Christmas Holidays

This Christmas I headed out of the city to spend my holidays up north.  The one constant on the long drive up was the phalanx of trees laden with hoarfrost.  As I drove further, the sun set and darkness settled over the crisp land.  The snow and hoarfrost, illuminated by my headlights, stood stark against the pitch-black.  A white wolf stood at the edge of the road and greeted me into the north.  It felt magical.  Perhaps it was just sentiments of Christmas Eve, but I haven't felt that kind of wonder or anticipation in a long time.

On the lookout tower at Lake Athapapuskow (Lake Athapap).

With no schedule and no "to do" list, I quickly lost track of time.  I had no cell reception and limited internet access which made it easier for me to simply "be".  I truly enjoyed spending time with friends and my family and enjoying the moments of the day.  Spending time up north and being surrounded by so much beauty was just what I needed to finished off this year.

~b~

Flin Flon July Long

I spent the long weekend in Flin Flon with friends.  I was both excited and anticipating adventure, and nervous and anxious, as I always am when I travel with other people for the first time.

I had a blast.

I don't think I stopped talking about Flin Flon for about the first 3 days back in Saskatoon.

When I got home I told everybody about how Flin Flon got its name.  Tom Creighton (Creighton, SK is adjacent to Flin Flon) found a book in the wilderness called The Sunless City.  The town was named after the main character of the book, Josiah Fintabbatey Flonatin.

Flin Flon is located on the Northern Shield and you can see the rocks everywhere.  The buildings are built on top and around rocks.  I even drove by one house that had built a bridge to walk from the street to the back door of the house.  The streets are hilly and curvy and really fun to drive on, I kept thinking how fun it would be to cordon off the streets and rally car around the city.  

The first thing you notice in Flin Flon the the tall tall stack, which, I found out is the tallest free standing structure in Western Canada, it stands at 825 feet (Calgary Tower stands at 626 feet).  It had closed down permanently about a week before I arrived.

One of the best surprises was The Orange Toad, a cute, trendy little coffee shop that is located downtown and also sells books.  The Trout Festival was on that day and we spent an afternoon watching live entertainment, walking around the main street and eating delicious Kettle Corn Popcorn.

We also fished.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous taking my son on a fishing trip.  The beauty of fishing is in its simplicity and requires patience and perseverance.  Fishing is where time can linger and you can fall back in love with the world around you.  Where you notice the cloudy sky and the wind kissing your face and where nature will meet you when you see glimpses of animals on the shoreline and the birds flying overhead.  Fishing is the excitement of getting that tug on your line and then your world instantly shifts into action.

Fishing is not playing COD and watching You Tube videos in a world that is not tangible, but rather digital.  I was worried that video games and the internet had ruined any appreciation my son would have of fishing and that he would be grumpy and rude and offend our gracious hosts.  The first day we went out, we came home with no fish, but it turns out he loved it!  So the next day, we arranged to go with the guys on some crazy adventure through the bush to get to a great fishing spot.

The trip in to get to the lake was epic, and definitely a great memory my son will have for a long time.  He and and Kent sat in the back trailer, which we called the coffin.  I was lucky to get a seat on the back of the quad and every joint wrenching bump we hit and every tree branch we dodged, I was thankful to be sitting behind one competent and crazy quad driver.  I definitely have a new appreciation for quads and the type of terrain that they can drive over.  Every now and then I would scream at my son to sit down, in fear that the coffin would tip over, but I did try to bite my tongue every now and then and let my boy be a man.

There is so much I could talk about, from the fantastic meals made by Chef Kent, to the day at the beach, or my very first drive-in movie ever, but this post would never get published.

So I will leave you with a picture that reminds me of the North:

Flin Flon.  I will miss the trees and the water and the great company, but definitely not the mosquitoes, horse flys or spruce beetles.

~b~

Good Memory . . .

This is one of my favorite pictures. For some reason, I had been thinking of this photograph and was starting to worry that I had lost it. But I found it last friday at work while I was searching for something else.

This photo was taken when my son was about 8. I can't believe how short his hair was back then! I had just bought my Volkswagon Jetta and needed to get away, so I took 5 weeks off of work, packed the car and headed off to the West Coast.

We headed to Vancouver Island, first stopping at Quailicum Beach where we flew a big black shark kite on the windy shores and spelunked the clautrophobic caverns of Horne Lake Caves.

Then it was off down the winding highway to Ucluelet. The fog from the ocean made everything damp and I remember shivering in the tent at night. It was here, at Ucluelet where the picture was taken, when we took a whale watching excursion and rode the open sea on a wild Zodiac.

My favorite part was camping at Long Beach which is part of Pacific Rim National Park. Everyday we would walk the path from our campsite to the beach and spend our time walking in the surf, finding driftwood and climbing the rocks which jutted out of the sand. We discovered slugs of monstrous proportions and at night I would fall asleep to the roar of the ocean waves, in the distance.

After the Island, we returned to Vancouver (because I just couldn't get enough of that city), and then I reluctantly started the trip back to Saskatoon. The trip lasted 21 days, and was one of my favorites. It was the first time I had driven through the mountains, and the first and second time I went to Vancouver.

~b~

Petroglyphs

As I was driving around southern Saskatchewan on Saturday I saw a sign for St. Victor Petreoglyphs and so I decided to stop and check it out.

These particular petroglyphs are located at the top of a cliff and are carved into the horizontal surface of the rock. I guess there were about 300 images or so, but I could find four or five.



Can you see this petroglyph? It's in the center, just below the lichen. I'd like to think this little guy is a reindeer, a cute little reindeer. But since we're in southern Saskatchewan it's probably just a plain old deer. Still. . . if this guy was on the front of a Christmas card, I'm sure he could pass off as a reindeer.




This one is much harder to see, its a image of a face (it's sideways) and is located on the left side of the photo, about a 1/3 way from the bottom. Beside the face it looks like there are petroglyphs of hoof prints, or something. I think the face is rather ghoulish and macabre, and I didn't particularly enjoy taking this picture, especially with the wind buffeting me around.

While the petroglyphs were pretty cool, the best part about the place was the fantastic view:

I passed many piles of stones and offerings while walking around and it gave the place such a sense of sacredness. As I sat at the top of the cliff, the sky opens up and seems endless, as did the landscape. The place seemed so ancient and timeless at the same time. I would have loved to stay longer, and would have, except the dog was pleading to go back to the car, and the incessant wind keep whipping my hair so it would lash against my cheeks and eyes.

~b~