Travelog for: sammino

Ciao ciao ciao,

today we went visiting a place called Moose Mountain.  This is a fairly high peak (2437m) that lies on the eastern edge of the Rockies and have a fire lookout (still used) right at the top. To reach the trailhead we had to drive a few km on a gravel road littered with potholes...what a shaking, oooh.  Of course the road was quite dusty too, hmmm, what was the colour of the car? 



We could get the first glimpse of our destination through a gap in the trees.



After a couple of hours walking (well, Smaug was walking, we were chatting in his backpack  ) we reached the summit. Wow, there was a sea of peaks surrounding us on three sides




While on the opposite side the green sea of the prairies was disappearing into the east.



We didn’t linger much as the weather was turning ugly.



On the way down we managed to take a final picture of the summit...



...before it started pouring down, we even got some heavy hail, what an adventure. But eventually we made it back to the car park without getting too drenched.
During the drive back we stopped to take some more picture of the prairies (you might almost see Calgary’s skyscrapers in the distance...well, to see them you’d need the superior vision of an eagle  )....



...and we explored a natural gas extraction site, oooh.

Ciao ciao ciao,

today we got a "present" in the post: my friend Pepita came back from BC to spend a few days here (guess there's something she wants to pack in her shell) before leaving for Germany, oooh. Of course we spent the whole night chatting 

Ciao ciao ciao,

today another guest arrived we were expecting PinkyHH to appear anytime soon, so when Smaug came back home with an envelope from Malaysia  we got extremely excited: and it was her!


Of course she was very tired for the trip and a bit confused by the jet lag so we let her falling asleep very early, oooh...we’ll have plenty of time to chat tomorrow 

Ciao ciao ciao,

today we went with Smaug to Medicine Hat, a town South-west of Calgary where he had to attend a meeting,oooh.  The place is 300km from Calgary so we had quite some time on the road to look at the prairies. Well, here are a couple of shots that will give you an idea of the landscape.



But you shouldn’t think that the view was the same for three hours, there were plenty of changes like hmmm, the odd herd of cows grazing on the side of the road, the side of the road were the odd herd of cows was grazing on and of course the colour of the cows in the odd herd of cows, so exciting 
You won’t be surprised that we spent most of the trip reading the newspaper and chatting.


We actually didn’t see much of Medicine Hat itself as Smaug was a bit busy so we only managed to get a picture with the biggest tepee in the world, oooh. It is actually a steel structure, much cooler if you are not too close to it


When we came back home Pepita jumped in her envelope and got ready to travel to her next host in Germany, wow 

I gave a her a big hug and wished her good luck with her travels. Who knows how long it will take before she comes home again, but I’ll follow her adventures on her travelog 

Ciao ciao ciao,

Today was Canada day here and there was supposed to be celebrations everywhere, but unfortunately Smaug was working, so we were ready to spend the whole day at home  . Actually I was very happy anyway because my friend Sigfrido is visiting from Europe oooh. Smaug eventually came back early in the afternoon and we went out for a little (2 hours each way) trip to Moraine Lake  .

This time the lake was full, much better than last time we were here  ; too bad the best location for photos was closed due to works on the path, but we still managed to take some pictures.

As you can see there was quite a throng  as Sigfrido was there and also a new TV Orpheus  (that I am training to get him ready for his first trip) came with us too, oooh.

Ciao ciao ciao,

today was the opening day of the Calgary Stampede, that the organizers call “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth”,  oooh. Well, that might be an arguable statement, but it’s definitely something big. The core of the show are daily rodeos and chuckwagon races, so as you can guess the whole show has a strong western theme. To get in the atmosphere we decided to wear a cowboy hat before heading down to the Stampede Park...hmmm, finding a hat of the right size was a bit of problem so it was actually the hat that was wearing us



Down at the park it was very crowded: fun fairs, markets, animal exhibitions were all packed with people, but eventually smaug found a “quiet” spot where we could take some group pictures overlooking the park.

You can even see Calgary downtown 


What a long day! And when we came back Orpheus jumped in a suitcase to start his journeys oooh, so we all wished him good luck. I am comfortable that he’ll be OK because my friend Sigfrido will travel with him for a while so he’s in good hands

Ciao ciao ciao,

Today it’s PinkyHH’s first birthday, wow! When we woke up we pretended having forgotten it but later we all gathered around her and sang happy birthday for her



I decided that we should make the date a bit special, so first we had a hearty breakfast with chocolate cookies  ...damn smaug, I told him three time last week that we needed a cake, and nothing, he forgot, leaving me to arrange something as best as I could, oooh



We dipped  the cookies in milk and chocolate while Mr Bananas and Purple Haze had some proper English tea.



