Week Two – Spray Lake

Hi everyone.  Well, it’s been a fairly quiet week with just a little excitement the other day when some guys decided to go off-roading with their vehicles.  There is a law in the provincial parks and probably the national parks as well, that you must stay on the roads and trails with your vehicles, bikes, etc.  No off-road vehicles are allowed and you cannot simply drive up the mountain with your vehicle.  Apparently these guys didn’t understand what “no motorized vehicles allowed” meant on the signs. 

We were just coming back from cleaning sites on Sunday afternoon when we looked across the lake.  “Look at those idiots,” Tom said.  Here were two vehicles across the lake driving up the mountainside in an area that had been washed out in the floods of 2012.  Tom called it into the Conservation Office and I went to take some pictures in case the officers didn’t arrive in time to catch these guys.  It turned out that wasn’t a problem.  Even though it takes Conservation about 40 minutes to get to us, these guys were still up the mountain drinking beer.  The Conservation officers arrived and I returned to the campground to watch what happened.  The officers climbed up the hiking path toward where the guys were parked.  About that time the guys got in their vehicles and started driving down.  They were stopped about half way down the mountain by the officers and she made them all get out of their vehicles.  They had a big dog with them too and pretty soon we see four guys walking down the hill with the dog and one guy driving one vehicle.  He got out of that vehicle once it was at the bottom and then ran back up the hill to drive the other one down.  It turns out he was the only one sober enough to drive.

These guys had been sitting up the mountain drinking beer, throwing their cans on the ground and just making a mess in general.  The Conservation Officers ticketed them for driving under the influence, off-road driving, littering, drinking in public, dog off leash, and anything else she could think of.  She then made them all get in one vehicle and the only sober person among them drove home.  The next day someone came back and got the other vehicle.  I’m glad they were able to get here in time to ticket these guys…all of those offenses are significant when in a Provincial Park…seems some people just don’t care about the environment…maybe the $5000+ fine they got will teach them something!

The weather has been decent up until yesterday.  It was actually quite hot over the weekend…definitely warm enough to wear shorts and get some sun.  Yesterday it clouded over and we had some rain…this afternoon we are having rain and thunderstorms.

The government has issued a province wide fire ban.  I guess there are some big fires up north and all the firefighters are up there.  If a fire were to break out down here, there would be nobody to stop it, so they are taking whatever precautions necessary.  It will hurt the campground as far as wood-sales goes and will probably keep some campers from coming out as well.   What is camping without a campfire!

Yesterday the power company (Trans Alta) came up and worked on the dam.  They were cleaning the branches and other floating things from the underwater culvert where water flows from the lake into the canal.  The process for doing this is quite interesting.  They bring up a huge crane and set it down over the dam.  They then put a diver in a cage-like contraption and lower him into the water.  There are two big metal boxes that then get lowered in the water and the diver removes the debris from in front of the culvert and puts it in the metal boxes to be brought up and disposed of.  The lake is so cold that the poor diver must have just about frozen!

Tom and I went down to Boulton today for showers and to pick up supplies.  We needed some brown paint for a new campsite post we put in the other day.  We dug up our fire-ring, which was quite small and put a bigger one in.  We then put the small one in the new campsite.  It looks good and we have already sold that site twice to campers.

Haven’t got many pictures of animals this week.  We did see half a dozen elk on the way back from town last night but there was too much traffic behind us to stop and take pictures.  Aside from that we saw a nice moose on our way to the office in Boulton this morning.  The deer, moose and elk don’t have their antlers yet so it’s hard to tell male from female from a distance.  I think this one was a female…it just looked a bit more delicate than some of the moose we’ve seen.

Our generator packed it in.  We took it to be fixed last week and got it back, ran it for a couple days and then it quit and wouldn’t start again.  We can’t do without a generator so went into Calgary last night and bought one.  The new one is a Honda and is the size of a suitcase rather than the big giant one we had before.  This new one is more powerful though than the old one and will be a heck of a lot easier to lift into the truck.  We were able to get together with my son, James, for dinner while we were in Calgary so that was a really nice bonus!

We took the recycling in from the first two weeks of our stay here.  $190…not bad.  If we average $100 a week, which is likely, we’ll be close to the $2000 mark by the end of our time here. 

 

It’s raining quite hard right now but we are cozy and warm in our fifth wheel.  Oso is snuggled up beside me (he doesn’t like the thunder) and Tom is baking cookies.  It’s a nice afternoon even though the weather isn’t great outside!

