When not working, we have been trying to get out of Calgary as much as possible. We have gone on several road trips already. It is nice to be at a different reference point – especially so near the mountains. Back in June, Calgary had an ultimate tournament in which we competed. We didn’t do very well but we sure had some good times.

Casual observers Amie ready to get out there
On the July 1st weekend, we got out of Calgary and did a great road trip in southern Alberta. We went to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Ft. Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, Writing on Stone Provincial Park (WOS), Kananaskis Country, and Crowsness pass. Some highlights of the trip included the wonderful hoodoos at WOS. WOS has great geology and indian paintings but one of the best parts is jumping into the milk river and floating back to the camping area. Next time we’ll bring our inflatable tubes.

In Crowsnest pass near the BC border, we went on a great hike up to a 1946 plane wreck. 7 people died in the crash and the plane wreckage is still littered all over a mountain valley. We spent the rest of our time camping in Kananaskis.

Amie with some plane wreckage Wind farm near Fort Macleod Amie on the Hoodoo The classic Steve Hepting pose Steve & Amie hiking in the Valley Steve with the tail section of the DC-3.

Wayne had some time off and came to go hiking with me (Steve) on the July 8th weekend. We headed down to Glacier National Park in Montana to do some hiking and to drive the highway to the sun. The views were spectacular. After that we scooted over to WOS Provincial Park (yes, again, because it was so good!)

Logan Pass Road to the Sun outlook Lake with Logan Pass in the Distance
Well, the last of the 4 roommates is getting married. Ryan Koop and Becky Jorgensen are getting married on August long weekend. Of course, such an occasion must include a wild-man bachelor prelude. With Saskatchewan’s north pretty much up in flames, our original plans were dashed and we decided to canoe from Oulook to Saskatoon.

Things went well the first day. There was a gentle current and there were many sand bars to get out and toss the disc around or play some volleyball. There were several cliffs along the way and we enjoyed some good cliff jumping. Camping on the sand dunes proved to be uncomfortable and mosquito infested.

One of the highlights of the trip occurred while we were joking around, cooking and having a happy ol’ time. What we didn’t notice was a huge wall of water and 100km winds coming towards us. We had sensed the rain so we put everything under the canoes and flipped them over. But this wall of water met us with sheer bewilderment. The winds pelted us at once, flipped over a canoe, sent a life-jacket flying down the sandbar, and left everything we had muddy and wet.

All and all we survived the 2 days and ended up only making it 3/4 of the way to the Berry Barn where we picked 6 pails of berries and ate at least 2 in the process. That went well until the Steve’s came down with severe Berry Belly (an uncomfortable ailment somewhere between a bad case of gut rot and pre-diarrhea).

Ready to embark near the Outlook “Skywalk” bridge A decent cliff Enjoying the nice sunset before resuming the bug battle After finding a perfectly good volley ball floating in the river, we erected a makeshift net

The biggest possible fire Great cliffs for running into the water Saskatoon Hands

We made it to the final day of Calgary Stampede after a weekend wedding marathon. We didn’t do a whole lot except catch the Third Day, Chris Tomlin, Starfield concert. But we for sure made sure we were going to blend in with the cow folk.

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