Shuswap Three: More Pictures!

More Shuswap pictures.
My one cousin just can't get enough.
These are Shuswap, Jasper and Margaret Falls near Sicamous, British Columbia.

Shuswap Part Trois!

Old Jasper

This past October I took a chance to drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta....OK, I was headed to an academic conference and I couldn't afford to fly so 'took a chance' might be over stating a bit.  I had to drive.  While in the mountains I was reminded how much I love them and how lucky people are who live near them.  When they were in my backyard I certainly did not take advantage of them as much as I should have.

During my drive I pulled over repeatedly for about two hours on the way home, taking pictures, feeling the peace and quiet, and watching the daylight play on the scenes before my eyes.  Here are a few shots that I played with on my computer that remind me of the old postcards you can buy in tourists shops.  Pictures such at these can also be seen on the walls in the old Canadian Pacific hotels as framed tributes to the historical past.  These are new though, and mine.

An old picture in a new time

Like pictures of old with one glaring addition :)

Light and fluff on rock

Shuswap Pictures Part Two

Here are more pictures I have taken over the years of one of my favourite places on earth.  Cheers!

Pilling's Beach, Shuswap Lake

Three Different Views

Recently I drove from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta for a recreation conference.  The event was really good and I met and re-met a number of fantastic people who appeared happy, in love with their jobs and content in their lives.  Yep, those are some of my goals too.

On the way to the conference fall had settled in nicely with its yellows, oranges and even browns, but upon my return 4 days later winter had descended and left a mystical white and green wonderland.  There will be several posts that focus on the pictures I took as I believe I added about 1.5 hours to my journey on the way home as I stopped repeatedly at designated view spots and on the shoulder of the road, as safely as possible, clicking the beauties of the mountains, 360 degrees around me.

One of the most interesting moments was stopping as I ascended into the mountains, removing myself from my vehicle, and realizing that my car and the music I was listening to inside were the only sounds to be heard.  Nature was silent.  There was not a person or vehicle around that could disturb the peace and even near by animals were docile, perhaps sensing the beginning of winter.  I leaned on my car and just observed, listened, and thought for a while.  A delightful treat in the mountains.

Here are three shots taken at the Jasper Park Lodge of a lake near the hotel.  I am having fun playing with my computer photo program.  Let me know if you have a preference.

Number one has a boost of colour and I really like the digital looking reflection of the mountains and clouds in the water.  

Number two looks like it should be in colour, but on second glance the eye notices the only colour is yellow, thus the sepia version of the picture.  Still the gradations of colour are quiet interesting.

In black and white the third shot still gives the eye a sense of the layers of tones, highlights, shadows and hues.  Looks like an old postcard with a modern twist of clear lines.

I like them all but for different reasons.  The joys of photography and computer programs!

Nephew Needs Lightning

 I received a desperate email and text from my sister asking me to send her the lightning pictures I took last year at Shuswap Lake.  Her son is in grade 5 and he is learning about weather in science, in particular completing a project on lightning and my pictures were needed, the next day.  Gladly.  Especially for a nephew and for school.  My sister said the project went well, her sons ogled over the pictures, and her son said the presentation went well.  I am expecting the best artist in grade 5 award sometime in the Spring.  I'll let you know when that comes through.

Full project with my pictures included

The important details of lightning

Summer 2012: Shot from the Air

Flying from Winnipeg into Kelowna I looked out the window and spied this:

The tops of the Rocky Mountains just peeking above the low lying clouds.

A more distant view

Snow still on some of the peaks, even in August.

Manitoba Prairies

For the past two months I have been conducting visitor and learning experience research at the Farm Food Discovery Centre (FFDC).  The only centre of its kind in North America spreading the knowledge of the world of agriculture, one visitor at a time.  It is part of the larger Glenlea Research Station, and the station has been situated south of Manitoba since the 1960's, but the interpretive centre itself is celebrating its one year anniversary this year in September 2012.  We have adults who grew on farms and in rural communities bringing their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, who often live in urban spaces, to teach them about rural life and where their food comes from.  Your food does not just show up in a gigantic store wrapped in plastic and cellophane.  Shocking!   The FFDC is one place you can learn about agriculture, farming, food processing and the like, processes far more complicated than freezer-ed cellophane wrapped meat.

