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Traaaaaaaaaaaaaain!

As I sit here nursing my 2nd, and last, Caesar of the evening, I’m thinking about the life of my friend, Greg Gillert. I learned of his passing earlier this week and while, I had a drink that day, I really haven’t sat and mourned. It’s been 30+ years since Greg and I hung out a lot but my memories of those times bring me a lot of joy.
I met Greg though a mutual acquaintance, Keith Weiler, when I was working at Kapp’s Hobby House back in the late 80’s. We shared a love of trains. I had a camera and he had a car so we often went out as a threesome chasing trains.

We spent a lot of time chasing trains around Central Alberta and I took a lot of mediocre photos on our adventures.

I did however get a good photo or two along the way and one of my best shots also coincides with a great story. Sadly, I don’t have the original photo to post, so I’ll have to do with somewhat of a reenactment.

Greg, Keith and I found ourselves out roaming the country side east of Red Deer and we decided to explore the area around the Sissons Coal Mine. While we were there, we spotted the Ardley Railway Trestle spanning the Red Deer River. We drove down the driveway to the house near the trestle and asked the lady there if we could park there to go and explore the bridge. She had no problem with that and we happily marched along the tracks approaching the bridge.

Keith is deathly afraid of height and while he got on the bridge, he really wasn’t happy about it. So, while Greg and I looked around and took our time crossing, Keith put his head down so he could look just ahead of his feet and he went trucking all the way across all 1200 feet of the bridge.

There used to be power lines strung across the bridge back in the day. The lines were long gone, but there were plenty of glass insulators still in place. I walked out and grabbed a couple of them while we were there. (I found them in a box, just last week.) Heights have never bothered me as I know it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end that does it.

It was a windy day when we were on the trestle and since we knew trains are very quiet when they approach you, I kept looking back over my shoulder as we walked.

Suddenly, there was a change in the wind and when I looked back, I saw headlights approaching the trestle.
I said, “Traaain”.
Greg looked at me and said, “Fuck off. Train?” He then looked back and and shouted, “Oh shit, train!”

Being a wood and steel trestle, there are several barrel stands along the east side of the bridge that used to hold barrels of water for fire suppression back when steam engines pulled the trains.

We scrambled about 20 feet or so to the nearest one to await the coming train. I took photos of the approaching train and felt the rush of air as it passed by. It was quite loud as it rumbled and clanked while passing by. The bridge shakes quiet a bit when the train is on it and Greg thought it was pretty cool but as the time passed, he was less and less enthusiastic about it and soon he was just sitting down, waiting for the caboose to pass by.
To me, it was all too soon and it was over. All that could be heard was the singing of the rails as the train faded away in the distance.
Keith popped out of the trees on the south side of the bridge to make sure we’d survived, and waited for us to finish crossing. I told him that it was a rush and should be an amusement park ride.

He looked at me, shook his head and said, “You’re crazy.” (He probably wasn’t wrong about that.)

Greg did get me to make him an enlargement of one of my photos of the train bearing down on us. I probably have a copy of it somewhere but so far, I haven’t found it so here as close as I can get. From what I remember, I believe I was on the same barrel stand for these photos. This train was coming from the opposite direction, and to be honest, it wasn’t as exciting as my first visit.

Maybe my excitement wearing off quickly was because the train was longer than then first time. Maybe it was because I was all alone with no one to share it with. Or, more likely, maybe being more than twice as old as I was the first time, I don’t wow as easily as I used to. No matter the reason, I did think back fondly of my first time up there and reliving it as such was still worth it.

Greg and I kind of drifted apart as our lives evolved. I went off to Calgary to go to school and lost track of more than 1 person in my life. We’d see each other on occasion and I took the photos of his wedding but we didn’t hang out like we used to.

In the ensuing years, we’d see each other every couple of years or so and in 2009, he hired me to take graduation day photos of his girlfriend’s daughter. The relationship didn’t last but he stayed in Mariah’s life and was a grandfather to her children.
The last photo I have of Greg is him looking so proud while dancing with Mariah at her graduation.

I last saw Greg in the spring of last year when he was in shopping for a camera to use while he chased the CPKC steam train from Calgary to Moose Jaw. It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago but as Rod Stewart sings in Young Turks,

“And time is a thief when you’re undecided, and like a fistful of sand, it can slip right through your hands”. 
It passes so quickly sometimes.

As I age and lose more and more people from my life, I better understand the statement an elderly customer told me about 15 years ago. He was downsizing his possessions and said to me that there were certain disadvantages in living a long life. He was in his late 80s when he told me that and he was almost 98 when he passed away. For the longest time, I took that to be solely about the material things we accumulate, but I’ve come to see it as much more.

More often than not these days, I think of Simon and Garfunkel’s words when they sang,

“I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries”

And I wonder how hard that could be? Because, feeling pain and crying really isn’t any fun.

Rest in peace old friend.

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A walk at the dog park

I had a chat with John yesterday about this and that and some work stuff. It was good to hear from him and he told me he was doing okay. I’m pretty sure it was for that moment but I’ll take it.

One of the things we discussed was how Noodle is showing her age and she’s not walking as much as she used to. My last walk with her was back in March when her and John were here on their way to Ontario. As it made me sad to think that might have been our last walk together, I decided I’d go for a walk at the dog park and take my time like she was there.

Now, I can’t walk slow enough to replicate walking with her, so I thought I’d stop at every bench along the way and, using my cell phone, take a photo of the view I was getting.

It was nice to see the park bustling with people and dogs enjoying the sunshine before it got too hot out. It was hotter than Noodle would have liked and I found it warmer than I liked, even walking slowly.

The first bench I came too has obviously been there a while and the trees have grown up in front of it as there’s not much of a view.

Since there really wasn’t much to see, I walked to the edge of the trees and took a photo of the pond.

