Canoe Astotin Lake, Elk Island

Ryan and I finally got to go Canoe at Astotin lake in Elk Island National Park! We've talked about going a few times but it seems that every time we plan to go a severe thunderstorm watch/warning comes up.

It was a really beautiful hot day on Sunday with no storm in sight and a perfect day to be at the lake.

Rentals are $25 per hour and cheaper if you add a second hour. We opted for just 1 knowing that we could always go out again if that's what we decided.

We paddled ourselves to the back of the island, enjoyed the peace and warmth of the day and then got caught in a weird current that just pushed us around in circles no matter which way we paddled.

Eventually free from the current we found a calm spot, tucked the paddles in and relaxed in the sun. I cautiously put my feet in the water over each side while keeping the canoe from tipping. The warm clear water had me silently hoping it did tip though..

Eventually be had to give up our paddles, but stayed on the beach for a while. We walked in the shallow water until I saw leeches and ran away. The pretty much ended my hopes of a beach day. I'm sure we will be back again anyway!

Camping in Crescent Falls

When we woke up on Friday morning Ryan informed me that this had been in his top ten worst sleeps. I found a pretty perfect area to put the tent, but the one small root happened to be underneath him and on top of that he was freezing. I did ok, just some cold feet and slightly sore hips because I sleep on my side.

We did eventually get up and out of our relatively warm space to go have breakfast and start the day. Ryan taught me to play Joker Rummy the night before so we played a few rounds while eating our cereal and fruit.

Without any plans for the day we took ourselves for a walk along the river and down to the waterfall again. I collected sticks along the way to make a small afternoon campfire to warm us up when we returned to camp. The downside about camping in a canyon is that it can get quite cold and sometimes it stays that way even when the surrounding areas are warm and beautiful.

Back at the camp we started our little fire, made lunch and played more Rummy while discussing what to do next. I found a rock earlier that looked like it had little crystals in it, smashed it open and found I was right. Naturally, we were thrilled and wanted to find more so walked around a different beach area on the hunt for treasure. We didn’t find any.

Having had enough of the same areas, we got in the van and drove to a place that my dad recommended to us. You will have seen Abraham Lake on my blog a few days ago because I couldn’t wait to share it with you and that’s where we went.

Only about 10 or 15 minutes down the road, but a world apart. The campground is in a valley, covered with trees and cold (though no less beautiful!), Abraham Lake is bright and open and had us stripping off layers before we even got out of the car.

It would appear that all the sun was shining right over the perfect blue lake and keeping all the warmth to itself, seemingly with all the wind as well. It certainly beat the cold we had been fighting all morning though. If I had a bathing suit with me I would have happily jumped in.

We spent quite a while walking up and down the edges of the water, taking pictures and enjoying the heat before deciding we should go back to camp.

Surprisingly the sun followed us back! We took off a few more layers, grabbed a towel and went down to the river again to get our feet wet. Ryan got his first shocking feel of just how cold this water is. Having swam in it many times before I was prepared for the pain but no less shocked by the invisible ice daggers stabbing every inch of my feet.

Once you get adjusted it’s not quite so bad and when the rest of your body is still so warm it’s a nice contrast. We only stayed for a short while before realizing it was nearly supper time and heading back.

Fire started, supper cooking, warm layers back on, cards shuffled and ready to get cozy for the evening.  We decided to cook on the fire tonight instead of using the stove, which was a nice idea, but ultimately kind of annoying. Potatoes, corn on the cob, sausage for Ryan and fake burgers for me. I would like to say I finally won a round of cards while enjoying supper, but that would be a lie.

Crescent Falls 1

Ryan and I finally went on our first camping trip with just the two of us. We went with a group last year and spent almost no time in our site, didn’t really cook at all and never built a fire.

Crescent Falls campground is about three and a half hours from Edmonton. It sits along an ice cold river that drops into 2 waterfalls near the entrance.

When we arrived in the early afternoon we got the important things done first; set up the tent in case it starts to rain and collect wood from the pile. We just bought our tent and this was the first time setting it up. It was really easy, but we didn’t realize when we bought it that the whole top half was just mesh and would only be covered by the fly. Not that we could do anything about it at the moment, but Ryan decided we would have to return it before he ever even went inside.

