week eleven - spray lake 2015

Week Eleven – Spray Lake, 2015

It’s a quiet morning here…Tom has gone down to Bolton Creek to turn in our money and get supplies.  He’ll shower while he’s down there as well.  I decided to stay here this morning and get a few things done around the house and campsite.  It seems even housework waits to be done while camping.

It’s only Wednesday morning and we are almost full.  The long weekend is approaching and people are coming up to the campground, putting a tent on a site, paying from Tuesday night until Monday ($156) so that they can have a campsite for the long weekend, then going back to work for the week.   If they put more than one tent on the site, they pay double, though most people will not do that until they come back on Friday night to actually stay in the campground.  It’s kind of an odd situation for us because when all of the campsites are taken but there are no people staying in them, it’s less work: less firewood to sell, less clean-up, fewer problems.

Speaking of problems…last Friday night we had some guys come in looking for a site.  They ended up in overflow because we were full but the possibility of a campsite the next day was good.  I talked to them several times about being quiet and making sure their camp was tidy.  At 11:00 p.m., I drove by again and reminded them.  They said they were going to go to bed and be really quiet because they wanted a good site the next day.  At 7:00 a.m. the next morning a fellow came knocking on my door.  He was furious because the young guys had been up all night long drinking and partying.  They were still going at it.  He filed a complaint and I gave him his money back with apologies for the situation, then I called conservation and explained what was going on.  Two conservation officers arrived within about an hour and proceeded to evict the young guys.  The guys had paid for two sites in overflow and so I think they probably each got a ticket for disturbing the peace, a ticket for leaving bear attractants out (recycling/garbage) and whatever else the officers could find to charge them with.  Those tickets added up to about $800.  The other part of being evicted is that you are not allowed in Alberta Parks campgrounds for three days, so their camping trip as far as Parks campgrounds go, was definitely over.  They were nice kids until they started drinking, then all their brain cells disappeared and they became dumb kids…funny how that happens!

We had a group of fishermen over the weekend as well.  One of the guys had caught a 20 pound lake trout last time he was here and was really looking forward to fishing the lake again.  They did well but no trophy fish this time.  It’s always nice when we get return campers…they are usually really good campers, enjoy the area and we enjoy having them here.

Our Camp Hosts will be leaving after the long weekend.  We’ll still get this Monday and Tuesday off, but they will leave on Wednesday so the rest of the summer we’ll be on our own again.  It was nice to have a few days off and be able to relax and catch up with our sleep.  That’s the hardest part of being up here…the need to get up and phone credit cards in by 9:00 a.m. and then stay up doing last rounds at 11:00 p.m.  That means we are usually up by 8:00 and in bed by midnight…makes for a long day for us old folks!

We haven’t really seen any animals around lately other than our campground deer.  Two bucks and two does.  The other day I was walking Oso and we came across the young buck pawing at the road trying to stir up some salt from the ground.  He saw us and held his ground.  We stood as still as possible, even Oso didn’t move or bark.  The buck came a little closer, curious about us.  A few steps closer and we still didn’t move…finally he got a bit too close for Oso who barked and the deer flew off into the forest.  Funny how they can take two steps into the trees and totally disappear from sight!  

The weather has been cool up here.  We’re back in long pants and jackets now, though our shorts and t-shirts are still laying on the dresser easily accessible for a change in the weather.  It’s been in the high teens and low twenties through the day and then down to single digits at night.  We’ve had plenty of rain, in fact it’s raining right now though the forecast is for sunshine later today.  Alberta weather can change quickly…we’ve experienced all four seasons in one day up here!

I didn’t have much in the way of photos to go with the blog this week so have just sprinkled some of my favourites from the past throughout.  Hope you enjoy them! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 10 Spray Lake 2015

Week Ten – Spray Lakes, 2015

Some people think that riding the Great Divide, 2775 miles, by bicycle is an amazing feat…well, not so much for this young fellow who came through the campground this week.  He wanted more of a challenge so decided to “ride the divide” on a unicycle…can you imagine that!  He had a big pack on his back and off he went.  People like this make me wonder why I don’t do anything as adventurous!  We had a young couple from France through the campground this week as well and they were beginning an 18 month trip on bicycle right through to Chile in South America…amazing!

