Through the Mountains to the Prairie

After Nakusp, my on-line journal fell apart. This may be a good thing because the days following were somewhat strange. For 20 years now, I’ve interviewed experts, wrote about, read about, investigated and lived watershed conservation in the Bow River Basin. To be away on the other side of the mountains, unsure if I could get back while the Bow threw a hissy was upsetting.

When I left Nakusp, my mind was reeling with the images I saw coming out of Calgary when I watched the news the night before. Again, it was raining on the roads and I was very conscious of the fine line between safe...

 and sorry.

I spent the day consumed with thoughts of rain and rising rivers. Every creek or river I came to (there’s a lot of them in the mountains) reminded me of the story unfolding in Calgary. When I met my friend in Nelson, she informed me that there is no internet at her house, but cell phone service.

My first thought was that this would be good for me. I could do nothing to change what was happening in Calgary and I was supposed to be on holiday and taking my mind off work. My friend lives on acreage out by the Balfour ferry on Queens Bay. It is a beautiful property and as luck would have it, I had the place to myself that first night. I blew my data budget on my cell phone trying to find out what was going on at home. Not good news. Just to top things off, my sister was in a car accident that morning, so everything going to hell in a hand basket at home.

I wandered around agitated in what felt like isolation and wilderness trying to remind myself that my being in Calgary would change nothing. Suddenly, I noticed a bright light outside as the full super moon rose above the mountains.

This reminded me that it was June 21, summer solstice and full moon. That calmed me a tad and I vowed to stop checking on Calgary and remember why I was away in the first place.

I was there to reconnect with an old friend who has always been a bright light to everyone she meets. I was in a beautiful place and it was time to relax for a few days.

The next day, my buddy put me on a quad for the first time in my life and we went off exploring. At first, I was too scared to go over 10km/hour on the gravel road, so we didn’t get far. We visited a big family preparing dinner and I was touched by the love and caring going on in that house. Also, there is just no denying that gardens do really well in BC. With a little love and attention, they look like the one at that home providing food and flowers for the table. Plus, they had a mother duck sitting on a nest under the trees.

 Then she took me along a hydro line to a hike in the woods where we ended at a beautiful soul-soothing waterfall.

The yard where I stayed.

 

This is a photo of the neighborhood where I stayed from the ferry that
took me across the lake to continue my journey home.

 This is about when I started to really calm down; to feel into the place where I was and the people I was with who are really good people. I let myself slip into that relaxation for 3 days.

June 25, I packed my stuff and hit the road relatively confident I could make Lethbridge in two days.

I expected road delays, but no closures. I ran into two minor delays along the roads. Every creek and river had newly cut banks and piles of debris strewn about.

The closer I got to Alberta, the more sunshine I saw ahead. I found myself pulled along the highway by a desire to know how Crowsnest had fared.  

Elk River just west of Fernie, June 25

There is some truly beautiful country along Hwy 3. In contrast to the BC interior, the mountains in southeastern BC have meadows. It seems a more inviting countryside in some ways. Less steep and tree congested – oh, were you expecting me to say something logical about my feelings right there?

Anyway, suddenly I was back on southern Alberta prairie and too close to Lethbridge to stop anywhere else. Looking around this countryside, I noticed a lot more windmills than I thought we had down there. Just found that an interesting fact to share.

June 26 was a work day as I attended the Farming Smarter field school to take photos and learn a thing or two. Like Hector Carcamo talking about all the beneficial bugs available to fight agricultural pests and how important it is to identify what you have before you spray anything.

Or Dr. Nick Poole explaining how there is a short window for effective fungicide spraying and it’s best to know how to tell when that is in your crop. I learn every time I go to an event with Farming Smarter just how different real life farming is from the hype of the anti-Monsanto crowd – at least here in Canada. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it is far more land and food-friendly than many people are lead to believe.

Finally, it was time to head to Calgary. I drove up Hwy 23/24,

Bow River at Carseland bridge on Hwy 24

took Hwy 1 to Stoney Trail that goes around the city and landed in Edgemont around 8:30 pm. I haven’t ventured out yet. Life here looks unaffected on the surface. The family is fine, Jack is happy to see me and my familiar bed felt good enough to keep me there until 10 am.

That was a strange holiday and I expect I’ll have a little something to say once I go out. However, city officials are asking us to stay home today because the roads are congested due to closures. There is a train full of diesel fuel or some such hanging over the river on a collapsing bridge. I’m sure there will be good news one of these days.

