Christmas

Well...another year...another Christmas. I don't remember a colder December. Global warming...HA! Bring it on! I'm working for Dennis McAreavy to pay back a sub he graciously did for me to enable my Great Divide Ride! Thanks Dennis!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!

Finally completed Jason & Melanie Video

It's on it's way Jason. Hope you enjoy it.

MAC Stuff

Well I have been upgrading my Macs like crazy. I put 1 G of Ram in my Ti book. the poor little 160 drive was bumping out to the edge, so I thought I'd try a thing called "Drive Genius" which includes a slim drive function. Well...if you don't know what the hell you're slimming...it is not good. Suffice it to say I recovered 40 G of space from my 250 in my G5, but totally screwed the 160. Good thing I had everything backed up to the nth degree!. It would mount to the point I got a screen, but nothing else. So I decided to put Leopard on it and erase it. It is amazing how much SHIT accumulates on a hard drive that aren't necessary. Steve at Westworld said he reformats his at least once a year to get rid of it. So I thought I would pair down my mp3's and photos etc. Well I ended up with 22 GB free now. So I guess it was worth it. I was told not to import that data directly or it would import all the crap...so I did that later. It was a bit of a challenge getting everything to work again. But seems to be working now. It doesn't allow you to pick and choose enough..so it was a challenge getting what I wanted. Seems to work now though.

I put a 1 TB drive on my G5 and now think I need to put another one in place of my baby 250. I have lots of externals kicking around though. It is amazing...it is like a garage...it fills up the space you have available. Unfortunately I need to find a 250 external that I can use when I get my NEW ONE. (Whenever that will be). Otherwise I'll run into the same problem. Then I can just clone the drive to my new one.

I love Leopard, it is working great!!! Filemaker 6 works but Photoshop 7 sure doesn't! Guess I'll need to get Elements, don't think I can afford the full version. Aperture is working great for RAW images, actually has a lot of editing properties in this program.
Now if Apple will only make a movie program that puts chapter markers on a DVD....how ridiculous that Imovie 8 doesn't do this!

EPCR First Day

Well...glad we didn't have a cardiac arrest!!! It took 3 hours to do the first call. After having done it, some how it created two, so we had to find which one was the real one, and redo that one with all the information. (Long story!) We ended up with two hours overtime on the last call because we got it at 4:30. Oh well....at least they paid for their insistence that we go cold turkey!

Today is another day!

EPCR

Well...today is the first day of the new EPCR (Electronic patient Care Record). We get to be the guinea pigs. It should be interesting. For the first time...I hope our first call keeps us at the hospital for a while...cause it will take a while to enter all the data into this thing. It is basically a Panasonic 12 inch toughbook, with propietary software.

Ram woes

Well it seems that Ram and me don't get along!

I took my G5 to Westworld and they finally got the ram to post. Today I got my updated ram for my Ti book.....guess what...the 512 ram I was supposed to get was really a 256! Go figure!! When I took it back to Westworld they found three others that their supplier had screwed them on for 256's for 512's! How does that happen!!.

Ram and me don't get along. I got it home and had no end of problems, but finally got the 512 they gave me to post. So now I HAVE 1 G OF RAM IN my Ti book...woopee....that is double what I had before....and now it seems to work. wow...!! I'm looking forward to the speed boost.
I got the ram in my G5 to work....weird....the placement of the ram! the bottom of the 1 & 2 slots contains the 1 G and the Top of the 3 & 4 contains the 1 G. I need to get rid of the two 512's now and upgrade THAT to 1 G so that I can run Aperture better. I downloaded the trial version and it rocks...so I'm buying it. WOW it is an awesome program. but it needs RAM so I'll be getting the max on my G5 soon. I NEED TO WIN THE LOTTERY BAAAD!!!!!!

Upgrading computers

So...my old computers are getting slow. I'm upgrading ram in my Ti book and in my G5. Lots of problems with the G5, seems it won't post the ram I was given. Westworld has booked it in to find out why. Also some how my two 512 chips have now reverted to 256's, yet it says the ram is ok. How does that happen???? I got a new 1 TB drive and cloned everything from my 250. Now I won't have to dump stuff to do video. I want a new Macbook pro baaaad! Trouble is..I'm going to have to get new software cause a lot of it isn't compatible with the new system. Oh well....maybe I'll have to work some overtime!

Also getting a brake job done on the Olds...so it will be good for the winter.