We had a nice visit with Tom’s sister Lori and her husband Jim.  They arrived on Tuesday and we went downtown and wandered around a bit, then Wednesday they came up to the campground and we spent the day waiting for Tom’s smoked ribs to be done…mmm…they were sure good.  Lori and I went for a nice drive down to Mount Engadine and we were lucky enough to see about a dozen sheep including five babies at one of the day use areas, then a moose cow at Buller Pond and a Mama with two calves at Mount Engadine.  That was very cool but we were too far away to get pictures of them.  That was the first wildlife they’d seen on their trip other than deer so I was happy we found some animals.

Oso loves to go for walks on the dam now, especially since he’s discovered that the ground squirrels have taken up residence in the pipes that go under the dam…not sure what the pipes are there for but the squirrels like them and Oso likes the squirrels!  He bites and chews at the pipe thinking he can tear it apart to get at the squirrels…he doesn’t have much luck with that...it’s entertaining though for all involved!

There are pikas on the dam too…they are odd little animals  that look like a cross between a mouse with big ears and a bunny with a little cottontail…they make a beeping sound when they are startled and are really quite cute.  Oso would love to catch one of them but they are far too fast for him…they scoot over the rocks as quick as can be!

Since we now have days off, we’ve done a little bit of exploring.  We had to drive to Cochrane for groceries one day and went “the back way” through the Stoney Nakota reservation.  There we came across this little old church outside of a town called Morley.  The church was built by a preacher in 1875 and was dedicated to him on his death some years later.  The plaque we read said that he was travelling some 40 miles from the church and lost his way in a January snowstorm and died.  All around the church wildflowers were growing and Saskatoon berries were growing on large healthy bushes.  It looks like a good crop this year as the bushes were loaded.  We noticed that the buffalo berries in the park are ripening up and that there are far more of them than in past years as well, so the bears will have lots to feast on later this summer.  We’ve had a couple little black bears in the campground the last couple days so maybe they’ve already found some berries ripe enough to eat.

Dandelions are in full seed it seems.  I’m not sure what kind of dandelion this is but it sure is a pretty one.

All of the wildflowers are so pretty right now…these bluebells were looking good after a light rain as well.

One night we went for a walk across the dam and on our way back saw a couple of young guys building something on the mud flats just below the dam…when we got close we saw it was a huge peace sign…I’ll leave you with that now… “Peace out at Spray Lake!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week Nine

Week Nine – Spray Lake 2015

I was outside building a fire so I could make dinner while Tom had a nap this evening and in flew this beautiful mountain bluebird.  It was kind of an odd day today with rain showers here and there throughout the afternoon but it didn’t deter this guy from hopping from one tree to the next.  I think they’ve got a nest somewhere near because we see them fairly often.  They are so pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

The other day we noticed these four big horned sheep walking on the dam…two are older adults having full curls on their horns and two are young rams…it wasn’t long before they had reached the other side and wandered down to the lake for a drink.  One of our campers must have also seen them and raced across the dam where this woman got out and walked up as close as she could to them with her hand held out as if she was going to feed them.  She probably wasn’t more than 15 feet away from them.  I was ready to make the 911 call as soon as the ram butted her but he decided to just turn and walk away from her.  People don’t realize that even the sheep are wild animals…they are not farm animals or pets that can be toyed with.  Those four rams could easily have left her with serious injuries.  She was just plain lucky.  I did manage to get some good pictures of them from this side of the lake.   Tom said a couple of them had their horns clipped so they wouldn’t be attractive to hunters…that’s a good thing!

I washed the cover on the bed we found for Oso…he sure does like it.  Not sure how he can bend himself up in such odd positions but he seems comfortable enough on it!

We had a few rowdy campers this weekend.  One  group of three couples had arrived on Thursday night and been really good up until Saturday when they decided to play Beer Pong…it’s a game similar to ping pong and involves a lot of drinking if you don’t get your ping pong ball in the red solo cup…at least that’s how I think they play it.  Anyway these guys must have been at it all afternoon because when I went to quiet them down in the evening they were pretty sloshed.  Two of the guys were on the verge of getting violent with each other and so I moved one couple to another site.  I talked to the remaining couples like a mother with kids who were misbehaving…I told them they had to clean up their site because it was filthy, put their booze away and go to bed.  I think I took them by surprise a bit and they ended up doing what I told them.  Too bad they cant just come out here and enjoy hiking and biking and appreciate their beautiful surroundings!  It seems its always the booze that gets them in trouble!

