Day Trip to Nordegg

Last Sunday, Hailey and I took another day trip out to Nordegg.  Annelise wanted to stay home to study for an upcoming dance exam, and Margarit and Helena stayed home with her.  Hailey and I loaded up the ATV and took a spin out to Nordegg.  We left early enough that we arrived at our property just after lunch.  We off loaded the ATV and hit the trails.

After leaving the subdivision we crossed Highway 11 and took the Off-Highway vehicle trail into town.  Work is progressing on the new store being built in town.  I recently read in the Clearwater County newletter that the historic Bank of Commerce building had been declared a historic site and was to be restored.  I had photographed this building about three weeks ago, the last time we were in town.  This time around the building was jacked up onto beams, moved off it's original site, a new foundation poured, and it looked ready to move back on.  Nice to see things progressing so quickly.  I also noticed an old abandoned store at the edge of town that I had previously not been aware of and we paused there for a photograph with the view camera.

We headed up into the hills on the OHV trails.  This time there was no snow and we were able to travel much further than the last time we were up here.  The trail eventually met up with a fairly high grade road.  We followed the road around to the south and it eventually looped up and towards the northeast.  It ended at a large cleared site near the summit of Eagle Peak.  The view from up here was spectacular.  I later learned that there was once an oil well site up here.  It appears to have been recently removed as the site was all graded and the well was no where to be seen.  We followed the road all the way back down to the Industrial Park.  There was a gate and a sign at the base that indicated it belonged to Pengrowth Resources, but was open to Off Highway vehicles.  

We followed the Trunk Road from the Industrial Park back down to Highway 11 and then followed that back into town.  We stopped at the food truck in town and ordered a couple of burgers for a late lunch.  Then we drove back up to the water tanks above the town site.  There are three of them, one collapsed and abandoned, a second newer and apparently still in use, and a third brand new one.  Just down the slope from the tanks was an old building.  On first glance it looked like a house but I think it was some sort of pump house.  There was a small spring beside it that flowed with clear cold water.  There was also the remains of some wood cribbing of an old water well.  Water was trickling out from beneath the foundation of the building and inside were the remains of some vandalized old plumbing pipes.  Nearby was a new looking concrete pad with what appeared to be a well.  I'm guessing that this is perhaps the town water supply and that it is used to fill the new tank up the slope.

I couple more photographs with the view camera were in order before we continued on our way.

We headed back over to the property in the early evening and loaded the ATV back onto the trailer.  The lot to the east of ours now sports a "sold" sign, since our last visit.  It appears that all but one or two of the acerage properties on the uphill side of Tamarack Trail are now sold.  Lots of activity with sites being cleared and building construction projects getting underway.  There was some activity on the lot two doors to the west of us and Hailey and I walked over and introduced ourselves to our new neighbors, Rob and Brenda from Sylvan Lake.  They just bought their property at the beginning of 2017 and already have their septic tank and foundation in and are about to start construction of their cottage.
Nothing much has happened at our place in the last three weeks as we are still awaiting a bunch of paperwork before we can really get things underway.  We have our development permit in place but need to get a building permit.  That application is in, but is stalled waiting for some New Home Warranty documents.  We have chosen to opt out of the costly warranty program as we are acting as our own contractors and will closely monitor construction ourselves.  But even to opt out costs $750 and requires a annoying complicated application process followed by a lengthy bureaucratic review.  Tax dollars in action...!  Our fee payment, application forms and sworn affidavit have been in the hands of the bureacrats for over three weeks now and they just began to review our file two days ago.  Government and action are two words that do not belong in the same sentence and I'm becoming very frustrated at the glacial pace of this process.  I spoke with our contractor this week and weather permitting he hopes to have our septic tank, foundations, water storage cistern and temporary power panel in by around the end of the month so that framing can commence in July.  Fingers crossed...!

It was about 7:00PM before Hailey and I had the ATV tied down so that we could hit the road and just after 10:00PM before we got back to the city.  We dropped off the ATV and trailer at the shop and made it home by about 10:30,  A long day, with lots of driving, but very enjoyable.