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1 to 15 July 2016 16 to 31 July 2016

Saturday July 16, 2016

With all the rain we had all night, we are inside again!

I take this time to switch one of the two switches because when Cité Caravane replaced a defective switch, they installed a very bright one compare to the original. I am switching the two switches position. We never use the "Artic Pac" switch anyway!
It is a lot better now. At night the water pump was so bright is lite up the whole living room.

In between two thunderstorm, we took out the garbage.

Because of the thunderstorms we are having, we cannot go to the pool.
So why not have a hot chocolate!
Michele and Gabriel are watching bird outside.

Finally, the thunderstorms are gone and we can go to the pool.

Gabriel trying really hard to stand up.

We were in the water for over an hour.

A view of the lower part of the campground.

Gabriel is burned out.

We had a very good day, even with the rain this morning.

Sunday July 17, 2016

A toast with Nutella, it makes black teeth!

We are on our way to Medicine Hat this morning. We are leaving Saskatchewan behind.
Gabriel will join his mother for a month.

We are now in Alberta, in the Badlands and Cypress County.

Gabriel after eating candies...

We are at McDonald at 11 am to meet Danielle, Gabriel's mother, and Colleen, Danielle's mother.

After dropping of Gabriel, we go back on our steps to Highway 41 south.
Highway 41 will take us to the Cypress Hills inter-provincial park.

We are now on 41 south, in the Canadian Badlands.

We can see the mountains in the distance.

Here is what Wikipedia tells us about the Cypress Hills.
"The Cypress Hills are a geographical region of hills in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta. The highest point in the Cypress Hills is at Head of the Mountain in Alberta at 1,466 metres (4,810 ft). The highest point in Saskatchewan is at 1,392 m (4,567 ft). "

Elkwater lake.

The information center in the village of Elkwater.

After we got all the information we needed on what to see and do in the park, we head to our campsite.
There are many campground in this provincial park. Our site is in the Old Baldy campground. It is a reference to the hill behind the campground. WE have site #1.

We spend the afternoon reading all the literature we got from the info center.
We even forgot to take photos of our site!

Monday July 18, 2016

Yesterday, we signed up for a few activities for the week.
So, this morning we are doing our first activity, "Elkwater Lake by Canoe".
We start at the visitor centre and it has a very nice mural.

We are lucky, we are the only one for this activity.
Our guide is Anna. Since we are so few people, we can ask any questions on any subject regarding the park.

Elkwater is the only natural lake in the park, all the other lakes are the result of creek being dam.
One of the five campgrounds in the park.

We moved closer to the water edge to learn about the geology in the park.

Anna is very good and is very knowledgeable.

The upper layer is full of holes. They are cliff swallows nest.

Anna told us about the creation of Cypress hills and Elkwater Lake during the last ice age. She also told us a lot about the particular flora and fauna of the park.
Next, we cross the lake to another cliff.

The arrow points to a layer of coal. This area is also full of swallows.

We were on the water for close to two hours and time flew by.

After a good lunch, we climbed the Old Baldy hill. It is behind our site.
It is a steep climb.

Looking back.

From the top, we can see Elkwater Lake.

Why did we climb Old Baldy? To look for a cache of course!

We have a very nice view at the top. We are at 1287 meters, just for a reference, the Mount Royal in Montreal is at 233 meters.

Can you see the MH? It is 58 meters below us.

We walked 1.6 km and climbed 58 m to make it to the top.
Here is our site for the next 9 days.

You can see Old Baldy in the background.

After lunch, I did the Beaver Loop trail (1.6 km) by myself.

We had a very good day.

Tuesday July 19, 2016

I am doing the Beaver Loop again this morning, but I am walking in the other direction and it is much easier.

We spend part of the afternoon on the bike trail along the lake.

The two mandatory photo!

One of the beach.

We biked about 6 km today.

Wednesday July 20, 2016

We have a big day ahead of us.
We are going to Fort Walsh this morning.
Even if it is only 40 km away, it took us over an hour and half to get there.
We took the roads through the park and they are mostly dirt and gravel.

The two arrows indicates the two ruts left by wagons years ago.
More information below this photo.

We are also looking for caches as we drive to Fort Walsh.
This one is in an old blackberry phone!

Reesor Lake was formed when they damed the Reesor creek.

More than half of the trip is on dirt (clay) and gravel roads.

They are just as curious as we are!

Battle Creek.

Const. Graburn was the first North West Mounted Police (NWMP) killed in the line of duty and the murder was never resolved!!!

The Interprovicial Park of Cypress Hills is in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Fort Walsh is located on the Saskatchewan side. Some signs tell you all you need to know!

Like I mentioned before, it took us over an hour and half to get to Fort Walsh.

The fort is at the bottom of this valley.

