Cameron Lake

On Sunday afternoon we continued on up the Akamina Parkway, and eventually ended up at Cameron Lake.  It was moderately busy in the park, with a number of people around.  Waterton is a close day trip for people that live in the Fort McLeod and Lethbridge area and it seemed quite a few were just out for the day.

Cameron Lake is at the end of the road.  It is in the extreme southwestern corner of Alberta.  The peak at the end of the lake, with the dusting of snow, is actually down in Montana.  The ridge on the right side of this image is actually the continental divide, and it separates Alberta from British Columbia.

I took a shot here with my view camera, and then we made our way back towards the townsite.

  

Akamina Parkway

Sunday September 27th was the first full day that Margarit and I spent in Waterton.  We were staying in a room up on the fifth floor of the historic Prince of Wales Hotel.  The hotel will celebrate it's centennial in 2027.  Our room faced Upper Waterton Lake, the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies.  The far end of the lake is actually across the international border in Glacier National Park, Montana.

We had a leisurely breakfast in the Royal Stewart Dining Lounge, and then set out for a day of exploring.  We took Margarit's little Toyota Tacoma on this trip, because the price of diesel fuel is out of control, and it costs almost a dollar a liter more than gasoline right now.  My truck, even though it gets really good mileage, would have been a lot more expensive to travel with.

The day dawned partly sunny, without too much wind, so after breakfast we set out exploring.  We decided to take a drive up the Akamina Parkway.  This 15km road follows Cameron Creek, all the way from the Waterton townsite to Cameron Lake.  Along the way there are a bunch of trailheads, as well as the first oil well drilled in western Canada.

Lightning started a large forest fire in the park in 2017 and it burnt three quarters of the trees in the park in a single day.  The evidence of the fire is everywhere.  We spent the early afternoon exploring a number of the burnt areas and taking a bunch of photographs.

October Image - 2026 David Thompson Country Calendar

This is the image I selected for the October page of my 2026 David Thompson Country calendar.  I took this photo a couple of years back, on a beautiful fall day.  Margarit and I had gone for a drive out into the west country, and made this stop along the Chungo Creek Road.  There was hardly anyone around and it was a beautiful clear fall day here at Washout Creek.

 

 

25th Anniversary Trip

I had it planned... back in June.  A surprise trip to Waterton, with a stay at the historic Prince of Wales Hotel.  We would dine at the Royal Stewart Dining Lounge, and have High Tea.  But then the rains came and our basement flooded and I not only had to postpone the trip, but I had to tell Margarit about it, so the element of surprise was gone.  But we did eventually manage to make the trip.

We left Edmonton on the morning of September 26th.  We had arranged to stop in Calgary on our way to Waterton, and have lunch with our friend Chris.  He was having a tough time dealing with his wife Connie's cancer diagnosis.  It had come back, for the third time, and this time it was inoperable.  

In the midst of having lunch with Chris and his son Will and his two grandkids Ivy and Zoey, Chris got a call from the hospital to get there as fast as he could.  I rushed Chris to hospital and Margarit stayed behind with Will and the kids to settle the bill and meet us later.  It turns our the restaurant comped the bill, which was really nice.

Connie was not doing well, she had a bad infection and her white blood cell count had dropped.  Her blood pressure was dangerously low at 50 over something.  She was not expected to make the night.  Margarit and Will made it a short time after Chris and I did.  We stayed for a while and got a chance to wave to Connie from the hall.  They were only allowing one family member in at a time to see her.

After a while, as more and more family began arriving, Margarit and I stepped aside and continued on our way to Waterton.  We got there well after dark and managed to check in.  We arrived just in time to order some food at lounge before the kitchen closed.

Over the next couple of days, as we enjoyed our anniversary trip, we learned that Connie had some blood transfusions and took a massive turn for the better.  She continued recovering over the following days and will probably be sent home for further recovery.  Her diagnosis has not changed, and the cancer is still there and still inoperable, but she now has a little more time. 

 

 

On the Mend

I have been down and out for about a week now, with a really bad cold.  I must say it is probably the worst one I have had in many years.  I've been sleeping 18 to 20 hours per day and seem to have finally begun to shake it off.  Margarit got it first, while we were away on our anniversary trip to Waterton.  She still has it and is fighting much the same as I have been.  I came down with it immediately after we got back.  It is a nasty one with chills, fever, body aches, headache and a bad cough.  Needless to say I have not been able to accomplish anything over this past week and have fallen way behind on my chores.  I haven't posted much of anything to my blog either.  Hopefully things begin to improve going forward.

October Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the October Page of my 2026 Fine Art Monochrome calendar.  This old service station is in the town of Coleville, Saskatchewan.  I took this photograph just shortly before Chris and I headed over to the Coleville Hotel for our Beer Parlour Project outing number BP26.0.

 

 

It Happened Again

The stop sign in East Coulee, beside the old Hotel, has said Don't "STOP" Believin' for years.  Now one of the other stop signs in town shares a similar message.

 

 

New Moon Folk Club - Season 11

On Friday September 18th Margarit and I attended the New Moon Folk Club.  This was the first concert of their 11th season, and it featured the Derina Harvey Band.  We saw Derina out at the Springfest in East Coulee a number of years ago, and really enjoyed it.  The band members are all from the East Coast, mostly Newfoundland, but have been living in Edmonton for many years.  Their music is very celtic based and they play a number of classic folk tunes from the maritimes.  It was an excellent show, one of the best we have seen, and we really enjoyed it.

I can't recall exactly how long Margarit have been members of the Club.  We have been purchasing season passes since before the pandemic.  So we haven't been involved in all 11 of the seasons, but certainly most of them.  There are twelve shows a year and it is a very affordable and enjoyable night out once or twice a month over their eight month season. 

 

 

Repairs Get Underway

The plumbing upgrades in our house, that were necessitated by the biblical rains in June and July, have been complete for some time.  Since then I have been trying to do some clean up and demolition while we await the settlement of our insurance claim. 

Last week we were able to settle the insurance claim.  The cost of the repairs far exceeded our coverage so we had no choice but to take a cash payout.  This allows me to buy all of the materials necessary for the repairs, and do the work myself.

On September 22nd I ordered all of the new flooring materials necessary for the repair.  This will be for the rumpus room, my office, the bar, the hallway and the bathroom.  We are just going to leave exposed concrete by the washer and dryer, but paint it.  I also picked up the floor paint.  We have also decided to install new flooring on the stairs.  They weren't damaged, but are pretty old and worn, and would look best if the matched the rest of the basement.

While this is going on, and everything on the inside is open, we are also getting a new cable run in for our TV and internet connections.

There is a crack in the concrete foundation that has been seeping into the walls for many years and contributing to the problem.  We only discovered it when the walls were opened up after this recent flooding.  I have the concrete patching materials necessary to deal with that as well.

So there will be lots of work coming up for me in the next little while.  As soon as the flooring materials arrive I will have to get started.  We need to get all of our stuff put away and organized before the onset of cold weather.  Some of it is in temporary storage, and this can't continue once it gets cold.

 

 

Winter Hockey 2026

The Renegades Hockey Team played their first game of the winter season on Wednesday September 16th at Argyll Arena.  We played against a new team, called the Wild.  Sadly we did not play very well and ended up on the short end of an 8-5 score.  We have mostly our regular guys returning to play this year, but a couple are away injured.  A few players, myself included, have stepped away from a full time role and are only playing part time this season.  We have three new players, so this was their first game with our team.  Hopefully this first outing helped us to blow off the rust of sitting around all summer and we start to do a little better.  I'm not playing in the next game, coming up on the weekend. 

The Vintage League that I belong to will also be starting up right away.  The first game of that season is coming up next week.  These are all guys aged 55+ and the games are really just organized shinny, with no scores or stats kept and no real competition.  The games are on weekday mornings, at the Kinsmen Twin Arena, not far from my house.  My time slot is on Tuesday mornings at 10:30AM.  I'm signed up to play full time, but with all my travels and commitments I will miss at least a quarter of the games. 

 

 

Monday in Drumheller

On Monday the morning of the 14th, when we got up it was cold and windy and threatening to rain.  Helena really wanted to get out for a hike, despite the shitty weather.  So I took her for a short walk up into the coulee near the Atlas Coal Mine.  There is a small wash that runs down beside the road and drains into the river near the bridge.  It was not very pleasant, and spitting rain the whole time we were there.

Margarit stayed behind at the shop with Hank and tidied up our stuff from the weekend.  Helena and I enjoyed the walk, but the weather made it less than ideal.  I took a spill on a slippery slope and bruised my elbow, and my ego.  Helena found a few cool rocks and a nice petrified oyster shell, so she was happy.  We saw some fresh racoon tracks in the mud beside the wash.

By mid day we packed up and hit the road for home.  We made a stop in Rosedale and visited the new museum, Wayne's Fossil World.  Then we stopped in Drumheller and picked up some fresh vegetables from the honor system produce stand.  We made a stop in the old part of downtown, and the girls wandered around and checked out some of the shops.  

