Ah! Our first camping trip of the season is under our belt. We went to Waterton Lakes National park. A favourite of ours. Overall it was good. A rainy day on Monday caused us to pack it in early, but that gave us a day to relax yesterday before both going back to work.
I had Friday off and used it to prepare for the weekend. It was our first camping trip since going Paleo (and we're doing a "no sugar policy" for 21 days) I kept thinking that packing food could be a challenge. Turns out is wasn't at all, just a very different menu. We took bacon, eggs burgers and smokies from Big Bend, which is much better quality than what we used to take. Took way more vegetables and fruit which was a change. No more easy store bought potato salads and stuff. Also no more chips and junk food. Oh and Josh made a version of Laura bars - nuts, dates and other goodies blended up and cut into squares. Those were so yummy! We actually brought too much food! I remember constantly eating during camping trips but this time we ate two big meals a day and a snack when we were hiking or biking and we were good! Very different and crazy when I think about it.
We headed out early Saturday for our 4 hour drive. After Calgary the scenery is quite nice, especially when nearing the Pincher Creek area. This year Waterton was so much greener than May long last year. Again we saw a bear within five minutes of being in the park. Pretty close to the car this time! We got our spot at Crandall Lake campground and set up camp. We have a "new and improved" smaller tent this year. More Josh's style than mine. With much smaller sleeping mattresses that are ON THE GROUND! Ugh. Not my style at all. Josh also thought I packed way too much for the entire trip. I'm a car camper, and while I don't think I'm high maintenance he is very minimalist and would be happy to backpack into the bush with only one pack on his back. Anyway we did our set up and inevitably we got grumpy at each other while setting up. Always seems to happen. Good thing we are a get over it pretty quickly couple. We tried having a nap but just ended up laying down for awhile. Our neighbours were playing Aqua songs and it made us giggle. Why do others think that everyone else likes the music they play? A quick bike ride about the campground to the nearby river, supper and a fire. We were in bed before it was totally dark out! Sad. lol.
Sunday morning we went to town and perused the Outfitter store there. Learned that bear bangers are illegal in National parks. Will just have to be loud then to keep the bears away! We went to the other trailhead to hike up to Crandall lake. There is one by our campground but we did that one last year over quite a few parts of snow covered trail. This side was supposedly easy so we wore our Vibram shoes instead of hiking ones. Wasn't bad. Downside though was since you had to pay more attention to where you were stepping it wasn't always easy to look at the mountain scenery. The lake is a small one right up in the mountains. The trail ended in a tiny spot on the water's edge just big enough for a few people to stand. We headed back and around to the other side where there was more of a beach and camping area. VERY windy there. We checked out the hike-in camp sites there. I thought they were okay. Not much privacy between them. We saw a little path that we follwoed, thinking it would take us the rest of the way around the lake. It did for awhile but it seemed to run out and we were bushwacking for the last 20 min or so. We came out at the small spot where a family was eating lunch. We got some funny looks and I explained that there was a path when we started. They seemed a little less confused about what the hell we were doing.
We got back down just fine and drove the rest of they way up to Cameron lake. Boy was there snow there! They had plowed the parking lot and made a path to the lake area. At some points it was even over Josh's head! The lake was still snow covered and frozen. I didn't realize it was such a tourist attraction and it was pretty busy there with people taking pictures and stuff. Reminded me of Banff with all the foreign tourists. We found a fairly quiet spot and had some lunch of lara bars, berries, beef jery and coconut flakes. Yum. We went back down and spent a little time in town. Busy again so we got out of there as quick as we could.
I wish I had taken pictures of our meals. But the phones were put away and I didn't want to break the camping vibe. Turning off the electronics can be nice, and needed every once and awhile. We ate and enjoyed the fire while each of us read. We were able to stay up a bit later.
Oh I forgot about Josh finding a tick on my stomach!! Silly us we didn't check ourselves after all that bushwhacking. Especially since I found a tick in my hair last trip to Waterton. I had even changed some of my clothes and we happend to be in the tent when he saw it on me. It had just bitten and he got it off. Freaky!! Yuck! He thinks I probably got it from the wood pile when we stopped there for firewood. I cringe to think of it. What if we just happened to not be fooling around and ticking each other at that right time? Eep!
Monday morning we woke up after a night of heavy wind and it was drizzling rain a bit. We wanted to go for a bike ride but just weren't sure what the weather would do. We didn't want to just sit around camp tho either. So we said let's just do it and we went. We started up the mountain towards Red Rock Canyon. Was that a tough ride or what? There were a few points where I thought I could have jogged faster than I was peddling. We stopped only a couple times for a drink of water. Probably about half way up it started raining harder. When we got to the top it was pouring. Oddly enough I was still okay with it. Felt like a big accomplishment that we just peddled up a mountain!! We found a trail that went into the woods and took that for awhile. This time we felt like we were actually mountain biking. The trial wasn't too rocky, but it wasn't long before my legs would just no longer peddle. Josh went on for a bit and I headed back. Stopped a couple times to watch the rushing river in the canyon below. There aren't many things like being in the mountains. Hard to describe. He made it back after not too long, we had our snack and headed back down. And it really was down! By the end we were soaked but had fun! Josh got up to like 30 MPH by the end of the roadway! He went whizzing past me and beat me to the campground turn off. Into the tent to dry off and stay warm. Nap time too.
It didn't seem to want to quit raining so when there was a lull in the weather we made ourselves crawl out, had a cold lunch and packed up. We made record time I think. Teamwork at it's best! We headed to town for a coffee to go (didn't find anything good), but had ice cream instead. We found a kind called Screaming Brothers that was made from coconut milk, sweetened with honey and flavoured with natural extracts. We were pretty impressed, and it's made in Lethbridge by two young kids. And we didn't break our no sugar rule! (We had already determined honey was allowed. Josh got some from the Ponoka farmer's market and it is delish!!) We made it home before 10 pm but it felt like a long drive.
Tuesday we spent unpacking and putting things away. I hate that part. And there's the laundry to get done too. All and all it was a good trip, we were excited to get away to hike and use our new bikes. The bike rack we deciced to get worked well. And we bought an annual National Park pass. Made us feel special.
Can't remember what we planned next but I think the next big one in the river trip in July. Gonna float down the Red Deer River for 4 days. June should be busy with getting ready for the Relay for Life. Have had a lull in momentum since the garage sale so will have to get on it again and sell some raffle tickets!!
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