Where does the name Fort Walsh comes from?

The visitor center is undergoing renovation.

In the visitor center, you have a small display on the local life when the fort was active and the purpose of the fort

From the visitor center, we had to walk about 10 minutes to get to the fort.

We took the guided tour.
He was pretty good at explaining the purpose and history of the fort, also the way of life during those years.

Here is what the fort and the area looked in 1878 to 1883.

While we were "guided", the kids could train and become NWMP officers.
After training, the new officers of the NWMP were sworn-in.

Now that they are NWMP, they made a few arrests. Michele is one of those bad characters!
They are now on their way to the court to stand trial.

I apologize for the photos, but Michele had the "good" camera and I could not talk to her! Remember, she is a bad person!!!
Basically, we are attending a real trail that took place in Fort Walsh in 1880.
Michele was attacked by the other woman with a cast iron frying pan. Michele defended herself.
The other woman will be spending 2 days in jail for the attack and Michele was released.
It was a lot of fun to watch the whole process. The judge was very funny.

Of course, we had to look for some caches.
This one was inside a fake pin cone.

We really enjoyed our visit at Fort-Walsh.

On the drive back, we took a different road (paved all the way), we had to stop to let some future steaks, roast and hamburger meat, oups, I mean cattle go by!

We are back in Alberta and Cypress Hills.

We have seen the top sign before, but never one about the weather!

Once again, we had a great day.

Thursday July 21, 2016

We had a relaxed morning, but this afternoon I am off, by myself, for the next activity. It is "Dark Sky Adventure" at a cost of only $8.
This is the "bubble" where the Dark Sky Adventure will take place.

We were only four people for this activity and it was nice.
We explore our solar system and the wonders of space that lie beyond.

I really enjoyed this presentation and being only four people in there, it was great...

Next to the general store, I saw this chair turned into a flower pot holder. What a good idea.

I got a busy day today. After Dark Sky Adventure and a good supper, I have the "Great CHIP Adventure Bus Expedition".
We leave the visitor center by 7 pm. We are a total of 17 peoples on this expedition.
We will discover the unseen, the overlooked and the hidden treasures of Cypress Hills.

We are walking to learn about the geologic top layer of the Cypress Hills formation.
Chris, our guide, is very good and interesting. The kids are just listening and doing whatever he wants with a smile.

A baby coyote, but we never saw the mother coyote.

We were lucky, we saw a herd of elks.

A small pioneer's cemetery.

One of the many abandoned homestead in the prairies.

We are checking another geological area of the park. We also learn about the FireSmart project.
They cut a large part of the forest next to a road. This is to create a fire breaks if a forest fire ever took place here.

Our last stop is at the Horseshoe Canyon.

Why are we at Horseshoe Canyon?
Simply to look at the sunset.

I did two very interesting activities today. Michele decided not to participate in those activities, it is not her cup of tea.

Friday July 22, 2016

This afternoon, I am back at Horseshoe Canyon with Michele.

You get it? The name is about the shape of the canyon!

Of course, we are also looking for cache.
We had to walk in a field with tall grass!

We had to look for a while because of all the trees was playing havoc with the GPS, but we found it!

After Horseshoe Canyon, we drove to "Head of the Mountain".

You can read all about it here!

The arrow points to the "Sweetgrass" hills located in Montana, USA.
They are about 100 km from here. Kind of hard to see!

One of the roads in the Park.

A storm rolled in pretty fast after supper!

And the rain starts.

We got some hail, but they were small, nothing to worry about.

We had a good day.

Saturday July 23, 2016

Nothing special today.
We went looking for a few caches.
This is one of the many caches we found in the park.

While on our way to another cache, we saw this deer. We think it is a old deer by the look of the fur around his face.

One of the trails we took.

On our way back, we had to stop for a game of mini-golf!
Michele said she would beat me!
We will see!

The mini-golf is free!

Who won? Who lost? It is not important, but I know who won!!!

Sunday July 24, 2016

Our last activity and it is a leisurely paddle around Spruce Coulee Lake.
Once again, we are the only two for this activity.

My pretty Michele!

One more lake created by a dam on the creek.

About fifteen pelicans live here for the summer.

Oh my! Do I look... interested???

We had a nice paddle around the lake.

Chris is our guide once again!

After we got back home, I had to empty the used water for the last time...

I walked the Beaver Creek trail all the way from the top to our campsite.
Michele drove me to the top. I started at an altitude of 1459 m.

This is Beaver Creek!

At the turn on the trail, I came up to this moose!
A young moose eating leaves and drinking in the creek.
I am about 10 meters from the moose.

I walked 6 km downhill, found a cache and got back to the MH.

After a short break, we took the car to get another cache at the entrance of the park.
We passed this moose a few times, this time we got a picture of him!

