September 24, 2005

September 24, 2005

Banff, Alberta to Radium Hot Springs, B.C.

YEAR 2 DAY 99

 

Today was sunny, cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon.

This morning after showering, breakfast, morning chores, and preventive maintenance, I did some minor maintenance on the bedroom closet door latches. We prepared for departure, hitched up, drove over to the trailer dump station, dumped the holding tanks, refilled the fresh water, and left Tunnel Mountain campground. We drove north on TCH 1, then turned west on Hwy. 93. We crossed the border from Banff National Park in Alberta into Kootenay National Park in B.C.. Our first stop was the Ochre Beds / Paint Pots area. This is an area where cold mineral springs bubble up out of the ground into "paint pots", then streams flow out of the paint pots forming "ochre beds". The heavy concentration of minerals in the spring water turns the pools, streams, and all surrounding land various shades of yellow and red. The surrounding red earth used to be used by natives to make face paints, and more recently, was mined to produce paint pigments. We hiked the mile or so from the parking area in to the Ochre Beds and Paint Pots, not realizing that we would be walking through yellow and red stained, wet mud. Our shoe soles were stained. Bo was stained. I bathed his feet, legs, tummy, chest, neck, and chin in an icy cold stream near the parking area when we returned. He wasn't pleased to be bathed in ice cold water. When we returned to the truck, Joanne noticed something hanging down underneath the engine. I pulled it out, to discover that it was a piece of rubber moulding from underneath the hood, near the windshield. It had been improperly re-installed yesterday when the windshield was replaced. It sure is hard to find good help ! ! ! The moulding had a short section that was severely damaged from dragging underneath the truck, but since it seemed like a non-vital piece of the truck, I simply re-installed it as is. I guess it's supposed to seal the back of the hood, to keep rain out of the engine compartment, or reduce noise, or maybe just to cushion the hood when it's slammed shut.

We stopped for lunch at Olive Lake. After lunch we took a very short hike to see the lake, the brook trout visible in the crystal water, and the underground spring that bubbles up, feeding the lake. We stopped for the night at Mountain Shadows RV Resort in Radium Hot Springs. By thetime we arrived in late afternoon, the weather was lovely. We unhitched and set up, then walked around the campground a bit. Joanne went to do laundry while I downloaded and processed photos. I started today's journal entry before going outside to remove a propane tank for refilling, emptying my spare can of diesel into the truck so I can refill it with fresh diesel, and cleaning the ochre mud stains off my shoes. Cleaning them wasn't enough. I had to apply shoe dye.

Joanne was reading a local tourism magazine while doing laundry. She discovered 2 local RV parks selling titled lots. We'll check them out tomorrow in conjunction with going to soak in the hot springs. The laundry room had a high speed Internet connection at a reasonable fee, so I went online, retrieved e-mail, did some banking / bill paying, downloaded updated investment data, and updated my blog. There was also a paperback exchange bin in the laundry room, so I picked out 3 books that interested me, then went back to the trailer to get 3 books that I've already read to exchange. We both returned to the trailer to discover that Bo had eaten my pencil eraser. Stupid, bad dog !

I started a campfire, to have a wiener roast for supper. The spruce I picked up in Jasper National Park burns a lot better than the poplar I picked up at West Hawk Lake. Joanne was supposed to be inside preparing the rest of supper, and baking dessert while I got the campfire going, but I just went inside the trailer and she's on the phone to her sister. So I brought the laptop outside to the picnic table and am working on this beside the campfire. It’s a lovely evening, clear sky, sun setting, no wind, getting cool. After supper, we spent the rest of the evening sitting around the campfire, Bo on my lap, Teddy on Joanne's. It was a cold night.

DSK