nature – OldPlaidCamper

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!

Spring forward!

Longer daylight hours, the soft warmth of springlike days, and the promise of a cold drink on a sunny patio – sure, let’s spring forward!

Might have to wait a little longer for some of those springing forward benefits around here?

In the meantime, we don’t have to dream of the beach to visit the beach, not here!

Oh well! Glass half full, it’s almost spring, or soon will be, and in the meantime, we’re off to the mountains for a few days, to enjoy the rain, and maybe even the snow, if our cabin is at a high enough elevation…

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

On the edge…

…of the city, there is a small wilderness area squeezed between the southwest city limits and the boundary of the Tsuu t’ina Nation. It’s mostly a wooded wetland, located on the north side of the Elbow River, with pathways weaving along and between narrow waterways and tiny ponds.

We were there this week on a bright March morning, enjoying blue skies and temperatures that quickly climbed above freezing. There were hardly any other park users – a few other dog walkers and a jogger who jingled past laden with bear bells. I imagine the bears appreciated the heads up, delighted to hear lunch was approaching? We didn’t see bears or any other big creatures, but there were many geese overhead, and chickadees were our almost constant companions in the sunnier spots. Every now and then we heard the distant tapping of a busy woodpecker.

There was some snow on the ground from a heavy fall a few days earlier, but it was melting away in the strong sun, and, in these bright March days, it feels far more like early spring than late winter, so I guess we’re headed in the right direction!

The park isn’t huge, but it’s more than pleasant enough to be in the almost wild for a couple of hours on a midweek morning. We’ll revisit again when it is spring proper, check out the new greenery, smell the sap, and give the mosquitoes something to feed on.

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

Thaw freeze thaw

And so on. It’s winter. It’s spring (sort of!) No, it’s winter again. Thaw-freeze-thaw! Or is it freeze-thaw-freeze?

As I write, it is more springlike, although the forecast is calling for snow by tonight and through Friday. We’ve gone from wearing our warmest coats to beat the -25C last week, to not needing a jacket at all today for +9C! March is about to roar in like a confused polar bear (I think that’s the saying in these climate change challenged times?) and we’ll aim to enjoy it either way.

Minus 25C on the wobbly bridge over the Bow – but where is everyone?!

Much of the warmth has come from repeated chinooks, and, for out this way, that’s not unusual at all, although the frequency is irritating if you like the snow… I took a snap of part of the chinook arch stretching across the sky to the west of the city yesterday. The wind was barreling in along the Bow valley, warming everything up. Slush city!

The birds definitely enjoy the warmer weather – the moment the temperature goes above freezing and the sun beams down, you can hear the little brown birds singing in the shrubbery, flitting from bush to bush and asking is that it for winter?

Geese, chilling out last week – honk if you’re feeling the cold

The resident geese on the river look a bit happier than they did last week, when they sat huddled and shivering in the arctic temperatures. Midweek, we saw a bald eagle fly over the bluff and turn to head west along the Bow. I’m guessing it nests somewhere on the edge of the city? We’ve seen it a few times this winter, and it’s quite the sight with the high rise blocks in the background!

As for beer choices, with the topsy-turvy temperatures, do we go with a darker winter oriented beer, or a more suitably springlike sipper? Decisions, decisions… I know – how about both?! Freeze-thaw-freeze, thaw-freeze-thaw, and so on!

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

“Bling, bling, baby!”

“And the same to you, sir!”

We decided to take a wander along the Bow the other day, encouraged by the bright blue skies and warm – for February – temperatures. It certainly felt more like spring than winter, to the point we were in woolly sweaters instead of the more usual coats.

Birds were singing, perhaps as confused as us about the warmth, and squirrels scampered left, right and centre, and who could blame them?

There were far more than the normal number of walkers enjoying the pathways, as well as cyclists and even a scooter or two. As we approached one underpass, a colourful chap emerged from the shadows, and he was clearly having a fine day. Dressed in a leopard print jacket and orange and black trousers, he was absolutely beaming. And gleaming. He had several bright gold chains around his neck, and lots of shiny rings on his fingers.