After that we spent the morning playing cards…salzburger spielkarten, this should have impressed my guests 



We played Watten, actually Blind-Watten, and it took a while to explain the rules to everybody 



You usually play in pairs, so I arranged the teams:  PinkyHH and Purple Haze  against Mr Bananas and Sully Monster, but as they were were all novices I placed an “experienced player” with each of them to help. I was helping  Sully Monster 



Later, after a bit of rest,  I showed everybody how to make a paper frog, well not just a paper frog, but a paper jumping frog 



They all got quickly into it and started preparing their own frogs, and after a bit we were all ready to line up the frogs for a race.



The race “track” was on the table with some, hmmm, artificial obstacles...




...but after a few laps all the frogs ended up jumping down the table so we called the race off and just spent the rest of the day chatting and relaxing as usual 

Later I taught to Pinky HH how to say honey in Italian...I just hope she enjoyed the day 

Ciao ciao ciao,

after a couple of weeks when we have hardly seen Smaug, today we were active again. The weather forecast was for more than 30 degrees, first time of the year  ....and maybe last time too  So we left very early in the morning to go to a place called Fairview Mountain, that, at 2744m, is one of the highest points that you can reach with a trail in the Rockies national parks.
We started taking some pictures while still close to the valley floor. Here is the Bow Valley heading North...



And this is our destination for the day, exciting



At this point I left the others and went to explore a bit around looking for something to eat for them. Hmmm, the food competition around here is fierce, but an eagle can always outsmart the other hunters, it’s just a matter of stealthy moves and tapping into unknown sources of food.
Here are the others resting at the top while smaug is around somewhere.



Let’s fly in from the other side of the mountain...quickly check that no one is looking while I approach the prey...



...and get in action...



...the way seems clear...just another little effort



et voilà, the hunter is back, successful as always 




After refilling our bellies we had a look around. The mountain is called Fairview for a good reason, the view is amazing The peak behind me and covered with ice is Mount Temple, the highest mountain in this part of the rockies.



This one is Mt Victoria, that closes  the West side of Lake Louise...



...and that down there is Lake Louise,  1km below me, wow  .



That is again the Bow valley. The cut in the trees is Highway 93, better known as the Icefields Parkway...I guess the name is quite self explanatory 



On the way down we took a few more pictures. That’s Mount Temple again...


...Fairview Mountain from which we just came down...


...and the Lake Louise ski area.

Ciao ciao ciao,

today we said goodbye to PinkyHH  : she is travelling to her next host on the eastern coast of Canada, oooh. Of course we all gathered around to wish her good luck in her new adventure  .



I was a bit sad as she’s the first guest who leaves the house, so I gave her a big hug: but I’m sure she’ll have great fun and I’ll check how she’s doing on her travelog  .

ciao ciao ciao,

what a boring week  ! smaug was busy at work and we hardly saw him at all, and today another TV is leaving us: Mr Bananas is moving on to his next host in Germany, oooh, so we all wished him a safe trip.




Good news is that next one is a long week end, so hopefully smaug will take us out to do something exciting 

Ciao ciao ciao,

after two boring weeks we were on the road again  . We went visiting a place called Prairie Mountain, just SW of Calgary. On the way there Sully Monster, Purple Haze and I refined the daily plan on the map...



When we arrived at the car park there was almost no one there...it was actually very early morning.



The car park is close to the Elbow River that here is hidden in the trees somewhere behind me.



Here you can see one of the Elbow’s meanders from the trail



On the way up we liked this valley 



On the summit there is a little cairn, and of course we took a photo.



That peak behind me is Moose Mountain, where I have been sometimes ago.



And here is more of the view from the top.




Smaug allowed Sully Monster and Purple Haze to enjoy the view with his binoculars ...I didn’t use them as being an eagle I have been gifted by nature with a superior vision and need no binoculars 



While we were at the top another bald eagle who lives around here came down greeting us. How exciting  , hes the first local bald eagle I met, oooh. His name’s Landroval and after we explained him what TVs do he decided to join us and to become a TV too  .

