nature

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Venturing South

Saturday, May 17th, 2025 dawned as another day of mixed sun and cloud. Today is our son’s 25th birthday and hopefully, he isn’t too busy at his job as we are only half way through our getaway.

Today, we are heading south to check out Little Hell’s Gate on the North Thompson River. It is about a third of the way to Kamloops from the cabin. We’ve been to Hell’s Gate on the Fraser River a few times, but this is our first time exploring this area.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the goat path road down to the falls. A couple were leaving as we got there so we had the viewing platform all to ourselves.

While it’s not as impressive as the big Hell’s Gate, but it had a nice roar to the falls. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out the train that was heading up the valley though.

As we were leaving, we met a nice young couple from Germany who are exploring Canada in a van for 6 months. They’ve already visited quite a few countries in their young lives and were excited to spend so much time in Canada.

We headed back north to Blue River to grab lunch at Grizzly Food Shack. I’d seen it rated well in reviews and the menu looked good so we decided to check it out.

Wasp saved us a table while we waited for your food. Lunch was pretty tasty and I would go back again if I’m ever in the area.

We started heading back towards the cabin looking for photo opportunities along the way.

It wasn’t very far to River Safari and Lynda really wanted to check it out. It looked like an interesting excursion, I wasn’t willing to pony up the money they wanted for the tours. I told Lynda to save her pennies and bring me another time.

We continued up the highway towards Thunder River as the map showed a train bridge that is supposedly photogenic. The road on the map to it didn’t exist so we turned into Blue River Black Spruce Provincial Park.

The road that climbed the mountain from there looked interesting, but it was closed so we continued up the highway some more.

The little bridge on the road to Bone Creek Wilderness Retreat looked interesting so we drove down the road.

The view from the bridge was the best one along that road.

We continued up the highway and stopped in Valemount so I could take a photo of the Fire Station. I really liked the mural on the building and wanted to get a shot of it.

I had one more stop planned before we went to the cabin for the night. The Tete Jaune Spawning Grounds Recreation Site was just a minute or so from the cabin so we went to check it out.

We were getting hungry so we headed back to the cabin to buy some firewood so we could cook our flatbread pizzas we had brought. Lynda built the fire and looked after the cooking. I was okay with that as it gave me time to sit on the porch and relax. Holidays can be rough. Lol

The pizza was good, not pizza in Nice good, but it was a lot cozier then Nice.

After our meal and cleanup, I had time to look for some photo to take.

It was starting to get dark so we decided to head inside for a nice cup of tea before bed. Tomorrow we’ll head into Jasper.

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Anniversary getaway

I couldn’t afford to take Lynda on an exotic getaway for your 28th anniversary, so I picked someplace closer to home that we’d never stayed at. The cabins at The Mica Mountain Lodge in Tete Jaune Cache, BC, looked to be a nice quiet getaway.

We left Thursday, May 15th and headed west on highway 11. We stopped at Bighorn Service near Crescent Falls to top up the tank as I figured that would be the most inexpensive fuel I’d see for a while. At least it was a nice day for the fellow who locked his keys in the truck and was waiting for someone to come and let him in.

I love spring in the mountains as there are so many different shades of green as the trees are all budding at different rates and grasses are struggling to grow. It was a nice drive up the Icefield Parkway and the trees were looking pretty good for the most part. That is, until you get close to Athabasca Falls, then you start to see the destruction from last summer’s forest fire. The trees were burned on both sides of the highway and river right up to the top of the tree line. There were a few unburned pockets here and there but for the most part, it was total destruction. Highway 93a was closed from the Falls end so my plan to drive up that way were foiled.

There were clouds obscuring the top of Mount Robson, so we didn’t bother to stop like the last time we were in that neck of the woods. We continued on down to Valemount to go try the Valemount Bakery, formerly, The Swiss Bakery. But, like the last time we tried to visit, they were closed, for renovations this time. The owner came out and talked to us, explaining they were building an apartment above the shop so they wouldn’t have to commute so far to work. Maybe, third time will be the charm, so I guess we’ll have to go back again.

It was now time to check in to our cabin so we headed back north to get settled in. We rented the Pine Bungalow and it is a lovely little cabin. We got our stuff inside and sat on the covered porch for a while, just looking at the mountains in the distance.

We sat and had our lasagna we brought for supper before heading up to meet our host, Elke. She was pretty friendly and we chatted with her for a while before heading back to our cabin. She was going to come by and move her horses out of the pasture and up to their place in a bit so I took a couple of photos while we waited on her. My bride was pretty excited to see the horses. Me, not so much, but if it makes her happy…

I went for a quick walk in the trees to see if I could spot the deer we’d seen earlier. And I did, but I didn’t exactly have the proper lens on my camera to get a great photo of her so see if you can spot her in the picture. You can just see her belly if you look about dead center of the frame. She used the trees wisely.

Elke came by and we followed her to the field. The horses were both being brats and wouldn’t come see her when she called them, so she said no cookies for them and she went in to retrieve them. I took a couple of photos while I waited for her.

Neither horse looked all that happy to being led out of the field, but they were at least, going quietly.

Apparently, the little one is the trouble making ring leader.

Lynda was happy to pet the horses before they went on their way.

I had an idea for a photo I wanted to try with Lynda but I needed it to be a bit darker before I could try it so I grabbed a couple photos of the cabin area.

Finally, it was dark enough to try my idea. It didn’t work out the way I had hoped but it was still fun to try.

It was nice to have an eager participant, too bad what I had in my head and what I got didn’t jive. I’ll have to try a different approach next time. (Spoiler alert; we didn’t do a next time.)

After a bit of reading, it was time for bed. No solid plans are in place for tomorrow but long driving days seem to make me a lot more tired than they used to. I guess we’ll come up with a plan of attack in the morning.