Weeks Five and Six – Spray Lake

Weeks Five and Six – Spray Lake

Last week was kind of a busy time for us and I’m sorry to say I just didn’t get to write the blog.  I’ll try to make up for it this time.

On the 13^th of June the Tour Divide came through.  This was the bike race from Banff to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.  It is approximately 2700 miles long and has been done in as little as 14 days and 10 hours.  I would think if you are going to put that much effort into riding a bicycle that far, that you might want to stop and look around once in a while but I guess the serious racers just put their head down and go! 

One afternoon we were sitting on the patio watching people across the lake fishing…darned if I didn’t see something brown moving around over there.  I had just bought Tom a new pair of binoculars so we got them out and saw that it was a grizzly bear.  I went across the lake to warn the fishermen and they all got in their vehicles till the bear had wandered away.  He was a nice big healthy looking guy but I couldn’t get close enough to get a good picture.  He had wandered up off the beach and onto the road by the time I got over there so all I got was him looking through the guard rail at me!  Anyway, it was cool to see one up in this area.  Most of the grizzlies are south of us at Kananaskis Lakes.

There seem to be tons of deer around this year.  We almost always see them by Goat Pond when we drive down to Canmore.  There are a couple of does living in the campground and at least one buck hanging around near our site.  We’ve also seen baby bunnies running around our site…they are the cutest things!  Oso likes them a lot!!

Tom and Oso took a hike one morning while I was in town.  They climbed up to Old Goat Glacier…and they saw a Billy Goat up there.   He was far off on the other side of the hill so the picture isn’t the greatest.  I think when Nick and Jake were here last year they saw a Nanny and baby up there.  Goats are not near as common as sheep around here so sighting one is a treat.

We’ve seen this black bear about five times now…he’s always on the road down to Bolton Creek and he’s always eating!  He’s quite a handsome guy!

There are quite a few flowers in bloom right now.  The Indian Paintbrush are beautiful and healthy looking.  Everything is lush and green because we’ve had a fair bit of rain…won’t be long till it warms up and things get dry.  We’re supposed to be in for some hot weather this coming week so we’ll probably be pretty busy.  We’ve had a quiet June as far as campers go….mostly due to cool weather and rainy days.  That’s all about to change now!

This year Canada Day falls on a Wednesday so we are going to have two very busy weekends…the weekend before and the one afterwards.  Today is Wednesday and we’ve already got people coming up and reserving sites for this weekend.  Guess they don’t mind paying the extra if they get a nice site for the weekend.

We’ve had a few odd-ball nights lately.  One involved a young couple who came up, set up their tent but never stayed in it.  They were out all night running up and down the road in their car.  Finally we called Conservation and they found them down the road toward Canmore with two flat tires on their vehicle.  This probably happened when they rounded a corner in the campground and ran into the hillside…or maybe it was when they backed their car into a tree then took out their campground number sign when they drove back in…hmmmm….do you think they were drinking?  Anyway, the tow truck brought them back to the campground around midnight and they spent the rest of the night bothering other campers.  They walked out of here early the next morning and left all their camping gear behind.  The next day we finally had to get Conservation to confiscate it because other people wanted to camp in the site and these kids had only paid for one night.  The funny thing about it was that they never did come back for their stuff.  Not sure what was up with them but they sure were lousy campers.

The water is slowing coming up in the lake… hopefully once July hits they will fill it.  Tom and I went fishing the other day and though we were only out for about an hour we had some good bites and Tom caught a nice lake trout. 

Here is another story for the grandkids…this one is about Grampa’s fishing trip.

 

Grampa’s Best Day Fishing

One day when the sun was shining and the sky was blue, Grampa decided to go fishing.  He packed up his rod and reel, his tackle box and a good sturdy chair to sit by the lake in.  Grampa likes to sit by the lake and look at the scenery almost as much as he likes to fish. 

He got in the truck and drove to his favourite fishing spot, then he got all settled and started fishing.  He put a worm on his hook and threw the line way out into the lake and then sat down in his sturdy chair and just waited.

