stubsadventures

I’m not so much of a summer camper. I mostly camp in the spring and the fall, when the kids are back in school and the night time temps dip well below the comfortable summer heat. That’s when you see all the good stuff. In the spring, the waterfalls are bigger and louder, the rivers are higher, the smells are fresh and the little baby animals are all over the place. In the fall, the bugs are gone, the ground is usually dry and the leaves changing color just makes me happy.

That being said, camping is camping and this weekend we took off to Kananaksis for a three night stay. We found one of the few spots left in Eau Claire campground and set up shop. The campground manager came by and told us that a wolf had been around begging for food and people were feeding it, thinking it was a dog. I asked him if it would bother Caper, and he said no, it will just stand at the end of the driveway and wouldn’t come up unless it was invited. Isn’t that how a vampire works? A vampire wolf, how sweet is that. Sadly, we never got a visit, which I thought was possibly a minor insult to the smell of my cooking.

The second day, we decided it was time for a hike. We picked an unnamed trail that started from about 7200ft above sea level. The hike was stunning. Lots of up and down before opening up into a beautiful meadow. That, followed by a good rock scramble, followed by a stream crossing, followed by several snow crossings before turning around and doing it all in reverse. About 8km in total, Caper was a champ.

Day three, we decided to take the canoe out into Barrier Lake. Anytime on the canoe is a good time. We had a good paddle for an hour or so against a strong wind, sat and had a picnic next to the lake before heading back. So far, the canoe is proving to be a worthy vessel. Caper is all over the place when she’s in it, back and forth looking for a way off and back to shore. Even when fully loaded with gear, and a pacing puggle, its performed well.

Despite all the awesome things one does while camping, there is no denying the allure of the woods is mostly the campfire. No matter how many times you have them, they are awesome every single time. My newest thing is cutting wood with an axe. I can pretty much guarantee at some point I will hurt myself terribly but until that point, I will continue to be fearless and chop away. I’m pretty good for a girl, if I do say so myself.

Stubs.

My life is full of all kinds of adventures. The latest, is the adventure to sell my house and move from the town of 8,000 that I’ve been living in for almost three years, and move to a village of under 100, in the foothills of the Rockies in a place called Waiparious.  The house is about 35km away from a city, and the village has no services as all. Cougars, bears, wolves and coyotes live in the backyard and the snow will be an ongoing issue all through the winter. I will be closer to Calgary and closer to the hills for snowboarding this winter. Win win win. Moving there will be more like having a cottage than a house.

That being said, I will miss Drumheller. This little town has been very good to me and first and foremost, I have always loved my house here. Over the last 3 years, I have put together a home. My house is filled with things I love, from places I love and places I have travelled too. Most of the pictures on the walls of my home, I have taken and were framed here in Drum. I have loved living amongst the Canadian Badlands and will forever continue my hunt for my fossil discovery, which I will deem: Hagellsaurus. I fully believe that will happen.

I am not a creative person in general but I have had fun putting together this house from scratch. Most of the furniture I have purchased has come from here in Drumheller. As I begin to start a new chapter in my life and put this house that I love so much up for sale, it’s high time I share pictures of the house that I’ve been transforming into a home, just in time to start all over again, this time, deep in the woods on a backroad of Alberta.

Stubs.

The Spocker is a fabulous travelling companion. We laugh probably way too much and she’s super relaxed like me. We work together up north, and share that work hard, play hard mentality. We are the kind of friends that will get all happy on wine and go wandering the streets, dive at some of the most famous world wide sites (wait until the announcement for the 2013 diving trip comes, it doesn’t compare to anything yet), to sitting across each other in high level meetings and have to be all professional. It’s not uncommon for us to be sitting in a meeting across a table texting each other.

Because the car we rented was a standard, I drove the whole time we were in Iceland, so Spocker got to take some pictures of the awe inspiring landscape that was never ending.

Stubs.

The Iceberg Lagoon, is considered one of the natural wonders of Iceland and with good reason. The first time I laid eyes on the group of icebergs, it brought a smile to my face. The lagoon is a water body at the base of a glacier and as ice breaks off of Europe’s largest glacier, some of these icebergs can hang out in this lagoon for as long as five years.

Everything natural in Iceland is free. So many places you go to, like here, are completely free of charge. There is no entry fee into any of the national parks either. That being said, they offer little to no services in most of them. There are few garbages, washrooms or anything like that. Occasionally you’ll see some signs explain what occurred to the landscape around you, sometimes walkways but that’s about it.

