Cline River... Um... Coral Creek...

It is early in the season for camping, but we have a lot of hikes planned and frankly, the summer just isn't long enough.  With that in mind we hopped into the cars on Friday and drove south to the Kootenay Plains.  Most people don't know where that is, so I have been informing people that the nearest landmark is Nordegg.  Now, if you don't know where that is I must insist you use the Google to broaden your horizons on Albertan geography.

Anyways.  South we headed, and in an hour and a half we were where we needed to be.  It was pretty easy camping as we were the only ones there.  The campground owners let us set up near some tepees and a huge fire pit and we were good to go.

The Saloon at the Campground

It might be early in the season, but the sun is out long.  We had a huge stack of firewood and we set to it.  The April eve was setting in, but our blazing fire took the edge off the cold.  There was a barbecue there that we could have used to cool our supper, but let's be honest, it is so much more hardcore if you use a fire... especially if you are cooking steaks.  We set up a low fire, tossed my grill on top, and tossed our steaks on top of that.  I cracked out my new tools (non-plastic... yes yes, we are getting smarter...) and we began cooking.  It took the fire a few minutes to get roaring, but soon it was and it took only moments before we were feasting on Alberta's finest.

 

First Camping Trip of the Season

 

The Grill

  

Camping Steaks 

 Epic.

 

Ambiance

It was an early night for us as I had somehow convinced my fellow campers that we should be up and hiking nice and early.  The night was chill, though the bazillion Mexican blankets that I liberated from Mom and Dad's house certainly seemed to help... um... thanks Mom and Dad!

 

Tepee at Dawn

 

Hike Along Cline River

We were up early(ish) and we were on our way.  The plan for the day was to hike along Cline River.  The ultimate goal (and knowedly unreasonable) was to get to some native cliff drawings deep in the bush.  We found was looked like a reasonable starting point (it was a legitimate path) and we were on our way.

Cline River... Actually... Coral Creek...

   

Coral Canyon

   

The Wilderness

 

Break Time

 

Crevice

 And that's how it went.  We followed the path until we dead ended at a canyon, and then we doubled back and followed it again (up and over).  It took some time, but we made it over and down the other side so we eventually ended up beside the creek that had been flowing through the canyon.  The trail was somewhat treacherous with the snow and mud, but it was passable.

 

Leaving Coral Canyon

For the next few hours we just hiked along merrily.  My map told me that we should be near a bridge, but we didn't see anything.  Actually, we weren't sure how far we had gone, or how far we could go.  We kept going until our path seemed to disappear and we were more or less stuck.  No doubt the path continued under the snow, but it was wet, and muddy, and there was a very good chance that we were misplaced.  I say misplaced because we weren't really lost... we knew how to get back to where we came from, we just didn't happen to know where we were at present.  Actually, with my GPS I could tell you exactly where we were... it just so happened that my GPS doesn't have a map of the backcountry and yeah...

 

The Old Bridge

   

Coral Creek

 

Debris

 

Stuck in the Snow

 

Ice

 

Escape from the Snow

Anyways.  We took our lunch in the sun and headed back for home.  En route we saw two sets of bear prints (different bears), one set of hikers (who looked like they were in better shape than us), and a whole lot of beauty.

 

The Commode

 

Icicled

 

A Muddy Bear Print

It seemed like the way back was wayyyy longer than the way in, but we did make it.  At the trail head we came across a few more hikers who asked us where we had gone.  We didn't really have a satisfactory answer for them, but when they suggested that we had hiked along Coral Creek that seemed to make sense.  Looking at my map now that makes a lot of sense, and my camera's GPS has since confirmed it.

 

The Way Back

Exhausted, we hopped into the Jeep and made our way to base.  We passed a herd of sheep on the way, and then we were back at camp.  Thank G.

Sheeps

That afternoon was quiet.  So quiet that just about all of us planned to go for a nap.  We were in our tent, just starting to doze, when Chloe said to me "there's a dog outside."  I had heard something walking around there, actually it was his tail hitting our tent, but I was not concerned.  "So?" I replied.  "So," said she, "he's eating our food!"

Some may know that my body is in pretty rough shape and when it comes to athletic feats I leave something to desired... that said, I was out of the tent faster than lightning and was accosting the predator of our supplies.  What I saw before me was an enormous St. Bernard puppy.  He was mowing down on our garbage, but when he saw me coming he took a few steps back.  Our camp was quickly mobilizing, but this puppy wasn't fooling around.  We had our food out on the picnic table, since we didn't think it would be under attack, and this puppy moved in for another run.  There was a bag of peanuts sitting nearby and he went for it.  I went for it too, but with a quick snap of his jaws the peanuts were his and my hand had retreated for fear of being removed.

He ate the whole bag of peanuts.
And a loaf of bread.
And two hot dog buns.
And maybe half a steak that was in the garbage...
And who knows what else.

We got the food to safety, but we had a new friend.  This was a different circumstance than just a dog snatching some food, we could clearly see his ribs and it was very likely that this dog was starving.  We got him a bucket of water and I checked to see if he belonged to the campground owners (he didn't).  We continued about our day, but no napping was had.

We had a fire again, and we had some hot dogs, but at all times someone had to be en guard, for Bernerd (Bernerd, nor Bernard... and not this had nothing to do with his being a St. Bernard... this was like that time I looked at my car and I knew that it was a Jerusalem... well, this was a Bernerd) was always watching.

Hot dogs.  S'mores.  And a surprisingly early night.

Bernerd was still around in the morning, and now that he had found a supply of food he wasn't really planning on letting go.

Our other parties packed up and headed home early, but Chloe and I stuck around a while.  Mostly, I was very slow to get up because I seemed to have contracted the plague, which I still seem to have.  I was more or less a dead man walking, so I got to things slowly.  It was just us and Bernerd and though we were packing to go we had to do something with him.

He was starving.

 

Bernerd

I am a fan of nature, but more hearted people than I preferred to take a more active role.  With about a thousand phone calls and much deliberation it was determined that a shelter in Calgary/Airdrie would take Bernerd so he didn't have to stay wild and starving in the wilderness.

With that decided I used the grill and rope and whatever was handy to create a barricade in Chloe's car so that the back seat was safely segregated from the front.  I think it was Bernerd's first car ride because he didn't seem so keen on getting in, but with a few of that morning's sausages in the back seat his hesitations went the way of the dodo.

 

Leaving Camp feat. the Plague

I took one final look at, and photo of, the devious little (ironic little) guy and he was on his way.

The Big Little Guy

I drove home, got home, and died.

I remained dead yesterday, which marked the first time I have ever missed work due to sickness, and have only regained some semblance of consciousness and humanity today.  I still have the plague, but less of it.

And oh yes, and update on dear Bernerd.  He has been adopted.  The dog people think that he is a 10 month old, pure bred, St. Bernard.  He has been renamed George Goodruff and his new family has every intention of calling him Ruff.

See... sometimes there are happy endings...