He waited and waited.  While he was waiting he looked at the mountains and trees and all of the beautiful things around him.  He saw a deer across the lake browsing on some nice green grass.  He saw ground squirrels laying on rocks in the sunshine.  He also saw a beautiful big Osprey flying high in the sky.  Grampa loved to watch the Osprey as they fished on the lake.

Suddenly Grampa’s fishing pole wiggled a little bit.  Grampa saw the pole wiggle a little bit and he grabbed it and held it for a minute.  The pole wiggled some more and Grampa gave it a quick jerk…YES…he had a fish!  Grampa began to reel in the line.  The fish rose to the surface and then dove back down deep…he was big and he was a fighter! 

 

Grampa reeled the line in some more.  Soon the fish was almost on shore and Grampa turned around and reached for his fishing net.  The moment his back was turned, the Osprey who had also been fishing on the lake dove down and grabbed Grampa’s fish!  The Osprey flew as high as he could with the fish gripped in his talons but the fish still had Grampa’s hook and fishing line in its mouth and Grampa was holding his fishing rod tightly! 

The Osprey tugged at the fish and Grampa tugged on his line.  The Osprey flapped his wings and tugged harder and Grampa held on to his pole and tugged harder.  It was going to be a real battle for the big fish.  All of a sudden the fishing line broke and the Osprey flew off with Grampa’s big fish.

“Well,” said Grampa as he watched the Osprey fly away “that’s the most fun I’ve ever had fishing…even if the big one got away!”

Week Four

Week Four – Spray Lakes

Another interesting and busy week at Spray Lake Campground!  This past weekend all of our campsites were full.  We had a pretty good bunch of campers except for one group.  I thought they would turn out ok because they had three little girls, but I was wrong.  We caught them using a BB gun in the campground when they had already been told it was illegal in a provincial park, they were messy and noisy and continually used foul language.   I felt sorry for the kids with parents like that!  We called Conservation and an officer came out and confiscated the gun, and wrote them a ticket for the rest of it…some people don’t learn no matter how many chances you give them.

Another incident across the lake involving guns.  A group of six guys had set up to fish and relax at the day use area across the lake from our site.  Tom and I were sitting at our site watching everyone across the lake with our binoculars.  I looked at the six guys and darned if it didn’t look like they were shooting.  I drove over for a better look and to take some pictures then called conservation.  The guns they were using were air-soft but looked amazingly real.  Not a good idea to shoot them in a provincial park where there are other families and fishermen on the beach with you.  They ended up getting fines and having their guns confiscated as well.  Hopefully they will learn.

On Monday afternoon, Tom went out to clean up a few sites and I was cleaning house.  When he came back he yelled at me to get my camera and come with him.  We drove out around “windy point” and there in the middle of the lake was a big river-runner boat stuck up on a little island.  It must have come away from the boat launch and not seen the island and ended up on top of it.  Someone must have called 911 because both RCMP and Conservation responded.  We watched for a while and then came back home.  It took them most of the day to finally get the boat back into the water.  Always something interesting going on here.

We’ve seen so many different birds up here…these ravens are so big and lovely.  There are eagles, osprey, all kinds of water birds, plus we’ve seen mountain bluebirds, whisky-jacks, robins, sparrows and hummingbirds.  There are many more but I don’t know their names.  I love to listen to them though…some have such distinct songs.

Tom and I decided it was time to get away for a little while so we took a day trip to Lake Louise.  It was really beautiful there, but oh so crowded (and this was a Tuesday!).  So many international tourists come to see the area…it really is lovely though.  We walked through the chateau as well...it was pretty fancy but a bit out of our price range!  We had a lady from Arizona take our picture in front of the lake.  While we were at Lake Louise we went into a shop and got an ice-cream cone…they were selling cases of pop there as well.  A dozen coke cost $18.95 plus tax and bottle deposit…WOW!!!  We saw a grizzly bear on the way out of the area but couldn’t get pictures of it.  One day I’ll find my grizzly and get some great pictures…I just need to be patient.  We did see four big horned sheep and managed to get some decent pictures of them.  They are almost always on the Canmore hill so we see them quite often.  Even so, it’s always kind of exciting to see any kind of animal in the wild.

