beentouring's Guestbook

Sheep River
I loved our walk along the Sheep River loop that you so perfectly described.

The water continues to enchant. Such lovely shades. Your story about your "forced" march/walk reminded me of a movie I saw recently about a Canadian who went North to teach for one season to pay off student loans, and started a local lacrosse team. He jogged around town for exercise, completely confusing the residents, who kept offering him rides on their snowmobiles.

One of the advantages of a small group and a resourceful guide: the ability to adapt on the ground. Such a beautiful spot - the colour of the water is amazing. The combination of (what I think of as) desert plants and seaside ones is fascinating. That business of the low-rise buildings and the view of the cathedral - a happy accident or deliberate city planning?

Douglas Fir
There are -- or were -- Douglas Fir somewhere along there. I don't know Calgary's NW very well, but the late Gus Yaki led botany walks along the Bow River south shore and in the vicinity of the current Stony Trail Bridge construction (before that got all torn up) he pointed out Douglas Fir trees. I sure hope the trees weren't lost to construction. An easy way to ID Douglas Fir is by their distinctive cones, which you can find on the ground nearby. There is a story attributed to First Nations (google Douglas Fir mouse story) that the Douglas Fir offered forest mice shelter during a terrible fire, and so to this day you can see little mouse butts and tails sticking out from beneath the scales on their cones. : )