Week One...Spray Lake 2015

Well, after a wonderful winter down south, a stop in Abbotsford then Castlegar to see friends and family, we find ourselves managing the campground at Spray Lake, Alberta, once again.  We had an opportunity to look after another campground south of here where there are a few more accessible facilities (such as showers) but there’s something about this place that draws us back each year.  It might be the spectacular beauty of the area; perhaps it’s the animal sightings; maybe the fresh mountain air; or maybe it’s the quiet, peacefulness of the mountains.  Whatever it is, it seems to have a grip on us.

 

 

We arrived on Sunday the 10^th of May and opened on Wednesday the 13^th.  That meant we really had to hustle to get the campground ready for our first guests.  Luckily this year there was no snow so no need to plow.  I say “luckily” but perhaps that will backfire on us.  They say there is only 25% of the annual snow-pack this year.  Unless it rains steady for the month of June, we may not see the lake come up as much as it usually does.  Right now it is very, very low and mountain run-off is relied upon to fill it up…no snow in the mountains means very little run-off.  Also we’d likely have a fire ban if it doesn’t rain enough every now and then to soak things really well.  Guess we’ll just have to see how things go.  Never thought I’d be hoping for rain.

 
 

We had a few glitches getting ourselves settled here.  The generator wouldn’t work very well so Tom had to take it to town to be fixed.  We rented another one for a week and it seems to keep us going pretty well.  Our propane delivery was late so we had to get propane from town too.  As well, we’re having trouble with our phone.  The booster that we rely upon to provide us with service simply doesn’t seem to work.  Our boss is working to solve the problem but till he does we are limited in locations we can call from.  Right now I have to drive to the middle of the dam and watch for service bars to appear on the phone…normally I’m able to get one bar so make calls from that spot.  Guess we just have to make the best of what we have till our phone is fixed. 

The boss gave us a new truck this year...it's a Ford...hope the handwarmers on the tailgate work for when we need to push it!!!

Last night, Friday the 15^th, we had 33 of our 50 campsites taken.  That is a little unusual for a long weekend, but I think people were scared off by the weather.  It’s still cold and today it’s rainy…at least it keeps things quiet for the most part.  We did have a couple of rowdy sites last night, but nothing that we couldn’t handle and people seemed anxious to get into their warm beds rather than stay out in the cold.

We saw a few animals on our travels back and forth to town or to Boulton Creek for campground supplies.  Three nice moose just south of us on the road near Mt. Engadine and then sheep on the road into town.  They like to hang around at the top of the Canmore hill.  They are not as shaggy looking as they usually are this time of year…wonder if it’s because of the warmer than usual winter.  Aside from that, the eagles keep us entertained and there are lots of little animals and birds to watch.  We did have a visit from something that got into some soda pop we had stored outside.  I’m not sure if it was a bear or a racoon but they bit right through a couple of the cans and licked up all the pop that leaked out.  Tom has a motion activated animal camera that we are going to mount near our site so we can see what comes and goes at night.  Should be interesting.  This afternoon we had campers come to tell us there was a bear in the campground.  We didn’t see it until it had swum across the lake and was walking up the other side.  My super-duper camera got some good shots of it even though it was quite a distance away.  He was actually quite a big bear…hard to tell from the distance I took this picture from.

Oso seems to like being back at the campground.  He’s got his chair and blanket and spends a lot of time just lying there watching what comes and goes around here.  There are a pair of chipmunks that like to tease him.  They live in the rocks of the patio just outside our fifth-wheel.  Sometimes Oso will be sleeping in his chair and the chipmunks run right across the patio in front of him…if he wakes up, he leaps from the chair and chases them till they disappear into the rocks or he runs out of rope.  He’s pretty determined to get them but I don’t think he’s fast enough!

We cleaned up this little area behind a shed on our site.  We found some old plywood that had washed up on the beach (probably from the outhouse races they have on the lake in winter…this one must have sunk!!)  Anyway, we created walls out of the plywood and put a tarp up for a roof.  It will be a good spot to keep things dry and organized. 

We had to take down about 7 dead trees that were just too close to the fifth wheel.  We sure could have used Nick and Jake, our helpers from last summer to cut the wood and pile it for us.  They were sure hard working kids.  They’d enjoy keeping the fire going too since we’ve now got about a cord of wood to burn up this year!!

We are set up pretty nicely here and are really comfortable and looking forward to the summer.  Will keep you posted as often as I can.