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!