Weeks Five and Six – Spray Lake

Weeks Five and Six – Spray Lake

Last week was kind of a busy time for us and I’m sorry to say I just didn’t get to write the blog.  I’ll try to make up for it this time.

On the 13^th of June the Tour Divide came through.  This was the bike race from Banff to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.  It is approximately 2700 miles long and has been done in as little as 14 days and 10 hours.  I would think if you are going to put that much effort into riding a bicycle that far, that you might want to stop and look around once in a while but I guess the serious racers just put their head down and go! 

One afternoon we were sitting on the patio watching people across the lake fishing…darned if I didn’t see something brown moving around over there.  I had just bought Tom a new pair of binoculars so we got them out and saw that it was a grizzly bear.  I went across the lake to warn the fishermen and they all got in their vehicles till the bear had wandered away.  He was a nice big healthy looking guy but I couldn’t get close enough to get a good picture.  He had wandered up off the beach and onto the road by the time I got over there so all I got was him looking through the guard rail at me!  Anyway, it was cool to see one up in this area.  Most of the grizzlies are south of us at Kananaskis Lakes.

There seem to be tons of deer around this year.  We almost always see them by Goat Pond when we drive down to Canmore.  There are a couple of does living in the campground and at least one buck hanging around near our site.  We’ve also seen baby bunnies running around our site…they are the cutest things!  Oso likes them a lot!!

Tom and Oso took a hike one morning while I was in town.  They climbed up to Old Goat Glacier…and they saw a Billy Goat up there.   He was far off on the other side of the hill so the picture isn’t the greatest.  I think when Nick and Jake were here last year they saw a Nanny and baby up there.  Goats are not near as common as sheep around here so sighting one is a treat.

We’ve seen this black bear about five times now…he’s always on the road down to Bolton Creek and he’s always eating!  He’s quite a handsome guy!

There are quite a few flowers in bloom right now.  The Indian Paintbrush are beautiful and healthy looking.  Everything is lush and green because we’ve had a fair bit of rain…won’t be long till it warms up and things get dry.  We’re supposed to be in for some hot weather this coming week so we’ll probably be pretty busy.  We’ve had a quiet June as far as campers go….mostly due to cool weather and rainy days.  That’s all about to change now!

This year Canada Day falls on a Wednesday so we are going to have two very busy weekends…the weekend before and the one afterwards.  Today is Wednesday and we’ve already got people coming up and reserving sites for this weekend.  Guess they don’t mind paying the extra if they get a nice site for the weekend.

We’ve had a few odd-ball nights lately.  One involved a young couple who came up, set up their tent but never stayed in it.  They were out all night running up and down the road in their car.  Finally we called Conservation and they found them down the road toward Canmore with two flat tires on their vehicle.  This probably happened when they rounded a corner in the campground and ran into the hillside…or maybe it was when they backed their car into a tree then took out their campground number sign when they drove back in…hmmmm….do you think they were drinking?  Anyway, the tow truck brought them back to the campground around midnight and they spent the rest of the night bothering other campers.  They walked out of here early the next morning and left all their camping gear behind.  The next day we finally had to get Conservation to confiscate it because other people wanted to camp in the site and these kids had only paid for one night.  The funny thing about it was that they never did come back for their stuff.  Not sure what was up with them but they sure were lousy campers.

The water is slowing coming up in the lake… hopefully once July hits they will fill it.  Tom and I went fishing the other day and though we were only out for about an hour we had some good bites and Tom caught a nice lake trout. 

Here is another story for the grandkids…this one is about Grampa’s fishing trip.

 

Grampa’s Best Day Fishing

One day when the sun was shining and the sky was blue, Grampa decided to go fishing.  He packed up his rod and reel, his tackle box and a good sturdy chair to sit by the lake in.  Grampa likes to sit by the lake and look at the scenery almost as much as he likes to fish. 

He got in the truck and drove to his favourite fishing spot, then he got all settled and started fishing.  He put a worm on his hook and threw the line way out into the lake and then sat down in his sturdy chair and just waited.

He waited and waited.  While he was waiting he looked at the mountains and trees and all of the beautiful things around him.  He saw a deer across the lake browsing on some nice green grass.  He saw ground squirrels laying on rocks in the sunshine.  He also saw a beautiful big Osprey flying high in the sky.  Grampa loved to watch the Osprey as they fished on the lake.

Suddenly Grampa’s fishing pole wiggled a little bit.  Grampa saw the pole wiggle a little bit and he grabbed it and held it for a minute.  The pole wiggled some more and Grampa gave it a quick jerk…YES…he had a fish!  Grampa began to reel in the line.  The fish rose to the surface and then dove back down deep…he was big and he was a fighter! 

 

Grampa reeled the line in some more.  Soon the fish was almost on shore and Grampa turned around and reached for his fishing net.  The moment his back was turned, the Osprey who had also been fishing on the lake dove down and grabbed Grampa’s fish!  The Osprey flew as high as he could with the fish gripped in his talons but the fish still had Grampa’s hook and fishing line in its mouth and Grampa was holding his fishing rod tightly! 

The Osprey tugged at the fish and Grampa tugged on his line.  The Osprey flapped his wings and tugged harder and Grampa held on to his pole and tugged harder.  It was going to be a real battle for the big fish.  All of a sudden the fishing line broke and the Osprey flew off with Grampa’s big fish.

“Well,” said Grampa as he watched the Osprey fly away “that’s the most fun I’ve ever had fishing…even if the big one got away!”