We first saw the lagoon at night and the set of pictures with the sun lowered was from that evening. We found a hotel (Hali Guesthouse) in the area and went back later in the evening to enjoy the site. We were there with only about ten other people. The sun was about as low as it gets in these pictures and as the sun went in and out of the clouds, the colors in the lagoon were constantly changing. The water, the sky and the colors in the icebergs were never the same for long.

The next day we returned and took a tour on a boat to get closer to them. Even from the night before, the change in some of the larger ones were evident. There are about 100 seals that live in the lagoon and one came out to play for us.

Check it out.

Stubs.

Iceland contains Europe’s most powerful waterfall, Dettifoss. We woke up one morning, eager to do a loop of sights, the highlight of which would be these falls. Three waterfalls in one day, Godafoss, Dettifoss and Selfoss. All were incredible in their own way, and all three were massive. It has been said that once you see Dettifoss in person, you will never be the same.

One of the other amazing things in Iceland is all of the small waterfalls that are just towering over the old volcanic mountains. Many of these have a picturesque farmhouse at the base of them. I don’t think there is one house in Iceland that doesn’t have an amazing view of one landscape or another.

The roads in Iceland go from highway standards to washboard gravel in a short amount of time. Even though your heart sinks because you realize how much slower you’ll have to go, every single time, it would turn out that those roads would reveal some of the most drastic and dramatic changes in landscape I have ever seen. I always knew that Iceland would be amazing in the same way that the Yukon was, just turns out, it’s like the Yukon on steroids. One minute you would see pounding surf, one minute clear craters of old volcanoes, other long stretches of lava flows in various states of freshness. Trees and shrubs were far and few between but in some areas there was a lot of farm land. Iceland farming is growing more and more all the time, so they have to rely less on imports.

One stop on this epic day drive was the Myvatn Nature Baths. This pool is exactly like the Blue Lagoon, just way less crowded, way less touristy and smelled way worse. It was heaven, even the water was warmer. Here, you could feel how hot the source was and you could actually find time to get lost in your thoughts without the distracting sounds of the crowded Blue Lagoon.

Driving in Iceland is the epitome of getting lost in your thoughts. It is hard to grasp what has happened at the core of the earth to shape every unspoiled mile of beauty on that island.

Stubs.

Grimsey Island is a three-hour ferry ride from Dalvik. The ferry is a passenger ferry that also carries cargo to the remote island where you cross the arctic circle. Also, located on this island is a colony of puffins. I have loved puffins as long as I can remember.

I don’t know what it about those birds. I think they are one of the most magical creatures on the planet. The love the cold, live in some of the most extreme conditions on exposed ocean cliffs. They fly funny, they walk funny and they look funny. They are beautiful when they’re standing still but as soon as they start moving, I get a smile on my face.

The ferry landed on Grimsey and we went for lunch right away. With the restaurants throughout Iceland, you would never know what you were going to find when you sat down. Some of places served some of the best food I have ever eaten. Other places, would be the most basic meal you could ever imagine. On Grimsey, we loaded up with Irish Coffees, and went walking along the coast.

It wasn’t long before my wonderous eyes did I see a PUFFIN! I was so pumped, I couldn’t believe how close they were. And the colony was right there, just waiting for me to take pictures of! I couldn’t take more than a step without snapping a ton of pics. At one point, I had to just sit and watch and once again wonder, what I ever did to be so lucky in life. What a moment, I never would have thought I would have such an experience with these birds and I honestly enjoyed every last second of it.

From the puffins, we headed toward the lighthouse, which brought us past an 800 year old church. Once we got past that, we noticed that the bird activity was really picking up and the Arctic Turns that were in the area were getting closer and closer to us. It wasn’t long before they start swooping and attacking. After two close calls, we turned and started running back from where we had come from, laughing the entire time, shreeking when one would come too close to our heads. One even grabbed my hood! In the safe zone, we decided that we would not let a flock of birds get the better of us, so we headed back into the danger bird zone. Their bark was worse than their bite, and although they would come close, they didn’t inflict any wounds.

To finish off the perfect day with puffins, I was granted my second certificate celebrating the crossing of the arctic circle. Grimsey is one of those places on earth that shows you that life can be simple. Small children were running around, with no parents in sight, actually playing. In this part of the world, people don’t expect tips, not only that, you have to explain to them what one is. They took the time to explain to me who made the wool products I was buying and wished me a good trip, and they really meant it.

Stubs.