Nordegg Days

We took two vehicles to Nordegg for the August long weekend as my oldest daughter Hailey brought along her friend Emily.  The two older girls rode with me in my truck, pulling our trailer as we headed out of the city on Friday evening, right after work.  I had to give away my tickets to the Eskimos football game so that we could get a head start on the weekend.

We arrived in Nordegg in the evening, before dark, and got the trailer backed up the driveway and setup.  The two girls pitched a tent in the trees at the edge of our construction site.  Margarit and the two younger girls rolled up a short time later.

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed into town for Nordegg days.  The big pancake breakfast was on at the firehall when we wandered up at around 8:20.  We had some breakfast and then wandered around for a while to check out some of the activities.  After breakfast we went back up to our lot.  We drove the girls out to the storage yard to pick up our ATV, which they drove back to the lot.  They spent a good part of the day, and a good part of the weekend driving around on the ATV.  It was busy for the long weekend and Nordegg days so I didn't allow them to cross the highway or head into town.  

It showered off an on through the afternoon and the girls got soaked a couple of times as they were out riding around.  We visited with our friends Shelley and Eric in the afternoon and then later headed back into town for more of the Nordegg days activities.  There was a BBQ going on at the community hall, and later in the evening a band was playing.  We hung around for a while before eventually heading back up to our place and getting an evening fire going.

On Sunday morning we slept in... a well needed catch up day.  In the afternoon the girls headed over to Fish Lake to go swimming.  I stayed behind at our property and finished up working on the "smoke house" that I had started building a few weeks ago.  Except for a door, it is now complete.  After that was done I threw my camera into the ATV and headed over to the historic miner's cemetery in town.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and very warm and I spent a pleasant couple of hours in the forested graveyard making a few photographs.

Later in the evening my youngest daughter Helena and took a ride over to Shunda Creek to try a little fishing.  I bought a fly rod a couple weeks ago and Margarit and I had headed over to the nearby creek to give it a try the evening before.  We saw lots of fish rising, and a couple hit at my fly, but we didn't catch anything.  On this evening Helena and I were back to try it again.  The trout weren't rising as much as they had been the night before but I did manage to catch a brook trout.  Unfortunately it was really just a minnow and I had to return to it the creek rather than bring it for the frying pan.

Later that evening we got another fire going and had a barbecue.  It was a very pleasant evening and we stayed up listening to music for quite a while.

By holiday Monday the subdivision had really cleared out and it was a lot quieter than it had been.  After another lazy morning and a big breakfast of bacon, hash browns and biscuits we finally got mobile again.  This day dawned cool and overcast and it never really warmed up above about +17C.  My middle daughter Annelise and I took a long ATV ride up to Eagle Peak.  We saw our first whiskeyjack of the year, a spruce grouse, and caught a quick glimpse of what I think was a marmot.  We were chilled from the ride at high altitude, almost in the clouds and when we got back to the lot we warmed up around the fire.  Later in the afternoon Shelley and Eric wanted to try going out for an ATV ride so Margarit joined us and I ran the ATV back up to Eagle Peak.  We didn't see any game this time, but stopped a number of times to admire many of the wildflowers.

By the time we got back to the lot it was mid afternoon and time to start packing up.  We had to return the ATV to the storage yard, and then put away everything into the trailer for the long drive home.  It was shortly after 6:00PM when we hit the road, and as a result it was a little after 9:00 when we rolled up in front of our house.

A very busy but refreshing and enjoyable long weekend...