Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Horseback Ride

The Ride began at 9:30 in the morning. The first pictures are of Jill getting the stirrups adjusted, views on the way up, Cameron Falls, and mule deer. The route was varied and included riding through pasture land, on roadways behind the houses in the town, but mostly going STRAIGHT UP hill - or should I say Mountains. The view from way up shows you how much elevation we gained on the way up. On the earlier posts I said (more than once) how
narrow the path, how rock-strewn the path, how close to the edge which was often a steep vertical drop. Man I am so brave on a horse and yet not able to get on a plane - go figure.
The horse I rode was named Zamboni and she took advantage of whatever greenery she could eat - she was stubborn and headstrong just like me. Jill's horse was nice and calm and named Skeena.
At the top at Bertha Falls we dismounted and rested a bit then headed down. Our guide was a young Australian woman whose grandfather had been a rancher in Alberta. She was an expert rider, calm and just a lovely guide...we were lucky to have her take us up those mountains.
The picture of Jill and I sitting on the horses in the corral is at the end of the ride and we are contemplating trying to dismount. My knees were locked from having to stand in the stirrups, leaning back for most of the descent. Jill was worried she couldn't lift her leg over the back of the horse to get off. We both thought our legs would give out under us when we landed...but we were fine and only a bit sore the next day. This was a fabulous adventure and I am thrilled we did it. The last picture is another trail guide riding a spirited Arabian heading on on the next ride and showing off. Glad we didn't have him as our guide.


















Friday, September 11, 2009

From Sunrise to Mid-day at the Bed & Breakfast, Twin Butte

This was sunrise at Dungarvan Creek B&B our first morning. (www.dungarvancreek.com)

The clouds were red but the day turned out to be beautiful.
The property had a pond on which we saw Coots, Northern Shovellers, Pintail or Black Ducks maybe, & Mallards. We saw Swallows, Cedar Waxwing, huge Hawks again, goldfinch (there is a photo here of grass with two goldfinch in it.
My great delight, like a piece of sky dropping in flight, was a male Mountain Bluebird which was joined by two female bluebirds and we were able to watch them for some time.
A mother Moose and her calf came by a few times.
The photo of the window was our view from the breakfast table - in the main house - overlooking the pond.
Our cabin is pictured with the HONKING huge truck in front. It was the only vehicle we could get from the insane rental company (a story I won't go into here) and I have cursed gas-guzzling trucks for years but in a curious way it seemed appropriate to be driving a truck through ranch country....not that I have changed my tune about gas guzzling trucks but it is safer if you happen to bump into a moose or elk or bear etc.
I hope you don't mind so many more pictures of the big skies.
Still to post pictures of Waterton and horseback riding.

















Thursday, September 10, 2009

Southern Alberta & Big Skies

I travelled to Southern Alberta for the first time this week - with my friend Jill who is visiting.
This is the first of several postings of our road trip through Kananaskis, then following the Cowboy Trail to Waterton National Park on the Montana Border.
I am ready to move to southern Alberta - except for the wind (frequent blows of 160kph).
The landscape is stunning, the skies are stunning, the clouds are fascinating.
I fell in love the the place.
Seriously!!! if I was 30 years younger I would move to Twin Butte and work in Waterton Park or something to be in that landscape. Charley would go snaky - urban boy that he is.

We stayed at a great B&B and at night it was like being in a sensory deprivation tank. No sound...absolute silence, pitch black and millions of stars. Jill was out in the black night with a red-bulbed headlamp on her head to identify stars and constellations.
I was up at sunrise (photos of the B&B to follow in a later posting).
We saw more hawks - and they were huge hawks of various breeds - in a particular corridor of highway than I may have ever seen in total in my whole life.
The first photo shows the rain we could see that we were approaching. You can see for miles and miles.
I will post soon the photos of our 4 hour horseback ride on very narrow paths, rock strewn paths, on precipitous sides of mountains......