Robert J. Fisher Anchor D pics

Click on the title to go to my iweb site, where you can actually see the pics and download them. I'll be taking the hi res pics out of my .Mac sites next week. Oh I just noticed that the movies (MVI's) didn't seem to get all the attributes, hence Dewy's accordion playing is sound, but no action. I guess it didn't transfer properly from iphoto. I'll see what I can do...but in the meantime, at least you can hear it. ( I was trying to conserve space so didn't play the whole song) If I new then what I know now I could have video'd the whole trip. I had two 8 GB cards with me plus several 2's!

Alberta Professional Outfitters Association

Click on the title to get 441 outfitters in Alberta.

Things I appreciated on the ride...Stuff I TOOK ALONG!

I sort of took this for granted...but the tents were great. A bit of a pain to set up, but well worth it. Especially when all the wind and rain happened everyday. I was reading some of the other outfitting sites and they make you sleep under a tarp with 7 other people! That would have been sub optimal, as I get up to pee three times a nite, and I have been told that I snore.

I was super glad that Anchor D had raised camp cots, These also were a bit tricky to set up...but it keeps you off the ground. I was glad I brought my "Expidite" air mattress ( the latest and greatest in sleeping mattresses!) This thing is insulated to about an R 8 or so, and that over top of a closed cell foamy was super comfortable. I also brought along the little Pillow/inflator thinggy that proved very usesful.

I had a whole set of "Merino wool" underwear, including short and long sleeves. I found later that I wore the long sleeve over the short sleeve, cause it was quite cool approaching 0ºC at nite. I also had a Merino vest, but didn't use it...I used my Burke & Wills vest most of the time. (Available in Lethbridge at the Aussie store in the downtown mall). Merino stuff I got at Campers Village in Calgary. It was expensive but worth it. It is very light, doesn't smell, and dries quickly if you get too hot. I had Merino socks, too and found that my boots stretched so much that I had to add a pair of lite socks over top. I guess that is what I get for getting new boots!

Speaking of Boots, I was super glad that I bought the rubber overshoes to go with them. Some of the areas we were in were very muddy and wet, and the climb up to the Lake of the horns would have been futile without the rubber grip! I found out that nobody is making rubber boots for cowboy boots anymore, and I was lucky to get these. (Alberta Boots) The old pair of boots I had since I was a kid, and resoled were kinda getting old, and I thought I deserved a new pair. The rubbers I had for them didn't fit cause they were a different shape! I would advise anyone getting boots to try and get rubbers to fit them, cause walking around in a mucky corral is not good for them! Ok....NEW THOUGHT!....I just got back from Spruce Meadows...there I found a pair of Brit MUCK BOOTS from COWSMOPOLITAIN (http://www.rkde.com/cowsmopolitan/muckboot.htm )in Didsbury! (Yep that's how they spell it). These things are awesome...made of some kind of neoprene, like they make wet suits out of. Good for -25ºC. They have a heel so you can ride in them, and are totally waterproof. Wow that is the way to go! They don't come in 1/2 sizes so be prepared to wear a second pair of socks, or one of those Genius double boot socks.

I had my Burke & Wills Slicker from the Aussie Store. It comes with a hood, which was nice to have when it poured rain. It fit over my Aussie hat (which is crushable and comes back to shape immediately. It also didn't leak like the "Fire Fox" one from OUtback that I bought earlier in the week. I was at a rodeo, and just sitting there, and my pants were soaked through....what good is that! I took it back and they gave me my money back (Prairie Saddlery in Strathmore). Dewy had a black rain coat that he got from Ribtors (a very unique store in Calgary) and swears by it....but Ribtors doesn't exist anymore as we knew it. I wondered if the Kix & Bux one from Irvine Tack & Trailer would be good! But I quite liked my slicker. When it was buttoned up, it protected my legs, and saddle from brush as well as kept me dry. I had a pair of "North Face" rain pants that I bought from Campers village. I was glad to have them, as they too were extra protection, and allowed me to shorten my Burke & Wills slicker to the 3/4 position for trail hiking, and still stay dry. (You can't do that with a FirefoX!) The pockets on the slicker allowed me to button my camera in quite safely, cause I couldn't get at my belt case with the slicker on. some people wore chaps, but I think chaps for me would have been too bulky. Chinks if they are soft would perhaps be nice, but I already had a lot of crap on my legs, AND I never got hit once. (Mostly due to my expert horse!)