One afternoon we decided to take a walk down to Goat Pond.  The pond is about three kilometers away from us so not really that far.  We got almost there and it got too marshy to go any farther, but I did get some nice pictures of some of the flowers and butterflies.  A couple days after our walk a fellow stopped by who has the contract to build part of the Trans-Canada Trail which will go north to south from Banff to the US border.  I was surprised they weren’t just fixing up the Great Divide Trail as it runs almost parallel but I guess this trail is totally separate from that one.  Anyway, the contractor said that for the most part they will be building bridges over the wet spots so hikers and bikers can get through.  As you can see new bridges are definitely needed!

Oso loved the walk…he got incredibly dirty and went in every pond, stream and mud hole we passed.  When we got home he had a bath and got a haircut which were both very much needed!

I think that the Great Divide bicycle race is happening this weekend.  Last night I met a fellow named Billy Rice who is called the yo-yo man because he’s ridden his bike back and forth to Mexico so many times.  He’s got a website and you can follow his adventures on facebook.  He was riding up from Mexico to meet his daughter in Banff and then they were going to ride a tandum bike back to Mexico in the race this weekend.  He said he’s done the 2500 miles in 19 days…when I commented that he must hold the record, he said “No, the record is 14 days and 10 hours”.  More power to them I say!  Will be fun to watch for them this weekend as the bikers will come right through the campground.

We saw a couple of elk the other day by the roadside.  They disappeared into the bushes pretty quickly though.  It’s funny, they were standing about 200 meters from his little black bear that was also on the side of the road…neither seemed bothered by the other’s presence. 

I’ll leave you with a couple more pictures of Lake Louise…this is the Chateau and the Victoria Glacier…both are pretty grand!

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Week 3 - Spray Lake

Week 3 – Spray Lake

This past weekend was pretty quiet though we did have thirty or so campers.  The fire ban was lifted so people were happy to buy wood and burn it up!  Early in the week there were some bicyclists who came through.  They had started their journey in Banff and were headed for Mexico.  This isn’t unusual as there are many cyclists who do this…what was unusual was that this was a family consisting of Mom, Dad and six kids between the ages of 10 and 14.  The kids were culturally blended and perhaps adopted or fostered.  Mom and Dad were both doctors and the family lived in Alaska.  We heard them whooping and hollering as they rode across the dam, obviously happy to have made it to the campground where they could rest for the night, so we waited to talk to them before we made a run through the campground.  The kids were excited about the trip and anxious to set up their tents and start their first night of camping.  Dad said they had set aside ten weeks in which they would travel approximately 2500 miles on their bikes to their destination, Antelope Wells, New Mexico, right on the Mexican border.  This definitely was a trip of a lifetime for them…  I wish I would have thought to take a picture. 

We had a lovely sunny day on Monday…it was quiet in the campground so we enjoyed the day sitting in the sun and doing a few chores around our site.  Tom hauled black water from the fifth wheel and dumped it and we both worked at pumping water from the hand pump in the campground to fill our water tank.  We pumped and carried about 75 gallons that day…next day our arms and shoulders were sure tired!  Tom said I needed the exercise!!!  Ha!

My Nephew Brad surprised us with a visit on Monday as well.  He works in demolition and was doing a job at the Rafter-6 Ranch not far from Canmore so thought he’d take a drive up.  It was sure good to see him.  The next day Tom and I drove out to the Rafter-6 while on our way to Cochrane to get groceries.  Brad wasn’t there but the property manager showed us around.  It’s an interesting place.  The ranch was established in the 1800’s and was at that time a breeding/training ranch for RCMP horses.  Later a lodge was built and it became a destination for horse people to visit and enjoy riding in the area.  Now, some of the buildings are old and falling apart and new owners want to rebuild the place.  They aren’t sure what it will become yet, but are thinking something along the lines of an artists’ retreat or a place for kids to enjoy the outdoors.  Whatever it does become, I’m sure it will be amazing.  It’s a beautiful location.