There’s a colourful character under the next bridge…

I nodded and smiled, not being the chatty sort – you’ll sometimes get a “good morning” or perhaps a “hi, how’s it going?” from me, but I like to keep moving, and a smile and nod does the trick. Anyway, instead of a smile and nod, this dazzling character waved his hands about, did a little dance as he passed and said – you’ve already guessed it – “bling, bling, baby!” then continued on his merry way.

Almost impossible to disagree, so I didn’t – it really was a bling bling sort of a day, not that I’d thought of it that way before…

It might not be proper winter or anywhere close, but if we encounter more sunny natured people along the river banks, then all will be well.

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

A short trip…

…and a tale of adventure and bravery. (One that ended in a fall, tee-hee! Who said that? Not those squirrels again?)

Don’t listen to them, it’s not true. The fall, if it could even be called that – it was more of a graceful tumble or delicate descent – came at the midpoint of the trip, but it is fair to say it was the end of the outward leg. And the end of a fully functional left leg, but that happened later. Goodness, does this all sound mildly cryptic? No? Just confusing, then? Stick around if you want – it gets less exciting.

I thought I’d try an easy cross country ski trail, one with a trailhead a short walk from the cabin we were staying in. The trail runs along a flat (almost flat – I’ll get to that shortly) valley, one overlooked by the mighty Castle mountain in the Bow Valley. I’d been on this trail before, more than ten years ago, and I remembered it as a fairly gentle there and back again outing.

Once I’d found my steady plodding xc ski rhythm, the going was pretty good. I was upright, balanced, and making steady progress along the trail. I paused to allow one or two skiers on the return part of their outing to get by, nodding a greeting and agreeing on the perfect conditions. That was about right, given the cold but not too cold afternoon, and the very light snowfall – barely falling in truth, mostly flakes floating on a light breeze. “Why,” I thought to myself, “why hadn’t I been out here sooner this winter? I’ve clearly cracked this xc skiing lark at last!” With that, on I went, a happy and jolly super little skier.

After about 45 minutes of gentle skiing and gliding, it occurred to me that I’d have to turn around at some point, head back to base before it got dark or I got too tired. It’s when I’m tired on skis that I (very occasionally) fall over, and I didn’t want to get to that point. I slowed to a stop and started to turn around, carefully lifting one ski out of the tracks, then the other. Then I fell over.

“But I’m not even tired yet!” I thought to myself. Nearby squirrels laughed as I fumed silently, untangling my legs and pushing myself back to my feet. Other than the squirrels, there was no one around to witness this embarrassment, and I’m certainly not about to tell anyone, let me tell you.

You can’t see them, or hear them, but they were in there, laughing

Oh my, the long slog back! It turns out maybe I haven’t conquered xc skiing after all. And I haven’t got the same mighty legs I had ten years ago. Goodness, it was hard work. That 45 minutes of gentle gliding must have been more than an hour of very steep uphill return struggle. (Erm, if it was a gentle glide down, it can hardly have been a steep slope back, right OldPlaidCamper? What’s that? Have you been talking to those gossipy squirrels? Anyway, I’m not taking questions right now!)

“Has he mentioned his legs yet? Wake me when it’s over…”

The most important thing about it all was that I was a very brave boy and I didn’t complain for days and days after about my poor aching legs. Just the left one. And only for one or two days. Oh, ok – three!

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

Winter mountain hush

What a relief it was to arrive at Baker Creek, check into our little cabin, and smile when we were told internet was spotty at best due to limited satellite uplink capacity (or something) and cell phone service was basically zero. Imagine our disappointment…

No cell service?! Oh our disappointment, teehee…

It was hard to see who was more gleeful to be out in the mountains, and to be running helter skelter through the deep snow, but I think Scout edged it. She was able to make slightly faster progress with four leg drive than we did on two. And yes, instead of dumping bags and heading straight out the door to explore the immediate surroundings, a short pause to don snow pants and snowshoes would have been sensible. Sensible? Nope, no time for that!

