On the last weekend in August I went backpacking with Erin and her dad. We drove up to Cadomin Friday night. Dealt with a leaky tire Saturday morning then went to Jasper.
We got to the trail-head around 11am. It is 12 km to the Jacques lake campground and has a slight elevation gain but not very much. We had perfect weather – it was nice and sunny but not too hot. There was not too many bugs so that was a plus!

My backpack seemed to work pretty good. I rented it from MEC for the weekend. My shoulders were quite sore by the end of the trip but not too sore.

It was a nice hike. The beginning of the trail is an old fire trail so it is a little wider. There were gravel washes in multiples from previous storms that we had to walk over. It made things a little more interesting. After about 4 kms it turned into a single track trail through trees and next to lakes. For most of the trip there is either a lake or creek next to you. There are many nice views of the mountains and the water. It took us about 4.5 hours to get to the camp including stopping for lunch and snacks.

It was a nice campground. We were the only ones there and some of the sites hadn’t been used for awhile. We got a nice site. After we had set up camp we went for a little walk to a ranger station next to the lake. On the way to the ranger station we saw a moose in the water. It was pretty neat and didn’t really care that we were there. Each day we saw about 6 people on the trail. Most of them went to the campground and back in a day.

After a nice long sleep we got up and noticed that there were two moose eating in the picnic area! The sun wasn’t yet over the mountains so it wasn’t too bright out side yet. Jake tried to scare them away using a bear banger. First he launched a flare by mistake and they didn’t really move. He then used a bear banger and they moved a little bit more but still not really and they went back to eating. The bear banger was a bit like a firework going off. Eventually the moose moved far enough away and we could get to our food that was hanging and start a fire.

It was quite cool in the morning so we wanted a fire to help us warm up. It probably went down to around zero at night. I was warm in sleeping bag but once I was out of it, I quickly got cold!

After breakfast and packing the tent up we again left around 11. This time it took 4 hours and a bit. We were a little faster.

Both ways we saw some fairly fresh tracks that looked like maybe a wolf was hunting a deer or something. The tracks were pretty neat.

We got back in the car and we were on our way back. All in all it was a good introduction to my first real backpacking trip

We took Erin’s camera as it is more weatherproof and not so heavy! Erin took most of the pictures. I took some and Jake took some. Some pictures turned out quite well! Other ones not as much but it is hard to tell if you got a good one or not.

The pictures are below Continue reading Jacques Lake Backpacking trip →

For the August Long weekend Erin and I went to my parents. We mostly relaxed while in Calgary. We also made pickles. Here are the pictures from the weekend: Continue reading Pickle Making Long Weekend →

For Easter I left Edmonton late Thursday night for Toronto. There was a snow storm in Edmonton in the morning to make things interesting. It had mostly melted in the afternoon but my plane left late not because of weather but because it was late from LA or somewhere. My flight was smooth and Erin picked me up when I arrived at 1:30 am or so and we took a cab back.

On Friday we went for lunch at a German place with Erin’s friend. I had a good wiener schnitzel that came with a potato salad. After lunch we walked around Parkdale and went to Trinity Bellwoods park. While walking we came across a big parade for Good Friday and watched it for a bit. For supper we made a light meal at Erin’s place.

Saturday we picked up lunch at the chicken restaurant that is near Erin`s place at made our way to the ferry to the Toronto islands. Before we took the ferry we found a nice place by the lake to sit and eat. The ferry seemed to take a long time to come for some reason. We walked around some of the islands and took some pictures. It was a nice clear day. After taking the ferry back we met Erin’s cousin and had burgers. Mine was quite good. We then went back to Erin’s place and got ready to go to a Pirate themed party at one of Erin’s friends. The pirate party was quite good and had some pirate themed activities. Such as sword-fights and lighting a cannon.

Sunday involved lots of travel. We went to Erin’s uncle to borrow his car and drive to near Kitchener/Waterloo to see Jamey and his family. His twins have grown a lot since we last saw them. Jen is due any day with a new baby. We had a nice lunch, played Settlers of Catan. Much to our chagrin (not Erin’s) Erin stormed at the end and beat us. We got a tour of the chickens and had a nice supper before driving back.

Monday was my last day there. We bought lunch at a nearby restaurant to Erin. I got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. We took the subway to High Park. There is a small little zoo in high park that we walked to. It was quite interesting. It is free and may be closing down soon. After a nice walk, cool at times with the wind we took the subway back and Erin made a nice quiche with quinoa and kale among other things. My plane left late at night but on time. I arrived on time for a late night before going back to work the next day

See the pictures below Continue reading Easter in Toronto →

I had a quick trip to go and see Erin for a bit. I left work a little early on Friday and got back late on Monday. I took Monday off instead of Friday for Remembrance day as Erin was off of school on Monday.