Once we had everything set up it was time to explore. We walked along the river, threw rocks in, took pictures and enjoyed nature. It wasn’t warm out, but it wasn’t overly cold either. Looking down on the waterfall I tried hard to convince Ryan that we should hike down to the bottom of it but he was having none of that.

Instead of hiking down we walked along the paths close to where we were, the smaller, less walked trails. After a while we hit a dead end of sorts and I happened to notice a tree moving more than what the light breeze would do and with a dark shadow hidden behind it. I decided that it may be a bear, pulled Ryan the other direction at a good walking speed and then when we got back to the parking lot area I acted like nothing happened..  Let’s not have anyone panic.

The rocky banks of the river seemed like a good place to go next. At the back of the campground just behind where we had set up is a beautiful spot to be. Clad in rubber boots now we walked in the water, squished through the mud and tested the current. 

Having seen a few others we felt inspired to make an inuksuk. We found a perfect platform to start building on and then searched the beach for all the right rocks to create it.

Having had our fun for the day and feeling hungry we went back to the camp to make tacos!! Initially I wasn't sure that tacos would make great camping food, but with everything prepped ahead of time all we had to do was cook the meat and assemble.

I was so happy to be back at Crescent Falls. I absolutely love it there!

Photos; Abraham Lake

I know you didn't get a blog again on Thursday but I was away camping!!

This post will be very blue and will have very few words. After all, who really needs words in a place this beautiful?

While we were away camping Ryan and I drove 15 minutes down the road from our campground to visit Abraham Lake. If you have ever looked at the #TravelAlberta hashtag on Instagram then I will guarantee you have seen this place before.

The water is so incredibly blue it actually looks fake. The whole time I was staring at it I couldn't help but think it looks like blue milk.

Above the lake and perfectly overlooking it is a campground of sorts. You won't find any toilets, picnic benches or fire pits though, none other than the rock rings created by those that choose to stay here. Bonus - you won't find anyone asking for payment either!

I spent some time on this little sand bar just soaking up the world around me. This place is really amazing.

It was a beautiful, hot and sunny day but the wind was blowing hard, otherwise I would have jumped in without a second thought.

Ryan still gets excited every time he sees the mountains. It's always seems like a new thing for him and that gives me a little spark of excitement to be here too.

DIY - Making Stamps

On Tuesday night I randomly came up with a DIY project I wanted to start and I’ve been thinking about it since. I decided I wanted to make personalized stamped fabric to use for cushions when we get dining chairs. This DIY goes beyond just stamping and sewing though, I am making the actual stamps! No one will have the same fabric as me!!!

After checking various posts on Pinterest for how other people went about this process, I decided what I would do.

My initial test run involved a box cutter and a rubber eraser. It turned out well considering how tiny my surface was. I made a tiny flower on the end of a pencil and a whale on one end of my eraser.

As simple and mess free as the eraser was, it isn’t big enough for the pattern I wanted to create. My initial plan was to use a piece of mold-able clay and carve into that.

To start I collected up all my tools and found a mobile surface to work on so I could lay on the floor while carving.

I used: 1 box cutter for carving

A painting knife for smoothing and pulling away excess clay

1 pairing knife to cut the piece of clay off the block

Firm mold-able clay from the dollar store

            Print outs of the image I want - for use as a stencil

With everything ready to go I got to it. I cut out my printed image and traced around it onto the clay with my box cutter.

From there I slowly cut deeper and removed all the excess from around my lobster shape, because it’s fairly detailed and not that big this step took quite a while.

When the stamp took its final shape all that was left was to smooth out the surface and remove any unwanted imperfections.

I had wanted to try out the stamp on paper using an ordinary stamp pad but the one I had was too small. I tried brushing the ink on as well but it dried too quickly to make a nice transfer. When I get to the stage of actually stamping my fabric I will be using liquid fabric dye so it should be much simpler then. But I’ll make another post for that part when I get to it!

Happy Stamping!