It isn’t too far to the next bench and the view wasn’t really any better than my previous stop.

It’s even closer to the next bench but at least it was on the other side of the path so my view was different. Again, not much of a view but the lens flare the sun provided was the most interesting thing in the frame.

It’s not too far to the next bench but at least you can see the river from this one.

There were ducks on a very still pond at my next stop.

A very different view at my next stop but it wasn’t all that far to go to reach it.

It’s a bit further a jaunt and another change of scenery for the next bench. It was a nice peaceful stop however.

The next bench also faces the river but didn’t feel as peaceful as the last one.

I learned my next stop would be my last one as there is a really long stretch of trail without a bench.

There are 2 intersections along the way that have a bench down the other direction but since they weren’t on my direct line of walking, I didn’t count them as stops.

I did take a photo between the intersections as the little swamp and pond area has been changed since my last visit.

I don’t know if the Swamp Donkey, aka, Noodle, would enjoy it, but I’d be willing to think so.

I did stop at the bench where I had parked but I had to walk past my truck to get to it as I hadn’t passed it on my walk.

I made the loop in about half the time I would have taken if I was walking with John and Noodle but I was about twice as long as I taken if I was just walking it for the steps.

John has told me before that I’m pretty much the only person who hasn’t been trying to get him to come back here. I know being here would be hard on him so I don’t see the point of asking, even if it helps me feel normal. One of the things he said to me yesterday kept rattling around my head as I walked. I had a real lightbulb coming on moment when he said; “I don’t think they understand that I can’t deal with my grief and your grief at the same time.”

I think I kind of knew that way back in a corner of my mind but I had never thought of it that way until I hear it articulated into words.

I’ve often wondered why, after a loss, so many people choose to move away for a fresh start. This epiphany makes so much sense.

I still miss our dog walking routine and other stuff but I will not ask John when he’s coming back. Nor will I try to guilt him into doing that. I can only hope he gets to a point he’s ready to come back sooner than later. And I’ll support him no matter what his decisions are.

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Today’s the day

I started this post a year ago today as I was devastated and had no idea of what to do. Writing things down didn’t really make it any easier to deal with as it made it feel real. But, for me at least, it kept it from all being bottled up with no release. I’ve been debating publishing this but I’m finding as time goes on, it’s feeling more like rambling and less like journaling so maybe publishing will help me move along somewhat.

August 22, 2024,

I had thought of this title one day while looking at my wife’s hair brush on my side of the bathroom counter. Our vanity is quite small and while we each have our own side, she constantly leaves her hair brush on my side when she’s done with it. I used to get mad at this and I would grumble to myself while I put the brush away.

One day, a few years ago, it hit me that eventually, either she wouldn’t be around to leave her brush there, or I wouldn’t be around to put it away.

At the time, that saddened me beyond belief. So, I changed my attitude about the brush infringing on my space and now, I smile while putting it away. And I came up with the title; “Today’s the day”, for when that would end. Of course, that would mean that she was no longer around as no one would know about it if it was me who wasn’t around.

It hit home for me today when I got the message from my friend John that he’d found his wife, Marni, in bed and not breathing when he’d arrived home from work yesterday. He did CPR, called 911 and had the paramedics take her to the hospital. She had a massive stroke as they tried to revive her. And now she lays in a bed in the ICU, brain dead. She’s never coming home.

It was so surreal seeing her lying in that hospital bed, looking like she was sleeping peacefully. But no matter how loud it got in her room, there was no waking her up. I had never seen her so quiet for so long, as she really liked to talk.

Tomorrow they’ll test her again to see if there is any blood flow to her brain and pronounce her deceased if there isn’t. She’ll go to either Calgary or Edmonton for a transplant team to see if her organs are viable. I so hope they are so she can help someone in need.

August 23, 2024

I was happy that my wife, Lynda, was one of the HCAs on shift Wednesday night so she could offer some care to Marni and John would see a familiar face as he sat at her bedside.

Just before 11:00 am, Marni failed the test, and the doctors called it.

She was sent to Calgary to have her organs harvested in the ultimate act of recycling.

Rest in peace Marni.

I’ll do whatever I can for John.

August 29, 2024

Today John is making the arrangements at the funeral home and he messaged me that being handed Marni’s death certificate was harder than sitting in the ICU with her. What do you say to someone giving you that news?

I can not imagine, nor do I want to.

I am rarely at a loss for words, and yet, I have no words that can help either of us in this situation.

John did ask me to help him write Marni’s obituary, being a journalist and all. I’m a bit rusty on the writing side of things but, to me, an obituary actually tells the story of a person’s life, and I want do my best to tell Marni’s story.

September 15, 2024

John had a memorial get together for his neighbours and Marni’s previous co-workers. It was a really good turnout and showed just how much Marni was loved. I don’t think she really understood how much people cared about her.

October 17, 2024

It’s John’s 59th birthday today and he’s getting a tattoo done to honour Marni and hopefully, help him start to heal. I went along to photograph and video it for him. I’m hoping to use it for a short video in my camera club’s year end competition as I don’t know what else to do with the footage.

November 11, 2024

Marni called John, Donkey, and he decided to get another tattoo to hear her voice when he looked at it. He once again had Dylan Brown at Bad & Bougie Studio do the tattoo for him. Dylan picked Eeyore as the donkey to use and John loved it.

November 20, 2024

John gave his notice at work today. I was more surprised it took him this long than the fact he actually did it. He had come to Alberta because Marni wanted to and he’s hated it from day one. I pointed out that I was the best thing in Alberta, but apparently 27 years of wanting to be somewhere else overrides my charms. Lol.

I find myself jealous of his escape, but not of the circumstances.