The research is similar to the festival work I have been completing all summer, asking people to create mind maps.  Most of the children know exactly what I am talking about because schools, through the work of teachers, have been asking students to use mind mapping to connect ideas and broaden their thinking for about 8-10 years now.  Previous to this, mind maps were not used in schools, so many adults are unsure about this research technique and look at me funny, except for the teachers, they know mind maps.  I am getting all sorts of interesting responses and it is fascinating to see people really think about what they have learned while walking around, reading, talking with others, touching objects, looking at animals, asking questions and engaging in a casual learning environment.  We forget that we are learning all the time, this work reminds people of this.

On the way to complete research today, the Manitoba prairie put on a show.  A stunning view of the sun, barely peaking through clouds, but spilling its rays over the clouds onto the barrels of crops below.  Of course I pulled over to a side road, stopped my vehicle and began taking pictures.  I was trying to figure out how to get all of the sky in one shot when I remembered an App on my iPhone that let's me take 6-8 pictures in succession, stitches them together, then presents the viewer with a panorama of beauty in one photo.  It's called Photosynth and very fun to play with.  

Photosynth by Microsoft

After you take the first picture, you don't have to take anymore as you simply drag your phone/camera to the next section and when the box on the screen turns green, you pause the phone/camera and it clicks a picture automatically.  Move the phone/camera again and continue with this process until you have a series of panoramic shots.  As I said before, the program stitches them together and you have a wonderful shot ready to post, email, save and enjoy.  I then imported into my iPhoto area, cropped it and posted it to my blog.  Oh the joys of technology!

I have not had the time to look at all of the pictures I took this morning but here is one that turned out quite stunning, I must say.  Manitoba prairies showing off.  The beauty on the intricate flat ground.

Check out the Farm Food Discovery Centre next time you are in Winnipeg.
Check out Photosynth.
Keep taking and playing with pictures.

Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates

Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates: A Woman's Trek Through Turkey by Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Being methodical feels constricting to me so I avoid it and stick with spontaneity.  This includes my selection of reading materials.  I go to the library, head for the travel section, start pulling books off the shelf, judge it by its cover, then synopsis, and keep it in my arms or put it back on the shelf after my discerning judgment :).  Over the past year I have read some wonderful books that have taught me about places I may never visit.  This book, with an unsuspecting cover, an acceptable synopsis, and yet more importantly a travel book written by a women, was left in my arms which was an exceptional choice.

This book was an amazing teaching tool that took me into the depths of thousands of years of history, race relations, conflict, change, and the current lives of many people in Turkey.  Of all the travel books I have read in the past year, this is the most moving one from which I feel like learned enough to be a four month university course that I received for free.  Lucky me!

Perhaps I feel closer to Ustun because she was born in Turkey, moved to Winnipeg, then returned to Turkey as an adult to learn about her culture all over again.  I was born in Calgary, Alberta, but did not live in Canada for any length of time until I was an adult, and I had to learn about my home country year after year when I moved here at the age of eighteen.  As well, I am currently living in Winnipeg.  An interesting coincidence.

This book is for people who want to learn about the deep moving power of travel, history, worship, cultural change, power structures and their influence, the complicated lives of women, goddesses, and to understand how old some parts of the world truly are, all situate in the context of travel, discovery, and making connections between the past and present.  A magnificent read!

I just realized that I will be probably be buying this book.  It is so full of information that I am going to want to come back to it a couple of times just to make sure I hear all of its messages.  Delightful as it stretched my thinking so very far.


