Canmore

I returned from the bush this week to our new place in Canmore. My time in the bush was marked by fewer bear encounters. I still had a few bears follow me around for uncomfortable lengths of time. The lack of bears was certainly made up for by a surplus of blackflies, and noseeums. I spent about a month camped in a marshland know as Musqua (see pic below.) From 5:30 AM until noonish, the bugs were pretty unreal necessitating appropriate attire around the head. In the picture is my black fly battle dress whose main purpose is to keep them from biting ears and eyes, and also to keep them out of my mouth. Its about as important as footwear in this part of the world.

By afternoon, the sun draws moisture up into massive cumulus clouds with accompanying winds to keep the bugs at bay until 7PM when the noseeums come out. You can tell when they're out because you look at yourself and realize there are hundreds of them crawling on you and then suddenly you realize you've been bitten several dozen times and they are starting to itch like crazy. Going into your tent at night involves rubbing your clothes vigorously all over to kill the nearly invisible gnats before you bring them into your tent and destroy any chance of sleep.

As you can see, I brought a camera with me to the bush this year, an unusual thing for me. I have a few pictures posted elsewhere but yet to post them in my public galleries. My emblematic short music video made from my hand-held still camera is posted at youtube . My days are pretty long and I carry plenty with me all day: food, warm clothes, rain gear, 4L of water plus all my work related gear. Because of this, even a little camera feels like extra weight I don't need so I only brought it with me a couple times. In spite of that I still caught a few interesting moments.



Usually, returning back to the city is a harsh transition. Canmore is a pretty gentle adjustment though. Looking out the window right now I have an uninterrupted panorama of trees and mountains.

At left is a shot I took of our place from the slopes of Mt Lady MacDonald. Our place backs right onto the mountains. Below is a collage of the inside of our kitchen/ front room. Its not as cubist as the picture hints at. Perhaps our favorite feature apart from where it is, is our first spare room. We now hope to lure friends over with mountain adventures and a proper place to crash.


















Enjoying gin and tonics on the deck