Arriving here always brings a deep feeling of quiet and tranquility. There aren’t really words to describe the quiet beauty of this place. Even after being on vacation for a week, arriving here felt like being on a holiday from the outside world.
After unpacking, I went out to look for the “resident beasts”, Ogie and Canada the barn cats. I did some calling, but with no result. I worried – had anything happened since our visit in February? Before long, though, the familiar ginger tyrant came swaggering down the driveway from the barn. Ogie. I suppose he’d considered me for a while and then figured that since I knew his name, I must be okay.
WHAT A WONDERFUL EVENING!
Dinner was simple, but good. Beer butt chicken on the barbecue, corn on the cob, Caesar salad, dessert and wine.
The wine consumption carried on out to the hot tub. That hot tub is always wonderful – especially at night! The sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees all around us, the river running by, the stars, the moon. Ahhhh! 
After we came in from the hot tub, we sat in the dark, looking out the window at the sight before us – there was a ¾ moon playing hide and seek among the clouds, and when it came out, it 
reflected on the fast-running water of the river. Right then, out of over 5,500 songs on Bob’s iPod, Andy Williams began crooning “Moon River”. “Two drifters, off to see the world. There’s such a lot of world to see.” Old folks will remember this beautiful song. Young folks should click on the link and listen. Perfect at that instant. We couldn’t have scripted the moment more perfectly.The quality of the moon/river shot isn’t great. I took it from inside the house, against the window. But the thought is there.
GOOD MORNING!!!
When we stay at the ranch, I am eager to get out of bed in the morning and run to the window. The only other place I do that, Bob reminded me, is Orca View Cottage in Sooke. This morning I was treated to a flock of nine geese having a little rest in the sun down by the river. A walk along the river later revealed “evidence” that they visited here frequently.OGIE AND THE CHIPMUNK:
Cat drama. After breakfast, I spotted Ogie coming out of the high grass by some trees with something a little more substantial than a mouse in his mouth. I chose to ignore this. A 
little while passed until I noticed him lounging in the grass. “Good,” I thought “he’s done with the deed.” Not so. He was simply playing with it. The “it” was actually a little chipmunk. At one point, Ogie and the chipmunk stared each other down from opposite sides of the springy bucking horse thing. Of course, I went running out yelling at the cat. The chipmunk went running with the cat in full pursuit. It took a full half day of stalking, but Ogie did eventually bag his prey and I figured that we would be presented with the gift later (Ogie likes his good deeds to appear anonymous). I must say, though, that Ogie is a skilled hunter and when he has a task at hand, he is incredibly focused. Even calling his name and bribing him with belly rubs won’t distract him.
Next day ... the continuing saga of Ogie and the chipmunk. Turns out that the little fella wasn’t dead after all, that Ogie was simply “storing” it somewhere, or just releasing it … or it escaped yesterday. Because as I write this, the chipmunk is inside the tire that is the base for the bucking horse, and Ogie is stalking it. I give up. Maybe it’s a game that they’ve been playing for months.Postscript: After that second morning, I never did see that chipmunk again. R.I.P. little rodent.
DEER, DEAR!:
One evening, I went out for a little walk with Ogie up to the barn and the road and back. Approaching the house, I decided to go down to walk along the river. As I turned and began walking down the lawn, right ahead of me were three male deer. Absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, I scared them away, and besides, had no camera so no pictures. You’ll just have to believe me. Bob didn’t even get to see them. LWe did, however have a beautiful fully grown deer who visited the yard up near the barn pretty much every evening at around 7:30.
She’s lovely to watch. We were fascinated by how aware she was of everything around her – sights, sounds. Even the sound of the dishwasher changing cycles inside the house, some 400 feet from the barn, made her ears twitch and she would look toward the house and watch it for a while.
OUR "BIG DRIVE":
At Myown River Ranch, we’re never too eager to go anywhere or do anything, but some earlier research into back roads of Central Alberta mapped out a drive that we were interested in taking … one that would take us past the Ranch and deliver us back “home” at the end of it all.
We began the 120 km round trip from the point where Coal Camp Road (where the Ranch is) and Highway 27 meet, just west of Sundre. Although we’ve travelled Coal Camp Road many times, 
we paid closer attention to the landmarks along the way – like the old steam tractor that had been pulled from the bottom of the Red Deer River where it had been buried during the flood of 1915 – and the many beautiful places along the Red Deer River.
At an intersection, Coal Camp Road branched into Highway 734, a narrow, unpaved back road through some beautiful countryside. This road is so remote that, besides some logging trucks
and a few other vehicles, the only other traffic we encountered was a herd of cattle congregated on the road. Hey – it’s their property. We had to wait until they were darned good and ready to moooooo-ve.
We enjoyed some amazing views as we drove along – ranchland, a river confluence where McGee
Creek meets up with the Red Deer River, through forests that had been 
devastated by a fire that ravaged the area in 2001, and mountain peaks including the James Pass. We stopped by a river where the remnants of an old wooden bridge jutted from the river bank next to the new steel bridge that replaced it, and sparkling streams and wildflowers.
ANOTHER MORNING ...Because it is so quiet, you become very aware of sounds that in a busier place would be lost. Such was the sound, one morning, of a group of crows lined up on the fence right below our bedroom window having an animated, but orderly, conversation. They spoke in turn, and you could identify individual “voices”. But come on … it was 6 o’clock in the morning!! Bob had to go to the door and knock to discourage their meeting.