We went to a bbq held for all the staff at the campgrounds and it was really nice to meet up with the new folks and reacquaint ourselves with the ones who were here last year.  Being up at Spray we don’t often get to visit with other campground managers and its always fun to compare stories with them.  Everyone has more or less the same kind of tales to tell but there are a few that really go above and beyond the normal activities in a campground…for instance, while we were there a radio call came through from one campground that a grizzly was chasing a sheep through the campsite…that must really have been something to see!

One of our camper/fishermen took this picture of a grizzly up the lake past the campground.  I thought it was such a beautiful shot with Mount Sparrowhawk in the background.  He used a cell phone camera so it is a bit grainy but still a nice shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week Eight - Spray Lake

Week Eight – Spray Lake

Well the folks down in Arizona who we celebrated our full moon rising parties with would be impressed with this picture.  I took it on the last full moon and I really surprised myself.  I didn’t think my camera was good enough to take pictures of the craters on the moon but as you can see it did a fine job.  Pretty cool picture if I do say so myself!

We have enjoyed our first two days off this year!  Our Camp Hosts, Bruce and Tracey, arrived last week and we did a bit of training with them so they could take over for us on Mondays and Tuesdays.  They are really nice people and I think they are enjoying their time up here.  I’m sure they’ll get the hang of things quickly as they seem eager to keep busy and help as needed.  We have a company picnic coming up on Sunday night so will be good to meet other campground managers and introduce Bruce and Tracey to them.  Best of all, we get a much needed break. 

There really hasn’t been a whole lot going on this week other than the typical campground stuff.  We went for a drive today and I took pictures of wild-flowers which are in bloom all over the place right now.  Such a colourful display everywhere we look.  There is wild flox, Indian Paintbrush, mountain asters, bluebells and many more little mountain flowers everywhere you look!  So pretty!

We took the recycling in after the July 1^st week and ended up with $250.  That makes well over $600 so far this year.  When we first came up here in 2011, I was hesitant to dig through the dumpsters until I realized what was being thrown out.  Not only are the cans and bottles worth money, but saving them from the landfill where they’d take eons to decompose is helping the environment…every little bit helps!  We also pull out some pretty amazing things from the dumpsters…so far we’ve got three tents (two of which have absolutely nothing wrong with them except they were likely wet when the people left and they didn’t want to haul home a wet tent…hmmmm!)  As well, we’ve found air mattresses (Oso likes sleeping on the blue one), fishing rods, tarps, a nice big dog bed that once washed will be great for Oso, and many more things that sure shouldn’t have been tossed out.  One dumpster we looked through had a whole set of camping dishes and cutlery…decent ones at that.  You’d think that in the least a person would drop them off at Goodwill or something rather than just throwing them away.  One girl who was riding the Great Divide on her bike must have felt after the first day that she was carrying a lot of stuff she didn’t need.  She threw away some very expensive biking clothing, a book about riding the Divide, some brand new journals and some souvenirs that were still in their boxes.  Luckily this stuff was all in a clean bag and all like new (though I did wash the clothing).  Anyway, amazing what some people throw away!

We’ve had some crazy weather up here…wild wind storms, thunder and lightning, and pouring rain…the next minute you know it’s sunny and hot…guess that’s Alberta for you!  Hopefully all the storms are over with and we’ll get some sunshine now, though it’s kind of exciting to hear thunder rolling through the mountains.  The temperature ranges from about 20 to 28 degrees Celsius (in the low 70’s/low 80’s F) so it’s quite comfortable.

The wild strawberries are nice and ripe but unfortunately they are tiny and very tart.  I’m sure the animals will love them but I think I’ll buy mine at the Thursday Market in Canmore.

A couple weeks ago I found a baby rabbit out near the woodshed…it was the cutest little thing…so small though that it could hardly run and hide from anything bigger than itself.  It was so afraid that it froze when it saw me and let me get close enough to touch it then scampered off.  I was sad thinking that the little guy would not survive because he was so small.  Yesterday, guess who appeared near our woodpile…yup…the baby bunny.  He’s grown quite a bit and has figured out that he better run when something bigger than him is around but he did let me snap a quick picture…what a cutie!  

The air was smokey today so I assume there are fires somewhere near.  I know there are a lot of them in BC right now with it being so dry there.  Hopefully mother nature will let loose with a good rain and help douse some of them.