Clearwater to Nakusp

Today was a long day.
It started off great at Dutch Lake with coffee on the porch overlooking the lake. I even had an opportunity to do a good deed before I hit the road.
Not to far down the road, I came to Barrier and noticed that all the mountains on all sides were bare except for burnt tree trunks.

This went on for miles and miles. It must have been terrifying to be there during this fire. I can only assume that the town was evacuated because the burnt sticks come right down to within yards of the buildings. Obviously the fire crews know how to do their jobs.
Once out of the burnt area, I noticed that the forests on the hills have large swaths of dead trees - pine beetle damage. The dead trees would be perfect tinder.


I zipped through Kamloops only stopping to get a power cord for the laptop. Quickly through, I headed south on Hwy 97. It is spring and raining so everything is very green.
I came across Monte Lake on this leg of the drive and stopped to take one of the prettiest pictures so far. Agree?

Monte Lake, BC

Rolling onward, I had a minor glitch approaching Vernon and then went on through to Lumby. Through construction and onto miles and miles and miles of this:

Bumpy, bad roads in the rain and clouds.

Sigh...









So, I stopped to go for a walk and ran into this.

This is the trail I planned to walk down to Shuswap River on Hwy 6. I didn't even get started! This is of course, child's play compared to what's going on at home right now.
I hope everyone is safe and I send thoughts to those suffering loss in southern Alberta.


Finally, I got to the Needles ferry at the south end of Arrow Lake.  The break while on the ferry was enough to get me to Nakusp where I am holed up in motel for the night and happy to finally stop driving.

Arrow Lake from the ferry.

Driving from Fauquier to Nakusp, I saw a bear - twice, so 2 bears. I also saw deer today between Lumby and Needles.
The first little brown bear was sitting on the side of the Hwy chewing on the grass. It was very cute.

It's strange to be in Nakusp and not with my sister who has property just south of here. But they aren't there until tomorrow! Seems strange to miss her by only that much.

Sleep tight and safe my friends.

Overlander Falls, BC

Today, I left Jasper and moseyed down the highway as far as Clearwater, BC. My hike and cardio took place at Overlander Falls so named after a group of Russians (?) that chose to try going overland to BC's gold fields way back when that didn't mean retirement and ski villages.

Here is what I saw there.

Trailhead Overlander Falls

Dripping pine

I think this is Trillium

Overlander Falls

This is where my camera battery started to flash at me. No sweat, have a spare in the car.

Fish out of water!

Back at the car, found my spare battery and realized the charger is at home in Calgary. Good thing I brought 3 cameras.

After my hike, I carried on to Valemount, BC where I had a huge lunch and realized my laptop power cord is still in Jasper. You can imagine the words going through my head at that time.
However, I decided to carry on and pick one up tomorrow in Kamloops. I had another hour or so of good weather and then the rain got serious and the driving not so much fun. So, I stopped here at Dutch Lake Resort in Clearwater.

My cabin is the one on the left.
The lake front is full of white and pink water lilies!

Sunwapta Falls Tour

Here is a quick tour of Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park. I stopped here for lunch and a walk yesterday on my way to Jasper.
There's a campground, chalet, cabins and spectacular falls all accessible from one parking lot.

the chalet for lunch and stuff

 The kitchen does a good job of simple fare and I loaded up on protein for my walk. (Turns out it's only 1 km down the road.)

Walked down the road and came to the falls. One reason I'm travelling now is because full tourist season starts soon, but not quite yet. Here's the falls. Pretty huh? Fair amount of water coming over them, but Mo says nothing compared to spring 2011.

Then I walked up the trail a little bit, sat on a log and meditated. I called on light workers I know to join me in sending healing energy to Mother Earth. On the way up, I passed this.

On the way down on a different path, I noticed the sun shining through this.

Back across the bridge, I went up the other side of the canyon to see the downstream channel of Sunwapta River; which starts at Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields.

Here's what downstream looks like from above.

Just when I thought the photo journey was over, I came across these tiny pinecone-looking things hanging on some bushes surrounding the parking lot.

Cute eh?
I plan to bring you along on this trip when I can. Travelling in Canada can be like less developed countries in that we have internet dead zones. There isn't even cell phone service on Hwy 93 north from Lake Louise to Jasper. I understand there are spots... but they're spotty.

Anyway, in Jasper now and will be in touch for a couple of days.
Weeeee Summer!