I had two pair of gloves, one pair I bought years ago, that were very tight fitting oiled leather, that I kept in my vest. They came in handy when the little girl lost her gloves, and was quite cold. My other gloves were oilskin, bought at the Aussie Shop. They were great!

I took my Merrill "running shoes" with me. I learned my lesson on the last trip when I only took my sealskin moccasins. I wanted to get out of those cowboy boots after a long days ride, and they were very comfortable to have as I wear them every day. They also came in handy the day we hiked up to Carnarvon Lake. I wouldn't have made it up there with my cowboy boots. Dewy said I could ride in them, but I really don't like riding with anything that doesn't have a good heel. they have a Vibram type sole, so are not strictkly a running shoe, more of a hiking shoe. I think I'll try to find a pair with a little more water proofing.

I quickly found out that a straw cowboy hat is NOT the hat to have on the mountain trails, cause the wind up there, plus galloping, will blow it off, and it is a pain in the butt trying to stop your speeding horse, while all the others are running like hell, get off, try and get your ass back on your horse, while he is stressed out that he is not keeping up with the others. Trust me you don't want to do that! somehow Dewy's hat never came off...of course he had to relate some long story of why that was! (I think it was crazy glue!!!) It had to be!

I had a good down sleeping bag, and bought a fleece bag liner. The fleece liner is quite warm itself, and I found that I opened up the down bag, and just covered my feet, after I got warm. I don't know what the rating of the bag is...it is one I bought years ago, it was made in New Zealand...and is a great bag. It stuffs well into a very small sac so that I could put it into my North Face duffel bag. That duffle bag is pretty well water proof, and has places on the outside to attach things, and shoulder straps to carry it on your back like a pack if you have to. (I had to on one of my rides, as the vehicle that was supposed to get our stuff couldn't get down and up the hill cause of all the rain, so I had to pack it up myself). It was red so was easy to identify in the pile of duffles when they unloaded the wagon. I had various water proof sacs inside the bag.

Woops....getting close to Spruce Meadows time...I want to see the trail competition. Be back later.

I caught the trail class and the battle of the breeds...the mules won! How about that. And one of my Paramedic Colleagues sister was one of the competitors. Congratulations guys!!!! MULES RULE!

I took along a little first aid kit with such things as muscle relaxants (good for the guy who hurt his back!) also included was moleskin, for a little wear hole on the side of my ankle. Good old oil of Oregano...which will kill anything bacteria, viruses you name it! And of course a few Bandaids.

I managed to find a little solar power-windup radio/led light at "The Source". I was able to get the weather forcasts on FM. and the light was good in the tent. I also had my REALLY powerful Streamlite flashlite that I use at work. That thing can start fires it's so bright. I thought it could also blind a bear if he decided to get into my tent. Well anyway, it was good to find the biffy in the dark!

I was going to buy a new GPS to take on the trip. But took the one back that I bought...cause I figured my Zumo 550 that I use on my motorbike and car was good enough to use to locate various points and to pinpoint an emergency for a helicopter should the need arise. I was surprised that Anchor D did not have one! They did have a Sat phone, that seemed to work ok.. and I guess Dewy would be able to tell any pilot where to land out there anyway. ( Just me trying to take care of myself) I still think that a "Find me spot" would be useful. Go to findmespot.com. This requires a subscription to google, but if I was doing this sort of thing on a regular basis, I would have one.

I did carry my bear spray, bear honker (hooter or horn ), and bear bangers on a separate belt. I've read too many books and been around too many bears not to have my own protection! Although Dewy and Leonard both had 45/70 guns, and they both say you are crazy to go into this part of the country without a weapon. Our instruction was to "stay in the tent" if the dog went nuts and a bear came into camp. I would have had a problem with that....but I could see that he didn't want a bunch of idiots getting in the way of a shot should the need arise! I also packed a knife....and so did all the guides! I guess some defense is better than no defense. Besides it could come in handy for other things. Just read Gary Shelton's books!

I appreciated the team of wranglers. They were very hard working, and had our horses fed, groomed and saddled & watered by breakfast time. Wow those guys were awesome! Some outfitters make you do everything for your horse (not that I would have minded, just seemed to be that "bit" extra that separates the outfitters! (Also I think it had something to do with insurance!)

One thing....at the last camp they hobbled the horses and let them graze. Funny thing it kind of masked the dinner bell! Crap I hate it when that happens! Boy could those horses go with the hobbles on! kept the lawn mowed around camp though!