We took a little drive down to Buller Pond which is about 15 minutes south of us.  It’s a nice place for a picnic…often we’ll see moose in that area as well as other animals.  The pond is home to all kinds of birds and bugs too.  These bright blue damsel flies were all over the place when we visited…they are like pretty little jewels.

Here's a picture of the Spray Lake Sasquatch...saw him running across the beach the other day and couldn't resist snapping a picture!

That’s about all for now.  Remember that we now get Mondays and Tuesdays off so if any of you are thinking of visiting (and you are more than welcome!) try to plan your trip so you’re here on those days.  Tom’s sister Lori and her husband Jim, are coming later this month and we’re sure looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.  Also, Nikki and Katie, the two girls from Wisconsin who we adopted as honorary daughters last year are visiting the campground again this year…will be great to see them again too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week Seven 2015

Week Seven – Spray Lake

Some of you may have heard about the devastation caused by a gas explosion in Canmore.  Last Friday a house exploded in town and there is absolutely nothing left of it!  The papers say the cause is still under investigation but we at the campground have heard a bit more about the incident because some of the guys doing reconstruction and clean-up are staying at Spray Lake (there’s not much accommodation in town because 700 people were first evacuated and now about 200 are still out of their homes.  The guys at the campground told us that someone working an excavating machine pinched a gas line…the gas backed up and the house exploded.  The impact was so great that all windows were shattered in homes nearby and many suffered even greater damage.  The guys said that rooves were lifted and settled again, that fronts of houses are now concave and structurally unsound, garage doors mangled, cars overturned…a block away cupboard doors were blown open and dishes blown out of them.  There will be at least a dozen houses that will have to be taken down and rebuilt because they are unsafe at this time.  The pictures I’ve included here are ones I took from the newspaper…there’s no way anyone is getting near the damage site now.  The guy running the excavator will likely go to jail because he knew he hit the gas line but never told anyone…the house that blew was built in the ‘70’s when they used asbestos in the stucco…that alone will triple the costs of clean-up.  The guys we talked to said the damages will run close to 100 million if not more by the time all the rebuilding is done, the law suits are settled, the belongings are replaced, cars are replaced, and the clean-up is done. (a crappy old house in Canmore runs $800,000 to $1,000,000 without belongings inside…these houses were likely worth about a million or more) Luckily nobody was killed though there were some injuries.  One lady told a story of being up on the ladder cleaning her picture window…the phone rang and she had to go answer it and that saved her life…the house across the street blew up and if she had been on the ladder she would have been blown right through it.  Lucky lady!

Canada Day was unusually quiet in the campground.  We had about 35 campers.  We had expected to be full to overflowing but a nice quiet night was greatly appreciated.  We did have a few incidents of people drinking on the beach and cutting trees down in the park so had to call Conservation to deal with them, but all in all, it was a good week.  Lots of our campers went down to Canmore on Canada Day for the parade and fireworks so it was a nice quiet day for us.

Last weekend two old fellows stopped at the campground.  They were nice old Italian guys both named Joe.  They had been out fishing and when they loaded their boat back on the trailer noticed a broken wheel hub.  They tried to fix it but couldn’t so wanted to leave the boat on the trailer with us till they could get the right parts.  The next day they were back but the parts wouldn’t work and so they had to leave it and go get a new axle.  A couple days later they came back with the axle and realized they needed to drill holes in it to make it fit…luckily Tom had a drill and bits that would do the trick.  He helped them fix the axle, put the wheels on it and got them on their way.  They were very appreciative of his help.  They went back out on the lake and fished for a while…pretty soon we saw them driving back to our site with the trailer but no boat.  It seems that they got out into the lake and the boat stalled and they couldn’t get it going again…if it weren’t for bad luck they’d have none he said!  Anyway, they had to go back to Calgary and get an electric motor so they could get the boat back to the dock (they had tied it to shore up the lake a ways) and in the meantime, leave the boat trailer with us again.  They came back and finally got everything fixed!  They were so thankful for our help that they brought us a case of beer and a couple bottles of wine…really nice guys!

Can’t do the blog without at least one picture of animals.  These sheep are always on the Canmore hill so I see them every time I go to town.  One ewe has twin lambs…they are the cutest things.  I haven’t been able to get pictures of them yet, but did get this little guy under his momma’s watchful eye.  Amazing how sure footed they are even this young…he was jumping back and forth over the guardrail as if it were nothing!

Lots of wild flowers …will take more pics for next blog!