Friday September 12, 2008 5:00 am Lethbridge

It is +13 C with a high forecast of +25 C. Sunrise 7:03 Sunset 19:51 Hours of daylight: 12:48.
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This page last updated on: Saturday, September 13, 2008 10:22 AM

A. Morning Musings

I am up early this morning. I have been sleeping in lately but I prefer getting up at this time.

We are "planning" a day trip for today. This is largely a result of reading a book "Country Roads of Alberta" by Liz Bryan that I bought during our last visit to Edmonton a couple of weeks ago. She provides an excellent map for each trip that she describes, and she describes each trip very well. Equally impressive are her photographs. They are stunning, with a beautiful combination of fall color and early morning and late afternoon light. We are going to try following her route called "Tracking the Mounties to Police Outpost" (p. 118 - 125).

Bryan

I addition to the suggestions she makes for sights (sites?) to see, I am going to try to add a few of my own details. This will include using my GPS unit to give the coordinates for the various locations where we stop, my own photos at each of these locations, and my own commentary. We will have a genealogical aspect as well, noting cemeteries and church locations. Restaurants and coffee shops, at least those we visit, will be there as well. We will have our binoculars along in the hopes of seeing a few birds.

This trip does not include the points of interest in Pincher Creek, the Oldman River Dam, the Crowsnest River and Lundbrek Falls, nor points of interest along highway 3. That is for another day. It also does not include Waterton National Park. One can only do so much in one day. The forecast is for sun in the morning but clouding over in the afternoon. We shall see. Of all the points mentioned by Bryan, I have only seen Twin Butte (but never stopped there) and Mountain View (I have been in the general store). We have visited the Remington Carriage Museum, the Mormon temple and have eaten at the Cobblestone manor in Cardston. I am looking forward to this venture and hope to have a few photos at the end of the day.

Technology is now an important component of (almost) any trip. Binoculars - check, camera - check, tripod - check, telephoto lens - check, camera battery fully charged - check, Garmin GPS - check, Garmin fully charged - check, Garmin cable to charge battery while in car - check, cell phone - check, cell phone fully charged - check, gas in truck - check. Gone are the days of running shoes and a peanut butter sandwich. Oh, yes, the Bryan book - check, notepad - check, pen - check. I am not including any information on geocaches. That too, will be another trip. Today the focus will be on scenery, photography, good food and not getting lost. Birds will be the bonus item.

Now to sit back with a fresh cuppa and read a little Rushdie.

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Literature	Continue reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie	1 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

7:30 PM

Here is a table, based on the sites that Bryan mentions. I have filled in the cells based on the notes I took at the time.

Time	Name	Coordinates	Comments
7:55 am	Lethbridge
9:00	Pincher Creek	N 49 29.861 W 113 56.818	breakfast
10:00	Halifax School	N 49 27.105 W 113 43.440	good condition
10:30	Fishburn United Church	N 49 22.698 W 113 42.082	excellent shape
11:40	Utopia School	N 49 20.927 W 113 42.738	abandoned
12:15	Twin Butte	N 49 16.248 W113.51.499	lunch
1:45 PM	Payne Lake Recreation Area
2:15	Outpost Wetlands Natural Area	N 49 00.437 W 113 28.486
2:40	Police Outpost Provincial Park	N 49 00.437 W 113 27.953
3:15	St. Stephen Church	N 49 05.624 W 113 23.134	excellent shape
4:30	Cardston
5:30	Lethbridge

I have copied and pasted the coordinates into Google Earth and it zoomed in on each of the sites! I then clicked on the button that gives Google Maps and viewed a much better image that identified the roads. With a little bit of zooming in and out I have been able to retrace our route from one site to the next. The technology is cool, but a simple paper road map is much easier and quicker!

We arrived back in Lethbridge at about 5:30 PM. It was a full day, with many photos and a few surprises. Overall, it was a grand trip. We found all of the spots that were identified in the book, although the map in the Bryan book had the Halifax school marked in the wrong location and gave the wrong address for the Fishburn school. We had a good Mexican meal at the Twin Butte cafe and finally saw Police Outpost Provincial Park. The campground there has a good number of large campsites but there would be very little to see or do unless one liked to fish in the small lake. We also did cemetery recordings at two small rural churches (Fishburn United Church and St. Stephen Church). We did see some birds, both small ones (sparrows) and large ones (hawks). The highlights were the two churches, both of which were still in excellent condition, and the rolling hills between Police Outpost and Cardston.

Here are a few photos:


wind farm near Brocket	wind farm near Cowley

Halifax school	school window

After some additional suggestions from a couple of locals we managed to find Fishburn United Church.


Fishburn United church	cemetery

view through window	end of the power line

We had no difficulty finding the abandoned Utopia school.

We had lunch at Twin Butte:

Then we drove south to the Payne Lake recreation area and then over to Police Outpost.

Our final stop was at St. Stephen church.

Now for four birds:

Cooper's Hawk ?

Swainson's hawk

Clay-colored Sparrow

The scenery, farmland, ranch country, abandoned buildings, sense of history, numerous raptors, and the beginning of fall color all contributed to a wonderful day. We must do this more often. There is so much to see when one leaves the main highways.

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Friday September 12, 2008 5:00 am Lethbridge

A. Morning Musings

B. Actual Learning Activities

7:30 PM