December 23, 2024

John stopped in the store today to buy a used camera for his upcoming trip and to show me the letter he received from the recipient of Marni’s lungs. It was a lovely, heartfelt letter and I skimmed through it because I could feel tears just below the surface and I didn’t want to get there and still have to work. He said he plans to write them back. He told me it had put him into the Christmas spirit because he sure wasn’t feeling it up to that point.

I’m glad it cheered him up a bit.
I know he’s gotten a plethora of invites for Christmas and I know he’s really not up for any of them.
He said he plans to be out looking to do some photography all by himself.

December 28, 2024

John worked his last day today.

It wasn’t all that busy a day so we visited a bit.

Our boss, Collin, had a post Christmas party at his house after work and he gave John a Pentax 110 camera kit that had come in on trade and John had coveted since he saw it. It was a nice little get together.

John plans to go visit Marni’s parents on Vancouver Island so he can put her ashes at the family cabin. He tells me he’ll be back to help me work the McBain booth at the outdoor show at the end of February and beginning of March but I’ll believe that when I see it.

January 1, 2025

As far as I know, John left for BC today. I was hoping to see him off but he just disappeared and hasn’t answered any messages so far today so I’m assuming he’s on the road.

February 28, 2025

I set up the booth for the Red Deer Sports and Outdoor Show all by myself as John hasn’t shown up yet. I called him to see where he’s at and he’s still in Nanaimo. The mountain road up to the cabin just opened up so the family is taking Marni’s ashes up there tomorrow. It’s no surprise that I’m working by myself as John isn’t exactly in the here and now with the rest of us. He wasn’t when he told me he’d come help me out either. I knew that, and I really didn’t expect to see him. At least Leighton, my Vortex rep, will be here tomorrow to help me out so I won’t work all three days by myself.

I hope the weather holds for John and the rest to get up to the cabin like they want to. He told me he plans on heading for Ontario soon and plans to stop by for a few days before heading all the way down there.

March 22, 2025

John popped into the store today while I was helping a customer so he literally, gave me a hug, then ran out the door to go help someone with their computer. He said he’d call me later to go over what’s wrong with my computer.

And, he did actually call and managed to fix my problem. We made a date for a morning walk at the dog park. Lol

March 23, 2025

No one else showed up so it was just John and I walking Noodle around the park for the first time in 5 months. I think she misses the park as we took a nice leisurely walk to make the loop around. We covered a few topics of conversation but of course, talk of Marni dominated for the most part. He had gotten a cremation tattoo done on Vancouver Island of a stag and it shimmered in places as Marni’s ashes reacted with the light hitting it.

John still isn’t dealing all that well and I can’t blame him, nor, can I really help him. Lack of finding a solution is what frustrates me the most. He’s leaving to visit family in Ontario in the morning and we agreed to meet for breakfast before he hits the road.

March 24, 2025

Well, no breakfast out as I never did hear from John before he left. Safe travels my brother.

May 14, 2025

My video, “Honouring Marni,” placed 2nd in the video category at the CAPS Spring Competition. I was glad it was well received but it looks like I edited out a bit of important dialog. I’ll have to re-edit that back in at some point. It was rough getting the video done. Between the subject matter and having a 3 minute limit, (it ran 11 minutes when I put the 1st draft together) it was about 10 hours of editing to get it done. And then I still screwed it up. Sigh.
John told me he liked it though and that’s all that really matters to me.

June 10, 2025

John’s latest post on Facebook shows he’s really not doing all that good these days.
It’s so frustrating being so far away and not being able to help him out. I’m not convinced there is anything I could do if he was here, but at least we could sit down together and talk. Not being able to help is just so hard to deal with.

June 29, 2025

I’m not sure if he’s getting better or not as John’s been pretty quiet lately, but he did share some casual portraits he took at It’s Your Festival. Taking photos of people is John’s happy place and I know he’s been struggling to get people to model for him. Hopefully, this gets him moving in some kind of direction. I know what feeling rudderless is like and it’s hard to watch someone else go through that.

July 5, 2025

I finally got around to getting the re-edit done on my video and got it uploaded to my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/95769ZLea4I (shameless plug) I’m glad it all makes sense now. John was really appreciative. He shared the link on his Facebook account. I’m hoping that’s a sign he’s starting to heal.

July 18, 2025

Today John posted a few portrait images he had taken recently to both Facebook and Instagram. He seemed pretty happy with them and happy about taking them. I don’t know if he’s starting to get back to “normal” as I’m pretty sure he’s still trying to find his normal. But I think it bodes well for him to be able to go forward with his life. He’s been spinning his wheels and drifting aimlessly by all accounts, so it would be fantastic for him, and all of us who worry about him, if he’s found a purpose to concentrate on.
John was never that guy to dwell on things; either good or bad. He just took what was thrown at him and dealt with it as it came. Seeing him like he’s been for the past 11 months has been hard. Really hard for me as I like to help people out with problems and he’s not actually here to keep an eye on and doing that long distance is a bit tough.

August 3, 2025

It was nice to see John post some photos of people at the street festival he was at in Hamilton, Ontario. If I had been there, I’m sure I would have done a better job. LOL. (I don’t really shoot people much and this is always the flack I get from him so I figured I’d turn it around.) I gave him props for getting out and using his camera.

August 9, 2025

In 15 days it will be a year since John lost Marni. Today, his grief is a giant boulder for him to carry and it’s heartbreaking to read his posts on social media. Its frustrating to offer support without being able to actually offer anything helpful.

August 21, 2025

I was hoping writing this down would act as a kind of journaling but I feel like it’s turning into more a repetitive ramble so I think I’ll publish it tomorrow and try to come up with another way to cope.

Marni’s life may have been a lot like dropping a pebble in a pond but I don’t think she could have ever imagined how deep or wide ranging the ripples resulting from her death would be.