We stumbled and postholed around the perimeter, trying to stay in the middle of snowmobile tracks, but with Scout leading and pulling, we weren’t able to keep from drifting into drifts. Mother had mentioned, before we left, not to fall into any deep drifts. Good advice! (We saw, from the road on the way home a few days later, an elk caught in a deep drift and bulldozing – elk-dozing? – it’s way out. Hope it made it…)

Poorly equipped for even a short walk as we were, we still enjoyed how silent and still (our mad stumbling aside) everything was. The blanket of snow was so pretty, muffling most noise. Winter mountain hush! Blessed quiet! We could just about hear the tinkling chuckle-gurgle of the creek, and, luckily, see it in a few places where it hadn’t been snowed over. Scout desperately wanted to get closer, odd for her, given she doesn’t enjoy the water, but we resisted her efforts. Sorry, Scout – wet feet and minus fifteen don’t mix!

Eventually, slightly wet legged due to snowmelt on lower jeans, and ready to admit we should have put on snowshoes, we returned to our cabin to unpack, find dry pants, and get warmed up by the fire. Oh, and crack open a red ale we’d been saving as a fireside sipper. It was just the thing as we planned a proper snowshoe adventure for the following day!

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

Two bridges and a slice of cake

Another year older, another year wider, and that’s how it goes! So said a friend the other day, wishing me a happy birthday. Wider? I think it was a typo?

Exiting mince pie season, in need of a longer walk, and with a couple of library books due, I decided to return them to my favourite library located over the river and down in Memorial Park. There are two closer libraries, but being a year wider was on my mind.

Approaching the Wobbly Bridge (you won’t find that name on the maps)

I like the walk down to Memorial Park as it includes two bridges over the Bow, one each end of Prince’s Island Park, making for a pleasant circular stroll.

The recent mists had finally lifted, and what a sight they left behind! The mist, snowy drizzle and frost (snizzle? smozzle? frizzle? I think these are meteorological words?) had combined to cover everything in a layer of brilliant white.

It seemed like the world had turned silver and blue, with ice extending from the river banks, some piled up in floes, and the lagoon perfectly frozen for skating.

I can see the attraction, but avoided temptation – I still have bruises from that time on Canmore pond…

What a splendid winter walk! I returned the books – no overdue notices – enjoyed a moment watching the skaters, and then bounced home over the wobbly bridge.

Sun’s dropping, and so is the temperature – time to head home!

Once home, being a year older and wiser, I did the sensible thing and warmed up with a cup of strong black coffee and the last slice of Basque cheesecake. Older and wider takes commitment.

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

PS Barely more than a week into the new year, and, news wise, it’s dreadful, hard to ignore, and shouldn’t be ignored. I’m not going to comment any more than that on that – you’ve seen what’s happening, it’s quite clear – and I’ll stick with trying to keep this little corner a pleasant place to be. Stay safe, wherever you are.

Foggy

We thought we’d head out for a brisk walk in the park, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the start of the year, continuing a week of walks enjoyed in bright, if a tad chilly, conditions. Oh:

A lovely view of downtown – it is there, honest!

The view from where we live looks out over the downtown, and at night we can enjoy the lit up Calgary skyline, even if the waste of electricity makes us wince a bit. Yesterday, it was as if Calgary had disappeared!

Bright on other days, low winter sun and all

We’ll be disappearing ourselves for a little while, as we head out into the mountains for a short stay. Looking at lots of snow, quiet trails, and a warm cabin at the end of the day! New year, same old us…

Essential cabin supplies. Dry January? Nope.

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

December! Winter! Phew!

Phew! We got through the somewhat dull days of November, helped enormously by the very much appreciated end of month snowfall – for us, everything looks better with a light (or heavy) dusting of snow! Once the last leaves drop, it might as well snow, and, for now, it has!

Happy dog dance and an odd gnomish-looking fellow. (Photo: Mrs. PC)

So it’s goodbye November and welcome to winter!

Did someone say winter? Woof! (Photo: Mrs. PC)

I’ll keep it brief for this post and limit things to a few photos taken out and about the past week or so.

We have our fingers crossed that the temperature dip to more seasonal numbers is consistent, and that the promised snowy winter predicted by forecasters this season comes to pass…

Cool temperatures and a layer of ice beginning to creep out from the shore

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

	Jane Lurie on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	Pepper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	plaidcamper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	Pepper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	plaidcamper on Spring forward!