a plan for the day.  They were quite grateful to have a warm dry place to start the day and now have decided to hunker down till the snow stops and see what the weather brings tomorrow.  We let them use a couple of tarps to build a shelter over their picnic table and firepit and to build another shelter to put their bikes and belongings in.  There are “bear-proof/water-proof” boxes in the campground that they can put their food and other things in as well, so they should be fairly comfortable now.  It turns out these two young folks are doctors.  They just finished their residency and have a couple months to travel before they start their first practice which will be in Whitehorse.

 

Here’s a picture of a nasty little fellow we caught in a trap in one of the cupboards inside the trailer…ugh!   And people tell us there are no rats in Alberta...this one must not have got the memo! It was a tiny little cupboard below the fridge that had a pipe coming up through it…luckily he could only get into that spot so didn’t do any damage anywhere else.  We definitely don’t want to have pack-rats like this one living with us!

It’s been a busy, interesting week here at Spray.  We had a few rowdy campers this past weekend and ended up evicting one group who stayed up and partied until their neighbour came and knocked on our door at 3:00 a.m. to complain about them.  I went down and threatened to call the police if they didn’t shut things down and then conservation came and evicted them the next morning.  Just more dumb kids…would be so nice if they could have a good time without drinking themselves silly.

 Sunday clean-up turned out to be kind of nice too.  Tom got a great picture of this gray-jay just flying off of a branch.  The silly bird followed us around from site to site for half the day.  Later I saw this grouse and managed to get a picture of her.  There was a fellow from Switzerland here this week and he was so excited to tell us about his “wildlife experience”.  He was sitting at the picnic table and watching the grouse and the goofy bird came and sat on his foot.  They aren’t really very smart birds!

Later in the afternoon we stopped to clean a site and the people there came out of the trailer with a beautiful vase of flowers for us.  They camp here at least once a year and had in the past brought flowers to the campground managers (she’s a florist so enjoys sharing what she does).  I thought it was such a nice gesture.  They were very nice people.

 

There was a wedding here on Saturday.  A young couple from Canmore had their wedding ceremony on the beach and then the reception in Site #49 which is the most beautiful site on the lake.  It faces west down the whole length of the lake and the sunset there are amazing.  Anyway, it was a gorgeous weekend (unlike today’s weather!) and the wedding went off without a hitch…well, except that they got hitched…ha!  He is an RCMP Officer and wore his reds and she had a beautiful white dress…it really was a lovely wedding.

And so we’ve gone suddenly from summer to winter with next to nothing in between.  Oddly enough though, the forecast is for sunshine and a temperature of 18C (65F) by Sunday so maybe the snow will all melt and there will be some nice days yet before winter truly does set in. Autumn up here is beautiful…I hope we get to experience a little bit more of it before we have to leave.  I’d love to drive down and see the moose a couple more times at Mt. Engadine and see some of the fall colours on the mountainsides.  We close the campground on Monday but it will take us a few days to finish up all that needs to be done for the winter before we leave.  Hopefully the weather will warm up, the snow will disappear and we’ll be able to be on our way by the middle of next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow, Moose and Birdy Buddy!

Snow, Cows and Calves, and Our Birdy Buddly!

The other night Old Man Winter came tip-toeing through the Spray Lake Valley and painted the mountains sides with a cool, crisp coating of white!  We woke to snow very low on the hillside and later in the day as we drove down to Boulton Creek for supplies, the snow was on the ground.  It was beautiful.  The trees were frosted with white and the air was so fresh…it really did make us believe that our time here is coming to a close for the year.  We’ll be sorry to leave (September 15^th is our last day) but will be happy to carry on with whatever new adventures come our way.

I drove down to Mt. Engadine early this morning to see if the moose were about yet.  We often will see moose on the road or as in a week or so ago, swimming in the lake, but my favourite place to see them is at Mt. Engadine.  The meadow there is open and great for viewing and the mountains behind make for wonderful picture taking.  This morning was all about cows and calves.  I saw a momma and baby on the road on the way down but didn’t get any pictures.  Then as I arrived, there was a single cow and another momma and calf near the road.  I drove in and parked near the meadow and waited…sure enough, the momma and baby decided to come down and grace me with their presence.  They are so beautiful…I don’t know why I love seeing them so much.  I think I like them even more than the elusive grizzly bears.  This momma was so fat and healthy looking and her baby was getting pretty big.  Another few months and you won’t be able to tell who is momma and who is baby.  Notice the frost on the grass and trees…yes, it’s definitely getting cold here!  The moose like to come to the meadow because there is some kind of mineral in the soil that they like to lick.  Momma and baby stayed for about half an hour and then headed into the bush just as the sun was peeking over the mountainside and brightening up the meadow.   A few more weeks when autumn truly arrives as does the moose mating season, there will be plenty of bulls in the meadow too.

We have a visitor in our campsite.  I don’t really know why he’s decided to stay with us, why he’s so friendly or even if he is truly a “he”.  This little guy has been hopping around the campsite for the past week or so.  He’s not afraid of us and actually likes to torment Oso.  He’s hopped within a foot of Oso’s nose while he’s been sleeping on the patio and it doesn’t seem to bother him at all.  Oso on the other hand, would love to at least get a good sniff and see whether this visitor is worth making friends with.  I managed to get a decent picture of him finally when he hopped up onto a branch that we have lashed to a tree.  He’s a cute little fellow isn’t he!

I mentioned earlier that winter seems to be on its way here in the Rocky Mountains and to prove it, some of the plants and leaves are now turning colour.  I think these are called “rockets” and have purple flowers on them through the summer.  They seem to be the first to turn colour and are now a deep rich red.  This one still has last night’s frost clinging to its leaves.  The poplar leaves are just beginning to turn their golden yellow colour.  A few more frosty nights and we’ll be ablaze with autumn colour up here.  It will be time for us to go soon too…I’ve got mixed feelings about that.  With any luck, we’ll be able to come back next year and enjoy this amazing wilderness once again!