Marty

15
May
2022
Armstrong BC – Thomas Hayes Trail & BX Falls Vernon

Armstrong BC – Thomas Hayes Trail & BX Falls Vernon

Thomas Hayes Trail - Armstrong

Having an amazing time in Armstrong.  Always amazing when we get to go hiking/walking in the woods. Yesterday and today.  Spent the weekend with Marianne (Yvonne’s sister), Marianne’s son Shayne, and his wife Shannon, Shayne’s daughter Cassidy, and Marianne’s other son Evan.   And the puppy Maya.  You can see the bunch of us hiking about in Armstrong on Saturday.  Started of kinda cool but by the time we were half way through the hike pretty much all coats were wrapped around hips.  I was very happy I’d worn shorts. 

You can see the bunch of us over my bald head on one of the photos.   And a couple through the trees of Yvonne.  I caught a few of her with my long lens coming through the trees.  I could look at her all day.

BX Falls Vernon

Today Marianne took us a little way into the hills east of Vernon.  Was a rainy today so felt like we were in the rainforest in the Vancouver area.  Lots of steps to get to the bottom of the waterfall.  Rainy day. 

Marianne drove us up to Silver Star (mountain Ski place above Vernon) to see the view but the fog had set in by the time we got there so couldn’t see a thing. Next time. 

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14
May
2022
Elbow Falls, Burgers, Beer and Cigars

Elbow Falls, Burgers, Beer and Cigars

Hanging out at Elbow Falls

Great day hanging out with Yvonne’s son Spencer.  He took us out for a drive to Elbow Falls, one of our favourite spots in the area. 

Water was pretty low.  Melt from the mountains hasn’t really gotten going yet.  The whole area of the river is still stones and gravel from the 2013 flooding.  Might take decades or longer for vegetation to build up to the river’s edge again.  Plenty of trails from here.  Not that we did any serious hiking.  If you want to go up the highway further you have to wait a few days.  On the 15th they open the gate and you can get through to Forgetmenot Pond - that whole strip is absolutely gorgeous.  There were some cyclists going up and down - it’s brutal going up, we’ve walked it. 

Then back to his place for burgers and beer.  And cigars.

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11
May
2022
Calgary – Glenmore Reservoir and Weaselhead

Calgary – Glenmore Reservoir and Weaselhead

We’ve spent the last few days in Calgary. Then a couple more before heading out to British Columbia.

Visiting grandkids.  We spent some time the other afternoon and evening with Yvonne’s son and wife.  They live in a great spot overlooking the Stampede grounds.  And the downtown area.  You can see the photo from the park looking out here. 

One of our favourite places when we lived here was Glenmore Reservoir and Weaselhead.  Lots of wildlife and great hikes.  I often circled the reservoir on my bike.  A seriously good workout coming back up the hill. 

Whoever is responsible for this keeps the reservoir low at this time of year so it doesn’t flood.  There is still lots of snow in the mountains that will melt fast over the next few weeks.  Lots of birds and I got a few shots of the herons.  Gulls were noisy.

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10
May
2022
Manitoba to Alberta

Manitoba to Alberta

This is a big country!

We left Brandon a few days ago after a wonderful visit with our friends Tom and Aya. 

Driving through Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta one really sees the expanse of this country.  The narrow strip we travelled looked like there was enough land to feed the world. You can see so far.  You really get the joke about your dog running away and being able to watch it for three days.

We stopped in to visit with our good friends Shelly, Dave and Linzee in Medicine Hat.  Boy did they treat us well.  Shelly’s sister and husband showed up and stayed the evening.  Some gigantic steaks and we all ate for two.

Again the weather was great, Shelly, Yvonne and I had a great visit and I got to smoke a cigar.  Took some selfies to prove we were all there together. 🙂

The photo of Yvonne with another man and woman is from before we arrived in Brandon. On the border of Ontario and Manitoba.  We wanted to stop to get a photo and there was this vehicle stopped on the other side going east.  We recognized them from some events we’d been to.  Chatted for a bit and found out they lived in the same town where Yvonne and I grew up.  The world is so full of crazy coincidences. 

Check out Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary

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04
May
2022
Calgary and West Road Trip – First Four Days

Calgary and West Road Trip – First Four Days

Yvonne and Martin Road Trip Spring 2022

Ontario is a very large Province.  Two long days got us as far as Kenora, Ontario.  Another 4+ hours on the third day got us to Brandon, Manitoba where we are staying with some good friends for a few days.  The photos of the young boy is their son.  His dad, my friend Tom, and I, grew up together back when god was a boy back in the 1950s and 1960s.

As you can see Northern Ontario was still somewhat covered in snow.    Those first two days of the trip were rainy and foggy.  We are taking little video snippets which I’ll string together at the end of our road trip.  You can see a few still photos of what it was like driving.

First night we stayed in Wawa, Ontario.  What a nice place.  The towns through the north look a bit tired but the people are great.  We stayed at a place called The Outdoorsman.  Lovely couple own it and they were so nice and friendly.  Very service oriented. Much more so than bigger chain hotels that we have stayed.  And the room we stayed in was spacious, clean and comfortable.  (And quite reasonable.)

No breakfast there but the owner of the hotel suggested the Lakeside Restaurant up the street and around the bend.  Not much to look at from the outside but there were three other sets of folks breaking their fast and by the time we left we were fast friends with all.  And breakfast got me through most of the day.

We won’t stay in Kenora again if we can help it.  Way over priced.

On our second day we stopped at Kakabeka Falls.  A little west of Thunder Bay.  A few seconds off the highway so not really out of the way.  If you like water falls, they are worth seeing if you are going through there anyway.  Quite a sight. And the colour was fascinating.  Kind of a yellow colour.  I haven’t researched this yet but expect that is due to the kind of minerals in the water.  Like out west in British Columbia, the rivers are all a greenish colour.  A different set of minerals in the water. 

Here in Brandon the weather finally got wonderful.  Sunny and 20 C.

Same for the next few days we hope.

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