Monthly Archive: August 2013

Garly AB grain elevator

Prairie Sentinels – Gartly Alberta – Wilson Farm

The grain elevator seen in this article is located at the Wilson Farm north of Drumheller Alberta, but once sat along the rail line in the town of Gartly, just to the north. Gartly is gone, the rail line is abandoned, but the elevator survives. Constructed in the late 1920s...

Canyon Jura Creek

Jura Creek

This wonderful hike follows the often dry Jura Creek though a deep slot canyon, cascading pools, gravel flats and boulder fields to an interesting and significant geological formation. Along the way, you can also expect to find fossils. This is not a strenuous hike, and in fact we picked it...

Saskatoon Berry

Saskatoon Farm

Some days we just like to take it easy. Rather than climbing a mountain, hiking to a beautiful lake, or exploring abandoned places, we decided to do something a little more pedestrian. This day we wanted to go berry picking, Saskatoon Berry picking, and the best place to do that...

Stoney Trail wash out

Stoney Trail, a hellish journey

Stoney Trail in Kananaskis is a good choice for those who crave a nice, easy mountain bike ride – fun, nothing hardcore or overly taxing. Even though the route follows a power line right of way, it’s still pretty scenic. There are no major hills to worry about and normally...

P&H Three Hills

Prairie Sentinels – Three Hills Alberta

Three Hills Alberta has two standing grain elevators, a massive ex-Alberta Wheat Pool and an ancient ex-Parrish and Heimbecker. Standing directly across from each other, these two create a grain elevator canyon with the CNR’s north/south Alberta mainline passing right through the middle. Of the two, the AWP is in...

Bonnybrook Bridge span

Collapsed Bonnybrook train bridge – two months later

Just over two months ago many parts of Southern Alberta were under water. Unusually heavy rains, combined with melting snow pack in the mountains caused widespread flooding and many people were affected. The Bow River in Calgary, normally a pretty pristine and otherwise fairly calm river burst its bank in...

Train bridge Swalwell

Bridge hunting – Swalwell Alberta

If you’ve driven highway 575 heading eastbound between Acme and Carbon, you have no doubt spotted the large train bridge spanning a deep and wide valley off to your right, at a point roughly halfway between those towns. This is the CNR’s Swalwell Bridge, a large concrete and steel structure...

Cessford AB stone house

Cessford stone house

Once upon a time it was a house, no it was a home, full of hopes, full of dreams, full of LIFE. Now there is nothing but lost memories and a wind that perhaps bears a ghostly resemblance to the noise of the family that once lived within. Here it...

Trochu Alberta Wheat Pool

Prairie Sentinels – Trochu Alberta

Like almost every other town on the Canadian Prairies, Trochu Alberta was once home to many grain elevators. Today, all that left is a single survivor, a massive structure that looms over the half-vacant downtown core. Looking ready to load a line of rail cars it’s been many years since...

Boler trailer Calgary

The Bolers are coming to us

They’re coming to us! In the past, we had to go looking for Bolers, searching high and low and then searching some more. Now they find, like this trailer spotted from our front door. How easy was that? This one was seen in August 2013 in Calgary AB. Boler: A...

Sheerness AB store

Sheerness – Rose Lynn – Sunnynook – Carolside

The four towns that are the subject of this report, Sheerness, Rose Lynn, Sunnynook and Carolside, are located in a remote corner of Alberta, far off any beaten path. Each lasted only a short while and in fact there is little to see today, but even so they still left...

Delia AB grain elevator

Prairie Sentinels – Delia Alberta

Delia Alberta is a small community located just northeast of Drumheller. It sits along an abandoned Canadian National Railways line (tracks still in place on our visit) and was once home to a good number of grain elevators, all nothing but a memory today save for one, the subject of...

Two Boler trailers

Sundre Bolers

Outside of gatherings or conventions, finding two Boler Trailers together is pretty rare. This miss-matched pair was found in Sundre Alberta and being side by side it allows us to compare differences between the two sizes made. The left one is the smaller but more common egg-like 13′ model. Its...

REO truck Industrial Works crane

Vintage vehicles found on a wonderful long weekend

Anyone who reads this blog knows we seem to have great luck finding rare, old or interesting trucks, cars and vehicles. This trip, on the Heritage Day long weekend, was no exception. We found ourselves in the Hanna area in eastern Alberta doing some field research, and this work had...

Boler camping trailer

Hitched up Boler

This could be a banner year for Boler spotting and while out walking in our own neighbourhood we find another of these little trailers. We’re approaching three dozen seen in 2013, this one in August. It’s hitched up to a car looking like it’s ready to go on a long...

Seymour Hotel sign

The Seymour and New National have served their last drinks

Sure, these two “first class” establishments, the Seymour and New National in Hanna Alberta, are called hotels but for the last few decades mostly catered to the drinking crowd. It’s booze where the money is, although the rooms above may have been rented out at times as extended stay (often...

Old farmhouse door

The Mink Ranch

This old farm is a particularity photogenic one, discovered in an arid and remote corner of Alberta, along a forgotten highway. What makes this find even more interesting is that using our detective skills, we were able to dig up information on who lived there – amazing! Unlike most farms,...

Boler trailer Calgary

Sunalta Boler

Here’s another Boler trailer found completely by chance. Driving up Crowchild Trail, this one was spotted from that road, sitting in an alley that it borders on. It was seen in August 2013 in the Calgary neighbourhood of Sunalta. The tally for this year, including this trailer is thirty three...

Canmore Little Sister

Pink Floyd’s Learning to Fly – mountain scenes

A number of scenes from the 1987 Pink Floyd music video Learning to Fly were filmed on a ridge in Kananaskis, just east of Canmore. In the story a young native fellow climbs up the hill, only to jump off it before turning into a graceful soaring eagle. A metaphor...

Waverley Chimney

Glenbow Ranch Western Trails

This post has been retired, but a few select images kept for your enjoyment and an updated version can be found here: Glenbow Ranch Big West Loop. More fun and adventure… Calgary Pathways: Montgomery – Bowness. Chestermere Town Loop. Urban Trek: Bridgeland-Crescent Heights-Renfrew. Roaming Nanton. If you wish more information...

Abandoned caboose

More soup

In this “soup” post we look at a couple of old cars, an abandoned and burnt out caboose, a CPR train station and a cave in the Crowsnest Pass gushing water. Each soup posting will showcase random pictures taken from our adventures. 1) The yellow car shown in the first...

Mt Loughheed and Windtower

Brokeback Mountain then and now – “Jack, I swear”

In the final moments of the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain, Ennis del Mar, played by Heath Ledger, looks at a photo and whispers the words “Jack, I swear”. Filled with sadness he recalls his deceased friend and lover and the adventures and intimate moments they shared. The picture in that...

Rimwall Kananaskis

Wind Ridge

Having attempted Wind Ridge and failing to summit the week before, we wanted to return to take another stab at it. On the first pass we got turned around due to flood damage in the area and instead of reaching our objective, we wandered around the ridge’s base wondering where...

RV park Boler

Hoodoo RV Resort Boler

This cute red and white Boler was spotted at the Hoodoo RV Resort in the Red Deer River valley near Cambria Alberta, not terribly far from Drumheller, in August 2013. Located alongside the river, the campground is one giant open field with nary a tree to shelter one from the...

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