Ciao ciao ciao,

today was a lovely day and we went for a walk in Calgary. First we followed a trail on the south side of the Bow river (there’re two rivers in Calgary, one is called Bow and the other Elbow  ...and I never remember which one is which  ). Here is a meander of the river looking downstream...



...and upstream.



After a few km we reached a place called Edworthy Park. Going up a hill you have an incredible view of North Calgary  ...houses disappearing in the distance on all sides.



This colourful building behind me is the Alberta Children Hospital 



And you can even see Downtown Calgary, oooh 



Smaug’s pointing out that skyscrapers in Calgary are not all leaning like the Tower in Pisa, but because of the glare he couldn’t really see that the photo was coming out a bit tilted ....can't even take a straight photo .

Ciao ciao ciao!

Today we went for another hike, this time to a place called C Level Cirque. First we stopped along the way because Smaug had a site visit to do. Unfortunately the visit was on Police land, so for security reason Smaug couldn’t take any picture of us to be posted here  ...but we got a good look around  . As a compensation we stopped at this Bridge on the Bow River in Cochrane to take a photo.



Later we reached our destination near Banff. Smaug explained us that in the early 20th century a town of more than 1000 miners was located here working on coal extraction.  C Level was the highest part of the mining operation on the side of the mountain. Along the trail there are a lot of fenced holes in the ground that were the air vents for the mining shafts. Sully Monster was quite keen to jump the fence, go down and check the shafts  and I was happy to go with him but Smaug suggested that we needed some darkness experienced support.
Close to the abandoned mines we took this picture of Lake Minnewanka.



Then we reached the actual cirque. Cirque is French word used by geologists to define a semicircular, bowl-shaped depression created by an alpine glacier. In this case the glacier is long gone but a little depression is still there, fed by lot of rubble falling down by the surrounding rock walls.





We actually followed the trail a bit higher up to reach a good view point where we took some more photos.





We didn’t linger as flies and mosquitoes were a bit of pain . Smaug said they were a bit more aggressive than usual as they almost completely ignored the exposed skin, well covered with insect repellent, and instead happily drilled their way to the unprotected skin through the clothes  ....luckily for us, it appears that they are not really interested in TV blood.
Once we were back to the car we said goodbye to Landroval who decided to fly all the way to his next host (in Germany  ) rather than using the post.



I had a little chat with him in private (I was a bit concerned that he might freeze and fall down like an hailstone while flying over Greenland  ) and I think that I have convinced him to jump on one of the flights to Frankfurt that leave Calgary Airport daily 



Bye

Ciao ciao ciao,

the weather has been horrible over the last few days, oooh, raining all the time and pretty cold  , but a new TV has arrived here, Snuttig, who comes from Austria, so that was great news  . This morning the weather was a bit better, at least it wasn’t raining  , so we went with smaug for a site visit in Cochrane, a small town west of Calgary. Apparently the main business in town is still ranching



Here is the Bow River flowing past the town...



And here are a couple of photos of Cochrane, you can see the Rockies in the background.




On the way back we stopped at Canada Olympic Park. This was the main venue for sky jumping, luge and bobsled during the 1988 winter Olympics and it is still used for training and international competitions....in winter  . In summer people come here for the mountain bike and hiking trails and last week there was a big music festival.
First we checked out the luge track




This is one of the starts; there are different start points for man, women, junior athletes and tourists



Later we had a look at the HS123 (90m) jumping tower. In summer the tower is the starting point of the fastest zipline in North America, with the riders flying down at up to 140km/h  , exciting 

Ciao ciao ciao,

today it was still cold and the weather was rather bad so smaug decided to go to work, oooh...and we went with him  . Most of us have been already there, but it was the first time that Snuttig came to the office. First we checked the view out of the window, not too exciting  .



Then, since smaug was working in another room we took control of the computer. Ehi, those are our updates from yesterday, oooh  .



After surfing the net we started playing with the screens....mmm, I don’t think everybody is really comfortable up here 



And after that we checked the plotter out.



After so much activity we decided that we needed some sugars, so we stopped at the snack packs in the kitchen for a well deserved break  ...yumm, almond covered with chocolate, delicious 



Tonight we all gathered to say goodbye to Purple Haze. She is going back to England to spend some time at home. I gave her a big hug, wished her a safe journey and make her promise to keep updating her travelog so that we can see what she’s up to  . It’s so hard t see my guests going