I found a spot, a little sheltered from the wind, and set up my view camera.  I took a couple of photographs of the old historic Jim's Auto building, and the adjacent Waldorf and Alexandra Hotels.   After that we went for lunch at our favorite pizza place, Pizza249.

By this time it was getting to be mid afternoon.  So we hit the road for home, and made it back to the city by early evening.  It was a pretty decent badlands trip and we had fun, despite the less than ideal weather.

 

 

Sunday in the Badlands

The weather was alright on Sunday the 13th of September.  It was still cool, but there was a little sun, and we managed to get out for a while.  We struggled to find a good place to go hiking, and Helena was getting a little down. 

After driving around for a while we eventually stopped near the Bleriot Ferry and wandered around a little.  Helena perked up a lot when we found a small garter snake.  She has no fear of snakes and was very quick to pick it up.  In her younger days she would have demanded that we take it home as a pet, but she has now come to realize that wild animals are meant to remain wild.  So she played with it for a while, and eventually let it go.

My hiking quickly became very limited as my old hiking boots finally gave up.  The foam cushioning between the sole and the boot totally failed and was crumbling away.  This left the sole dangling, and made it impossible to walk.  Of course I had left my shoes back at the trailer in East Coulee.  I suppose I got my money's worth out of these boots as I know I had them since at least 2013 and they had many miles on them.  I wore them for numerous hikes in the mountains and badlands as well as down in Utah and on the Oregon coast.  These were my boots when I did the hike into The Wave in northern Arizona back in 2013.

Later in the evening we headed back to the trailer and had a BBQ with some burgers and salad.  As it got dark we got a fire going in the chiminea.  The firewood was all pretty wet from all the recent rain and we had to use the tiger torch to get it going.  This was a real flash back to the days of camping with the trailer when the girls were all much younger.  My brother in law Shawn bought that chiminea for me at a garage sale and we took it out to East Coulee, where it has remained for many years.  Hopefully when Shawn recovers more from his heart surgery he can come down and enjoy a fire with us... likely next year.

Frank and Chris came out to visit and we hung around for a while swapping lies, telling stories and enjoying a few cold ones.  Later, after they left, Margarit, Helena, Hank and I went out for a walk and were amazed at the clear skies and how visible all the stars were.  There are only a handful of streetlights in East Coulee, and not a lot of light pollution, so the milky way and all the stars were gloriously obvious.  Helena was just blown away by the spectacle.

 

 

Diesel Price

The price of diesel fuel hit the highest level I have ever seen in my life.  I had to put a little in my tank today to be able to keep running errands, but only bought a small amount.  I'm hoping that this price spike is short lived.  The provincial government is talking about eliminating the provincial road tax starting on October 1st, which will knock 13 cents off the price per litre.  Today I put in 50 bucks worth at the ridiculous price of $2.639 per liter.  The price was actually $2.669 but I got a discount of 3 cents for being an AMA member.  The premium diesel was crowding three bucks...  YIKES...!!

Today is also the birthday of my oldest daughter Hailey.  She has been living out at our place in Nordegg through most of the summer, and is spending her 24th birthday there.  We look forward to seeing her again soon...!

 

 

CANCELLED...!! BP48.0

It seems I was premature in my announcement about our upcoming Beer Parlour Project outing.  Team member Connie has taken a turn for the worse.  She was rushed into hospital last night and is in significant pain.  The doctors are conducting a bunch of tests to determine if this is resulting from the chemotherapy that was recently initiated, or if the cancer is getting worse.  Needless to say we will not be heading out to the hotel on Friday as originally planned.

Hopefully over the coming days and weeks there is some improvement and we can consider rescheduling this outing. 

The Beer Parlour Project has visited 47 separate hotels, plus made return visits to at least four or five others.  This is the first time that we have ever had to cancel.  Obviously it is for a very legitimate and serious reason, but we still felt bad about it.  We apologized profusely to the owners and assured them that we will do our best to re-schedule as quickly as we possibly can. 

Beer Parlour Project - BP48.0 - Longview

The Beer Parlour Project team will be visiting the Twin Cities Hotel in Longview, Alberta on Friday September 25th.  Any friends or followers that will be in the area on Friday are encouraged to stop by. 

This one will be a somewhat sad and somber occasion as our collaborator Connie has recently had her cancer come back.  She just started some chemotherapy treatments, and will not be able to join us for this outing.  Her husband Chris is determined to keep the project going, and will be out for the event.