The best parts of the book:

But deep inside me there was a division and there was a loss.  There were chambers that had to remain closed.  My Anatolian self was suppressed, my memories of that land - its rhythms, its smells, its temperature, its ancient joys and pains (for what is culture if it is not collective memory that is somehow transmitted through the generations?), the pleasure if my mother tongue - all these lay buried under the psychological layers that formed an efficient, adaptive Canadian self.  p. 14

Ecological balance represents survival - the human race can't live without air, land and water,  I knew that in Canada, too.  But it is only here that I begin to discern the relationship between ecological damage and the loss of distant memory.  So many layers of civilizations have lived and died here that I feel as if spirits hover over Anatolia.  But if their traces are destroyed, if no one remembers those who once lived and died here, we are not even going to know what we have lost...I notice that I often turn to women for stories about taboo themes and about the buried past.  It is true that women are the bearers of collective memory?  That questions leads me to the issue of the suppression of female voices, female memories, and female sexuality in Anatolia, and I see another connection that should have been obvious all along: the killing of nature and the suppression of ancient memory are related to the silencing of women's voices.  Perhaps women could have defended the earth of they hadn't been robbed of power thousands of years ago...On this land at the dawn of history, a different vision taped human societies.  An ancient great goddess reigned in Anatolia for thousands of years.  The traces of her worship remain all over this mountain our land...People often feel an urge to understand their own past in order to gain insights into the present.  I feel complicated to delve into Anatolia's past.  A long and loaded human past must affect the people who now live on this land in the same way that a family history going back many generations will affect someone who knows nothing of the secrets bored with those generations.  p. 17

Ustun continues to discover the thousands of years of goddess worship, provides a historical context of terrorism and her idea as to why it exists, describes how one religion is replaced by another as one culture is conquered by another group with a different culture, provides the history of prostitution and it modern day experience, explains killing ones daughter in the name of honour and how this practice is changing (a difficult chapter to read), and how the people of Turkey are rising up against Western multi-national companies as they destroy the landscape of the country, take their money and run away.  What a read!  It won't be the last time I peruse its pages.  So much more to understand and learn in the second and third readings.

Find it and learn from the words on its pages.  



View all my reviews

Recreation Connections

As part of my graduate studies I am at the network and meet new people portion in attempts to eventually be a productive member of the recreation, leisure and tourism community, as well, to obtain gainful employment.  This past week I attended the Recreations Connections conference in Winnipeg and enjoyed all the keynote speakers and the break-out sessions.  Usually there are one or two presenters that don't meet the expectations that you may have, but this conference was an exception.  We heard about the National Recreation Summit, the first of its kind held in Lake Louise in October 2011.  Professionals, students and educators met to discuss the future of recreation and leisure in Canada, in hopes of developing a vision and strategy to improve the current commitment and understanding of the field by governments, organizations and the general public.  It was an interesting review by one of the key-note presenters Brian Johnston.

At Recreation Connections I also learned the difference concerning the roles and responsibilities of volunteer boards, the High Five program, and continued to learn about nature deficit disorder.  A term coined by Richard Louv, it addresses the broadening gap between nature and humans.  We as humans are not spending enough time in nature and this is most evident in our teenagers and children.  Not only is  little commitment to including natural spaces in large urban development an issue, but children are playing on concrete courts, with plastic swing sets and slides, and metal play structures.  There are some schools who are moving to create nature gardens in order to alleviate the issues that nature deficit disorder can cause, but we need to ensure that children, teens and we are accessing nature in its most basic forms in order to continue to develop into healthy, productive, understanding individuals.

These are the two books written by Richard Louv and I would suggest you grab a copy, give it a read, then take a group of friends and family out into nature.  Then again, a solo trip is also as enjoyable as an excursion with others.   We also need to ensure that our neighbourhoods make natural spaces a priority, including natural parks, forests, rivers, streams, etc.

Below is part of a paper I wrote last year based on Parks Canada and the need to study why people visit our provincial and national parks in order to create experienced based recreation that meets visitor needs, in order to increase the number of people visiting our amazing parks system.  Have a read, then get up and go out and enjoy some nature today!

Nature Deficit Disorder

In essence, as our world becomes more urbanized with fewer natural and groomed spaces therein, and access to larger, natural spaces appear more remote, we begin to experience what has been labeled nature-deficit-disorder or biophobia (its opposite is biophilia).  This is the discomfort or aversion to nature and the natural world, which is on the rise in post-modern society, and is subtle as this disconnect is slow for many adults and children (Condon, 2008).  There are individual and social repercussions to the loss of contact with nature, particularly when studying children, which may influence children to have poorer co-ordination, loss of self-discovery, antisocial and aggressive behaviour, less unstructured play, loss of boundary formation, and less physical knowledge about the world (Condon, 2008).  These skills are important in the development of the individual and point to a new continuum identified to help researchers understand the divide between biophobia and biophilia.  This model places the individual on a continuum with people who focus on and enjoy living things and life like processes at the biophilia end; as compared to the biophobia’s end, the people who “culturally acquire…[the] urge to affiliate with technology, human artifact, and solely with human interests regarding the natural world” (Orr, 1993, p. 416; McVay, 1993).  The two most important points to grasp about this continuum is the ability to make regular, learned, culturally influenced choices about one’ degree of contact with nature, which leads to the second choice, one’s individual movement along the nature-contact axis.      

