My first solo camping trip!

Part of the series: Experiencing Saskatchewan, The Great Saskatchewan Bucket List

I have been camping my entire life. When I was younger, my family went at least once every year, and then when I got older and moved away from home, we still went together as a family, but once a year my siblings and a few friends would get together and rent a couple of sites at some park we'd never been to before for a weekend. The weather is always hit-and-miss (one year we actually went to the nearest Tim Horton's to get a break from the rain) but the memories are second-to-none.

Since moving to Saskatchewan, I've had new camping companions, and we've been slowly trying new parks every year. We started in Cypress Hills, and the next year we were at Sask Landing, last year we went to Rowan's Ravine, and this year we were feeling very adventurous and booked three weekends of camping at three parks: Rowan's Ravine, Echo Valley, and Buffalo Pound.

As it turned out however, our plans changed unexpectedly and very rapidly. We had a great weekend in June at Rowan's Ravine, and two weeks later, Doug had a job and was living in Edmonton while Anita packed and listed their house and she and Hayden were moved before the end of July, which was our next planned camping trip.

Blue Moon, July 31, 2015

I bought out the campsites, and when all of my potential companions were unable to join me, decided to experiment and see if I would be okay spending a weekend alone at a campground. I've been hesitant to do this for a few reasons (I'm very nervous about using an axe) but decided to "Just Do It."

I solved the axe-wielding problem by bringing pre-cut kindling in the form of left-over cedar shingle scraps from a co-worker's newly re-done roof, bought myself a camp stove and dining shelter, and off I went. I also bought fire-starter, just in case. (Didn't need the firestarter... #winningatlife)

I left Regina at 8:30 Friday night, and arrived at Echo Valley campground around 9:20. There was a blue moon in the sky, and it was just coming up, pale yellow and hanging so close in the sky it looked like you could almost touch it. I'm sure that was the kind of moon that inspired the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle". I tried to get a picture of it, but my camera did not see the same thing my eyes did, plus I was driving while trying to take the picture, and so what I got is a slightly out-of-focus, completely crooked picture of a small moon in the sky. Sometimes, the lies our eyes tell us are so much better than what a camera can see... or I need to get better at using a camera.

They gave me a Truck!

Part of the series: Experiencing Saskatchewan


Until this weekend, I have to say I never understood the appeal of driving a huge truck.

I get it now. I called on Saturday to get an economy car, and none were available, but: "we do have a pickup on special for $15.99 a day, would that work?" Oh, yes, it absolutely would work for me, thank you very much!

I had to jump a little to get into it, but I went exploring, got lost a little bit, and generally had a blast.

I had planned, a few weeks ago, to go touring through the Qu'Appelle Valley, which is a very large crack in the otherwise flat landscape of Saskatchewan that runs East-West just north of Regina. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, the weather was miserable - grey and rainy all weekend.



Saturday was absolutely beautiful, I had a truck, a brand new camera to test, and my GPS, and so off I headed.

 



Blue line = Road taken; Green line = Wrong turn; Red line = Missed turn

 A few highlights to look out for as you go through the photo album are:

• As labeled in my GPS - "Unpaved road"
• Standard intersection signage when traveling on grid roads
• Picture of a slough (why this is important, refer to the story titled "Bump Down" There)

Enjoy!

Click the image for more photos