Alexo

On Saturday July 17th, Margarit and I were out at the cottage.  My colleague Chris and my sister-in-law Natalia were out with us.  Later that evening Connie drove out to meet us.  She took the bus to Red Deer from Calgary after working Saturday afternoon.  There she picked up their car that Chris had left there when I picked him up.

The newlyweds Shawn and Lisa were out for a short honeymoon, staying at the Beehive Cabins in town.  They spent much of the weekend hanging around with us.  On Saturday we all went out for a ride on the ATV's and explored some of the trails above the townsite.  Later that evening we had a big barbecue back at the cabin.

On Sunday, Chris and I went out for another ATV ride.  The ladies stayed behind and checked out the Beehive Artisan Market in town, and later watched a movie.  The newlyweds went out for a drive on their own.

Chris and I took the Rail Trail from Nordegg east towards Rocky Mountain House.  It was rather wet and muddy following the recent rains.  Nothing was difficult in terms of getting through, but the Side-by-Side sure got dirty...!  Our first stop was at the old Alexo mine site.  There was once a town here, and a large underground coal mining operation.

The ATV trail mostly follows the old Canadian Northern Western rail line.  At Alexo a little of the old old track has been left in place.  There is an interpretive panel that describes the operation and has a photograph of the old tipple.  We found two of the footings from one of the tipple structures.  It was curious to see that the ever frugal mining companies threw all sorts of scrap iron... old rail wheels, etc., into the concrete as reinforcement.  We also found an old log beam on piles that matches up to the support for one of the outbuildings, as seen in the photo on the interpretive panel.

As we wandered about in the bush searching for any other evidence of the mine we came across a couple of fresh cougar tracks.  They were about 4 to 5 inches across, and very distinct in the soft mud.  No other sign of the cat itself and we suspect that these tracks were made the night before our visit.

The Alexo Cemetery is down in the woods just below the rail line and the tipple site.  A very peaceful setting on a slope overlooking Shunda Creek.  Some of the graves there were quite old, dating back to the mining days, while others were more recent.  There was a memorial for a young man that served in the Canadian military.  Some friends had left offerings of beer and liquor, and his dog tag hung on the memorial.  The was a wood box, split and broken open by the elements, that I once contained his ashes.  They were now washed out onto the ground... a fitting final resting place I suppose....