We had a pretty good week, with just enough activities and relax time.

Monday July 25, 2016

This morning, I am out looking for one last cache in Cypress Hills.
I climb and climb, it is a short walk (3k), but I climb 247 meters.

This is the type of forest I am in.

I found the cache easily. It was last found on September 2015.
The cache was in good condition.

Part of the trail is a mountain bike trail. You have to love this warning sign.

After a nice, but hard walk, I stop at the forest museum before I get home.
Shoot! It is closed.
An old grader pulled by a tractor.

After a good lunch, we decide to play Disc golf near the lake.

The course is not very well displayed on the score card. The "Tee-off" are not well marked, we could not find one!
According to the young girl at the rental place, it was easy to follow!!!
I think we will have some sore muscles tomorrow from throwing the discs.

Tuesday July 26, 2016

Is he sad to see us leave?

Goodbye Cypress Hills Interprovinial Park. We really enjoyed our stay at this park.
Elkwater Lake.

We are driving "down" to the prairies.

In less than an hour, we are in Medicine Hat.
Why Medicine Hat? We will be picking up Gabriel here on August 14 and bring him back to Mouse Jaw.

The tallest Teepee in the world!
We will visit this a little later.

About two minutes from our campground we saw this! It is hot outside...

When we were in Cypress Hills, somebody told us this campground was not the best place to go in Medicine Hat. We will see!

Our first impression of the campground is....
A nice place!

After pulling the car behind the MH, we have to go to the car wash.

With a clan car, our next stop is at the Visitor Center in Medicine Hat.
We come out of there with a lot of information!
Next was a trip to the grocery stores to replenish our fridge.

Wednesday July 27, 2016

We went back for more groceries. We made a stop at Sears to order a new mattress for the MH.
Our mattress in the MH is just plain crappy. Was it guarantied? Not after 3 months.
We should receive our new mattress not this Friday, but the following Friday.

Thursday July 28, 2016

We are downtown Medicine Hat for the Stampede parade.
This is just lucky timing for us. We did not know it was the Medicine Hat Stampede this weekend.
Like any parades, you have horses, old cars, acrobats, bands and carriage.

Talking about old cars! We love this one.

I have seen many old firetrucks before, but never one like this one. Check out the tires!

Remember the movie, "The love Bug!" ?

Some heroes and some not so heroes!

You are in the prairies, you have got to have BIG tractors!

Another firetruck, but this one is making bubbles, lots of bubbles!
They are hard to see, but believe me, we had a lot of bubbles.

The nice couple!

The closing of most parades are with Firetrucks.

We had lunch at a buffet style restaurant after we finished watching the parade.

After lunch, we went back home to pick up our laundry.
It has been very hot since we have been in Alberta,

From home, we stopped at the local ReStore of Medicine Hat.
We are in luck, they have many different laminate wood floor.
We bought a package + 3 laminated floor for $5. We will use it to finish the floor compartment in the MH.

Next, we are at a laundromat for some laundry. It was recommended by our neighbor.
We had not done any laundry since July 14 when we left Moose Jaw with Gabriel.

The temperature outside is 31°C and inside the laundromat, it is 38°C. We got the laundry done in no time and went home.

Friday July 29, 2016

I finally got around to take some photos of the campground.

Our site.

We are close to the Trans-Canada highway, but we hardly hear it from our site.
A view to the west and a view to the east.

I decided to clean the foam filters of both air conditioning unit. No photo of the foam filter!

Another job to be done. Replacing the rain gutter extension. We lost the other one when we drove from Moose Jaw to Medicine Hat.

Michele goes yardsaling and she was successful. She bought a lot of stuff!

Saturday July 30, 2016

This is what I saw when I looked outside this morning.

I am out biking this morning, just checking the area close to the campground.
This is one of the many valleys in Medicine Hat.

Michele and I are out looking for caches this afternoon.
It is still very hot out here!

Here are some of the caches we found today.

It is a warm evening, so we decided to have a campfire (propane).
I know it is still daylight, but if we wait until dark, we would have to wait until 9:30 pm.

It will be cooler tomorrow, so they day...

Sunday July 31, 2016

It is cool this morning, 18°C at noon, not that I am complaining...

By two pm, the sky clears up and the temperature start to go up.

It is close to 4 pm when we start making floors for some of our basement compartments in the MH.
Remember, we bought laminated flooring at the ReStore a few days back.
For $5 we got a box plus 3 planks.

I measure and remeasure!

I cut.

Here is the result. Four compartments on the left side of the MH, plus one more further back.

We also did the last compartment on the right-hand side.
We are very happy with the results and for only $5, you cannot beat that!

Michele has a super idea for supper, a raclette.

We had a very good week.

Until next time.

Life is good...

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