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Working Away

I felt like I was barely home long enough to get the laundry from our anniversary getaway done and I was back on the road, heading to Pincher Creek on Thursday, May 22nd, for the Lightchasers Nature Photography Conferences. McBain has been a title sponsor since it started 4 years ago and this is will be my 3rd year working it.

The plan was for me to meet our Outings and Workshop coordinator, Jileane Harsch, and General Manager, Rene Rodrique, at the Pincher Creek Community Hall to set up our booth to be ready for go time Friday morning. They beat me there and had it pretty much done when I arrived, so we finished up and headed to the Heritage Inn Hotel & Convention Centre to check in to our rooms.

Check in was smooth and after a bit of a rest, we headed out for supper and found The Hut Café (Resto Bar & Patio). We enjoyed a good meal, then went in search of a photo or two before we had to retire for the night. Usually, we go for a drive in search of adventure but Rene and I decided it would be an early night so we walked downtown to see what we could find.

I didn’t feel overly inspired but driving days often go that way. Hopefully, tomorrow will offer up more things that catch my eye.

After a pretty decent sleep and the breakfast buffet at the hotel, it was time to get ready for the masses at the convention.

This year’s set up is the best one I’ve seen so far. The convention centre has plenty of room for attendees and us vendors with room to spare. This bodes well going forward.

The day zoomed by alternating between fantastic presenters and people coming to the booth to shop, lunch, repeat the morning’s order and suddenly, it was 5 o’clock. Time to pack up for the evening, relax for a bit, and then grab some supper. Tonight, the destination is the Twin Butte Country General Store for some fabulous Mexican food. Our Sigma rep, Danny Lee, met us there as he had never tried it. We were not disappointed.

We headed south and east for a change of pace and found some stuff that caught our eyes.

We were starting to lose our nice light as we headed back but manage to make 1 more stop.

I saw a couple of places that would have been nice to stop at but the light wasn’t favourable so perhaps another time.

With Rene, heading into Lethbridge to pick up stock from our store there, Jileane and I were free to avoid yet another hotel breakfast, so we decided to try Seeds. They are supplying the lunches for the convention and yesterday’s was pretty good. Their breakfast was pretty good as well and we headed to the hall to set up for today’s festivities.

It was another hectic day of taking and filling orders and listening to some pretty good presenters and seeing some outstanding photography.

Spookie_Bugz enjoyed it as well.

After a bit of rest time, Rene picked us up some pizza and wings for supper. We enjoyed it outside on a pretty sketchy picnic table at the hotel before joining Fujifilm at their breakout session – Limber Pine Ridge Sunset. I was pretty happy with this outing as I had borrowed a Fujifilm GFX-100SII medium format digital camera and a 45-100 f/4 lens from them and was looking for an opportunity to use it.

100 megapixel camera with a large sensor, I’ll probably hate it.

The downside of doing a sunset shoot on a ridge is it’s all up hill. It looks like a big hill but when you have a camera there’s lots of excuses to stop and take a photo and not look like it’s a rest stop.

Still had a lot of hill to climb, oh look, pretty yellow flowers.

Not at the top yet, but getting closer.

I finally made it to the top of the ridge. There are some pretty nice views to behold from up there.

I liked the character some of the trees had.

I found evidence other photographers were about.

I thought I’d try a couple of photos at opposite ends of my zoom lens.

The light was so nice and I photographed as many different angles as I could.

The light was still nice and as much as sunset probably would have been fantastic, we decided we didn’t want to walk down the hill in the dark so we said our goodbyes and started back down to the car.

I wish I could say that shooting with the Fuji sucked, but the weight wasn’t at all bad and I really, really liked the files. I’d have to sell all my Sony stuff to get one. Hmmmm.

One more long day tomorrow and the conferences will be over.

Jileane and I had breakfast in at the hotel with some of the reps and the boys from The Camera Store as Rene was once again heading to Lethbridge to restock us. Yesterday’s breakfast was way better.

We set up for the day and enjoyed more great speakers between spurts of being really busy.

And suddenly, it was all over and we were packing up. Shane Turgeon and his crew did a phenomenal job with the conferences. It looked like attendees got their monies worth and it sounds like most are planning on attending again next year.

We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and hit DQ for a quick supper before heading down to Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada. We saw a brown phase, black bear not far from the townsite but had no place to stop for a photo so we carried on our way towards Cameron Lake.

We didn’t get very far when Rene like the look of the landscape so we pulled over to see what was what.

I had my Zeiss Batis 135 f/2.8 lens on my camera as I got out to scope out some photos.

As I looked around I decided my 40mm lens is what I wanted to switch to. But, since Rene had locked the car and wandered up the hill and I wasn’t doing any climbing 2 days in a row, I set about to use what I got.

My 40mm is a lot better as a macro lens but I thought I’d try a few flower photos anyway.

I went back to the area Jileane and Rene went to to sit and wait for them. I manage to fit them both into a photo.

Because they were both down in the gully, they didn’t see the wildlife I could. Since I had my biggest lens on, it was a cinch to get a photo. Well. cinch is not exactly correct but I thought it made for a nice environmental portrait of the bighorn ram.

The ram had already laid down when Jileane and Rene came back so I don’t think they saw him.

We headed a bit further up the road to see what else we could find to photograph.

We decided it was time to head back to the hotel for the night so it wouldn’t be too late getting in.

I saw some moose and a couple of coyotes on the way back but it’s not like the lens I had would have done the job to photograph them so I never pointed them out. Some other places caught my eye to revisit at some point. Hopefully, I’ll remember some of them.

After we got all our stuff packed into the vehicles and checked out we decided to have breakfast together before we got on the road. I had liked the coffee at The Hut Café and wanted to try their breakfast. We all had a power bowl and it was pretty darn good.

I had decided I would take the scenic route home as I had never been to Lundbreck Falls Provincial Recreation Area in all my visits to the area.

