Thursday 24 September 2015
Monday 21 September 2015
Week Eighteen - Spray Lake 2015
Week
Eighteen – Spray Lake, 2015
Well, we are
nearing the end of our summer here at Spray Lake. We talked with the boss the today and he’d
sure like us to come back next year. I
guess we’ll wait and see what happens.
We both enjoy it here and we don’t have much else on the go so it might
just work out.
We had a few
more inches of snow yesterday and I thought it might be fun to go down to Mt.
Engadine and see if the moose like the snow or not. Turns out they do! I had a fabulous morning taking pictures of a
nice big bull and then a cow and two calves.
Notice in the picture how pink the bull’s antlers are. He’s just got rid of his velvet and the
antlers look kind of raw. Over the next
few months they will toughen up and get lighter too. He was such a beautiful big guy…healthy and strong
looking. I couldn’t help but snap a ton
of pictures of him. I love how the snow
is clinging to his antlers and a bit on his nose. So beautiful!
There were
four other people there taking pictures of the moose…all with fancy big cameras
with lenses a mile long. I’m sure they
got some wonderful pictures. I’d love to
take a course in photography to learn more about the cameras and how to use the
professional models. Until then, I’m
very happy with my point and shoot.
After the
bull wandered into the forest, I decided to drive back up the road a ways. I hadn’t gone far when I saw this cow and two
calves. They were amazing. The calves are twins though the last one in
the line-up below is larger than the other.
I suspect he’s a little bull and the more dainty one is a female. So incredibly cute!
I watched
them for a long time and followed them up the road a ways. They didn’t seem to mind people watching them
and taking their pictures. They stopped
to eat here and there and at one point the calves even started to nurse. Wow, was I excited to get a picture of
that. Not something that’s often seen in
the wild. I just can’t seem to get
enough of the moose…I want to go back every morning and take more
pictures. These calves were so
adorable…well for a moose anyway!
Our snow is
gone now…it only lasted a couple of days.
Alberta weather is so weird. It
was 28 degrees centigrade on the weekend, then down to freezing with snow on
Tuesday. Today it’s cold and clear but
we are supposed to be back up to around 22 c by the weekend again. Don’t know whether to wear my shorts or my
snow suit!
I love this
picture of the moose and babies munching on leaves. You can only see the ears of one calf and the
back of the other but it’s a nice shot of mama!
On the way back from seeing the moose the other day I drove across the
dam and there was a lovely big raven sitting on some of the rocks people piled
up. Lots of people are building
inukshuks now or piling rocks to leave their mark…kind of fun for them.
As I drove
into our site I noticed a couple of deer in the overflow area…boy was it my
morning for animals! They were mule
deer…a doe with an almost grown fawn. We
do get some white-tail deer up here as well but for the most part they are
mulies. I kind of thought the picture of
the deer would make a nice Christmas card if they hadn’t been hiding behind
that bush…oh well.
When we
talked with the boss today I showed him some of my photos. He asked me if I would make some of them into
postcards and sell them in the store down in Bolton Creek. That might be a good project for me for the
winter…making cards and postcards. He
said he’s tried to find some with “Kananaskis” on them but most of the
postcards say “Banff” or “Canmore” …might just be a good little enterprise for
me!
It seems
that mushrooms are popping up all over the place right now. These shaggy manes are all over the place
right now. Supposed to be very good
eating!
I’ll leave
you with some of the fall colours along the campground road…amazingly beautiful
when the sun shines!
Thursday 10 September 2015
Week Seventeen - Spray Lake, 2015
Week
Seventeen – Spray Lake, 2015
A chilly
week at Spray Lake! I had hoped to show
you some lovely autumn pictures in this blog but winter came early! We had snow on Saturday and that chased a lot
of long-weekend campers away. On Sunday
night we only had a handful left, most of them in trailers or campers. Only one couple stayed in their tent…hearty
folks! The snow lasted into the next day
but it was more sleet/snow mix by then.
By Tuesday it had pretty well gone except for what will now stay up
higher on the mountains. There are
several Inukshuks along the dam road now…I liked the one someone else had built
so figured I could build a few myself.
Tom got into it too so he built a couple too. Oso was a bit sad that there were only
“people” Inukshuks so we built a dog out of stone. First thing he did was went and peed on it! That’s pretty typical I guess! Lots of people have stopped to take pictures
of the Inukshuks…guess it’s kind of fun to see them and they do look cool with
the lake and mountains behind them.
I found this
little snowman on the picnic table at the day use across the lake when I took
Oso for a walk. He’s pretty cute and
deserving of having his picture taken.
We also saw
these two mergansers fishing along the shore.
They didn’t seem to mind the cold water at all. There are plenty of tiny minnows in the lake
so the birds are quite well fed.