A lot of the riders brought some booze along, like cider or beer. I was kinda jealous at times, and sure could have used one after a ride. But I didn't want to add to the weight of stuff being carried. But next time......I think I'll take a little something along. I don't think it would have been a good idea to get pissed in the bush, but a beer or cider would have been refreshing. Some people were into wine...but I have never been a whiner! (Boo!)

I had a little thermometer on my zipper, but I think it was pretty well wrong! It said it was minus one at times and on further checking I think it was BS. I was going to take it back but found out that all of them read something different!!!!
(Well it had a little compass on it too!!!)

I had a couple of fire starters with me. Lighters, and a magnesium thinggy that I could have used with my knife to start a fire in a pinch. It is tricky to start a fire in the rain! The crew had wood that was pre-cut and covered! the kitchen used a wood stove and a propane one. but they mostly used wood. They did have a Chainsaw, but had axes and a maul axe that were very sharp. From Lee Valley Tools no less!

The saddles all had saddlebags of sorts. Most of them were suboptimal! Most of them left open ends when you closed them, subjecting things to falling out. So don't expect to keep anything important in them. They were good for water bottles and lunches and that was about it. OH....be sure and tie your slicker on properly or it will come off at a gallop! The best way is to button it...hold it vertical and roll it inwards, then fold it over a couple of times and tie it tightly on the back of the saddle with the ties. I had a couple of nylon hold downs that i used at first, but I found that I took it on and off so often that it was a pain in the butt! You do NOT want it to come off at a gallop!!!!! NOT a good thing!!! Oh and DO NOT get caught trying to put your coat on while waking along the trail. Dewy will chastise you severely, saying that is where accidents happen!

Wildsmart...Where the bears are

I just heard this on TV and have to share this site. This tells you all about were the bears are in the Bow valley. Very cool! Click on title.

Day 7

Well here it is Day 7. It poured rain all nite, and is still pouring when we got up. But miraculously it cleared off about 10:30 when we went to ride.

We went across Hwy 40 and into the Highwood Range.  Waaay up on a ridge overlooking where

 we had been. AWSOME! we were above the clouds in some areas.  We could see all across where we had been the past 6 days.  We ran across an old coal mine shaft. (We didn't go in!)

Lots of places were so steep we had to walk the horses down, but they followed and didn't even run over us.  They were great!

We got back to the Cat Creek staging area, and my car even started! It didn't take long to load the horses and say our goodbyes, on of the bunch took all our email addresses so we could communicate later....thanks for that!

Everyone made it through...no major casualties, and no bear attacks. I consider that a successful trip.  Thanks to the expertise of the staff at Anchor D. I will try to ride with them again sometime. I hear that the "Lost Trail" ride is pretty good...maybe next year!

Oh...the food was great....even crepes for breakfast one day that would rival any french restaurant. Shrimp cocktail for snacks...it couldn't get better than that! 

Now lets get the truck out of here!

Day 5,6

Day 5.  We went all along a fabulous ridge overlooking two valleys on the way to camp 3.  We could see the wagons on the wagon trail. We saw  the remains of an old log cabin, and some old log piles, and an old stove.  Most of this stuff has been mandated removed by the Government in the name of "preservation". How ridiculous! All the old logging sites have been "cleaned up".  I would rather see the history that is left than open meadows! Day 6 saw us going to another lake in the crook of two mountains ..."The Lake of the Horns"!  I was told it was only a 5 minute hike and that I could do it with my cowboy boots with rubbers. (Thank God I got the rubber boots to go over them!) NO chains up this mountain! We were going right near where Leonard had spotted 3 bears the nite before. (Thankfully they stayed on the further ridge!)  We did see a bear track

 though. We saw a huge wolf track too..didn't get a good shot of that...it was as big as my hand!

Carnarvon lake...chains up!

We Are going up there!!!! You gotta be kidding!  The pictures don't do it justice!

It is a stocked lake, and you have to leave a note telling how many fish you caught, so they can replace them. (Trout). Boy was it windy!

Dewy told me that a conservation officer tracked him down up here and gave him a $150.00 fine for having his dog off leash, when in fact he had permission from the Minister and had the only license in existence for his Bear dog Fester! Can

 you believe THAT! His dog had saved him from bears on numerous occasions.

