My last day here.

Well tomorrow I leave Num-Ti-Jah Lodge at 10:00 am, take a bus at 11:00 that takes me to the airport. My flight leaves at 5:50 pm so I will have a lot of time to kill. I'll probably get bored and end up spending tons of cash on overpriced airport beverages and snacks. My flight is supposed to land in Winnipeg at 8:44 pm, it probably won't be on time. I've never even been on a plane before (except in Heidi's dads little two seat'r, which was amazing!) so I don't know what to really expect from this flight. I guess it's a learning experience.

This morning I started packing my stuff up, the room looks so empty now. Oh well. I took a walk up to the lake and sat down on the stone beach. The water was as clear as glass, the sky cool blue. The mountains were perfectly illuminated in the morning sun, with absolutely no haze in the foreground. It was a little cold out so I was wearing a coat, but that is to be expected in October in the Rockies. There should be two feet of snow on the ground right now, but I'm not complaining at all, I love it. I took the path back, jumped the river and went into the Taj to say a last goodbye to its familiar walls. I walked next to the river after exiting the building that was now directly behind me, the fireplace being my next destination. We have a huge fire pit here with four benches surrounding it, the pit was stocked with wood for the next fire. There was bottles on the ground from the last fire pit, left behind from either a drunken individual or the lack of light at 2:00 am in the middle of the Rockies. I took the path that connects the staff house and fire pit together, it weaves through the woods to get back instead of going around to the Taj. There is a low swampy area that has old boards and the occasional door lied across to construct a shabby looking bridge. I love that bridge, it's just so makeshift it makes me laugh.
I continued on my walk through the woods to the staff house, and here we are. I have to go to finish packing now, see you all soon.

A relaxing, enjoyable, and easy day.

Shut down at the lodge, wow. I can go anywhere, anytime I want to, the lodge feels so much more like home now. Last night was really fun because it was movie night in the library, which is the old part of the lodge, we made a nice healthy fire in the fireplace that Jimmy Simpson himself built. Jimmy is the founder of Num-Ti-Jah, he is kind of a celebrity out here. We put on some Clone High which is one of the funniest cartoons I've seen. Some of us stayed in the library to sleep by the fire, some of us went back to our "homes" to sleep. The next morning (being this morning) I got up at 9:30 to take a shower, afterwards I proceeded into the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee and grab a croissant. I took my breakfast into the dining room and sat down to eat. We didn't actually get started working till about 11:00, but it was the most relaxing work ever, you could tell that everyone was content and easy going. I was wrapping sets of 12 pieces of cutler and James Keelaghan was singing on the stereo. We cleaned out the entire dining room today but it was fun, and I got off work at 2:30.
Me and Tabitha were sitting by the creek beside the Taj, which is the name of one of the staff accommodations here, when she decided to jump right in for a dip. I would have joined her if I hadn't have done the same thing down by the lake two night before. She screamed pretty loud, well loud enough to hear it echo several times in the mountains behind us. It was such a beautiful day at Bow Lake, sunny and hot, one to be remembered.

A busy day.

I was out taking pictures today around the lodge, I was specifically shooting this little bridge we have here, the sun looked really cool coming through it. I wasn't actually able to take the shot for about 20 minutes because the bridge was packed with tourist (mostly Japanese, well who am I kidding, all Japanese). They would keep walking into the shot as I was about to take it, one of them actually came up to me, walked in front of my camera (on its tripod) and took the exact same picture as I was taking. He then said "looks cool" in very sketchy English and he and his two buddies ran off laughing. I didn't really know what to think but it made me laugh pretty hard.
The next people that come up to me are three Japanese girls that are taking pictures of each other (every tourist that comes through here has a camera and if not, then a cell phone camera) they just handed me the camera, gesturing that I should take a picture (free of charge I might add...hahah) of the three of them on the bridge, I did so.
One of them came up to me and said "Canadian?"
"Yes" I replied, "Japanese?"
"Yes" she said and they started giggling and then just ran off, in a similar fashion to that the three boys previous to their arrival had used.

All in 20 minutes of my day off.

On another note, the lodge has now closed down, yesterday was our Thanksgiving feast (which was huge, amazing tasting and came complete with two 11 lb. turkeys and three different kinds of stuffing). Yesterday was also our staff party, free beer, wine, pool, well pool is always free now because we have the whole lodge to ourselves. We sat around the firepit and played guitar and such. It was a good night. Since the lodge is closed I will be coming home soon, on the 14th to be exact. So I will be seeing all of you soon.

Ill post some pictures to go with these posts when I get back home.
I miss all you guys!

A day in the mountains.

You wake up at 8:30, caught breakfast (which consisted of greasy, yet hard, bacon and okayish strawberry pancakes) and then put on your hiking boots and sling on your bag full of camera equipment. You then grab a long black thing that you use for a walking stick. As you walk down the trail the mornings fresh air fills your nostrils and you no longer feel tired. Rejuvenated is how you describe this feeling to yourself.

Large rocks that only seem to get larger as you get further into the wilderness.
The sun slowly warming your skin.

You decide to take a detour off the worn trail and walk directly towards what seem to be large caves. They are very high up in the mountains so you must bush whack through trees and bushes alike.

The scent of the breaking twigs and the squish of soft moss.
The most prominent sounds being your breaths and occational passing of a brook or call of an animal.

The trees thin as you pass into the next part of the wilderness. When there are no trees at all you must look down the insure a safe foothold on the loose stone because of the long drop that awaits your fall behind you. Search the stones and the caves around the area that you have arrived in. You spot a tree that would provide a great sitting spot and stop for a rest. The sky is clear blue and the view of the valley from under the tree is amazing.

You return home.

This was your trip today before work.
The long black thing you took on your hiking trip was a pvc didgeridoo with three red stripes at the top.

A day in the mountains.