Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Back in August, when we made our trek up from Montana, we saw a sign for this site and I was then determined to visit it.

 

Saturday we drove back south to Fort McLeod to have a look - about two hours south.  This is a site used by the locals, Blackfoot Indians for several thousand years for buffalo kills.  As the sign indicates, they would create a stampede and then corral the herd to the cliff so some would fall over the edge.

 

Here's Rolo with the cliff in the background.  According to the info, it's eroded a bit now but was much steeper in the past.  I think the last Buffalo Jump was some time in the 1870s.

 

 

While we were there, we tagged along with a docent, Edwin, who was really entertaining while telling us all about the history.  He's a Blackfoot who even knows the language so he was pretty knowledgeable.

 

We weren't able to find any buffalo to herd over the edge, so we had to stop at Five Guys for a burger and fries instead.

 

And as we've found while visiting other sites, the perennial bear warning sign.  Still haven't seen one, except on the signs...

 

Wildlife in the cemetery

Last week, I took Hannah over to the off leash area of the park for a run.  Once we got there and she was off lease, she was intent on sniffing a trail, but I could see her tail was tucked, which is a bit unusual when she's on a hare chase or something like that.  There were several other dogs around so she had a bit of a run and then we went over to the corner where I leash her up to leave.

I heard a strange bark/howl noise and couldn't place it at first.  Then I saw this in the cemetery.

That there's a COYOTE!  I know it's a bit difficult to see, but trust me, it was.  And he/she didn't seem to be concerned about the cemetery workers about 100 meters away. 

Later, I found out from another dog owner that the coyotes are known for sending one out to try and lure a dog away and into the pack for a kill.  I'm sure glad Hannah wasn't interested, in fact she was wary instead.

Update on the coyote front:  Last night when we took Hannah out for last call, we heard the coyote choir out in the graveyard and not very far from our house.  We walked down the street the other way, towards more street lighting and civilization and sure enough the zombies in the graveyard stopped the choir.  It's really kind of eerie to hear that so close...

Tour of Albert...aye

Here is a photo from the finish line at the Tour of Alberta - a six day bike race ending in downtown Calgary.

We rode our bikes down to view the finish.  And of course Rolo rode one of his Dutch custom bikes, the orange one, and got lots of envied looks and comments.  It was fun and exciting to be there, and a bit more relaxed than the other bike races we saw in Europe, of course not nearly as big.

Here's the bike used for the prologue - well our prologue anyway.  A few days before, we participated in a charity event with Chevron.  We collected money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and then saddled up this bike with 28 of our close friends to ride around Prince's Island a few times, while shooting from water pistols at each other.  At one point in the ride, we came face to face with a truck on the path and had to detour off the path shooting the gap through the trees.  Ok, we skimmed a tree at one point, but no recordable injuries.

Lots of laughing...

Labor Day Weekend

Who knew it was a North American holiday - but I think up here it is spelled Labour Day.  Anyway, we took Hannah hiking.  First we spent an afternoon at Nose Hill Park on the north side of Calgary.  It is high enough that you can get a great view of downtown and the surrounding areas.

Hannah has been on a hunt for wild hares ever since she saw her first one, and here she is at Nose Hill, searching for hares.

Monday we drove up to the mountains to see Lake Moraine and hike a bit.  At the base of the trail we found this sign.

 

 

 

So we waited a few minutes until some other hikers came along so that we could all go up together.  We didn't see any bears, just more hikers.  I suspect the bears were taking the weekend off since there were so many people.  This was a view of the lake from further up.  According to the other hikers, the water is such a beautiful aquamarine color because it is fed from glaciers up on the mountain.  It really was beautiful.

 

 We encountered a bit of traffic driving back into town, but nothing like what you would find in Texas on a holiday weekend.