Wednesday, June 12, 2024

June 11-12 – Fenland Trail and Shopping to Move

When I plan a trip and decide how long I want to stay at each place I determine all the things I want to do and then add a day or two for bad weather.Well so far we have not had any bad weather so I am down to my C list of activities.

Yesterday, while not exactly C list, we got the bike out in the morning. We currently don’t have a way to carry it on the car so I brought it hoping we could go from our campground. Unfortunately this campground is high up on a long steep hill from town and everything else. We haven’t actually used our tandem in many years so to get back into it we just rode around this admittedly very large campground. That convinced us that we did not want to tackle the hill.

In the afternoon we walked the 2 km interpretive Fenland Trail.

The parking area I used is also marked to be used for people wanting a picture with the large BANFF sign. There always seems to be a line of people waiting.

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The trail just loops around the fen, which is a watery marsh area. There is a pamphlet that give a description of the natural area at each of the sign posts on the trail 

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We did learn one thing. We have wondered why the bottom of a lot of poplar trees seemed all scratched and roughed up compared to the rest of the tree. It is because the elk like to use these trees to rub off their antlers.

We actually didn’t see much of the fen and I forgot to take a picture. Mostly it was a walk through the tall trees and along a river.

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Jennie is always watching for the tiny flowers.

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The woodpecker started going at it on a tree right next to the trail and was completely unbothered when I got close to take its picture.

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Next we did the short drive along Vermillion Lakes Drive. It is a picturesque road next to several lakes that have the high mountains in the background.

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UP to now it been mostly sunny but the sky was getting darker.

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A photosphere.

As we drove home we got a few drops on the windshield. About 1/2 hour after we were safely inside the RV a rather intense and very windy thunderstorm went by.

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Then it was back to bright sunshine before another one went by at around 9 pm. Touch wood our weather luck has held out.

It may have run out though. We are moving to Lake Louise and the forecast is calling for a lot of days with at least some rain and even the possibility of SNOW!

Today was mainly a stock up for the move day.

But first we went back to the Cascade of Time Garden to see what was new since we were there earlier.They had done a lot of planting with a few things now in bloom.

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The last time we had seen one poppy in bloom, now there were everywhere.

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We think is a double poppy because the leaves looked right but the flower was very dense.

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Afterwards it was off to the weekly farmer’s market and IGA. Jennie even found a Dollarama.

Tomorrow we move to Lake Louise. Checkout here is at 11 am and check-in there is at 2 pm. It is only about an hours drive so we will probably spend the extra time sitting at one of the roadside lookouts.

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