May Long Weekend BC style

On the May long weekend we headed to Fairmont British Columbia for some camping in the cramper and maybe soak in a few natural hotsprings. We headed out early afternoon on Friday and 4 hours later we pulled in to 1 of 2 campsites left at Alces Lake.



After a short nights sleep not thanks to rowdy neighbours we went to Lussier Hot spring which was minutes from our campsite. We hit that hotspring early in the morning to avoid the crowds that would rush here due to the long weekend. It was fairly quite except for a few other people. This was Mathieu's first natural hotspring experience and he was fairly satisfied. Afterwards we drove to Top of the world provincial park (red line on the picture). Our first objective was Ram Creek hotspring but we found out that the road was blocked. If you look at the map above you can apparently short cut from the red line to Ram creek hotspring via a logging road but that road is now not passable.

Once at top of the world park, which was a very bumpy 50km, we headed of for a hike. We quickly encountered snow and decided to take a brake on the nearby creek bank. We had lunch and played with Sky by tossing rocks in the creek, that game never gets old.

The next day, we drove the long way around and went to Ram Creek hotspring. We first hit Premier lake Park, which was quite the contrast from our Alces lake campground. This park was definatly premier camping, there was even pavement. We did a nice hike around the park which included three lakes, Yankee, Canuck and Turtle lake (green line). Caught 2 rainbow trouts, saw 12 or more turtles and took a swim with the dog. After all this fun we drove up to Ram Creek hotspring (pinkish line) which was a long and stressfull drive with the camper up a very long and steep logging road. The camper survived and we made it to the hotspring. That night we didn't bother going to a campground, we just pulled on camper off in a nice little meadow and called it home for the night.

The final day, we started back home with a quick stop to Fairmont hotspring. Fairmont hotspring is a resort hotspring with a pool that gets filled by the hotspring. In order to keep the pool hot, they have to keep pumping the hotspring water in and the excess water need to go somewhere. That somewhere is just on the side of the pool, out of the tourist view but a short walk gets you to this amazing little waterfall with a deep natural pool were you can bathe in hotspring water in a little more quiet setting. That was the highlight of the trip. After a nice dip, we hit the trail to go home and was greeted by a prairie snowstorm. Gotta love Alberta.

Oh, Stacey took some really cool pictures.

Later

Mathieu and Stacey

You can teach a dog new tricks

Over the last few weeks i've been trying to get in biking shape in preparation for a bike race. Jeremy and I are doing an 8 hour race at Canada Olympic park at the end of May. He's been egging me on that I need to get on my bike at least a few times before the race. So today, I got home from work and decided to go for a bike ride down 12 mile coulee which is a nice trail minutes from our door step. I also had to get the dog out for some exercise so I decided to try her out on the trail. I patiently walked/biked up to the begining of the trail with her on a leash, then once on the trail I let her off leash and crossed my fingers. You see, Sky, our wonderful dog, is not the most reliable off leash and also not the most hyperactive/energetic dog in the world. She would much rather walk at a casual pace with her nose to the ground than to chase me as I fly down the trail on my bike.

Well I was surprised to say the least, she ran behind me all the way down the single track trail. I kept stopping once in a while to let her catch up, get a treat and take a drink from the creek. Once at the bottom she even went and chased a few ducks just to live up to her breed. On the way back up she wasn't as fast but she still followed with a big smile on her face. I guess I found a new biking buddy.

Mathieu

PS: The bike ride made me forget about the accident she had in the house today.

Tracking class

Winter is now done so we decided to give tracking class a go once more. We started doing tracking with Sky last fall and had been to a few group session. Now for those who don't know, tracking is done by giving your dog a smell from an article of clothing from a 'victim'. The 'victim' goes off and hides in the woods and stays put. Now the dog is told to 'search' and then you simply follow your dog to the 'victim'. Easier said than done but we haven't been to class since last October and Sky is a little out of practice.

Tracking class today was in the Canmore dog park. There was quite a large group so Franz (the instructor) decided to do a group search which involved 3 victims each spread out along a single track. Sky was definatly the slowest to get to the first victim but once she found the first person, something seemed to click and she started really picking up the pace and eventually found all 3. I was pretty impressed. After the class was done, we practice with having Stacey as a 'victim'. Talk about a difference, Sky was running full speed to find Stacey and would actually follow Stacey's track in her exact foot steps. See our May album for photos of tracking class.

We spent the rest of the day around Canmore and went shopping for a wedding ring for Mathieu at Rudi Peet Goldsmith. Rudi came recommended by friends of ours and he does amazing work. He does really unique jewelery http://www.rudipeetgoldsmith.ca/index.html and he really took the time to find out exactly what we wanted and even did a wax mold of Mathieu's ring and it looks awesome. Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Mathieut

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here, we've been enjoying the outside world again. Stacey has a new camera and we went for a walk last friday and played around with her new toy. The crocus' are out and Sky was being silly so there was tons of photo op's. Check out our picasa site HERE. We also headed out on Sunday and hiked up McConnell Ridge in K-country and got some wet feet. Unfortunatly its still wet and muddy in the mountains but it was still t-shirt weather.

Later
Mathieu