Theme of the trip is: “Be happy ... for
this moment is your life.”
Thursday July 14
We started to
get ready for our trip to Invermere in Columbia Valley of BC. It was
a cool rainy morning at 12ºC. We packed some food, clothes and maps and left Country Lane Estates at 7:30 am. But first we stopped at Shell to gas
up the car. (Cost $.904/L).
We headed west on #7 to Black Diamond
where we witnessed a streak of blue ski over the mountains. It has
been a few days since blues skies were seen in Okotoks. We turned on
#22 South and at Longview we decided explore #541 West toward
Kanaskis Country. This was where the hiking club planed to be area next Thursday. We did not
find the trail head.
We turned around at Highwood River Day Picnic area. From
there we could see Mt Armstrong. The elevation was 1538m. We drove
through an un-serviced camp site near the river.
By 9:45 am we were back on #22 at
Longview. Some interesting things we saw were a few kilometres of
caps placed on fence posts.
And Alberta Cowboys doing a round up. We
wondered why there was so much traffic and saw 'cow pies' on the road
at a point where a coral of cattle were placed. A truck was ready to
load them up.
At a rest area across from a Volker
Stevin work area for a quick lunch. By 10:45 the sun came out We
turned on #3 Crow's Nest Highway at 11:00am making our first stop at
Frank Slide Interpretive Center. Many tourists were touring. We were
there for 20 minutes.
Back on the road at turning on #93/95
to Elko, Jaffery, over the Kooteney River and just after noon we
stopped at Fort Steele for a picnic lunch and to fill up the car with
gas. By this time it was an enjoyable sunny warm day. Along the
Kooteney Valley are fields of irrigation hay crops. We travelled back
over the Kooteney River at Skookunchuck.
By mid afternoon we entered the
Columbia Valley at the south end of Columbia Lake. The next stop was
Radium Hot Springs, that was packed with people. The cost to stay the
resort hotel was $200./ night. We drove on into Windemere and looked
for motels. It is a smaller place and the motels were older and poorly maintained. We continued on the Invermere where we
found the Canterbury Inn for $100 or so a night. We booked in for 2
nights – the rate goes up on weekends. At least we had good
internet.
After checking in we went for a walk
to the down town. Most of the shops were closing for the day at
5:00 pm and there were only an few eating places available within our
walking area. We went to Holiday Inn sports bar for supper enjoyed a beer and watched sports on multiple screens.
Friday July 15
Our night's sleep was uncomfortable
because of the heat the noisy AC. We woke up with a thunder storm and
very heavy rain. It did get sunny but continued with the
thunderstorms and even hail.
Randal and I went out early looking
for a place that was open for coffee and found Circle Cafe which opened to 8:00 am. We took the coffee back to the Motel and signed onto the computer. I went for a walk to the beach before we met Carol Gordon and Jim McElroy at the Circle Cafe.
At 10:00 am we met Carol
and Jim and their friend Paul who is visiting them until Saturday for coffe back at Circle Cafe. We
were there for an hour. Carol asked if we could stay one more night and
come for supper on Saturday night.
The rest of the day we drove to the
beach area and Randal took some pictures. The weather was not good
for families. We talked to a fellow who was riding his bike. We asked
his about the grave site o a Elizabeth Bruce, wife of Robert Bruce
who came from England. She died before he finished it. The fellow we
talked to gave us the story.
Randal and I walked around the path to
Dorothy Lake and then when the thunder sounded we walked quickly to
the car and drove to the Pynelogs Cafe and Art Gallery, which is in
the house that Bruce built. While there it rained and hailed but we were warm and dry inside with a bowl of soup.
From there we drove to Radium Hot
Spring through more rain. There we not one in the pool during the
rain.
It was over cast with a drizzle this
morning when we got up. The weather continued this way all day.
We took our time to go out to the
Farmer's Market of a good many booths and articles and food to buy.
Westside Legacy Trails - OurTrail.org
and Columbia ValleyCentre.ca
Anne B.- Corpuz-Bacalso Accessories -
scarf holder
Oven Baked Bread fresh pretzel and
cinnamon buns
Shooting Star pocket watch
Beeland Market - Honey Spillimacheen
BC.
Randal purchased a pretzel right out of a wood heated oven.There was not much left in the bag when he returned to the room. It disappeared in little bits.
In the afternoon we took a drive to
Panorama Ski and Golf Resort. There was much activity with a large
group of mountain bikers filling up the parking lots with cars trucks
and campers. There several golfers out golfing in the cool wet
weather. The course itself ran up through the valley and had many
log-style homes built around it. A walking path extended throughout
the resort with many people waling in both directions.
When we returned to the motel I went
for a walk along the north end of the main street.
At 5:00 pm we
drove to Carol and Jim's which was situated on the side of the hill
with many evergreen trees around it. Jim gave us a tour of their home
and show us pictures of the cabin before renovations started. We enjoyed a wonderful meal with a great view of the valley.
Jim is enjoying
the photography and Carol her art.
Sunday July 17
It rained during the night, although I
did not hear it. Another cloudy rainy day. Randal and I were up at
7:00 am packed up and checked out of Canterbury Inn. We left at 8:00 am and headed onto #95/93 toward Radium, turning on #93 and travelled
through Kooteney National Park. Some mountain tops and the valley was
covered with fog.
We stopped at some view points to take
pictures. At one a couple of motor bikes stopped. I noticed the
licence plates were not Canadian. I had to talk to them and asked if
I could take pictures of them. The husband and wife team were from
Australia and told us of their travels through Australia, South
America, US and now Canada and are on their way up to Alaska. They
then will return to Vancouver and motor bike across Canada.
This was my first time in this valley
and I live over the mountains to the east. Their first time here from
a much longer distance.!!!! What does that say about us and exploring
our own back yards?
We stopped at Hector Gorge and Numa
Falls for more pictures. There was a large burnt-out area and many
hiking trail heads were busy with day hikers.
At 10:00 am we entered
Banff National Park and turned on Hyw #1 at Castle Junction. In
Canmore we stopped for a breakfast at Communitea Cafe downtown. The
town was busy with people as the the sun was peeking through the
heavy clouds.
We continued on #1 to #40 and turned south into Kanaskis Country through Elbow and Highwood Passes. The elevation
was 2005 m. The rain came down heavy for most of the trip. On to
Longview, Black Diamond and arriving in Okotoks at 2:00pm a 340 km
trip from Invermere BC.
The four day trip was educational,
heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable. Lots to blog about.
Theme of the trip is: “Be happy for
this moment is your life.”
Until next time remember "Discover It and Live It".
