Good bless Ovida and Kasara. That photoset really did it for me, had to put that one on autoplay (nudge, nudge). Feel much better now.
Fab weekend, took off Thursday night for Calgary with two guys I work with and like to hang around with(!), Caught Champion Alberta playing in a bar there - hung out with the band, my boys, and my friend Jenn. Got drunk, oh yes, and didn't drive. Only disappointment was Paulina didn't come out to play with us. I am ever so sweet on her, though I'm thinking I'm wasting my time 'cause she lives in Calgary.
Struggled up Friday morning and drove to Canmore, through town and into the valley. Drove right past the sign to the heliport in a comatose state. Found it in time to catch the helicopter to Mt. Assiniboine, spent a night in a hut and hiked out over 2 days. Saturday it started raining 10 minutes after we started hiking, and rained for 4 hours. Everyone was soaked to the skin, those with good rain gear as much as those without. We also spotted a young male grissly bear about 500m up a mountain from us. Maybe 2 years old, not a cute little cub, it was pretty damn big. Then it spotted us when it heard a camera beep. It stared at us and we stared at him. I got the bear spray out of my friends pack just in case. Then the bear started walking down the hill towards us. We got moving damn fast, I have to tell you I was feeling somewhere between exhileration and fear. My last look back at him he was heading to where we had been standing, and was breaking into a run. I think the scales tipped to fear when I saw him running, and we didn't look back again.
At the end of 15 km's in the pouring rain we got to a cabin where a pair of hikers already had a fire burning. Bless them. We hung everything to dry and had tea. We had to wait for the camera to dry before we could check out the picture of the bear.
Saw a big old moose in a bog on the way out. God I love these mountains.
Fab weekend, took off Thursday night for Calgary with two guys I work with and like to hang around with(!), Caught Champion Alberta playing in a bar there - hung out with the band, my boys, and my friend Jenn. Got drunk, oh yes, and didn't drive. Only disappointment was Paulina didn't come out to play with us. I am ever so sweet on her, though I'm thinking I'm wasting my time 'cause she lives in Calgary.
Struggled up Friday morning and drove to Canmore, through town and into the valley. Drove right past the sign to the heliport in a comatose state. Found it in time to catch the helicopter to Mt. Assiniboine, spent a night in a hut and hiked out over 2 days. Saturday it started raining 10 minutes after we started hiking, and rained for 4 hours. Everyone was soaked to the skin, those with good rain gear as much as those without. We also spotted a young male grissly bear about 500m up a mountain from us. Maybe 2 years old, not a cute little cub, it was pretty damn big. Then it spotted us when it heard a camera beep. It stared at us and we stared at him. I got the bear spray out of my friends pack just in case. Then the bear started walking down the hill towards us. We got moving damn fast, I have to tell you I was feeling somewhere between exhileration and fear. My last look back at him he was heading to where we had been standing, and was breaking into a run. I think the scales tipped to fear when I saw him running, and we didn't look back again.
At the end of 15 km's in the pouring rain we got to a cabin where a pair of hikers already had a fire burning. Bless them. We hung everything to dry and had tea. We had to wait for the camera to dry before we could check out the picture of the bear.
Saw a big old moose in a bog on the way out. God I love these mountains.
psychemoon:
incredible weekend! it must have been scary to see the bear coming along behind you a bit... i've watched a lot of nature shows, maybe too many, and bears are not a creature to tango with (although the stuffed ones can be nice too snuggle with on a cool evening).