To get to the airport I decided to try jetset parking. It is right near the airport. Booking online the wepark was the same price as the youpark so I did that. I had a fairly smooth drive, dropped off my car, I could even check in my bag and caught a shuttle right away to the airport and could then go right to security. Security was quite busy but they had all the lanes open and it didn’t take too long. I had a hamburger at Montana’s for supper with some ok potato salad. The flight was full and it we got on and left basically on time.

I watched some curling and cfl that was on the flight and maybe drank too much club soda and water as I really had to pee after we landed and there was really no bathrooms until after you picked up your bags. Just one toilet and a big line. It seemed to take forever for my bag to come. Once I got it, I could go see Erin and try to find a bathroom! The close one was closed so we had a ways to go before I could relieve myself.

We found a taxi and made our way to Erin’s. The next day we had an easy morning, followed by some dress shopping for Erin. I got to talk to a guy that had two daughter’s and a wife and wasn’t so happy to be clothes shopping. I also bought a new cheap belt to replace mine that is falling apart. After Erin found a nice dress we did some grocery shopping and she had 4 hands instead of her normal 2 to bring food back. We made a nice supper of chicken mole, yellow rice and squash. It was very tasty. We watched an episode of Nikita that I brought for Erin as her Uncle’s house was in it. I will have to visit his place some time it seems very nice.

On Sunday we went to the zoo and had beautiful weather. We took the subway and 2 buses to get to the zoo. It all went very smoothly. We did not have to wait very long at the connections For some reason when we got to the zoo there was a long lineup to get in. I don’t think they were expecting as many people to come as did. They had a promotion with groupon that made the tickets quite cheap. The layout of the zoo was not how I remembered it. It was as big as I remembered it. We did not see the whole zoo. I took lots of pictures which you can see below. We had a nice lunch at the zoo and took more pictures in the afternoon. On the way back we took one bus and multiple subway trains. It took about the same time as in the morning. For some reason the heat was just blasting on the bus and we were glad to get off it. It made me remember some of my old school bus days when the heat was on! At night we watched Chicken Run. It was my first time seeing it and I quite enjoyed it.

For supper we went to a nice restaurant with in walking distance of Erin’s place called the Butler’s Pantry. I had a slice of vegetable curry pie with salad that had a good dressing made in house. The pie kind of reminded me of a giant samosa. I was quite happy with it. Erin had a zucchini cake. We shared a dessert of a chocolate cake. It wasn’t too sweet and also good but maybe a little bit too much.

Since we didn’t get enough walking in at the Zoo and the day before we decided to walk again. This time we walked to the University for Erin to drop off some papers. We then walked towards Yonge St. We stopped at a sandwich place for lunch. It had fried vegetables and mushrooms on a big bun and I got turkey on it. I enjoyed it but it was a little greasy for me. We walked down Yonge to Queen St. W. On Queen we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee and to sit for a bit. Erin saw a yarn store that looked interesting. It was called Romni and was giant. I have never seen so much yarn before!

We walked to Ossington where we caught a bus as we needed to get back to Erin’s and were tired. We had a nice salad for supper using the leftover chicken mole and also nuts and berries and goat cheese. Oh Erin also introduced dutch rusks to me. They were quite tasty and not too hard or crunchy. They are messy with crumbs though. We also had salsa and chips.

We took the subway and bus to get to the airport. We made quite good time and there was basically no line for security. My flight left and arrived a little early which was nice. It was basically full. There wasn’t really anything good on tv and TSN didn’t come in for most of the flight so I only watched a little of the Monday Night NFL game. Futurama was on that was good. I was quite hungry on the plane so I bought a macrobar. They are vegan bars. It was interesting. I was hoping it had more protein than it did. I doubled up on my snacks and didn’t drink as much water this time.

My bag came quite quickly, the shuttle was there right away for me and I barely had to leave the door. My car was running and waiting for me when I arrived. The drive back was smooth and quiet. I was glad there has been no snow yet. All in all it was a great trip!

See my photos of the zoo below Continue reading Toronto Trip →

This is the 3rd post of 3 from the August long weekend.

Erin’s dad and brother went on a 120km hike for 10 days or so and we were their designated people to pick them up. So instead of the busy 3 hour trip up the number 2 we took the roundabout way through the mountains. It took 10 or so hours but lots of nice views!

