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!