No matter what the weather, most days outdoors offer something worth noting, even if it’s just that the combination of conditions is infinite, or that you’ve seen something for the first time, or something again but in a different way. Occasionally, a day will stand out for its sheer wonder, when everything comes together to keep you in awe. The other day, an evening meeting in Pincher Creek beckoned. It’s difficult to go in that direction for just a meeting, so I left in the early afternoon to check out the rivers to see if they were fishable. The Oldman on the way out of Lethbridge was a little murky, but of course, several tributaries have fed it before it reaches here, so it can be different upstream. The Summerview Bridge section just west of Brocket didn’t look too exciting, so I moved upstream to the Cottonwood area below the Oldman Dam. It looked fishable at the bottom of the Boulder Run, so I figured I’d put on the waders and rig the fly line with a large nymph.
As I pulled over to get out of the truck, I saw something move down in the ditch that ended my thoughts about fishing. For the next half hour, I watched five red fox pups through my telephoto camera lens. As all youngsters, they were playful, curious, cautious and severely cute. I tried not to interfere with their day of scratching, sniffing and exploring the area within a 10-metre radius of the den. They knew I was there, but when they did retreat, they quickly returned to rummage some more in the warm, spring sun.
I thought my day was made already, given that I’d golfed in the morning and now had witnessed this family, whose parents were not to be seen. As I left to move farther upstream, I noticed two mountain bluebirds and a couple of tree swallows on a fence. Out with the camera. Up the road near the coulee top, a hillside covered in common sunflowers cried out to be documented. That’s when I found another treat. Hiding just beneath a bunch of the sunflowers was what from a distance seemed the colour of vetch, but the foliage didn’t match. A delicate purple larkspur had found just the right spot to flower. I still had a couple of hours before the meeting started, so I headed toward the Crowsnest. It was fishable, but it was getting late, so I thought I would check out the Castle down Highway 507, not to fish because it’s out of season, but to see what runoff stage it was in.
Just before the Canyon Bridge, I spotted a red-tailed hawk scouting out a meadow from its perch atop an aspen. Then at the bridge I stopped to chat with Rob and Brad who had drifted down the river from below the Highway 507 bridge. “So, you get to drive around looking for things to write about?” one asked. So much to see, so little time. |
