(07/15/12) Back in the Car Again

We awoke to a drizzle which took turns with a downpour for hours. The hike I had hoped for, Crypt Lake, was not going to happen. We have no problem hiking in the rain, but this rain is cold and the wind is cold and while we have adequate layers and gear to manage, we don’t believe in taking the risk of the slippery trail, limited visibility, etc. George called it and I grumbling, agreed with him. This hike was very hard for me to let go of because every time I struggled with something, I pulled up a picture of the endpoint location on my computer or my phone and zoned out for a moment or two, re-centering myself. To let it go was to allow a life goal just slip through my fingers because of a little rain when it was so close. I know we made the right choice, as hard as it was to make. Watch these linked YouTube videos and tell me if you think it would still be at all fun if it were slick… 

(Side note: I just let George watch these two clips and he announced "I'm not doing that!")

(Side note #2: I had not mentioned specifically what the hike would entail)

(Side note #3: BTW, George does not like heights...)

 

So, what to do with the scrapped day? Kayak Cameron Lake? Nope, it’s raining, that would not be fun. Hike up to Elephant Back to look out over Upper Waterton Lake? Nope, we are basically fogged in and wouldn’t be able to see anything. George suggested we hook up the Joey, and start out of Waterton Park, head toward our next stop and cache along the way. So we drove. We made terrible progress – we stopped less than a minute into our journey to check out an outdoor gear store. After killing half an hour inside and drooling over the best quality, largest stock, and widest variety of outdoor clothing we’ve ever seen (including REI and Cabella’s), we found our way back to the car and started out again.

We passed so many farms! Neither of us had any idea that Canada had this much farmland, but we also didn’t pass a single school, gas station, town or anything of substance for more than an hour and half. Now that we are closer to Calgary (we can see the skyscrapers in the distance), the traffic has picked up and amenities are reappearing. And so is the roadwork… construction zones are the bane of our existence. We didn’t hit many coming across the continent (Ooh, like how I threw that in there?!?) so we’ve been lucky until now.

Tonight we stay at the Eagle Lake Campground to the east of Strathmore, Alberta, Canada.  Not sure how we will spend the evening, but I have a feeling some card games will be a part of it, as will the bag of Starburst candies we grabbed at a gas station.