The most Dreadful Day of My Trip to Alberta...Going Home

And finally that day came and I wasn't looking forward to it.  The day I had to leave the serenity of the mountains of Kananaskis Country and return to the bustling city airport in Calgary to catch a flight home to Cape Breton. 

I tried to sleep in that morning because I knew I would be awake for a while attempting to get home but that didn't happen.  I was up at the crack of dawn.  The plan was to drive my sister to work, pick her up at 3:30, come home and eat and head to Calgary right after so we could get there in enough time to check into a hotel near the airport and relax and get a bit of sleep so I could catch my early flight and my sister could be rested enough to drive to work the next morning.  Little did I know that that plan would go out the window by mid-day.

I had the news on in the car while doing my normal morning coffee run and the news out of Calgary that day wasn't good.  A major water line break was wreaking havoc on the city.  Traffic delays and water restrictions were quickly becoming an issue.  We decided it was best to wait until later in the evening to head out just before dark to avoid the city's rush hour traffic. 

I spent that afternoon packing and enjoying the peaceful mountain environment.  After supper, we watched a movie and relaxed before setting out for the city.  We didn't get checked into the hotel until after 10 PM. By time we grabbed something to eat and got ready for bed, it was near midnight.  

I barely managed to get a mere three hours sleep before my alarm sounded.  I was up and ready to go by 3:45.  Fortunately, flight check-in was right across the street and my gate was not far from there so 15 minutes was plenty to make it through security two hours before my flight. 

I'd like to say the trip home went smoothly but if I said that, I would be lying because it was anything but smooth.  Long story short: my ticket was wrong.  It said it would take 24 hours to get from Calgary to Montreal.  I had issues finding someone to help me.  It took so long to find someone that I missed the opportunity to get breakfast and ended up having no food, except for the tiny bag of pretzels Air Canada so generously includes in the $1300.00 ticket price, we were delayed 1.5 hours on the tarmac with a equipment malfunction and delayed again in Sydney when there was no one available to assist on the ground. 

I walked off that plane exhausted, hungry, thirsty and cranky and to make matters worse, my ears popped so bad, they didn't pop back to normal upon landing so I was also deaf. It was nice to be home but I was already missing the Rocky Mountains. 

The Wildlife of Kananaskis Country

While visiting with my sister and seeing her new-to-me place was a priority during my trip to Alberta, the mountains and scenery were a welcome bonus!  But there was something else that drew me to the remote area of Kananaskis and that's the wildlife.  "There are deer, elk, bears and bighorn sheep everywhere" was all I heard from anyone who was familiar with the region and I certainly wasn't disappointed on this trip when it came to the abundance of wildlife. 

As soon as we turned off the Trans Canada onto the Kananaskis Trail, we saw three deer and several bighorn sheep.  While unpacking, I heard stories from my sister and her partner about animal encounters in the area.  A neighbor's dog was injured in a cougar attack, a grizzly bear wandered through the backyard in broad daylight and black bears raided some nearby campsites. 

The second day I was there, I saw three black bears.  One mamma bear and her cub eating in someone's backyard and a huge black bear walking down a remote road. Later that same day as we watched from on top of a hill overlooking the golf course, a very large grizzly bear walked around an area where several golfers were teeing off nearby. I don't think they had any idea that the bear was in the area and the bear didn't seem to be bothered by the activity nearby. 

I was a little afraid to drive by myself after my sister went back to work.  There were so many animals wandering onto the road at all hours of the day, I was scared I would hit one and damage her car or one of the sheep would turn and attack the car as I tried to get by them.  Those bighorn sheep like to block traffic and honking, waving and yelling does nothing to get them to move any quicker or budge an inch so you can get by.  They move when they feel like it.  Sometimes they move and several others will run out of the woods from the other side and sometimes they turn around and look like they are going to start kicking or head bunting the car. 

Here at home, the whitetail deer either run out in front of cars or stand in the middle of the road.  They are constantly getting hit!  But in Kananaskis, the deer just stayed in the ditch nibbling on grass.  I didn't see any on the road at all.  

Grey squirrels are certainly plentiful in Kananaskis but it was there strange behavior that caught my attention.  In the mornings, the little squirrels were lined up along the highway on their hind legs and facing the sun.  Not sure why they were doing this but it was definitely a cute and funny thing to see.

Although I had seen a grizzly on the golf course, it was so far away, I couldn't get a decent picture.  I kept hoping to see another one from a safe but closer distance and I finally did get that chance.  I dropped my sister off at work and drove to the entrance of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.  I noticed a car pulled over to the side of the road and two people with cameras looking in a grassy area.  I scanned the area looking for whatever it was that caught their attention and there it was; a large grizzly bear calmly eating some grass and making it's way across the field to a little stream.