Urbanization is not the only forerunner to this social change (Condon, 2008), as researchers have pointed to the causes of the lack of contact with nature.  These include the removal of nature from community and school playgrounds; fear or injury or loss of a person; potential litigation of a person is hurt on public or private property, lack of government initiatives to preserve space; undervaluing of childhood play; commercial entities that advertise to children (Condon, 2008).  As North Americans we are also spending more time inside structures and buildings (ie. home, work, school, cafés, restaurants, movie theatres, etc), and less time in the natural world.  A large portion of recreation and leisure time for many people has become electronic-based with computers, video games (online and console), movies, Internet, which requires access to electricity, objects of play, and demarcated inside places of entertainment.  Another influence is the aestheticization of people’s lives as we begin to use objects of consumption as signs and symbols to demarcate ourselves from others, for example, the public wearing of ear-buds or large earphones, the café culture and free WiFi use therein.  These elements of life also distract a person away from the outside environment to spend more time in the inner sanctuary of the mind or gazing at small objects such as mobile devices.  These changes in our social world have widened the divide between the inner lives we lead through technology, and increasingly insular world in which we ignore or do not find significance in the natural world around us.          

Interestingly nature and parks can have positive influences on individual lives and the social world.  Research has demonstrated that visual images of nature have the power to calm the physiology of people including lowering stress; interactive zoo animals held the interest of children diagnosed with ADHD who began to associate with the animals as kin; and children asked adults to teach them respectful ways to treat animals rather than fear or revile them (Katcher & Wilkins, 1993; McVay, 1993).  It is these kinds of stories and academic research that Parks Canada can use to set the stage for healthy and enjoyable visits, which will lead to an increased sense of place in national parks.

References

Condon, M.  (2008).  Why Kids Don’t Run Free?  In Play and Folklore, 4(50).

Katcher, A. and Wilkins, G.  (1993).  Dialogue with Animals: Its nature and culture.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 173-200).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

McVay, S.  (1993).  Prelude: “A Siamese Connexion with a Plurality of Other Mortals”.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 3-19).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

Orr, D.W.  (1993).  Love It or Lose It: The coming biophilia revolution.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 415-440).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

Bois-des-Esprits or Spirit Trees

While I was walking last spring on the south side of Winnipeg, I came upon a beautiful neighbourhood in St. Vital with its own forest, the Seine River Greenway Forest.  It was a delightful day with leaves all over the path, children actually playing in the forest, small groups of people enjoying a walk.  I happened upon another woman walking by herself and we began a conversation.  She asked me if I had seen the spirit trees of the forest as of yet, to which I replied no.  She walk me deeper into the woods and there it was, the Bois-des-Esprits.    

Stunning multiple faces and animals.
Carved on both sides.

The same tree.
The other side.

This woman and I talked for a while as she gave me more advice of a few different places to visit in the city.  We parted ways and I continued walking out of the forest I spied several more faces that I had completely walked by, not realizing they had been staring at me and others along the path.  The faces were stunning, carved right into the trees, rough slices, with long whisky beards.      

Old tree
Old face

This was the last tree as I left the forest.  I took one picture, stared at the tree for a while, then realized that this was not simply a face.

Old tree
Old face
With a bit of extra

A view from below so I could capture the face's friend.

Sadly, someone committed an act of vandalism this past June and lit the largest of the trees on fire.  One wonders what pushes someone to light something so stunning on fire.  Sign of discontent.  This tree provided me with much content.  I hope people continue to enjoy it despite a part of it now being charred.  I shall continue to walk, talk with random strangers, and enjoy the outdoors.  I am thinking the Winnipeg Trails Association will help.  Love walking!
  