It was a nice stop and I headed up highway 22. There was bridge construction in a few spots so I had a few delays along the way but since I wasn’t in any hurry, it was kind of nice.

As I drove along, I thought it ironic that as a photographer, I often capture images in fractions of a second, but I was really enjoying the scenery slowly changing as I drove.

Since I was on highway 22, I was really close to my happy place – Big Hill Springs Provincial Park. It makes for a convenient pit stop and since the park itself wasn’t very busy, a good excuse to photograph some waterfalls.

Feeling refreshed, it was time to make the final drive home. I got home around 5:20pm. It had been a long day and that had been my choice but it was nice to be home.

Lightchasers was a good experience and even though it make for some long day; not as long as attendees days if they chose to do the breakout sessions, it was a lot of fun. I get to meet new people, see familiar faces and see and hear some fantastic photographers. I’ll be up to go back next year if the powers that be deem it so.

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Until we Return

The arrival of morning of Monday, May 19th, 2025 meant it would be the day we headed home.

Mica Mountain Lodge & log cabins was a fabulous getaway but it really was time to go home. After we had breakfast, cleaned up and got our stuff packed away, I took a few photos of our home away from home for the past few days. It was small, but cozy and I think my laptop screen is bigger than the TV, not that we watched much of that.

We drove up to the house to say goodbye to Elke & Jürgen and for Lynda, the horses, before we hit the highway.

I planned on heading back the same way we came but was hoping highway 93a would be open so I could see if the payphone I knew of had survived the fire. The road was open from the north side but it was closed at the 15km mark so you still couldn’t drive down to Athabasca Falls.

I decided to drive down it a bit to look around.

The phone hadn’t survived.

I needed to dodge an old guy looking for the geocache listed there. I had my camera out and no interest in him but he still insisted on getting in my way.

We turned around and went back up the hill to get some overview photos. I noticed another payphone corpse and stopped to get a photo of it and the surrounding area.

The waterpipe snaking down the hillside was pretty obvious with no trees to hide in so I decided to incorporate it.

We went in search of a few more photos before we had to make the long drive home.

I never took any more photos in the next 5 or so hours it took us to get home. My last image feels a bit like a battlefield after an intense fight. I know fire is an important part of forest renewal, and I’m excited to be able to go back and check on the progress over the next few years. But, it does make me a bit sad seeing it in it’s current state.

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The Road to Jasper

It was another more cloud than sun day on Sunday, May 18th. We were going to check out the Jasper townsite and a bit of the surrounding area today.

Jasper is often our go to destination, but after the wildfire last year, we decided we’d stay somewhere else to keep out of the way. One of the first images we saw come out of the fire scene was the singed sign at Wicked Cup and a totally destroyed building behind it. Wicked Cup was our go to place for tea/coffee and breakfast as it was always good and the service was top notch so there was a level of sadness involved with a visit into Jasper.

I had planned to make a stop or two along the way and the first place I wanted to go was Rearguard Falls. We had stopped there in the fall back in 2023 and I wanted to see it in the spring. The parking lot was jammed full so we continued on our way.

Mount Robson was only partly peeking out of the clouds so we felt there was no point in stopping.

When we got to Overlander Falls, the parking lot was almost empty, so we pulled in there to check it out. Like the hike down to Rearguard Falls, it’s a pretty easy walk. It looks to be a bigger falls than Rearguard is.

We hung around for a bit listening to the roar of the water and were looking at leaving when we saw some kayakers pulling in to check out the route through the falls and rapids.

They obviously agreed on a plan of attack as they were soon heading down the falls.

Having made it safely down, they didn’t take all that long to regroup, shoot the rapids, and continue downriver.

Lynda liked this tree stump and wanted here photo take with it. I’m always happy to take photos of my bride as she never used to like me taking them. It never stopped me, but she didn’t like it.

The downside of walking down to see the falls, is it’s pretty much uphill all the way back to the truck. But, it wasn’t too strenuous a hike and soon we were back on our way into Jasper.

When we got to town, we drove around a bit to see what was gone and what was still standing. I felt a little sad remembering places that used to be, but knowing no one died in the fire helped put it into perspective.

We parked and wandered around a bit to find a new cafe so Lynda could have a good London Fog. We had heard Andromeda Coffee was pretty good, so we decided to check it out. And it was very good. We’ll have to try it again on our next visit.

We checked out more of the streets while on foot and decided to try someplace different for lunch and ended up at Estío Jasper. The place was hopping and we each decided on one of the grilled cheese sandwiches and sat out on the patio to enjoy the weather.

After enjoying our lunch, we decided we’d go over to check out the Pine Bungalows and Jasper Park Lodge areas to see how they had done.

Before we did that though, I got into the crazy lineup at the only gas station standing to top up my fuel. It is beyond ridiculous that in the 9 months since the fire, no re-construction of any building has commenced. Even crazier is the fact a 2nd gas station hasn’t opened, or that the town hasn’t been allowed to put in tanks with a cardlock to at least make it easier for tour buses to fuel up. I would hate to be stuck in the line up once full blown summer season is upon us. It would be entertaining as hell to sit and watch though.

I was in and out of the gas station quicker than expected and soon we were heading over to the Pine Bungalows. We had stayed there back in 2021 and liked it so we wanted to see if it survived the fire unscathed; it had.

We made our way over to the Jasper Park Lodge and there were a lot of burned trees on the way in but it looked to us that any damaged buildings were along the golf course and not in the main lodge area itself. The trees however, were crispy for as far as the eye could see.

We pulled into the Lake Annette parking lot and walked down to the lake.

There were a couple of scraggly looking cow elk hanging out near the lake and I don’t think she was all that happy to have her photo taken. I was a long ways away and had to crop this in to see the expression on her face.

