Wednesday, October 8/2014

It rained a bit this morning and it is pretty cloudy out today.  Hopefully the sun will find its way through the clouds and we will have a nice day.  It is so very quiet here.
Our first text today was from Marilyn. She knows we have hit the Crowsnest and are not too far away from them. I think her and Lorne are coming here for Happy Hour!! Woo Hoo. We have not seen them since March so it will be so good to sit and share a few beverages with them today.
It is time for me to get the blog caught up as well so my morning will be spent doing just that.  I noticed too that the patch work I did on the camper roof is coming apart so while we were in Lethbridge yesterday, we stopped at Home Depot and got some elastomeric so that too shall get repaired today. Who knows, maybe we will have a stay at the camp today.

Exploring the trails

We got all our jobs done today so decided to head out onto the trails.   With our handy dandy map in hand, off we went only to soon discover that the trails were very poorly marked.   The first sign we saw was a "5" (not sure where the first four went) but it was rather comforting to know where were were on the map....kind of!!   The next sign we encountered was a metal pole that was no longer in the ground but propped up against a tree that pointed in several directions.  One was back to our staging area and we could only hope that who ever put it up knew which way to prop it so that the directions on the sign were indeed the way back to camp.    I think I may need "the Powers" before this day is out. (you remember....God, Allah, Budda and the Gitchi Manitou)

beautiful Fall trails

The trails were beautiful and the smell of the evergreens was awesome.  There truly is beauty in this area.   We travelled the trails meandering up and over several high hills for a few hours hoping to find some sort of sign to get us back on the map.  Of course John with his bush sense really was not too concerned but my anxiety level certainly rose when we came upon the Atlas Staging area. That was on the map and a few miles to the east of us!!  Now how the hell did we get way over here and how the hell do we get back???  There were absolutely no signs what so ever on the trails and no arrows to keep one on the main trail when one came to an intersection!! Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!!
For an area that boasts about how awesome the trail system is up here and how for $10.00 you can buy a map of the trails and that the proceeds of the sale of these maps goes to trail maintenance one would wonder WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN SIGNS  that keep people from getting lost in this bush?

Beverage

There indeed was some "grooming" done on the trails
Too bad there were no signs!!

Before we left camp today we got a text from Lorne and Marilyn that they were coming for happy hour and here we were, miles from the campsite, trying to get back to camp before they arrived.   It would not bode well to be late but somehow that may be the end result.   For some reason, we had "service" here in the bush and knew that we had an hour to find our way back to camp.

Mountain view

Beautiful Fall colours

With John's sense of direction and perseverance we made it back to camp just as our guests arrived.   It was soooo good to see them and they brought pizza for supper! We enjoyed a wonderful but short visit with them.  We will be stopping by their home sometime next week to spend a bit more time with them and wait until it is time to cross into the USA.

Awesome trails

All in all, it was a good day, the trails are beautiful and certainly different that what we are used to traveling on in our Northern Forest.   I just can't seem to get past the severe lack of signage on the trails. Not really looking forward to getting lost again tomorrow!!

Yes, Marie got stuck here