Winnipeg Weather 3

A dead flower in winter

It is now my second winter in Le Peg (2012) and it is much warmer and more enjoyable than 2011.  The Chinook's from the Rocky Mountains have somehow lasted all along the prairies and warned us over during past two weeks.  (That statement is probably completely meteorologically incorrect and perhaps improbable but it sounds good to me.)

Hoar frost all over

This one appears to be covered during a windy day.

Last week, the weather would dip down just under freezing overnight, then rise up just at or barely above freezing during the day.  This produced several days of gorgeous hoar frost on the trees. (The first time I heard that word, I though someone said whore frost.  I could not believe that frost would be named after disenfranchised women/women making money for them selves.  Turns out is was hoar.  Sounds similar, but not.)  Several days of this frost on the trees, bushes, plants and wooden structures must made the city a magnificent winter wonderland.  I thought it would not get better, but then the fog moved in and the beauty doubled.  So gorgeous!

Pavilion in Assiniboine Park

Under another tree, taking pictures of this tree.

Time to head out with my camera and see if I could capture a thing or two.  Assiniboine Park was my destination of choice and I was able to capture several beautiful pics.  I also sent a text to several friends in town encouraging them to head out and capture the delicious vision of a city.  My friend Darren went to the Legislature and captured some photos now on Flikr.  Several others went out but I have not seen their shots as of yet.

Crusty and lovely

Who love a weeping tree?  Me!

I walked around the park, drove around the park (it is very large), and clicked away at everything that took my breathe away.  While standing taking pictures of the Pavilion, I heard a rustling in the bushes.  Twas a small family of deer looking for food in the bushes behind me.  What luck!  I turned, slowly perched on the bench nearby and snuck a picture of this deer behind the branches.

There was mutually observing and gazing for a time, then they moved on to a trodden path, then on behind several buildings.  Before they got away, I slowly walked around the bushes, squatted and found the same deer unable to stop looking at me, as I was unable to stop looking at it.

Winnipeg Weather 2

Due to the copious amounts of snow that fell during the winter of 2011, the Spring was upon us here in the water drenched province of Manitoba.  With 56 rivers, over 1,000 lakes we were join to lose.  Lose what?  I did not know as this was my first Spring in Winnipeg, but that amount of snow and the continuous rain?  We were going to lose.

Canadians were smart back in the day, and most of our cities are built on waterways as this was the best way to transport goods, people, and the necessities of life as Canada was being stolen from the First Nations people (might as well be blunt).  This also precipitates flooding in many cities as the water is right there meandering through the centre of the city.  Too much water in any form will eventually turn to the liquid variety, collect at the lowest points in town, and forge onwards.  Flooding is a big problem in several cities, but in a province where water flows in from the West, South and North, it can be even more damaging.

This is why in the Red River Floodway was built around Winnipeg in 1969.  Essentially, it is a big ditch into which water from the Red River can be diverted that would normally flow through the city, but can be taken around the city if the Red River is too high.  It truly is a large ditch.  Ingenious really.  Until the flood waters of 2011 collected and could not find a place to go.    

In May 2011 it all hit with evacuations, planned dike breaches, farm and reserve land flooded, roads cut off, people losing their home, it was chaos for many all along the Hoop and Holler Bend.  I was unfamiliar with all this information until the news, media, World Wide Web and people talked about it for months.  Interestingly enough, because of the floodway, Winnipeg was not flooded.  It could have been disastrous for the city but in diverting all the water to the floodway, most of the city did not even notice there was a flood.

The park path over-run with water

Water very close to the underbelly of this pathway bridge

Will the truck survive the day?

Don't live on the first or second floor

Just outside the city however, the floodway was dangerously high and the government stepped in and planed a dike breach.  This decision flooded farm and reserve land halting the growing season for many farmers, leaving many First Nations people without homes and a community, and cottage dwellers were left with little information about available support to help their properties remain in tact.  7,000 sandbags, $8 million dollars in temporary housing, multiple rivers high enough to evacuate homes.  All outside the city.

