(Written on the 27th from notes taken previously)
We got going a lot later today than we did yesterday, which was fine, just… was.
Gratefully, the vent flap bandaid fix survived the night without any problems. 🥳 It was still super windy in the morning, though not as insane as last night.
This time, I bought the Kananaskis pass online, so we didn’t need to stop into the place.
We stopped off at one of the first recreation area parking lots to use the pit toilets and throw some trash away. We were going to empty Little John, but it seemed a bit too crowded for that. 😅
Or maybe that was yesterday, and I’m getting my days mixed up. I don’t think so, because my mom used the gas station bathroom yesterday morning.
Anyway… as we we continued along, the main trim panel that holds everything in the compartment above the front seats broke off, spilling some of the contents that were behind it down and onto the floor.
Apparently, Rover is getting a little tired of all the super jarring off-roading we’ve been doing.
😅
Anyway, we stopped at another recreation area parking lot, and I once again grabbed my drill, and re-screwed in the trim panel, this time in a different place.
Since it was daylight, and I had the drill out already, I took the time to drill a key-ring hole in the key that had broken a week or three ago.
Glad I brought my drill on the trip. It’s been a life saver. 🎉
One thing we noticed about today, it was the same scenery to start out with, but there was a lot less haze/must/fog/whatever, so the vistas were crisper.
We took more pictures, fewer, as we’d already seen a lot of it.
Interestingly, and a bit surprisingly, after we left the 40 to keep going south on highway 940, the terrain changed dramatically toward what you see on the Eastern side of US mountain ranges–lots of evergreen forested hills, but very dry with brown grass everywhere.
There were many fewer stops for pictures at that point, but still some.
We stopped in a place I’ll call beaver valley because it was a flat valley between the hills and was full of beaver dams.
We stopped to eat cold cereal there, finding an old log cabin down the hill and just above the beaver area.
We stopped at a trailhead that had a sort of backwoods shelter? It was right off the main dirt road, had pit toilets, a big sign about the area, a well pump with dirty, rusty water, and then that building that had nothing but big wood tables, a fireplace (i think?) and either rat or squirrel poop everywhere.
I also found a tent that someone had just… left there, partially set up in a great little spot by the river. It was damaged and had a baseball hat inside.
🤷
As we kept driving south toward Coleman, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of a bunch of birds/vultures/something (turned out to be crows), all gathered around something in the distance.
My first thought was that it must be a carcass, and if a carcass, maybe there would be some other predators there we could observe!
So i pulled over and very quietly, bear spray in hand, headed over to get a view of what all might be there.
Apparently, even though we were a could of hundred feet away, or more, that was enough to run the crows off–unless something else ran them off first. 😅
We went over there, and it was indeed a carcass, but… what?!?!
There was a massive stomach, like the size of two basketballs (or bigger?) full of what looked like just plant matter. But there was no head, no legs or feet. There was an enormous rib cage still there, and the fur was still there–long fur, like 2 to 3 inches long.
😶
The hide has been cleanly cut and not torn, so clearly it has been killed by a human, but what was it?!?!
The only thing I could think of was a bear.
What else would have fur that long and be so huge?
So I took pictures, called the ranger people to report a possible bear carcass (I’m thinking poaching?), gave them my GPS coordinates (thanks to my Starlink Internet connection), waited for an hour in the hopes the ranger would get there while we were there, and we could be there for the answer to the mystery of what it was and what happened.
The ranger didn’t come in the hour we planned to wait, so we headed south again, with not much in the way of beautiful vistas to see from there until Coleman, but we’d seen amazing things to that point.
We did some grocery shopping in Blairmore, the sky being basically dark by that point, so seeing Waterton are again in the daylight wasn’t an option for today anymore.
Nor were there decent camping options nearby.
😬
Tomorrow being Sunday, and my mom wanting to go to church, we found that there was a branch in the town of Bellevue, so I figured that might work.
So we drove over to Bellevue (not very far from where we already were and perfectly on the way to where we’d be going the next day anyway), found the church, didn’t see any signs telling us we couldn’t park there, picked a parking spot, and bed down for the night.
I did some JustAnswer today in the last leg of the drive and into Coleman, so that was good. I hadn’t since JustAnswer for… a long freaking time. Almost two weeks?
I don’t remember for sure.
Funny, I thought yesterday was going to be our last day in a Canada. And then I thought today certainly would be, and now we’re going to be here tomorrow as well. 😆
Grateful the last couple of days have been less stressful than before.
🎉
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 