After picking Erin’s dad and brother up at the icefields centre, on our way to Rocky Mountain House we stopped at Whirlpool point. Near the whirlpool is Alberta’s oldest tree which is over 1000 years old. I took some pictures of it and the area around it. On the way back we also saw a small black bear munching on some grass. I didn’t get any pictures of it. Some people were doing their best to try to get a physical from the bear.

See pictures below Continue reading Oldest Tree in Alberta →

This is post 2 of 3 from the August long weekend.

On the Saturday we went to the Calgary Zoo. It was a nice day, hot but not too hot.

Lucky for us maybe but not for Jaclyn she had to work that day. We got to hear her do a talk about the elephants, touch some elephant poo that was covered and hold part of a tusk. Tusks weigh a lot!

Jaclyn also showed Erin and I around the butterflies and the caterpillar tree.

We then got to follow Jaclyn as she set up for a bat presentation. She gave a little talk and would answer people’s questions while showing Sundar. She was a nice big fruit bat.

It was a nice day at the zoo we got to see some neat things. A tiger was running, a tiger sleeping with his feet up in the air and looking very happy. The male lion was roaring and moved around a little bit. Grizzly and black bears were moving around and taking a bath.

See part 1 photos below. Click on one of the photos to see them all Continue reading Calgary Zoo →

This is post 1 of 3 from the August long weekend.

Friday after working half the day and lunch, Erin and I drove down to Strathmore. We got to see the same storm twice. Once when we were driving through Airdie. The rain was very big and close to hailing. It was very dark. Just as we got to Strathmore it started to storm again. We hid in the shelter of the grandstand while it rained. The temperature dropped a lot. It cleared up pretty quickly and we dried our seats off and had good weather for the rest of it. It was a little cool in the grandstand.

The rodeo went well. The announcers talk non stop and there was lots of events I hadn’t seen before. Like teams try to catch a wild horse, put a saddle on it and ride it. Kids had to do something with a pony. The animals didn’t always want to go back out of the ring providing laughs for everyone.

The chuckwagons were very exciting as always. There were some very close races and just general chaos as they go around the barrels.

See below for photos.
For most of the photos, I fixed them up a bit and there is a cropped and non cropped version of them.
Continue reading Strathmore Heritage Days →

So after many years I finally went camping in a tent again. On Friday we went to Elk Island. The weather was pretty good but as expected the mosquitoes were vicious. Friday night was mostly spent building a fire and making sure that it stayed lit. The wood was a little damp so it took a long time to get going. When it finally got going it was time for bed and waiting for it to go out.

The next day we went on a nice hike. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting though. It was basically paved all the way. It was still fun and pretty and a good way to break in my hiking boots some. There were a ton of dragonflies. Swarms of them everywhere, I guess they were getting their fill of mosquitoes. They did not seem as bad on the hike. For lunch we had lunch in a nice picnic area. It was about 1km from the parking lot and very nice. We were the only ones there.

After hiking we came back to Edmonton, cleaned up, made a quinoa salad and were off to a small work bbq. It was quite good, lots of good food, wine and company.

See pictures of the trip below
Continue reading Camping! →

This past weekend I went with Erin’s family to there cabin in Cadomin.
On the Friday, Erin and I went on a hike that was about 10 km or so long. It was called Prospect Creek Trail. It was quite nice but a little more work then I thought. Sometimes we had to go through brush or up some big ledges to continue on the trail.

Saturday we celebrated Erin’s birthday by going geocaching with her family. We went to 3 different sites and found 2 of them. The one at Mountain Park was probably mined away. We also went to one at the Cardinal divide that Erin and her dad found before and they let us find it. The third and final one was at Grave Flats lookout which needed a 4wd vehicle to go up the road and then a small hike and some searching in trees to find the geocache. There were spectacular views at the top. It is quite high.

To make things interesting on the way back as a passenger in the front, a rock or something hit the rav4 as a semi was coming towards us. It made a big crack in the windshield and sprayed some glass on me. Thankfully everything was ok and we were able to continue on with me now in the backseat.

The weather was pretty good. Not too hot and not too cold. Though on our hike in Prospect Creek it was snowing a little bit when the sun was out. It was the nicest I had seen it in Cadomin. On Saturday we were able to sit out by the fire and it wasn’t too windy!

I have been using lightroom to edit my pictures some and get some more of the details out of the pictures.

Click the link to see the photos of the trip: Continue reading July Long Weekend →