Trees in the river

Another road was needed to get to this destination

I was safe.  My apartment was higher up in my building.  My car was parked far from the river.  A series of philosophical questions filled my mind.  What is more important, a city of cement and wood or farmland on which we grow our food?  Whose lives are more important and should be left undisturbed, rural people, First nations people, or urban people?  Who decides what is important, government, city officials, general populace?  How do I take a flood seriously when my home and car are not in immediate danger?  I am new here and don't necessarily feel that this is my community, so how do I contribute feeling like an outsider?  Still thinking about some of these questions.

Winnipeg Weather 1

Before I moved to Winnipeg I looked up some information about the city so that I could be more prepared, for what, I am not sure, but I figured more information was better than none.  One of the first pieces of information I learned was that for its size (about 634,000 people) it is the coldest city in the world.  Yep, you read that right.  In the WORLD.  I moved here anyway.  Let's just say that the 'training' I received in Edmonton back in 1991, as my first real Canadian winter, was long and hard, but last winter, of 2011, was absurd.  Six weeks of -25 to -45 degrees Celsius!  So crazy!  Not only that but my apartment overlooked a major intersection of two week used roads and a large parking lot.  Every week a large dump truck and tractor with bucket would appear to scoop up the snow and release it outside the city limits.  I could not believe winter actually existed like this.  So much snow.  So long cold.  So very crazy.

The dump truck leaving its load at the University of Manitoba

Piles and piles of snow

There was so much snow that the snow ploughs did not head down the major city arteries one at a time.  No.  They convoyed down the street three and four at a time, gunning anything down it their wake, including snow, ice, and winter debris (like slow people running out of the way).  Sadly, I did not have the courage to jump in front of this careening vehicles to take a picture so your imagination will have to do.  Needless to say, it was quite a sight, especially at night.  

I learned during this long winter that the sun is deceiving.  It was out almost every day for six weeks, blazing brightly, making the snow sparkle on the sidewalk, but there was no warmth.  Some cruel celestial being had turned off its heat and left its light as a taunting joke.  Several times I left my apartment, ready to enjoy the hot, yellow, burning sun, only to have my eye lashes freeze my eyes together as I attempted to stumble out of the way of the snow ploughs.  Thank goodness they have spinning lights that are stronger than emergency vehicles or I would have been thrust aside like a snow bank.  I had to trudge on.  

My bad holding up a Winnipeg size snow drift.

Around the first week of March, my parking neighbour who had learned that I had just moved from Calgary and missed Chinook winds, joked that Winnipeg was having a Chinook.  It was -15 degrees Celsius.  Sadly, it felt warm and delightful as with the windchill, it had been up to -50 for several nights in a row during February.  How did my ancestors ever survive without down filled jackets, central heating and on occasion a hot toddy?  I honour them and their will.  They must have survived based on pure will, cuddling or hiding in the innards of their dead farm animals.  Ok.  I went too far.  I survived and somehow many of them did, as I am here, still living in these crazy winters.  We must all be crazy.  

Off to buy garbage mittens as they are the warmest and fashion at -50?  Ha!  Only for fools.  Give me the bright yellow and the tight wrist bands.  At least I will match the sun.

Twenty Twelve

Another year dawns and I am still alive and well.  This year there will include several milestones.  I leave my 30's in March and enter my 40's, which I hear are the new 20's.  Lucky me.  I want this year to be filled with a completed thesis of which I am proud, another graduation from University, a bit of travel, a bit of good conversation, a large amount of enjoyment.  Other than this, no New Year's resolutions as I want to live in the moment in which I am currently situated rather than looking too far forward or too far back.  The last decade has sped quickly by and I want the next one to be remembered moment by moment, embracing the good, difficult, painful, beautiful, thrilling and divine.  Here is to another year and completing those 39 new things I was to be doing since last March!

Enjoy a recent trip I took for a conference to Lake Louise, Alberta.
Ever capturing moments through a lens.
Enjoy the beginning of twenty-twelve.

