Monthly Archive: June 2015

Upper Kananaskis Lake colours

Upper Kananaskis Lake loop

This adventures finds us in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, deep in the heart of Kananaskis. Our objective is the Upper Kananaskis Lake loop trail, a wonderfully scenic hike that we’ve done before but never tire of. It’s a stunning place, of azure waters, deep green forests and majestic peaks. When...

Harris Saskatchewan elevator

Prairie Sentinels – Harris Saskatchewan

We’re at the corner of Main and Railway in the tiny village of Harris Saskatchewan documenting a wonderful old grain elevator. The heavens above are a gorgeous blue (Saskatchewan is the “Land of Living Skies”) and are near perfect. Losing ourselves in the moment we wander about the structure for...

Locomotive headlight

Class of ’63

The tiny locomotive documented here was constructed in 1963 by the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston Ontario. It was one of the last made by this long established firm, at that time in business for well over a century, and was the very final example produced for a Canadian customer....

Dodsland SK grain elevator

Dodsland SK ex-Sask Pool

The last grain elevator in Dodsland Saskatchewan is a massive wood structure that dates from the late 1950s. This one is rather interesting in a way, at least in today’s world, as it still stands alongside an active rail line and it’s still used to load grain cars. These factors,...

Diamond T Kananaskis

Diamond T

If time is short or you’re not feeling terribly ambitious, the Diamond T loop hiking trail is a good choice. It’s reasonably close to Calgary, one of the first trails encountered when heading west out of town into the Elbow River area of Kananaskis – it’s almost at the park...

Silver Bullet Boler

The Silver Bullet

We’ve been so busy lately that we’ve neglected the Boler category for a while. Let’s get back in the swing of things… Seen here is a seventeen foot model, the “Silver Bullet”, all done up in a gray-ish metallic looking paint job, and spotted in the Calgary community of Lynnwood...

Alsask Saskatchewan School

Alsask Saskatchewan then and now

The Alsask Saskatchewan School, a charming and nicely photogenic two-story brick and concrete structure, is one hundred and one years old. The last classes let out decades ago and while it’s all boarded up now and unused, it remains in decent shape. The most prominent and majestic building in the...

East Coulee AB bridge

East Coulee’s historic wood bridge

Abandoned, and looking every bit the part, pressure is growing to save the historic wooden road/rail bridge that spans the Red Deer River at East Coulee Alberta. Dating from the 1930s and last used just over three decades ago, it was built by the railway to access nearby coal mines,...

Keith Hansen Innisfail (1)

Innisfail AB then and now – elevator row

We’ve obtained two late 1970s era photos showing the impressive grain elevator row in Innisfail Alberta, perfect fodder for a BIGDoer.com then and now post. My how things have changed and on visiting the same location in 2015 we see that almost everything single thing in the old images is...

Marengo Saskatchewan elevator

Marengo’s crazy Frankenvator

The grain elevator we’ll be documenting in this article is located in the small Saskatchewan community of Marengo and is a crazy jumble of old and new, of wood and metal. It’s a giant Rube Goldberg-esque affair, a sprawling Frankenvator, comprised of so many different parts of so many different...

Alsask Saskatchewan Hotel

Alsask Saskatchewan then and now

Legendary photographer Harry Palmer sent us an image showing “downtown” Alsask Saskatchewan in 1985 to use in one of our trademark then and now series. Thirty years after he captured his wonderful photo, we venture back to the exact spot where he stood to record how the scene looks today....

View camera

Laing House: friends and film

The long abandoned Laing Farm House, located on the vast and endless Alberta Plains northeast of Calgary in Kneehill County, was constructed just over a century ago, A wonderfully picturesque building, even in its current state of advanced decay, it stands alone far from any road or access on the...

C Level Cirque Banff

C-Level Cirque

The trail to C-Level Cirque is fairly short and not terribly difficult and takes hikers up the lower flanks of Cascade Mountain in Banff National Park, to a large amphitheatre-like bowl. The views don’t happen to the end, but they’re well worth it. This destination is simply wonderful, and one...

Shaw TV studios Calgary

Soul Work

Today’s subject matter is a rather interesting one and perhaps a little different from what we normally do. We’ll be visiting the Shaw Cable studios in Calgary to document, behind the scenes, the TV program Soul Work. Hosted by life coaches and spiritual guides Jeni Cousins and Kimberley Buckler, we’ll...

Chevy Sedan Delivery

Badland’s Collection II

Here’s another fantastic collection of vintage vehicles, comprised mostly of 1950s era cars of many makes and models, found deep in the beautiful Alberta Badlands. Shot full of holes, stripped of parts, twisted and crushed, rusted and rotting, these old Fords, Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Plymouths sit beside a crumbling old...

Top of Junction Hill

Junction Hill

Located in the Highwood River area of Kananaskis, Junction Hill is our first summit of note in 2015. Our route to the top takes in two connecting ridges, making a loop of them in a counter clockwise fashion. You can do as we did, or can mix it up, going...

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