I saw this little darling on the way to Canmore one morning…she was nibbling on something in the rocks by the roadside.  She has such beautiful big eyes and long ears…such a sweetheart!

And bears…we’ve seen a few of them this week.  On Tuesday when we were coming back from Cochrane, we saw the most beautiful, big grizzly bear along the highway.  We were going to fast to stop and take pictures which is a real shame.  The bear was so healthy looking and very golden in colour.  Would have loved to get some pictures of him.

Today while we were at Boulton Creek, we saw two black bears on the way down and one on the way back.  The two we saw on the way down vanished into the woods pretty quickly but the guy we saw on the way back was very happy to pose for pictures.  He was wet but didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain.  He munched happily on fresh, juicy clover and strawberry leaves…a true eating machine!  Isn’t he beautiful though!

While we were in Boulton, we stopped at the Visitors Center.  I’d been there before but Tom hadn’t.  It was interesting to see the displays and learn more about the animals and environment in this area.  The displays are all interactive and geared toward kids…sure was wishing Rachel, Wyatt and Barrett were here…they would have loved it!  There was a good variety of animals on display including this big boy.

A flock of geese appeared on the lake last week.  These must be a new breed of “walking” geese because we never did see them fly.  They walked up from the lake (about 200 meters) and wandered around the grassy area in front of our campsite, then walked down toward some of the other campsites.  Next time we saw them they were walking back to the lake…funny birds!

Oso had a big week too.  I’ve written a little story about his adventures with a chipmunk…the grandkids might enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Oso and the Chipmunk

Once upon a time there was a dog named Mr. Oso, who lived with Gramma and Grampa, and traveled with them wherever they went.  He especially loved visiting Rachel in Spokane, and Wyatt and Barrett in Star.  He really does love those kids.

One day Mr. Oso was sitting in his favourite chair in the campground where Gramma and Grampa were staying.  Suddenly he noticed something…it was a chipmunk!  Quick as could be, Mr. Oso jumped from his chair and ran after it.  The chipmunk was very, very fast though and disappeared into the rocks where he had made a little home.  Mr. Oso tried and tried, but he could not figure out how to get at the chipmunk.  He could hear the chipmunk chattering away in the rocks so he pawed at them but they were too hard to move.  He stood above the rocks and thought, then he stood below the rocks and thought, and finally he decided to lay beside the rocks and think about it some more.  Mr. Oso did not know that all the while he was thinking, the chipmunk was peeking out from the rocks and watching him.

 

 

 
Can you see the chipmunk watching Mr. Oso?  Look very carefully.  Look at the very left of the picture under the yellow rock.  You need to have sharp eyes because he’s very hard to see!

Mr. Oso lay beside the rocks all day long.  He was very patient but the chipmunk never came all the way out of his little home.  That night when Mr. Oso went to bed he had a dream.  He dreamed that he was faster than the chipmunk and when the chipmunk came out of his house Mr. Oso caught him.  He didn’t hurt the chipmunk though, he just played with him.  In his dream Mr. Oso and the chipmunk became good friends and played together every day.  

Grampa said “Only in your dreams, Mr. Oso!”

 

 

Week Two – Spray Lake

Hi everyone.  Well, it’s been a fairly quiet week with just a little excitement the other day when some guys decided to go off-roading with their vehicles.  There is a law in the provincial parks and probably the national parks as well, that you must stay on the roads and trails with your vehicles, bikes, etc.  No off-road vehicles are allowed and you cannot simply drive up the mountain with your vehicle.  Apparently these guys didn’t understand what “no motorized vehicles allowed” meant on the signs. 