Lake Louise, Alberta

The Edge of the Lake

The Sun Sets

Project Love Manitoba: Caving

It is important to keep good friends who pay attention when an opportunity arrises.  Such are my I Love Manitoba Adventure friends.  Once of them heard about a caving club and attended a meeting, after which she set up a caving adventure with one of the groups organizers.  Brilliant woman and so excited when she called me!  I have been in several caves in the rockies but it was mostly enter the front portion, peek around, then leave as the cave is too dark  This adventure seemed far more exciting and interesting as special equipment, a membership in the club and a knowledgeable guide were all required.  The excitement of joining a club is a well researched topic and fulfills a layer of human need, as well I am an Enneagram seven, trying new things is a strong motivation in my life.  Oooooo, the excitement built through conversations, emails, and gathering supplies, then the caving day arrived!

We gathered in a Winnipeg parking lot, met the guide Scott and three men who were experienced cavers and already members of the Speleological Society of Manitoba (I am putting that on my resume as it sounds very official and intelligent).  I paid my minimal membership dues ($15) then received a book called Caves and Karst edited by W.D. McRitchie and K.M. Monson.  We jumped into cars and headed north of the city toward the direction of the Peguis Reserve and Fisher Branch, Manitoba.

As we drove along I opened my new book to realize I had joined a secretive and exclusive society as the book contained graphs, charts and a language with which I was unfamiliar.  I joked with my friends that I was excited to receive a book but I had no idea what it was telling me.  More research to come complete once back at home after the adventure's end.

I keep forgetting that I am not in Alberta and that there are no mountains in Manitoba.  In my mind's eye, we were going to climb a slight hill, find a hole in the side of said hill, walk in and cave around a bit, but there are very few, and I mean VERY FEW hills in Manitoba.  My expectations were about to be challenged, as they often are.

When we reached the first location, we parked our cars and dressed in our caving gear.  Protection and physical safety are most important elements to caving, and one's personal sense of style takes a back seat.

Christa and Steph in the hood(?)

Bright colours so hunters don't shoot us.

Wat up?!?
I did not wear bright colours.
Prime hunting target.

We began walking into the flat, densely packed but small treed woods and then stopped.  "Here is it," said Scott and we all looked down as a gently slope in the ground, which opened up into a small hidden subterranean space.  Scott stated that this was just a precursor to the actual caves and we enjoyed looking at the change in rock formations as we slowly descended then crouched underneath a rock shelf to peer into a bit if the earth.

Stephanie with two experienced cavers

After a brief stop, we headed to the first actual cave.  Upon arrival my hill was no where to be seen, but there was a hole in the ground.  That is what we were here to do, crawl into a hole in the ground?!?  I remembered that Scott had warned me that I should not expect huge caves and wondrousness but I flippantly dismissed his comment.  I was not disappointed but I had to adjust my perspective to realize that crawling into the belly of the earth was going to be as cool as walking into a small entrance of a vertical rock formation, which is what I had been expecting.  Mental flexibility in traveling; a requirement for a good experience.

Christa being lowered into the first cave.
We used climbing ropes for safety
and a permanent ladder to descend into the cave.

Me at the bottom of the cave entrance looking up.

Cave wildlife found by Stephanie.
Such a cute frog!

As we crawled on our hands and knees, on our bellies, pushed ourselves backwards we got a feel for the first cave which included changing rock formations, a frog, piles of dried poop and bats.  Very cool!  Hole in the ground or not, I was impressed and excited to be caving.

The bottom of the ladder in the cave.
I am in the first small room looking out into the cave .
Sparkles from the rock formations appeared on most of my pictures.  Think of it as glitz and glamour!

Some of us glowed in the dark.
This was good as the darkness was quite consuming.

We waited at the top of the cave for the last two people inside for what seemed like a long time.  After they appeared one of the men explained to us that they had found a large pile of small bones, and one of the men was a palaeontologist / archeologist who had worked at the Royal Alberta Museum for 25 years, was explaining to the other what they had found.  Are you kidding me?!?  This trip just moved from excitement on the travel scale to phenomenal!!!  

The palaeontologist picked a collection of bones out of his pocket and began to explain, "This is a femur of a small animal, probably a rabbit.  This one is a piece of the arm of a prairie mouse, oh yes, and one half of a hip joint....." and he went on as we stood there is awe at our luck.  The excitement in the group rose to a new level as we headed to the next cave.  

The Provincial Parks officer came out to visit us to ensure we were doing well.
She had a bullet proof vest on and a gun.  Wow, what a job!