Weekend In Calgary

Mike's House Warming and New Years 2000

You know - it's not that crazy cold. I wouldn't want to be walking around without my jacket on, but properly attired it's not so bad. All six of us (Jer, Mike, Sean, Mark, Jesse and myself) piled into the white Impala and drove from the airport north towards Novatel. Mike's work place is a short trip from the airport and Mike parked his car (which brought back many memories) in the free parking lot. Unfortunately we couldn't get a tour, but it's a nice building!

We then drove to Mike's house. Mike lives in the North West of Calgary - roughly where 90th street would be. His new home is in a very modern, planned neighborhood on the outskirts of development. While small (a starter home), it easily accommodated his 6 guests (Eric arrived a few hours later) for our 5 day stay. The interior is painted white with oak trim (Jer and Mike did much of the painting).

Mike's Neighborhood is on the edge of the city - walk past the end of the block and you are in open field. I went out one morning (they have lovely long sunrises) and looked at the construction already under way. The division starts with 7 show homes (varying design layouts and facades), and the evidence of long term planning (play area's, street layouts) are around (if buried in snow.)

After a day of acclimatizing (and Mike getting over his cold) we (Jesse, Eric, Mike and Myself) went for a hike in Johnson Canyon - a very well developed trail in Banff National Park. The Drive from Calgary (along the 1A) was a scenic hour and a half as we watched the mountains come closer and then surround us. The hike itself was quite busy in spite of the cold weather.

The first thing that really jumped out at me was the trees - they aren't what you find on the West Coast. The second was the ice - again, not often found on the West Coast.. It seems there are two types of ice - slow flow and fast covers. Where water was seeping out of the ground, or perhaps the smallest of surface water, large cascading, sky blue ice sheets formed. Faster water such as in the stream would be bridged or covered over, but without a source of water, the ice would stop thickening. As we walked up to the upper falls we were quite surprised to find a group climbing the falls!

These aren't the river falls themselves - these are slow seeps that have covered the rock faces on the far side of the river. The river itself was still running fast and had only a thin layer of ice over it. We suspected that most of the climbers on the wall were on a British tour package but we didn't stop to ask - we continued walking up to the paint pots. After some carefully considered hiking (and watching the time) we decided to return short of our goal. And we wanted to be back for new years!

New years come and gone (owe my head!) on the last day of our trip we took a walk in Nose Hill Park in Calgary. This large park is on one of the rises in the North West of the city. There is a few patches of trees, but for the most part it is open field. The city is sometimes visible in the far distance, but for the most part, it's you, the grass, the wind and that snowball that Eric just threw!