February 4, 2012 – Snakehead Natural Area with Jack and Shirley

Fran Lavoie has kindly given us directions to her natural area which is a braided river channel of the Red Deer River north of Sundre. My husband has been in the hospital since December 11^th and I welcome this time with friends away from my daily routine. In Sundre we stop at “The Chester Mjolsness World of Wildlife” that is just off the main drag. Shirley knows someone who worked on the taxidermy end of it. I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of antelope! Or sheep for that matter. The Sundre Museum is filled with historical memorabilia of every description and the three of us are attracted to different displays.

Snakehead is also the name of the local recreational area and the museum staff who have lived in the area all their lives are not familiar with the natural area of the same name “further up the road” (8 km north of the bridge). We take a road east (just north of the school bus parking area) that ends at a pumper. We climb a ridge to sit on a log in the sun and munch some snacks. We hear the pumping of the pumper, the humming of a plane overhead, some birdsong, trucks on the highway. From this height we can see the braided river channel below.

I plan to visit the east side of the natural area and I make a note to go there when I visit some of the other natural areas around Sundre. But for now, the sunshine and my friends are sufficient.

November 5, 2011 - Wagner Natural Area with Angela and Patsy

Angela and I are attending a meeting of the Alberta Northwest Conference United Church of Canada Historical Society at Riverbend United Church. Patsy has kindly offered to show us her natural area and after the meeting we phone to get directions to her house. Following her to the site is easier than trying to find it on our own and all I can tell you is that we are west of Edmonton. (The Wagner Natural Area is 7 km west of Edmonton on Highway 16X, just south of the intersection with Highway 794.)

This is a larger natural area with trails and signage. Patsy is understandably proud of the work many nature loves have put in to keep this site. It is obviously a special place to many people. Although it is overcast and cold, there is someone else ahead of us. A gentlemen walks his dog – or rather watches it as the dog is not on a leash.

We walk through a meadow that is being kept “open”. I spot an animal – a coyote? a wolf? He does not hurry upon spotting us and lays down to keep watch. 

We enter into the forest. There is a self-guiding interpretive trail but Patsy knows the place by heart. (She probably wrote the guide booklet!) It is like a fairy land. Then we see the wetlands. Wagner Area is popularly known as Wagner Bog but it is really a fen. Patsy explains that springs have created calcium-rich marl ponds. I had never heard of marl. It is an insoluble carbonate residue that covers the mosses and plants growing in and around the pools with a whitish casting.

 Bogs, fens, marl ponds – they seem as if they belong to the British Isles – not central Alberta. I enjoy the idea that there are many special, “magical” places in Alberta, that are waiting there for me to explore. 

October 29, 2011 - Sheep Creek Natural Area with Ashley Rose

My natural area is on the way back from Kayben Farm near Okotoks where I have taken my granddaughter for an outing. We ride the wagon and wander the corn maize. The pumpkin field is empty but we buy a small one on our way out. Back on the road we pass the erratic that give Okotoks or “Big Rock” its name. I have visited Sheep Creek Natural Area for 17 years, yet still am uncertain which road to turn down. Is it 96^th St or 112? The road leads down to the river and from this distance one can see the road or cut line on the other side. I have never been on the “other side”. The river meanders. It also overflows. And changes course. I park the car at the end of the road where the river flowed by the last time I was there. Today the bed it empty. The river has decided to “go another way”.

 

We walk through the rancher's field along side the river bed and Ashley Rose hesitates as the brambles catch on her.

 We hear a shot. In the all the times I have come here I have never seen anyone else. We approach the two young men who are intent on their target practice. They have set up the target on the side of the dry riverbank. I ask them where the Natural Area is and the one dressed in camouflage rattles off the boundaries. The other young man asks if we mind if they take their last shot. We move on trying to find a way across the water. But their isn't any safe place and the target practice is dis-concerning. I will return another time.  

October 22, 2011 - Innisfail Natural Area with Shirley

We stop in Innisfail to see the Kemp House. Historic sites attract me as much as natural areas and I am pleased that two of my favorite things are near each other. I take a photo of the provincial emblem over the door.I recall how the view on the emblem is the same as from the second floor of the house. I wish the house were open so that I could share this view with my friend. 

After one wrong turn we find the Innisfail Natural Area 10 km east –the entrance right on highway 590. There is a pickup truck there – and a sign telling us that it is hunting season and hunting is allowed in the Natural Area. This adds an element of danger and I imagine a fatal encounter. That would be dramatic!















Shirley is not deterred so we venture forth.There are no paths, at least none that we can find – just the ones made by animals that peter out. I take photos of all the colors that attract me. These are fall colours – my colours.

This was once a Homestead the guidebook tells us and “the areas that were once cultivated fields are now in various stages of regrowing to aspen woods. Over half of the Natural Area was never cultivated.” We are in deciduous forest, shrub land, grassland and meadow. This is what the central Alberta once looked like. Like early explorers, I do not know where the edge is – and eventually we turn back without seeing the pond at Kneehills Creek. Shirley leads the way back and points out where she thinks the homestead and yard were. I wonder about the family and where they came from and where they went after leaving here. There is not much left to say they were here. If they hadn't chose this place perhaps the natural area would not be here today. It provides a place to contemplate – and to hunt.

We leave without seeing our fellow hunter. I wonder if he/she is enjoying their time here as much as we did.