OldPlaidCamper

Contrasts

As I wrote previously, we were fortunate to enjoy mostly blue skies on our trip to the western edge of Vancouver Island. But, it being largely a temperate rainforest location in the PNW, it wasn’t always wall to wall sunshine. There were a couple of almost foggy/definitely misty mornings, times that contrasted pleasantly with the overall brightness.

I’ve included a few photographs this week highlighting those coastal contrasts. What a wonderful spring delight it was to be in the greens and blues of western BC.

We’re back in landlocked AB now, where spring is in the ascendant at last, a time of rising (to near normal) seasonal temperatures, with more than a few rain showers to encourage the emerging plant life to get with being green – or what passes for luxuriant greenery in the space between the mountains and the prairies!

We’re hoping to spend a few days out in the foothills next week, see for ourselves the long awaited switch from chilly late winter (friends in Canmore have – they hope – finally put away snow shovels) to proper mountain spring. It’s a fifteen minute season before full summer…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Safe harbour

Wandering around the boat basin on a sunny morning seemed a pleasant way to spend an hour. It helped that the bright blue skies and warm sunshine made the scenes even more colourful. Very cheerful!

The previous day had been very blustery, and the clanging and clanking of masts, as well as the singing lines as the wind blew through the rigging made for a haunting song of sorts.

The eagles appeared to love the weather, sun or rain, blustery or not, and their piercing cries and shrill calls could be heard each day, even over the constant wind.

One morning, just before sun up, several eagles flew up into the trees to the left and right of our campsite. There they perched, offering an occasional cry, for a few minutes, almost if as if they were waiting with me for the sun to appear over nearby Mt. Ozzard.

Fanciful, I know, but they flew off mere moments after the sun’s first rays started to warm the harbour. I raised my coffee cup in acknowledgment, but they were gone, no doubt looking for something more interesting than the robust dark roast.

Rain or shine, wind or calm, Ucluelet Harbour is rarely a dull place!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Head west

Leaving the mountains behind us, our task was to find spring, or at least a place with no recent snow on the ground.

So we headed west across mountains, and more mountains, emerging onto the flatland delta, continuing until the road stopped. There, we got on a ferry to cross the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island, disembarked, and headed west once again until the road stopped again.

The end of the road (the end of a rutted and muddy track)

We have found spring (almost summer by west coast standards) in one of our happy places, and, even better, have been catching up with old friends. Hard to imagine we were cooling beer in the snow a week ago.

It feels as if winter has finally let go for real, spring has arrived for sure, and summer isn’t too far around the corner. Camping days ahead!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Alberta cooler

We’re back on the road for the next little while, in fact we have been the past week. We trundled through the prairies for a few days, before heading into Kananaskis at the end of the long weekend. As we ventured in, we saw quite a number of campers leaving early. We wondered why?

It grew distinctly cool as the weekend progressed – more snow anyone? Yup, that happened. Thank goodness we didn’t have to worry about keeping our evening beer chilled. Who needs ice or a cooler?!

By the time this is posted we should be somewhere in BC, searching for some warmth and a little less snow…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Hoodoo?

We do! If you ever have the opportunity, traveling the Hoodoo Trail in the Drumheller, AB region is an interesting way to discover some amazing geological formations in an arid location.

I imagine it gets pretty busy – and very hot – in the summer months, but we were lucky enough to stop at the formations shared here on a relatively quiet and pleasantly warm midweek spring day. Early in the season as it was, it felt hot after the long slow start to spring – no complaints!

It always amuses me that the area is known as the badlands, and I understand why, but they are some of my favourite lands to visit, with such a different geography and geology. Dinosaur territory if that kind of thing interests you…

We ended our morning with a fine lunch and cold pint at the Last Chance Saloon in nearby Wayne. As with the rock formations, if you ever have a chance to visit, it is great place to stop and cool off.

One of my finest photographs ever, taken through a dusty windshield

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Prairie time, and about time

At last! We’re camping, and it’s spring! No, not the spring found on the calendar but it’s still snowing outside – instead, it’s the real and actual spring where the sun shines and snow is a distant memory (just over a week ago, but it’s gone now…)

We’re out in the prairie badlands (bad? good!) a couple of hours northeast of Calgary. Spotty wifi but lots of wildlife, so more to share at a later date.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Red Deer River far below Dry Island Buffalo Jump

Taking a break

It’s mud season when it isn’t ongoing snow showers season, and, in April, I just can’t get excited by that…

So let’s skip the remainder of April – blogging-wise – and then, when mud season is over (by the end of the month, he says, hopefully) we will be out and about because the last of the snow will (surely?) have melted and most of the mud will have dried up! Goodbye brown grass and hello greenery? Maybe. Camping here we come.