Too funny! But I understand now why a group of crows is referred to as a “murder” because, in my heart at that moment …
OUR "NEIGHBOURS" ACROSS THE RIVER:
Across the river from the Ranch is ranchland. Aside from the cowboy we met back in October, we’ve never seen a person there – just an ever-changing assortment of livestock who appear at different times through the day.
There are usually cattle, and quite frequently horses. This time, there was a herd (flock?) of sheep on a couple of occasions. The sheep are nice … okay to watch, though they don’t appear to be particularly bright or well organized. However, they do have a sheep-dog (looked to be a Great Pyranese) who was very well organized and was able to organize and motivate the sheep into moving in a cohesive way. I wished that I had a super-duper camera that could get a great shot of him.
SUMMER STORMS:
We began the 120 km round trip from the point where Coal Camp Road (where the Ranch is) and Highway 27 meet, just west of Sundre. Although we’ve travelled Coal Camp Road many times, 
we paid closer attention to the landmarks along the way – like the old steam tractor that had been pulled from the bottom of the Red Deer River where it had been buried during the flood of 1915 – and the many beautiful places along the Red Deer River.At an intersection, Coal Camp Road branched into Highway 734, a narrow, unpaved back road through some beautiful countryside. This road is so remote that, besides some logging trucks
and a few other vehicles, the only other traffic we encountered was a herd of cattle congregated on the road. Hey – it’s their property. We had to wait until they were darned good and ready to moooooo-ve.We enjoyed some amazing views as we drove along – ranchland, a river confluence where McGee
Creek meets up with the Red Deer River, through forests that had been 
devastated by a fire that ravaged the area in 2001, and mountain peaks including the James Pass. We stopped by a river where the remnants of an old wooden bridge jutted from the river bank next to the new steel bridge that replaced it, and sparkling streams and wildflowers.ANOTHER MORNING ...Because it is so quiet, you become very aware of sounds that in a busier place would be lost. Such was the sound, one morning, of a group of crows lined up on the fence right below our bedroom window having an animated, but orderly, conversation. They spoke in turn, and you could identify individual “voices”. But come on … it was 6 o’clock in the morning!! Bob had to go to the door and knock to discourage their meeting.
Too funny! But I understand now why a group of crows is referred to as a “murder” because, in my heart at that moment …
OUR "NEIGHBOURS" ACROSS THE RIVER:
Across the river from the Ranch is ranchland. Aside from the cowboy we met back in October, we’ve never seen a person there – just an ever-changing assortment of livestock who appear at different times through the day.There are usually cattle, and quite frequently horses. This time, there was a herd (flock?) of sheep on a couple of occasions. The sheep are nice … okay to watch, though they don’t appear to be particularly bright or well organized. However, they do have a sheep-dog (looked to be a Great Pyranese) who was very well organized and was able to organize and motivate the sheep into moving in a cohesive way. I wished that I had a super-duper camera that could get a great shot of him.
SUMMER STORMS:
Summer storms are an almost daily occurrence in Alberta, and even more dramatically in Central Alberta where sometimes the weather can become quite violent, so you are particularly aware of changes in the sky and the proximity/frequency of thunder and lightening.We were treated to some wonderful storms while we were there (happily not of an extreme violent nature).
YA HA TINDA RANCH:I can assure you that when Bob and I are at Myown River Ranch, we don’t do a lot of “big thinking”, so one of the burning questions" that we’ve had since beginning to go there is: "Where the heck are those honkin’ gigantic horse trailers going?" And by gigantic, I mean … half the size of a Greyhound Bus. And they are almost constant. There is a large guest ranch two kms down the road – Bar 75 – and we assumed that some went there, but what about the rest?
On our last day there, we took a drive to find the answer to this question … and to see a place that we’d wondered about before.
I had mentioned that on one day, we took that long drive that went one way on Highway 734. On this day, we went the other way. It wasn’t a particularly sunny day at that point, but not awful. The road at that point was a dirt road, but in fairly good shape. As we drove, the road became more narrow, “a little” bumpier, we began to climb … and then the rain started.
You know how sometimes you reach a point where it makes as much sense to keep going on to your destination as it does to turn around and never reach your destination? Well, we reached that point and made the decision to keep going. Remember – we are in a PT Cruiser, and we are driving over narrow, muddy roads that have been well-travelled by big trucks pulling big horse trailers, followed by RV’s. It was a challenge. We did, however, pass through some amazingly beautiful territory, especially as we got closer to Ya Ha Tinda Ranch. This area is right on the border of Banff National Park, and as you drive toward the Ranch, you are surrounded by the mountains, and it is incredible!
Finally, we reached our destination – Ya Ha Tinda Ranch! The Ranch is a working ranch that is Federally funded. This is where they train the horses that work in the National Park system. As we found out, it is also incredibly popular with people with a lot of money who like to go camping in the mountains with their horses. There were RVs the size of buses parked next to horse trailers of equal size. There was every imaginable configuration of RV / trailer that you can picture. There were horses!! And there was rain. Pouring rain. No pictures.
There are beautiful falls that you can hike to from there. It’s about a 30 minute hike in / 30 out. The rain kind of discouraged that, but someday, we’ll try it again. I think I need to train for it. The people who told us it was 30 minutes in were young and fit.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME:As always, it is a little painful to leave Myown River Ranch, we love it so much. We spent part of the morning putting it back in the perfect condition we found it in, and then began to say our good-byes …
… to the river,
... to the house,
… to the woods,
… to the cats.
We’ll miss you. We’ll be back as soon as we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment