Unfinished Business: Let's get physical

Saturday 6 August 2011

Let's get physical

Top day, today. Started with a fabulous ride, which was through pinelodge trees and aspens, along the ridge overlooking Lake Annette and Lake Edith. Responsive horses. Great to be back in the saddle again.

But the highlight of the day, and indeed the highlight of everything so far, was an amazing walk - whoops no, a hike - that we did to the ice cave underneath the Angel Glacier at Mount Edith Cavell. I have done a bit of a timeline down the right hand column and I make no excuses for more photos than usual in this album. It was absolutely stunning and unlike

anything I've ever seen or experienced before.

Still one more thing we wanted to do, which was visit the Maligne Canyon. We walked down a steep path which took us into the narrow, deep canyon created from water which comes from Maligne Lake and Medicine Lake (the one with the leaky bottom!).

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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.

Saturday 6 August 2011

Let's get physical

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