Carrick to Calgary

After all of our running about and the seemingly incessant round of 'jobs' that needed to be done to move stuff from home, move stuff from Calgary, move into our new home, unpack everything, take up new positions (J), and an office move for me, we decided that a short break was in order. So on the 10th of August, off we trundled towards the mountains and Jasper. Its a straightforward drive - about 4 hours including a short pit stop and a quick grocery shop in Hinton. We had decided to go back to the Patricia Lake Bungalows, which are situated on the shores of Patricia Lake (funnily enough!), just about 5km north of Jasper townsite. We'd been there for a short break last July (when I seem to remember that it rained most of the time), but it is such a wonderful, peaceful, quiet and relaxing place that we really didn't consider going anywhere else. Last year, we had been in one of the more traditional cabins (think biggish garden shed with windows), but because we booked so late this year, we had a limited choice of accommodation. Luckily enough, we were limited to one of the new lodgings, which are definitely not like garden sheds.... this time, think small modern apartment with stunning views....



The Grove at Patricia Lake is the start (I think) of a gradual modernising process being undertaken by the family who own the place, and they have done a great job. The decor is lovely, and the whole place is fully equipped with just about everything you need for a self-catering operation.

Bedroom...




View from sofa to kitchen/dining area (or should that be dining 'nook' in Canadian parlance?)



Sitting nook(!)...



Better view of the kitchen - four full size gas burners and a combi microwave/oven...



This is the view of the outside - the chimney isn't quite clad yet, and you can see one of the more traditional cabins just to the left of the picture...



This is me - I went outside to read, and it was just so quiet, and just so peaceful, with a little bit of sun...I think I might have just been resting my eyes for a little bit...



This is J being slightly more active than me - minding the BBQ...



And what was in the BBQ - ribs and corn - its that corn time of year here...



So, that was about it... we read, played some new board games, went walking, sat on the dock on the lake, yelled at the mountain (great echoes...)...

In fact, here is the mountain as viewed from the sofa in our accommodation...



All too soon it was time to hit the road to come home again... we made a stop for an hour or two at the hot springs at Miette (about 22km of the main road between Jasper and E-town), where we encounted a flock of very tame rocky mountain sheep (or possibly goats - no, I think they were sheep...)



We were slightly tempted by this sign on the way home, but thought better of it as the electrician was booked to come the following day...



More later.....

Okay - we've only actually harvested two courgettes so far... however, a brief examination of the plants shows that there are many many more to come. It is just a pity that we don't have any rhubarb, as J won a door prize at a university orientation day - a book entitled 'Rhubarb - more than just pies'....hhmmmm...

Anyway, here are the courgettes so far!







We're impressed, given that these poor little plants didn't look just so hot when they emerged from the mover's van at the end of June.

Mind you, our harvest isn't quite as impressive as my mum and dad's - this is what they got from their garden in one day this week - wow!

Well, I promised a picture of the walking gear, so here I am at 5.30am on the morning of Saturdady 29th July in the Delta hotel. I'm wearing pink (as are about 95% of the people doing the walk) and am well labelled - nobody was allowed to walk without their label. And the trusty hat went too! Sorry about the big white expanse in the bottom of the picture, but the glamorous assistant was still in bed when doing the photography bit...



This was the one of the most amazingly well organized events I have ever taken part in. We started out with breakfast on Saturday morning, and what turned out to be the last coffee of the day, followed by warm-up and then we hit the streets. Ruth (my companion walker) had sussed out that it was better to stand near the exit door of the big hall, so when they opened the doors, we were in the first 100 or so to hit the route. We set off down past the river and then over the centre street bridge for our first uphill slog of the day. Mercifully, the morning started out pretty cloudy, and the sun only broke through at about noon. The weather was nicely warm when it was cloudy - not too hot - but when the sun came out, it did start to feel just a little bit uncomfortable. Mind you, there were some lovely people living along the route who very thoughtfully had set their garden sprinklers to mist the footpaths for the ease of hot and bothered walkers.

So, here are a few pictures taken along the way...

Lots of water at the pitstops - set up at intervals, every 3 or 4km along the way...



In addition to water, there was Gatorade and exhortations to keep drinking... and of course, if you do keep drinking, there are consequences, but we were well provisioned in that respect too...



Food was good too - in one respect, we ate and drank our way around the streets of Calgary...



Also at each of the pit stops, they told you how far you had to go, and when the next pit stop was... funnily enough, in the morning, the kilometres seemed to be a bit short (i.e. we clocked through them rightly), but by the time the afternoon rolled round, Ruth and I were convinced that the kms were getting ever and ever longer...



We eventually made it to the end of day 1, at the end of 35km, where camp was set up for the night...



I wasn't quite so chirpy by the time we reached the end of day 1...



But having said that, I think I was surprisingly okay. The bottoms of my feet felt like they had been flame grilled - I had no idea they could feel so darned hot, but luckily, I managed to get to the end of the day with no blisters. How amazing is that? Ruth and I did come across some people with very mangled looking feet - toenails hanging off, toes looking like someone had taken a meat tenderiser to them etc. Other poor people were holding ice packs to knees, so we felt very lucky to have come through day one relatively unscathed.

Mind you, I have to say that I was really tired by the end of the day, and was absolutely delighted that my glamorous assistant and I had opted to stay in a hotel, rather than having me camp out. I think I can honestly say that, if I had decided to stay in camp, I might have needed a large crane and hoist to get me up for day 2. Instead, we went back to the hotel, floated about a bit in the hot tub, had a swim, ate room service food and conked out to sleep at about 8.30pm

Next morning dawned bright and clear...



and off we set to do the remaining 25km... at one stage, this sign seemed very apt...



But again, we made it - me with a slightly cracked left heel (but no blisters) and Ruth with one tiny blister. It was a totally knackering experience, but worth it. In Calgary, the weekend raised $6million, and there's another walk happening in Edmonton next weekend, which will probably raise a similar amount. I don't know if I would do it again next year, but I might volunteer as crew to dish out oranges etc and to cheer on those brave enough to tackle it again - I'll keep you posted.