We were just coming back from cleaning sites on Sunday afternoon when we looked across the lake.  “Look at those idiots,” Tom said.  Here were two vehicles across the lake driving up the mountainside in an area that had been washed out in the floods of 2012.  Tom called it into the Conservation Office and I went to take some pictures in case the officers didn’t arrive in time to catch these guys.  It turned out that wasn’t a problem.  Even though it takes Conservation about 40 minutes to get to us, these guys were still up the mountain drinking beer.  The Conservation officers arrived and I returned to the campground to watch what happened.  The officers climbed up the hiking path toward where the guys were parked.  About that time the guys got in their vehicles and started driving down.  They were stopped about half way down the mountain by the officers and she made them all get out of their vehicles.  They had a big dog with them too and pretty soon we see four guys walking down the hill with the dog and one guy driving one vehicle.  He got out of that vehicle once it was at the bottom and then ran back up the hill to drive the other one down.  It turns out he was the only one sober enough to drive.

These guys had been sitting up the mountain drinking beer, throwing their cans on the ground and just making a mess in general.  The Conservation Officers ticketed them for driving under the influence, off-road driving, littering, drinking in public, dog off leash, and anything else she could think of.  She then made them all get in one vehicle and the only sober person among them drove home.  The next day someone came back and got the other vehicle.  I’m glad they were able to get here in time to ticket these guys…all of those offenses are significant when in a Provincial Park…seems some people just don’t care about the environment…maybe the $5000+ fine they got will teach them something!

The weather has been decent up until yesterday.  It was actually quite hot over the weekend…definitely warm enough to wear shorts and get some sun.  Yesterday it clouded over and we had some rain…this afternoon we are having rain and thunderstorms.

The government has issued a province wide fire ban.  I guess there are some big fires up north and all the firefighters are up there.  If a fire were to break out down here, there would be nobody to stop it, so they are taking whatever precautions necessary.  It will hurt the campground as far as wood-sales goes and will probably keep some campers from coming out as well.   What is camping without a campfire!

Yesterday the power company (Trans Alta) came up and worked on the dam.  They were cleaning the branches and other floating things from the underwater culvert where water flows from the lake into the canal.  The process for doing this is quite interesting.  They bring up a huge crane and set it down over the dam.  They then put a diver in a cage-like contraption and lower him into the water.  There are two big metal boxes that then get lowered in the water and the diver removes the debris from in front of the culvert and puts it in the metal boxes to be brought up and disposed of.  The lake is so cold that the poor diver must have just about frozen!

Tom and I went down to Boulton today for showers and to pick up supplies.  We needed some brown paint for a new campsite post we put in the other day.  We dug up our fire-ring, which was quite small and put a bigger one in.  We then put the small one in the new campsite.  It looks good and we have already sold that site twice to campers.

Haven’t got many pictures of animals this week.  We did see half a dozen elk on the way back from town last night but there was too much traffic behind us to stop and take pictures.  Aside from that we saw a nice moose on our way to the office in Boulton this morning.  The deer, moose and elk don’t have their antlers yet so it’s hard to tell male from female from a distance.  I think this one was a female…it just looked a bit more delicate than some of the moose we’ve seen.

Our generator packed it in.  We took it to be fixed last week and got it back, ran it for a couple days and then it quit and wouldn’t start again.  We can’t do without a generator so went into Calgary last night and bought one.  The new one is a Honda and is the size of a suitcase rather than the big giant one we had before.  This new one is more powerful though than the old one and will be a heck of a lot easier to lift into the truck.  We were able to get together with my son, James, for dinner while we were in Calgary so that was a really nice bonus!

We took the recycling in from the first two weeks of our stay here.  $190…not bad.  If we average $100 a week, which is likely, we’ll be close to the $2000 mark by the end of our time here. 

 

It’s raining quite hard right now but we are cozy and warm in our fifth wheel.  Oso is snuggled up beside me (he doesn’t like the thunder) and Tom is baking cookies.  It’s a nice afternoon even though the weather isn’t great outside!