Rockwall - Kootenay National Park - August 2010

Wow, what a weekend - back country camping will never be the same again as you can see from our pictures!! Now that Marie is a Parks Canada employee she is able to book and reserve the Warden's Back Country Cabins in the Western Canadian National Parks. So . . . she booked a couple of cabins in Kootenay National Park and on Friday August 27th we drove to the Paint Pots and hiked up along Tumbling Creek to the Rockwall where we stayed in the Wolverine Pass Cabin. This was an extra bonus as the weather had become very cool and it was snowing by the time we arrived at the cabin and lit a fire in the stove. The next day we awoke to a brilliant blue sky and hiked along the Rockwall, at times through a considerable amount of snow. We then descended to Helmet Creek, where we had a great view of the cascading falls. We opened up the Helmet Creek Wardens Cabin and settled in. Alex and Marie went for a quick dip in the creek (very brave) and then we walked up to the base of the falls where we saw three mountain goats on the steep ledges of the Rockwall. We returned to the cabin for hot chocolate and a warm fire and we were joined in the evening by a couple of graduate students studying primates. The one student is currently studying lemurs in Madagascar for his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto. The clouds descended during the night and on Sunday August 29th we hiked out to the Paint Pots under a dark sky. Fortunately, we could still see the mountain tops and the rain held off until we made it back to the parking lot.

Summer of 2010

The summer of 2010 began and ended with a "bang" - which we captured with as many pictures as possible!! The boys and I drove to the cottage in Ontario once school was over at the end of June. Once we arrived at the cottage we purchased a used Grew Cutter 181, which we then moved into the boat house while putting the olde boat up on blocks for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, we were able to sell the olde boat to a local marina. Over the course of July family members arrived from all parts of North America and we had a great time tubing, wake boarding, water skiing, fishing, and touring with the new boat. We celebrated my 50th birthday during the first weekend of August and then people started to head home. Unfortunately, we had a severe wind storm during the first week of August, which caused numerous trees to be uprooted. We had an olde oak tree fall on the front roof of our cottage and Ruth & John had several oak trees land heavily on their newly renovated cottage. Christopher captured the storm on video and we were able to cut down the trees and put a large tarp on the roof before we had to drive back to Calgary. En route I somehow managed to get poison ivy on my legs and arms - so I wasn't a very happy camper by the time we arrived home.