We backtracked a bit and drove up the Maligne Lake Road to the Lookout. The fire made it a whole lot easier to see the valley from the lookout. For many years, you looked through the gaps in the trees to see anything.

Now that we could see through the forest, it was surprising to see how close Maligne Canyon is to the road and parking lot.

It was getting to be time to head back for supper so we didn’t drive very far up the road before we turned around to head to BC.

We hit some rain on and off on the drive and as we got close to the cabin, Lynda pointed out that the 1 cloud in the area looked like rain so we should go to town for supper. I really didn’t want to cook over the fire either so I wasn’t about to argue with her. (It didn’t appear to have rained when we got back.)

We went back to Caribou Grill to have a drink and dessert like we told the waiter we would.

We actually had a meal too but kept it small to make it possible to have dessert.

Lynda had seen an Icetini listed on their online menu but not the printed menu. When she asked about it, they told us it was coming off the menu as Ice Wine has getting more expensive, it soon wouldn’t be worth making, but they could make her one. It consists of ice wine, vodka and frozen grapes. When the bartender brought it over, she explained that was the very last ounce of ice wine in the place. Lynda really enjoyed it and when the waitress asked if she wanted another drink, she said; “No, because you can’t make me another one of these.” It made me smile.

We enjoyed our supper and shared the Caribou Coupé. It was as good as advertised but I didn’t take any photos of it.

We headed back to the cabin for our last night of vacation.

We didn’t even have a fire before bed, just a nice cup of tea.

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Venturing South

Saturday, May 17th, 2025 dawned as another day of mixed sun and cloud. Today is our son’s 25th birthday and hopefully, he isn’t too busy at his job as we are only half way through our getaway.

Today, we are heading south to check out Little Hell’s Gate on the North Thompson River. It is about a third of the way to Kamloops from the cabin. We’ve been to Hell’s Gate on the Fraser River a few times, but this is our first time exploring this area.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the goat path road down to the falls. A couple were leaving as we got there so we had the viewing platform all to ourselves.

While it’s not as impressive as the big Hell’s Gate, but it had a nice roar to the falls. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out the train that was heading up the valley though.

As we were leaving, we met a nice young couple from Germany who are exploring Canada in a van for 6 months. They’ve already visited quite a few countries in their young lives and were excited to spend so much time in Canada.

We headed back north to Blue River to grab lunch at Grizzly Food Shack. I’d seen it rated well in reviews and the menu looked good so we decided to check it out.

Wasp saved us a table while we waited for your food. Lunch was pretty tasty and I would go back again if I’m ever in the area.

We started heading back towards the cabin looking for photo opportunities along the way.

It wasn’t very far to River Safari and Lynda really wanted to check it out. It looked like an interesting excursion, I wasn’t willing to pony up the money they wanted for the tours. I told Lynda to save her pennies and bring me another time.

We continued up the highway towards Thunder River as the map showed a train bridge that is supposedly photogenic. The road on the map to it didn’t exist so we turned into Blue River Black Spruce Provincial Park.

The road that climbed the mountain from there looked interesting, but it was closed so we continued up the highway some more.

The little bridge on the road to Bone Creek Wilderness Retreat looked interesting so we drove down the road.

The view from the bridge was the best one along that road.

We continued up the highway and stopped in Valemount so I could take a photo of the Fire Station. I really liked the mural on the building and wanted to get a shot of it.

I had one more stop planned before we went to the cabin for the night. The Tete Jaune Spawning Grounds Recreation Site was just a minute or so from the cabin so we went to check it out.

We were getting hungry so we headed back to the cabin to buy some firewood so we could cook our flatbread pizzas we had brought. Lynda built the fire and looked after the cooking. I was okay with that as it gave me time to sit on the porch and relax. Holidays can be rough. Lol

The pizza was good, not pizza in Nice good, but it was a lot cozier then Nice.

After our meal and cleanup, I had time to look for some photo to take.

It was starting to get dark so we decided to head inside for a nice cup of tea before bed. Tomorrow we’ll head into Jasper.

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Happy 28th Anniversary

One of the downsides of having a nice cup of tea before bed is having you bladder wake you up early in the morning. Friday, May 16th, 2025 was no different in that respect. What I saw when I got up wasn’t usual though. I saw a whitetail doe nursing a small fawn in the field out in front of our cabin. I only had to go about 10 feet to grab my camera, but even with that, they were gone in the 10 seconds it took me to get the and get back to the window. So, no photos but at least I hadn’t woken Lynda up to show her. 4:00 am was a little too early to be up for the day so back to bed for at least a couple of hours before we go find something to do for our anniversary.

I managed to get some more sleep and got up to face the day at a more reasonable hour. After we cleaned up our breakfast dishes, we made ourselves lunch sandwiches for the road on the Booyah Bagels I had bought yesterday with this in mind. Booyah makes awesome bagels but they only do breakfast sandwiches and as great as those are, I like to have ham or pastrami on a bagel every once in a while.

We decided to drive west on Old Tete Jaune Road towards McBride. It looked like it would be a lot more scenic than taking the highway.

We had barely started when I spotted this old truck.

I liked the truck but couldn’t get an angle I really liked but thought maybe switching to black and white would help.

I liked it but it still wasn’t what I’d envisioned when I first saw the truck.

Onwards we go.

But not too far.

As we drove, Lynda said; “Bear”.

We turned around to have a look and when we pulled up to the spot, all we saw was the north end of a south bound grizzly bear booking it. So, no bear photos but it was cool to see. Not wanting to stress him/her further, we turned around to continue on our way.

It wasn’t long before we saw so white water so we stopped for a look.

It wasn’t a very spectacular location but the sound of the running water was soothing.

It was a short distance to the Shere Lake Recreation Site and we drove down that road to check it out. Luckily, there was no one around as it’s a 1 lane road through the bush to get down to the lake.