Great divide Day 2,3,4

We stayed 2 days at each camp. Glad we didn't have to do that every day! Camp 2 was nice, cosy and secluded.  I found out that due to provincial RULES, that putting anything up that was not there before the rules were made was totally illegal and therefore we couldn't make a bench, or put up a ridge pole or anything!  But this camp had a couple of old tables and a ridge pole that we could put a tarp over to protect us against the rain while we were at the campfire.On the way to camp 2, we went over a ridge that overlooked the valley. Stunning view! Then we headed for the "Great Divide!"
Then we proceeded to go up to Carnarvon Lake.  This lake is waaaay up there and has chains imbedded in the rock so you have something to hold onto while going up and down. Needless to say, I thought I'd signed up for a horse ride, not a Mountain climbing hike! Well, I'm glad I wore my mountain runners, cause my cowboy boots would have gotten me killed!

Great Divide Day 1

So we dropped off the horses at Etherington Creek and drove my car back to Cat Creek to park for the 7 days, and took the van back to the horses. The circles represent the trail the wagons took, while the lines represent the trail we took. The wagons were at camp long before us and set up and got ready for supper. When we got to camp they showed us how the tents went up and from then on it was our responsibility. All through the week it rained on and off. But we were lucky that most of the rain occurred at nite when we were sleeping. Somehow it cleared off when it came time to hit the trail, which usually happened about 10 am.The wranglers fed the horses horse feed and give them hay which was stored there previously. They looked after them very well. They always groomed them before they saddled them up as well.

It was interesting to find out who was on the ride and why they came etc. A lady Veterinarian from New York State; two from Washington DC; two from Calgary (not including me);a Dad and daughter from Cold Lake;a Mom and daughter from Markham Ontario; plus a Dad Wrangler that brought his 10 year old daughter along for the first three days. Dewy Mathews and his wife Jan (the owners of Anchor D) brought their daughter and son with them for the first couple of days. There were various wranglers that showed up after day 2...usually we had at least three on each trip. One wrangler was from Australia and was on his last ride before going on a European vacation. Another wrangler was from Meadow Lake Sask. and appeared to know just where to look to find BEARS and Elk and Moose!
Dewy Entertained us with his accordion playing after supper. I think he could play everything!

My Canon G9

If you click on the title you can go to the review.  This is a great little camera, much better than my SD 80.

Great Divide Ride

Ok....it has been a couple of days back, and I'm still gathering my thoughts from an unbelievable ride. 

This has been the Ride of a lifetime. All the comments on the website are true.  I could not believe where we took horses.  I would not have gone there without an experienced guide.  Well worth the money. I will never forget this.  I thought I was prepared for this...but, I never thought I would go places we went, down slopes and through forests like this.  Not in Saskatchewan anyway! I had my eyes opened to the tenacity and experience of others.  I thought I was pretty tough...but was quickly put in my place by the likes of "Supergirl" and "Supermom".  These people took off on a hike and left me in the dust!  I am not used to that....It is usually me that leaves people in the dust.  (Guess I've been out of the loop for 30 years or so!) Stay tuned!

Ok...I have put the pics on my .Mac site Click on the title to go to the site. They are in jpeg form but you have to download them to see them (all 700mb) They won't be there for long.

Anchor D Guiding & Outfitting Ltd.

Well, Tomorrow is the big day. Bright and early at the Anchor D.  Going into the Great Divide, somewhere...who knows exactly where. Click on the title for the website. Hope the bears stay away....and hope it doesn't snow! It's going to be great to get the heck out of this city! I need a break desperately! I bought a new G9 Canon cause my poor S80 bit the dust.  I also got a Canon A590IS as a back up, I don't want to be 7 days from nowhere, and have no camera! I'm taking the Colt cause the Olds is running it's battery down again. Don't know what is going on...but I want to be able to get home after. I'm parking way out in the bush somewhere apparently, at some trail head or other. 10 people on the ride, and 5 guides, dogs and somebody will have  a gun for bears! Stay tuned for pics I hope.

Bear Encounter Survival Guide

Ok..These three books available at Amazon.com (Click Title). Absolutely a MUST read for anyone going into Bear Country.

Which I am next week!

This fellow is perhaps the leading authority on Bears, and pulls no punches when it comes to telling the truth about Conservationists Vs Preservationists. Bears are not declining in population they are increasing.  Why do you think there has been an increasing number of attacks lately!

Strathmore Rodeo

I went to this after a rather busy niteshift.  Good day, it didn't rain til after the rodeo. Cost $14.00 for rush seats. I thought they were better for photography. However they wanted another $24.00 for the Chuckwagon races on top of that...so I took a pass. This is more than the Calgary Stampede for pete's sake!