Shovel Pass 09

I went into the back country on Saturday and came out today. I have been up two times before, and I have to say that this was probably the best time. I went up on a freight trip (so there were no paying riders) Eric and I took up hiker duffel's, bed sheets and groceries. On the second day ( we ride up the first, have one day there, and ride out the third) Eric and I fixed the fence. This entailed Eric cutting down two small trees that would make good rails, then we used a draw knife to shave the bark, then Eric beveled the ends and I held the rail while he nailed it on the post. Our hands got really sticky from the sap, and as you can see from the picture, picked up a lot of dirt. As we were finishing the fence, we could see a storm coming in, so we decided to ride in the snow. It was such a fun (but cold) ride, as there was snow, sleet and hail. I love that there was snow in August. After that, we went inside and played Rodeo Rama (like monopoly but rodeo style. I am so glad that I got this opportunity. Here are some pics of the trip.

Signal Mountain

Jaimie and I climbed a MOUNTAIN. It took us 6 hours and 35 minutes to get up and down. we left at 8am, and finished around 2:30ish. It was really foggy, and after about an hour we kept hearing snapping sounds. Jaimie brought Eric's hunting knife, so she got it out, and we walked with the knife out. We were very freaked out, but we never ran into the bear. When we finally got to the top it was so amazing. The view was breath taking, and there were a bunch of Marmots that came real close. We found a Moose antler. The mountain was 7,398 feet high. Now we are going to relax.

Edmonton and Kat

I went to Edmonton on Monday to drop Emilie off at the B and B that she was going to stay at so she could catch her flight on Tuesday. I bought a new pair of cowboy boots (mine were getting pretty bad), and we spent most of the day at the mall. We went to the water park, and even though the waves were not running that day, we had fun. Emilie managed to convince me to go on a water slide, so we went on the Blue Bullet. You have to jump in, then cross your arms over your chest and cross your ankles. Anyone that knows me knows I hate heights, and climbing up the stairs was very hard to do. At first when I jumped into the slide, I thought that I was going to have a Panic attack, but the second time I went on the slide it was better. We only went on the slides twice as there was a large lineup after that. We saw a bunch of people bungee jumping, and it reinforced that I never want to do it. After the mall, I took Emilie to the B and B and then drove back to Jasper.
Kat
We have been over run with mice and gophers at the barn this year, and our cat Short Tail has decided that he likes birds and being fed by the engineering staff better than catching mice, so Dave said we should go to the SPCA and get another one. They are overstocked, and were offering cats half off, but Dave said to go get one for free. Tonight Eric, Jaimie and I went to Hinton, said we wanted a barn cat, and they said they had a few on the list. The first one that came to mind was not spayed, so we took the next one. Barn cats are free, and they just ask for a donation. They said that if this cat did not work out that we could take her back and trade her for Brandy (the really nasty one that was the first choice). We renamed the cat, Kat, and she is in the barn now, so we shall see if this works out.