The water level was higher than the buoyancy level of the boardwalk so I never got down to the water’s edge.

We continued to Dunster.

There isn’t much in Dunster to see but one of the local gentleman asked me about my truck and I chatted with him while Lynda checked out the Dunster General Store.

The Dunster Station Museum is right across the road from the store so it was a very short walk to check it out. Unfortunately, it was closed so a couple of exterior photos is all I got.

We got back on the road and headed into McBride.

We cruised into McBride and took all of about 3 minutes to drive around town before we stopped at the Visitor Center in the old train station.

I came with the same warning sign back when Lynda and I started dating.

There is a bistro, art gallery and gift shop and a model railroad among other things in the visitor center. I never went into the bistro as we had brought our own lunch, but I did get a chance to check out the model railroad. It’s been a long time since I was around such stuff. I missed it for a minute or two.

We wandered back outside and found a place to sit and have some lunch before exploring the town.

We drove down main street and parked to walk around town.

The “Sarcasm. Now served daily” sign in the window at Welcome Home Cafe & Gifts hooked me right away and we wandered in to check it out. They had some interesting gifts and I got myself a few sarcasm related stickers. Lynda got a London Fog that she said was quite tasty and I got a really, really good blended raspberry lemonade. I’d go back just for another one of those.

I grabbed a photo of a couple of old cars in a yard before we headed down the highway back towards the cabin.

At one point, I had to slow down for a moose crossing the road. Not sure if my dash cam caught it or not but no photos of him either.

We had brought some flatbread pizzas to cook over the fire but decided neither of us wanted to cook over a fire today.

We headed into Valemount in search of food and decided that Caribou Grill looked pretty good. And we were not disappointed. The food was really good and the service was great. We really liked the look of the Caribou Coupé dessert but we were too full to have any and having ice cream in it, it wouldn’t travel very well, so we decided we had an excuse to come back.

We had a pretty good day to celebrate our anniversary and had and while there was no wildlife in the yard, it was a nice quiet evening to sit and relax and enjoy the peace and quiet.

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Anniversary getaway

I couldn’t afford to take Lynda on an exotic getaway for your 28th anniversary, so I picked someplace closer to home that we’d never stayed at. The cabins at The Mica Mountain Lodge in Tete Jaune Cache, BC, looked to be a nice quiet getaway.

We left Thursday, May 15th and headed west on highway 11. We stopped at Bighorn Service near Crescent Falls to top up the tank as I figured that would be the most inexpensive fuel I’d see for a while. At least it was a nice day for the fellow who locked his keys in the truck and was waiting for someone to come and let him in.

I love spring in the mountains as there are so many different shades of green as the trees are all budding at different rates and grasses are struggling to grow. It was a nice drive up the Icefield Parkway and the trees were looking pretty good for the most part. That is, until you get close to Athabasca Falls, then you start to see the destruction from last summer’s forest fire. The trees were burned on both sides of the highway and river right up to the top of the tree line. There were a few unburned pockets here and there but for the most part, it was total destruction. Highway 93a was closed from the Falls end so my plan to drive up that way were foiled.

There were clouds obscuring the top of Mount Robson, so we didn’t bother to stop like the last time we were in that neck of the woods. We continued on down to Valemount to go try the Valemount Bakery, formerly, The Swiss Bakery. But, like the last time we tried to visit, they were closed, for renovations this time. The owner came out and talked to us, explaining they were building an apartment above the shop so they wouldn’t have to commute so far to work. Maybe, third time will be the charm, so I guess we’ll have to go back again.

It was now time to check in to our cabin so we headed back north to get settled in. We rented the Pine Bungalow and it is a lovely little cabin. We got our stuff inside and sat on the covered porch for a while, just looking at the mountains in the distance.

We sat and had our lasagna we brought for supper before heading up to meet our host, Elke. She was pretty friendly and we chatted with her for a while before heading back to our cabin. She was going to come by and move her horses out of the pasture and up to their place in a bit so I took a couple of photos while we waited on her. My bride was pretty excited to see the horses. Me, not so much, but if it makes her happy…

I went for a quick walk in the trees to see if I could spot the deer we’d seen earlier. And I did, but I didn’t exactly have the proper lens on my camera to get a great photo of her so see if you can spot her in the picture. You can just see her belly if you look about dead center of the frame. She used the trees wisely.

Elke came by and we followed her to the field. The horses were both being brats and wouldn’t come see her when she called them, so she said no cookies for them and she went in to retrieve them. I took a couple of photos while I waited for her.

Neither horse looked all that happy to being led out of the field, but they were at least, going quietly.

Apparently, the little one is the trouble making ring leader.

Lynda was happy to pet the horses before they went on their way.

I had an idea for a photo I wanted to try with Lynda but I needed it to be a bit darker before I could try it so I grabbed a couple photos of the cabin area.

Finally, it was dark enough to try my idea. It didn’t work out the way I had hoped but it was still fun to try.

It was nice to have an eager participant, too bad what I had in my head and what I got didn’t jive. I’ll have to try a different approach next time. (Spoiler alert; we didn’t do a next time.)

After a bit of reading, it was time for bed. No solid plans are in place for tomorrow but long driving days seem to make me a lot more tired than they used to. I guess we’ll come up with a plan of attack in the morning.

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The hunt for snowy owls

Last Thursday I posted on Facebook that I had no photographic projects planned for the new year and I wasn’t feeling all that creative or interested in finding things to photograph. Within about 20 minutes, a fellow Central Alberta Photographic Society club member, Lori Gillan, messaged me to invite me along on a search for snowy owls on Sunday. I’ve been feeling way to much of “woe is me” lately and while recognizing that going outside is always a good place for me to start as a fight against depression, motivating myself to go outside has been difficult. So, I didn’t hesitate to agree to go.

