Armstrong

Early Friday morning, Barb & Kim headed home, while I lazed about. Later in the morning I took the fairly short ( 3 hour) drive to Armstrong. I got there early enough to grab three caches before settling in for dinner. On Saturday, I spent the whole day caching in Armstrong, Spallumcheen and Enderby, picking up a further 17.

To get one of the caches I had to hold onto a stump at the top of a cliff while I stood on what little footing there was behind it rooting around underneath it.

That's the stump in the lower right foreground. Who says caching is boring?

Along the river walk in Enderby I found an interesting sign.

I wonder how many Fidos can read it?

My last cache of the day featured a colourful guardian (cache was inside it).

Sorry, Barb, it isn't brass, but it's a lizard...

Golden Day

The weather was perfect for our final day as a group. Sunny and warm but not too hot. In the morning we all (including DeeOhGee) went for a long walk up to a forestry camp, where resided a cache. Along the way we crossed a bridge over the Waitabit Creek.

We found the final rusting place of one of Henry Ford's finest...

When we returned to the campground, we were greeted by several bears.

After lunch, Barb & I headed into Golden to see the sights and do some caching. We had a look around the Old Town, which featured this fine bridge. It's the longest freestanding timber frame bridge in Canada.

One of the caches we found was in Golden's "last outhouse". It, and the main house, are the only buildings in Golden protected by a bylaw.

Tomorrow, the merry band of travellers depart in different directions. Barb and Kim return home to Williams  Lake, and I head to Armstrong en route to Oliver.

Donald

We had a real time getting to Donald, our final camp as a group. We decided to stop in Banff for gas/diesel and that was a mistake. The GPS sent us on a wild goose chase for a non-existent Husky, then the easily accessible Shell was closed because their computer was down. He directed us to another down the street and we ran into a 10 minute roadblock while a garbage truck took its time. The station was a terror getting the fifth wheel wedged into, and then tempers flared because cars were all over the place and some guy coming in the wrong way got short tempered with Barb. We finally got out and decided that the best way to see Banff was in our rear view mirrors.

We stopped in Golden for provisions and Barb had a few anxious minutes when she thought she'd left her credit cards back in Banff. She finally found them, then we found out that the Sobey's didn't have bulk water (one of the main reasons for stopping).

We got to the campsite, and after I dropped the landing gear and hooked up, I discovered that the electrical connection had a hot neutral so I had to disconnect, raise the landing gear, hook up the truck and move sites. Grrrr... oh well, lesson earned... check electrical before dropping anchor.

We finally got settled for a very late (but very welcome) Miller and dinner. And as a consolation prize for a rough day, here's one of the views we enjoy from our site.

Tomorrow we plan on doing a little walkabout in Golden.

Walking the Hat

We had a great couple of days in Medicine Hat. We stayed at the city run well maintained campground just out of town and far enough from the highway to be quiet, nestled among the trees.

I discovered a nine hole "cache 'n' putt" right next door to our campground, named Jackalope Flats.

As well as the nine "holes" they had an irrigation system (a hose nozzle under a bush) and a clubhouse. The full circuit was probably a couple of miles A fun time.

Barb & I went on a walking tour of downtown Medicine Hat, which featured a number of historical buildings, and a lot of interesting background.

We went inside the courthouse to have a look around, and had to go through security like at an airport, and admonished not to take any pictures. I think we made the guard's day, they can't get many lookie loos. He was quite friendly, and eager to share some history of the building and the area.

We found this now politically incorrect advert on the side of one of the buildings.

As we bid adieu to Medicine Hat, we set our sights on Donald, just out of Golden.

Caches & Tunnels

No brilliant sunshine today, mostly overcast, but it was very warm and no sign of rain. The attraction we really wanted to see, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, didn't open until noon on Sundays so Barb and I played tourist at the visitor centre. We saw Mac the Moose (at 32 feet tall and weighing in at 10 tons he's touted as the world's largest moose) and the trolley that tours the city, which wasn't running on a Sunday this early in the season.  :-(

Since the trolley wasn't running, we went and did some caches instead.  :-)

After lunch, we went to the much anticipated Tunnels of Moose Jaw. There were two tours, the Chicago Connection (to do with Al Capone and the bootleggers) and Passage of Fortune (about the Chinese immigrants). We opted for the former. It was interesting, but a bit disappointing, in that we were expecting more history and less campy theatrics. We really only went through one tunnel under Main Street, and spent most of the time in cellars that had been outfitted with obviously later addition false doors and bootlegging paraphernalia. No cameras allowed, so here's a shot gleaned from the internet.

Tomorrow we pull up stakes and head for Medicine Hat.

Moose Jaw

After the rain of the last couple of days, it was beautiful travelling weather today. The sun streamed down as the miles melted away behind us and we found ourselves in Moose Jaw in early aftenoon.

Along the way, we stopped at a tiny little town called Moseley because of a sign on the highway pointing to a swinging bridge. It took the place of the one we were thwarted by in Souris yesterday.Here are Barb and DeeOhGee getting their sea legs.

Because we got to Moose Jaw so early (we gained an hour crossing the time zone, too) we were able to visit the Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre, where we snapped this little fellow.

He was one of the owls that had been imprinted to humans, so wasn't worried by our presence. All the others were in much larger pens and too far away to catch a shot on a cell camera.