Unfinished Business: Anything but boring

Thursday 11 August 2011

Anything but boring

We've spent the last two days on the road and it's been anything but boring. We take our time and stop off every time we see a bear, a lake, a waterfall, a glacier, a loo......

We're on our way to Montana and have stopped off for a couple of days at Waterton Lakes National Park.

The drive here was glorious. We travelled through mountains, foothills and plains on Highway 40, which is called the Cowboy Trail. All kinds of weather: blue skies, grey skies, white fluffy clouds and heavy black ones, sunshine, rain, thunder, lightening and hail. We saw a bear, mountain goats, long-horned sheep, deer, bison and nodding donkeys. Pics on the right and here.

We spent time at the Bar-U Ranch, which by good fortune someone had mentioned at breakfast this morning, and recommended it. I've written about it down the side bar as it's worthy of a special mention.

As we drove into Waterton village, we saw a bear. It was just 10 yards away. You're told not to get out of the car, but you do. Desperate for a good photo. When he suddenly stood up and looked at us, I nearly dropped my camera but Steve got this shot.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch

The Bar-U was Canada's first corporate ranch and is now a historic site. (As a by the way, in 1919 Prince Edward the abdicator visited it and loved it so much he bought the one next door).
It was quite a community, with some of the ranch hands out with the cattle living in wagons -which have now been restored and are on site - while at the ranch itself the other men were working in the smithy, fixing things, mulching the grain, harvesting hay - all kinds of agricultural stuff. And everything has now been preserved.
It was also the biggest breeder of Percheron horses. When we went into the stable, there were all the right horsey noises and smells, so imagine our surprise to see the horses were cardboard cut outs! Then we went into some other stables and, again, there were all the right horsey noises and smells and we thought, "Not going to be fooled again" and these ones were real!
There was a cookhouse where all the men ate, and upstairs a dormitory where they slept. There was even a post office on the ranch. Only the manager could have his wife with him, but fortunately there was a brothel nearby.
Everyone who works at the Bar-U now is so enthusiastic and full of it all, it really was a fascinating thing to do and some photos are here on a slideshow. I think you'll like them.

Medicine Lake

This is a weird one: it's a lake with holes in its bottom. So, rather like a bath when the plug's not quite in, in summer when the water run-off from the glaciers fills the lake more quickly than it can drain away, you get a deep, expansive lake. But in winter, when the run-off slows right down, the lake shrinks to a small stream. The water flows out through the holes into an underground cave system, re-emerging 10 miles downstream. In the 1950s people tried to plug the holes with sandbags, mattresses and bundles of magazines! So that's where all those council magazines went.

Glacier National Park

In 1850 there were about 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park. Now, thanks to global warming, there are only about 26 left, and it's reckoned they'll all be gone by 2030. Wonder if they'll have to change the name.
It's 1600 square miles with, essentially, one road running through it so lots of trails and tracks for walking and exploring. We did a great ride, just five of us. All these stables have different rules, regulations and attitudes. This one, you had to sign and initial pages of waivers, basically agreeing that riding is a dangerous and rugged sport and you understand that you might die. No cameras allowed, but if your horse stops to pee you should stand up in your stirrups and alert the wrangler to halt the ride by calling out "Potty break!" As you can imagine, Steve said very firmly that was something to which he could not agree.
We also had a boat trip on Lake Macdonald in a 1920s wooden boat in the most wonderful weather. The lake is ten miles long and 4 1/2 miles wide. It's all very big here.

Thursday 11 August 2011

Anything but boring

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