There was a
family from France in the campground the other night and they wanted to see
moose so I’d told them to go down to Engadine early in the morning and watch
for them. Talking with them made me want
to go see the moose too so I got up early this morning and off I went. I was in luck and saw two nice big
bulls. One was out in the meadow near
the mud hole licking at the ground. He
was a huge bull but had small antlers so must have been fairly young. The other was big as well but lay in the
grass and never got up so I couldn’t see if he measured up to the first one. He did have a nice big rack on him so was
probably an older moose. You’ll notice
the picture of him shows the velvet on his antlers is coming off. This time of year they are rubbing up against
anything they can to work the velvet off. I talked with a conservation officer
last night and he said there was a moose attacking a flexible plastic post at
Engadine the other day. Every time the
moose pushed the post over, it would snap back up and the moose would attack it
again. That would have been fun to
watch! Oh, I do love
the moose!
Thursday 3 September 2015
Week Fifteen and Sixteen - Spray Lake, 2015
Week Fifteen
– Spray Lake, 2015
Well…you
certainly don’t have to go to Tennessee to see the Great Smokey Mountains…they
are right here in Kananaskis Country, Alberta!
On Monday morning we woke up to what I thought was fog at first, but
turned out to be smoke in the air. It is
still thick and heavy here and down in Canmore as well. People came from as far away as Sundry and
Lethbridge and said they drove through smoke all the way. We’ve heard that it is coming from Washington
State, but I’ve also seen online that there are fires near Grand Forks and
Christina Lake. Sure could do with a
good rain to drench the forests throughout the Pacific Northwest!
It’s been a
pretty quiet week after all the excitement of the search and rescue last
week. I think the smoke might be keeping
some people at home because it sure has been quiet in the campground. We’ve only had a dozen or so campers each
night this week and we would usually be at least half full (25 campers). We’ve managed to keep busy around our site
and are planning our trip south for the winter.
We still don’t know exactly which way we’ll go but have been thinking of
taking a couple weeks to go to Mexico once we get to Tucson. Mexico is always fun! Here’s a few pictures from our last trip
there. That’s me in a wrestling mask
(popular souvenirs) and the other picture is one that Tom took of an angel
statue on the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta…he got her holding the sun in her
arms…pretty good shot! Yup….sunset in
Mexico…makes me want to go for a visit!
Short
blog…more next week!
Week Sixteen
– Spray Lake, 2015
I mentioned
in my Week Fifteen posting about the smoke in this area…it’s pretty well
cleared off now and hopefully the fires in Washington and BC are well under
control. We’ve had a few rainy days so
with any luck the areas with the fires have too. Here’s a picture of our normally crystal
clear view across the lake…you can hardly see the mountains! I think Canmore and Calgary were just as bad.
Gravel
trucks have been racing up and down the road across the lake. The road needs constant maintenance and there
are two graders that work the stretch from Canmore to Kananaskis every day. For the last week the trucks have been
hauling fresh gravel for the graders.
Tom and I were just talking about how the trucks go speed way past the
limit to get as many loads hauled as possible and the dust they kick up is
horrible. One day last week we saw
emergency vehicles racing up toward the boat launch across the lake and heard
on the radio that there had been an accident.
A pick-up truck had pulled out from behind a car and had ran straight
into a dump truck. We heard the driver
was hurt badly but that the two kids in back came out with only scratches. The driver couldn’t see because of the dust.
We saw this
grouse while out on a walk… they are such dumb birds…you can almost walk up and
touch them before they think to fly away!
We had a
company picnic on Sunday night. Almost
everyone showed up and a real treat was seeing a couple of people who retired
last year but came back for the picnic.
The food was great, the people were fun to be with and everyone had a
good time. It’s so nice to spend a bit
of time with other campground managers and hear their stories and tell a few of
our own.
On the way
home that night we came across this cow moose munching grass on the side of the
road…she could care less about us stopped to take pictures and just kept on
eating. Today when Tom went down to
Boulton he saw a cow and calf. They are
sure big and healthy looking this time of year!
This
white-tailed buck has been hanging around our site for a while now. Tom caught him with this funny look on his
face…almost cartoonish. He really is a
beautiful animal and again so healthy looking.
My passport
expires this coming January but since we plan to head down to the states in the
fall, I thought I’d best get it ordered so I’ll have it before we leave. I drove into Calgary yesterday and did that
at the passport office there…should only take a couple weeks to get it. After that I went shopping a bit and then
went to see Jamie and took him out for dinner.
He’s doing well and we really had a good visit.
It’s been
slow in the campground lately. The
weather has turned cool…highs around 7c and lows -2c. We could very well have snow on the ground one
morning when we wake up. Bicyclers are
still going through on a daily basis trying to beat the weather as they head
south to Mexico. They say a person
should begin their trip mid-August at the latest if they want to avoid snow
here and through Colorado which I think are the highest points along the divide
trail. There were four Dutch bicyclers
through the other day. They started
their journey two years ago in Brazil and are heading to Jasper and then down
to Vancouver where they’ll catch a plane back to Holland. I can’t imagine being on a bike for two
years…I also wonder how easy it would be to get back to everyday life after an adventure
like that.
Most of the
wildflowers have now died off but the grasses are still so beautiful. Here’s a nice shot of some of them. The grass is tall…almost up to my hips in
some spots. Oso and I go for walks
through it and he gets totally lost in it sometimes but that doesn’t stop him
from sniffing out ground squirrels. I
think he still dreams about catching one, but chances of that are pretty slim!
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