Lori picked my up at 6:30 am and we drove to Penhold to meet up with Kim Mortimer and our driver, Terry Mah. I had no idea where we were going to go or what the plan was because, as far as I was concerned; “I was with the band.”

We headed east and south in search of owls, or adventure, whichever came first. We had a quick pitstop in Three Hills and Lori talked to a few locals to see if they knew of any owls in the area. She got some tips but none of them panned out for us. Maybe next time.

We thought we’d try our luck in the Beiseker area and we saw this building Lori liked so we stopped for a few shots.

I liked the close up photo of the building but I don’t like the power lines behind it and I’m not going to Photoshop them out. I liked the lines in the field and tried a lower angle to keep them from showing up. The tops of the fence posts still show but they aren’t as obvious at the wide angle end of the Tamron 150-500mm lens that I borrowed for the trip.

We saw another car driving slowly towards us and wondered if it was another photographer. Turned out to be another photographer from the club, Mel Bolin and her husband, Adam, out doing the same thing we were. Mel had spotted a Great Horned owl early in the day and we headed in that general direction to see if we had any luck. We didn’t.

We drove around for about an hour before we saw the cute carcass of a smiling barn with some interesting lighting behind it.

We drove a bit more and came across a cool, abandoned grain elevator.

Prevailing opinion seemed to be that a white elevator in snow was boring and it would be a good place to revisit after a change of season or two. While I didn’t disagree, I didn’t think the current conditions were boring at all. Granted, the flat light wasn’t doing me any favours in capturing details, but sometimes you just have to shoot for the conditions in front of you.

As I stood there trying to decide if I should check out the inside or not, I could see the sun hitting the hill in the background and guessed it would light up the elevator shortly.

Luckily, I was correct.

Details just popped once the sun hit it. I didn’t even have time to try a shot with a polarizer on to see if I could enhance it even more as the clouds moved in again in less than a minute.

Once the sun was gone, I moved closer to peek inside.

The floor looked solid enough go inside and explore, but I decided to err on the side of caution for a change, and not go inside.

I grabbed a few more shots as I headed towards the car.

Lori doesn’t like having shots of her butt being shown, but she keeps walking into the frame. I think she should be okay with this.

We headed out towards Drumheller and as it was lunch time, we decided to stop for a bite. The top rated place open on a Sunday was Happy Belly Grill & Bar. It was good and filling but they do use pressed and not fresh turkey in their clubhouse sandwich. I’m sure it would have been even better if they did, but it was very good and their fries were seasoned nicely.

We headed east to East Coulee to check out the East Coulee School Museum and the cool bus they have rotting away on the lawn. (Or in the snow as is the case currently.)

I took photos of the bus, knowing it would break my friend, Steve Parkin’s heart to see it in such a condition. My heart doesn’t care so it was easy to document it in it’s dilapidated condition.

East Coulee isn’t very big but I did find something else to photograph.

The other cool building wasn’t overly photogenic in the lighting conditions we were experiencing so we decided to drive to Dorothy as Terry had never been there.

Once we got to Dorothy, we were disappointed to see the roof was gone from the grain elevator and it wasn’t very photogenic itself. So, after a quick “spin” around town, we headed back towards Drumheller.

We drove north from Drumheller towards highway 9 and turned east to see what we could see. We didn’t find much so we headed north to go check out the Springwater School Museum. It’s a cool looking stone building that’s never locked. But, it was when we got there. A local came by to see what was going on and he was surprised it was locked up. It looked like someone had gone inside through a missing basement window and then opened a main floor window to get out. The window was too high to reach to close so the local fellow went off to see if he could find someone to open the door so they could close the window.

Selfie

It didn’t look like the visitor had damaged the inside.

We drove around for about an hour before we finally found a snowy owl. We saw a male high up on a power pole. We parked the car and walked slowly towards him to see if we could get a decent photo.

Even with a 500mm lens, he was pretty small in the frame. Luckily I have enough resolution to crop the image as, unsurprisingly, 1 pole away was as close as he let us get.

A really large crop of a male snowy owl.

Unlike Lori, he had no problem showing us his butt as he flew straight away from us.

Another really big crop.

As we spotted the owl, I had noticed how big the moon looked and knew I’d love to get a shot of it while we were there.

I wanted the whole row of bins with the moon in the frame but because I had to shoot them with a much wider angle, the moon was pretty small in the frame. So, I cheated and took a photograph of the moon at 500 mm and used my fairly rudimentary Photoshop skills and put it into the frame shot at 150 mm. I know there are people out there that wouldn’t tell you what they did and let you think it could be done as shown, but I’m not one of those people.

We decided that we’d try to get to Rowley before sunset to see if we could get a nice shot or two so we headed off to see if we could make it.

Technically, we did as we got there just after 4:30 pm and sunset wasn’t until 4:45 pm.

Machinery shadows on the side of the building.

We all ran around like headless chickens in different directions to grab as many photos as we could before the sun was gone.

The colour was fabulous but the light was going away quickly.

I liked how the sun shining in from the other side looked like a light on in the church.

With the sun dipping below the horizon, it was time to head in the direction of home.

We stopped in Trochu for fuel and a pit stop before heading to Penhold to get Lori’s car.

It was smooth sailing all the way and we all got our stuff out and thanked Terry for driving headed home.

I got home at around 7:00 pm. It had been a long day. My feet were cold, my hands were cold and I was tired and glad to be home, but I so enjoyed out outing. I saw my first snowy owl in 4 trips out over 3 years so that was successful. I saw some new places and photographed some new things and now have new places to re-visit in the future.

Thanks again for Lori inviting me along, Terry for driving and Kim for being there as well. I still have no clear plans for photography this year, but I’ll endeavour to get my ass out and about more often.