Monday, June 29, 2015

Cooking Lake/Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area Sunday Hike

Well since it was a lazy Sunday afternoon we decided to check out some nearby walking trails.  We drove to the Cooking Lake/Blackfoot Prov. Rec. Area not even 10 minutes from us.

This recreation area is used for horseback riding, X-country skiing, hiking, biking, and some trails are open to snow mobiles too.  Hunting as well with special permit.

http://www.albertaparks.ca/media/123481/blackfoot-summer-web-map.pdf

The temperature at the site said +32C so we made sure we had our water bottle along.  For once.  Usually we find ourselves in the middle of a long, hot hike without water.  We are learning :D


The one thing we did not count on though was the mosquitoes.  They were vicious kamikazes.  We had no chance at all at not getting bitten since we did not bring any repellent along.  Oops!  Mostly we walked really fast during our 4 km hike, but you know me, I just have to stop to take pictures.... so I got bitten a lot and Brian kept saying:  "come on, let's keep moving!"  Some of these pics are not as clear as I would have liked them to be, but it's hard to be slapping off the mosquitoes and taking pictures at the same time.

The wild strawberries are ready.... and very tasty too.  


I always just love seeing all the neat plants that grow up in this area of North America.  They survive -40C in the winter and put up with nearly +40C in the summer.  Amazing, really.










Nature's Fireworks








 Beavers hard at work creating a home for themselves.


We decided we needed to come back again.  It is a beautiful location to go for a hike and so close to our home.  The site we drove to was the Waskehegan Staging Area.  We are starting to tentatively plan a 50th birthday party for Brian this fall and thought this would be just the right location.  It has a picnic area with a cookhouse and toilets too.... and would perfectly reflect our love for this area to have our friends/family come and celebrate with us here.  We'll see.

Sunday, June 21, 2015