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!