The last of the last of the last of the snow? Maybe…

Tomorrow is forecast to be the first double digit sunny day of the month, so I’ll say we’re heading in the right direction! Enjoy the rest of April, and let’s catch up sometime in May!

Beer and chocolate…

…and spring? Hoping for three out of three…

Apparently, this is the good stuff? (*Yes it is!* Mrs. PC)

I’ll keep it brief this week, and confess we’ll be having two out of three of the above this coming long weekend!

Apparently, this is the good stuff? (*Yes it is!* Mr. PC) A wee heavy (a Scottish beer style) and what I’ll be after too much beer and chocolate.

If you choose to celebrate Easter this weekend, enjoy, and even if you don’t, perhaps you’ll have a beer, some chocolate, or maybe even enjoy some spring sunshine where you are?

It is sunny, and it is calendar spring! Taken earlier this week – technically, three for three?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“Yes, I know dogs can’t have chocolate. No, I’m not sulking…)

PS:

Nope, two out of three! Taken yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

Cabin time

When it comes to mountain or forest accommodation in winter, a cabin is just about perfect. I’ve slept (or not slept – that wood stove needs regular tending) in a yurt, and enjoyed pleasant tent slumbers in rainforests (winter-adjacent rainforest camping isn’t so cold, but a bit damp) but nothing beats the comfort of a cabin. (I can hear one brother spitting coffee on his keyboard at the use of “comfort” and “cabin” in the same sentence. It was many years ago, I still choose to believe he had a good time, not that he’ll admit it, and anyway, of course he wasn’t going to get a great night’s sleep if he spent all his time throwing shoes at a mouse. The mouse was fine, if you were wondering…)

I did once construct a quinzee just for fun, after a heavy snowfall in Yoho, but did I sleep in it? No chance – I knew the builder – and besides, I built it in the backyard of the cabin we were staying in at the time. Cabin or quinzee? No contest!

To describe the place we called home for a few nights during our recent trip (to the Blaeberry Valley, BC) as simply a cabin seems a bit of an understatement. It was a mountain palace, and no complaints about that from this travel weary (travel weary? – it was only three hours from home! Mrs. PC) princess, happy to arrive, unsaddle and stable the horses, after brushing the road dust, er, I mean snow, from his clothes. Or something.

In realtor-speak, is this vaulted, or cathedral? Or upside-down boat interior? I liked it.

I’ve included a few photographs taken in and around the “cabin” to share some idea of what splendid accommodation it was. It did snow plenty while we were there, so was I tempted to try and make another quinzee? Nope! Too comfortable, and I was far too busy trying to figure out the fancy coffee machine. Like I said, not the usual cabin, and that was absolutely fine by us.

This week’s post was sponsored by overuse of the word quinzee. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

We’re well supplied, Scout, don’t worry!

The weary traveller, unsaddling the horses, brushing off the snow… (Huh? Is he ok?!)

Tall trees and complete quiet (more or less)

Muffled by snow, helped by being a good distance from the main highway and train line, Emerald Lake is a bowl of quiet, tree lined and surrounded by mountains.

Until last week, we hadn’t visited in almost ten years, but little has changed, and it still delights. Ten years is a considerable chunk of a human span, but nothing in mountain measured time. I like mountain terrain, because it keeps you small, and encourages perspective.

Speaking only for myself, lately it’s been a challenge sometimes to go about my business – the business of enjoying almost retirement and having a pleasant time living in western Canada – when it’s the case that there are utter morons (invariably but not exclusively of the right wing nut bar brigade) doing their level best to make bad situations far, far worse. I won’t go into details, you read the news. I generally (and genuinely) do try to keep things chipper on here, but, bloody hell, it’s a mess out there, isn’t it? Ok, stopping there, more or less.

Fanciful I know, but maybe the mountains shake their heads in bemusement, and perhaps even disappointment, at the grasping antics of certain tiny humans. Do mountains concern themselves with small people, particularly those fuelled by ego or narcissism? Probably not. Ok, time to stop.

Petty people, deluded by their own “grandeur” – grandeur, ha! – as if! Oh, come on, the word isn’t grandeur – let’s try greed! I have to laugh at their smallness, their lack of awareness, of what they really signify in the grand scheme. Ok, stopping here, for sure, more or less.

Thank goodness for vast landscapes and quiet places, locations that might remind us nothing lasts forever, and of exactly how big or small we really are…

Thanks for reading – what passes for normal service will resume next week – and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

	plaidcamper on Safe harbour
	plaidcamper on Safe harbour
	plaidcamper on Safe harbour
	Maria on Safe harbour
	Miriam on Safe harbour