Another crappy week of work!

This week really sucked!


I drove out to the Crowsnest Pass.

I did a little tour of the Allison Creek Brood Trout Station which is at the base of Crowsnest Mountain.

Inside the Brood Station they raise thousands of Brook, Brown & Rainbow Trout every year, right from the egg to the brood stock, pretty amazing.

The wind blows all the time here, this past week the winds were 80 km/hr with gusts up to 100 km/hr, I guess that's why there's a wind generator on almost every 1/4 section of land.

Notice no snow in the fields!

Holy crap, snow!

Wow, some of the drifts are high, this one Volker Stevin used their snow blower on, the blower is mounted on the front of a huge front end loader, it has two reels and is taller than my truck.

Some mulies hopping the fence. Nice buck!

This is a cute little yearling elk that I had to shoot! It had a broken rear leg and couldn't get up.

Pincher Creek at dusk, this was taken looking southwest from Highway #3.

Just another crappy week at work, I sure miss the drunks and the domestics... NOT!!!

Brrrr!

It went from +12 last Monday down to -29 today and the forecast is calling for a high of +5 and rain for later in the week!

Because of the cold weather we spent most of the weekend indoors trying to stay warm.

I assisted John Clarke, F&W Officer from Blairmore, with a school presentation in Pincher Creek and a demo of his Karelian Bear Dogs.

We let the kids have a shot with a blow dart gun, we use these for tranqing bears & cougars at close range.

The KBD doing some tricks for the kindergarden class.

My truck full of dead ducks (~1,000), bound for the incinerator in Lethbridge.

Blair plowing snow at the farm with Uncle Brett's quad.

Its never too cold for a bike ride! (I wish!!!)

Helicopter Patrol

Today I returned to Pincher Creek for work and immediately hopped in a helicopter at the Blairmore Ranger Station and headed out to patrol the front ranges south of Highway #3 to Waterton National Park.

My ride; an Aerostar belonging to Great Slave Helicopter's, based out of the N.W.T.

My pilot, Ryan from Claresholm.

Looking across the top of the mountain down onto the prairie; that's Pincher Creek down there! Not much for snow left up here, a combination of wind and warm weather, we hit +12 on the weekend.

Prairie Bluff Mountain with the Livingston Range off in the distance.

A small glacier way up in a remote canyon.

There be sheep up there, believe it or not! We seen a few lone ewes with lambs, one herd of 6-8 ewes & lambs and one huge ram with a ewe. All were way up there, one was standing almost right on top of a mountain!

A herd of approximately 300 elk laying in a meadow in Waterton National Park. A few miles north of here, in the foothills we seen 4 huge bulls with a herd of 20 cows & calves, all inside the National Park.

Waterton National Park.

Turtle Mountain on the left and the aftermath of the slide of 1903. Crowsnest Pass & Highway #3 with Crowsnest Mountain in the background.

Coming into Blairmore over Powder Keg ski hill, Crowsnest Mountain in the distance.

I couldn't of asked for a better day to fly, it was so clear, which I have been yet to see since I've been here. My only complaint was the wind, it threw us around pretty good in some of the valleys, my stomach was telling me we were done after only an hour and a half! This is the way to do a patrol, my first time flying in the mountains, we covered areas that it will probably take me the rest of my career to see on the ground if ever.

Obtaining my goal!

Back in August, when I started my training at WCLEA in Hinton, I started a weight routine at the academy gym, which at first was just to get in shape to keep my back strong and in alignment as well as to deal with the boredom of being away from home.

They had us on a workout routine and began testing us once a month to track our progress. The testing consisted of max bench, max chinups, max situps & pushups in one minute, plus running goals. Being an old guy there I took upon myself to out do the young guys, more to set an example (that old guys can do it too) to them than anything else.

When I began my max bench was 205 pounds, 6 chinups, 56 pushups and 52 situps. With some coaching from my buddy Chuck, at the end of the 16-weeks of training and going to the gym faithfully at least 2-3 times a week, even when I was home in Medicine Hat, I achieved the following; 275 pound max bench, 10 chinups, 81 pushups & 56 situps and a 5 km run in 24 minutes.

My goal however was to get to over 300 pounds on my max bench but they didn't test us anymore after November, so I took it upon myself to reach this goal on my own. So yesterday Blair & I headed into the MHPS gym and I was ready to go for it!

Doing several reps of 225 pounds to warm up.

Hoo-Ya! There it is 315 pounds, one time, up & down!

Now that I've met my goal I can take it easy and let my shoulders heal up!!!

So now I've started Blair on his routine, he spent more time doing cardio than weights but he did manage to do several reps of 65 pounds on the flat bench!

New Crib!

Well I finally moved out of my office into my new temporary home, until we sell the acreage, buy a house in Pincher and move the family out.

This is the Lands Warehouse at Pincher Station, which is at the junction of Highway #3 & Highway #6 which goes south to Pincher Creek, 3 kilometers away.

Inside the warehouse is the new crib! A brand new 21 foot trailer that belongs to our Fisheries Branch.

Hey, is that a real bed?

Cozy but way better than a cot in the office.

Looking south from the compound at Pincher Station towards Pincher Creek with the mountains in the background.

This is our warehouse, that's my replacement truck parked out front, mine is in Calgary getting the electronics fixed in it.

The Provincial Building in downtown Pincher Creek, our office is on the second floor.

My office. My office!!! Its been 12 years since I had my own office!

My new dart gun which I will be using soon enough for tranqing bears.

Home for the Weekend!

Dad was home for the weekend, after only having to work 3 days.


Blair hiking on Bull's Head Creek.


Dad checking the ice.


Visitors from Tilley.

The igloo is slowly disintegrating with the warm weather.

The drifts are slowly shrinking but there is still a lot more snow here than in Pincher Creek.

Front Range Patrol

Today I was by myself in the office so I decided to venture out on a Front Range patrol to see if I could find where the sheep were hanging out, at the end of the day all I seen was one cow moose and tons of deer.

When I left town it was -7 and so foggy you couldn't see 50 feet. When I got up into the mountains it was a balmy +6 degrees and clear as a bell.

The Shell Complex from afar.

Patrolling the Shell Loop Road, that's Chief Mountain in the distance, which is down in Waterton National Park.

Looking Northeast towards Pincher Creek, you can see the fog hanging in the valley. In the foreground is a poplar tree, they are all like this up in the mountains, they are deformed from the constant winds.

Looking out to the East, towards the prairie.


Looking to the Northeast, I hiked up a hill in a clear cut to get this shot to show the variety of the landscape.

Looking to the Northwest, that's the Livingston Range on the right of the picture.

Mill Creek.

Pincher Creek is down there somewhere in that white, fluffy looking fog.

Bathing Lake.

Castle Special Management Area, only access is to hiking, biking and horsebacking.

Butcher Lake.

Lees Lake.