Well we got a few more people hooked on geocaching. Ken, Richard and I ventured out to Mable Lake to meet up with Wayne, Wendy, Bev and Larry. Off we went to locate 5 different caches in different areas. We found them all, some more easily than others.

Mable Lake is a lake that opens into the Shuswap River that feeds the Shuswap Lake. The lake is approx. 35 km long. A cold lake but that does not deter the swimmers, and water skiers. The Salmon find their way up into this fresh lake and right now they have returned in record numbers. Nice to hear that the salmon are indeed returning.

Our weekend was filled with great food, golfing, quading, geocahing, hot tubing, Mexican train. and of course great entertainment.

Friday night we went to local eclectic restaurant where we were entertained by a 7 piece band. The dinner and music was terrific.

The next morning we ventured over to the hanger in golf carts for Bev's famous waffles. Of course add bacon, eggs, potatoes, fruit and you now have a breakfast that will last until dinner.

The women went for a round of golf, while the guys went miles into the bush overlooking the lake on the quads.

I have golfed once in my life, over 15 years ago so I think that the fact that I could even hit the ball should allow my score to be classed as under par. Lets just say it could have been much worse. The others well they know how to golf. They actually had a game. I give them credit for having patience with me.

The men had a blast and came back not to dusty as it had been raining and the dust was minimal.

We then retreated to the hot tub to ease a few sore muscles.

That evening we had a wonderful Alberta Beef steak dinner accompanied by the famous Wayne's band. It is always a treat to be entertained with the guitars. Unfortunately there is a fire ban on in BC so no campfire was allowed.

Sunday was spent geocaching and this brought us to wonderful, interesting view point. We searched in 50 year old cedar stumps, piles of rocks along the river, and the weirdness place to date a cattle guard. We stopped along the way at a camp ground and had a picnic. Who says being retired isn't fun! It was great exercise and it did take us to areas that you didn't know even existed. I found the old logging area the most interesting as the new growth is ready to be cut.

Mexican Train dominoes was on the evening agenda and I really do not remember who won so I know it wasn't me.

Fresh fruit is abundant in BC right now so the trunk was loaded down with cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and BC corn.

Time with Wayne and Wendy, Bev and Larry is always a great time. We would like to thank Wayne and Wendy for being such gracious hosts, look forward to you visiting us in the Caribbean and enjoy the geocahing.

I am trying to get to know google earth better as it will allow us to use the up dated info to overlay onto the very out dated charts to ensure us where we should actually be traveling. The chart beside us shows the area we travelled in Phase one of our trip. It was a total of 10,000 nautical miles aprox. This page will be updated as I figure out the various things I need to learn such as using U-Tube to get video on this site. Just click on the image to get a larger view.

Also, the calendar button on the side panel of this blog will be up dated as to show when people are coming and going and where we will be. I have not been using it so people do not check with it. I believe as we might be having more guests aboard this winter we will try and keep to a loose itinerary of where we will be. Currently I have filled in Ken's arrival date back to Cartagena (Sept), arrival dates of kids in Dec.

Hopefully this feature will be used.

The photo albums are still a work in progress since some of the pictures were on the hard drive in the laptop that saw coffee drown it. I hope to have everything caught up before we venture further.

It has been requested by quite a few readers to add more pictures to each actual blog. We will try to accommodate this where possible. I have to get into the habit of downloading my camera more often.

These pictures have all come from the internet as I forgot my camera and missed fantastic opportunities for pictures.

As we have traveled Pacific Canada and North America we have been intrigued with the lives and history of the indigenous peoples. There are many differences in the culture but there are even more similarities.

We have lived in Calgary for 30 years but had never visited Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump before. It is located in Southern Alberta where the prairies meet the foothills.

This was the land of the Blackfoot Indians. They were prairie Indians that were nomadic. During the summer they traveled to the foothills where they hunted buffalo, cougar, bear, basically large game. This was also the area that contained many of the plants used for their medicines and berries that could be dried for the winter. During the winter they made their home in the valley by the rivers where there was some wood and small game.

Buffalo Smashed In is the oldest know archaeological site known that shows how these people lived. There are many sites throughout Alberta but this one best depicts the 1000's of years of history.

The archaeological facts show that the buffalo killings started 6000 years ago and ended in the mid 19th century. So what was the hunt like?

There were special tribesmen with great stamina (young) that would track the herds of buffalo. The wore skins of other animals to disguise themselves becoming human decoys and herded them to an area where they had set up corals , the buffalo would follow the path to try and escape only to plummet over a cliff to their death. Bows and arrows were used for the killings. The carcasses were skinned at the site. Pretty much the whole buffalo was used. The remains would then be burnt so as to not attract unwanted animals. The buffalo meat would then be smoked for the coming winter. The Indigenous people only took what was needed thereby the herds remained plentiful. Then came the introduction of guns.Once the guns were introduced the method of killing changed. This still did not deplete the herds.

Buffalo Bills wild wild west! The rail lines were built right through this area and the introduction to CP Rail hunting BIG GAME tours began. People were aloud to shoot from the train leaving the carcasses to rot. Within 10 years the animals were hunted to near extinction.

The Indigenous starved and small pox annihilated the villages.

The bone deposits are 12 metres deep and show both animal bones and artifacts of weapons and utensils used by the people of the past.

While we were at the interpretation venue we were lucky to take in aboriginal dancing. There were several of the dances demonstrated. The colour and the pageantry was well worth watching.

This was an afternoon well spent and I would highly recommend it. If you're in the neighbourhood, travel the back southern roads and participate in this World Heritage Site.

Ken is still in Fort McMurray and RJ's reno is coming right along.

Lea and I have been doing the teacher thing with the grandkids and setting up our own complicated geocache. The geocache is based on the Twilight Saga Series by Stephanie Meyer that is so popular with the teens these days. It has been fun but lots of work.

I am not sure what attraction we will be attending this week yet but stay tune there is lots to see in this great country.

Fort McMurray Sand Dunes


The Northern Lights

Fort McMurray

RJ has been visiting and helping his Dad for the past 12 days. The two of them are now on their way to Fort McMurray to build an extra room in RJ's basement.

Ft. Mac has had a bad wrap for the last few years and depending on which side of the fence you sit you might not agree with my view. As an Albertan I am all for Ft. Mac and the exploration.

Fort McMurray didn't become a City until 1980, making it one of Alberta's newest cities. The city has played an significant role in the petroleum industry.

It is the oil sands with its abundance of oil that has created the stir. There is a 2.5 million a day supply of oil in the sands. This allows Canada to be second in the world for oil production. Unfortunately with this comes the bad press (some deserving) on environmental damage. What isn't getting out there are the great strides in scientific exploration. Much research and money is continually being pumped into better ways to produce oil with the least amount of damage to the environment. Why am I for the oil? It affords Canadians the privilege to a good life. A lot of cash is filtered through ALL of Canada due to this resource. Alberta in particular benefits with being a province with no debt. Oil and gas employs 100's of 1000's of people and even more in spin offs.

Oil and gas are just a little of what Fort McMurray has to offer however. There are the Athabasca Sand Dunes, Boreal Forest with its many trails for hiking and ATVing, and of course all the normal touristy things that one finds in a City.

Driving into Drumheller and the Badlands Suspension Bridge

Canola Field

The Badlands

This week our outing took us past canola and wheat fields. The big open air of the prairie until you hit an area that takes you back millions of years.

The Canadian Badlands are breathtaking. Glaciers deposited mounds of rocky debris seperated

by depressions.

This land consists of coulees and sand dunes. Over thousand of years the wind, rain, frost have eroded the fine fine sandstone into steep slopes with very unusual shapes.

The most important finds have been the dinosaurs. Over 35 species have been found around the Badlands of Alberta.

Alberta's Badlands continue to erode at a rate of 4 milimeters per year and continually expose new dinosaur fossils.

Drumheller has a world class museum showing the varieties of the dinosaurs. We had Lea's grandchildren with us and enrolled ourselves in a fossil class. The kids where thrilled to make a fossil impression of various bones.

You will find many animals and plants in this area that can only be found here and nowhere else in the world.

We continued our journey to just outside of Drumheller to the town of Rosedale. A coal mine was opened in 1912 on the other side of the river. In 1919 a cable car system was built to transport the men and coal. Then in the 1930's the suspension bridge was built by the CPR with a rail line to the mine to help improve the transportation of the coal. The mine closed in 1957.

We did a little geocaching and enjoyed the hot day. Unfortunately we were not successful with finding this cache but there are millions our there to find.