On The Way! (1)

The anticipation is killing us! We’ve photographed so many epic things over the last year that have yet to see the light of day that we want to show you. Always hopelessly behind, with this post comes some relief. Here’s where we give you a preview of what’s coming, pieces shot but as yet unpublished. And it’s some good stuff! There’s the coolest abandoned places we’ve ever been allowed in. There’s ghost towns and forgotten farms and communities entirely wiped off the map.

Then there’s historic old machinery, and on a massive scale for some (two steam locomotives in one day). There’s a study of some historic small town churches, an amazing century old cabin in the woods, to which visitors over have left their mark. We’re in Alberta, we’re in Saskatchewan, we’re everywhere. It’s walking tours of some charming prairie towns with a hike or two thrown in for good measure. And so much more.

As each post is published, and the order will be a surprise, we’ll post the link below. This may take some time and we suggest you check back often. There’s so many coming we broke it into two instalments, with the second to soon follow. Now let’s see what’s on the way…

Don’t do it!

Category: Hikes & Summits. One winter’s day, it’s an urban hike taking in one of our favourite parts of Calgary, that magical community called Inglewood just east of downtown. It’s the big city and quiet lanes, a place of vibrant life but still with a raw gritty edge, home to throngs of people or no one depending where in the neighbourhood you are. Here in Pearce Estate’s Park, some wildlife viewing spy glasses. A sign cautions one to REFRAIN from using them to peer into the lives of those residing in those condos in back. With that seed planted, how can one resist? On this loop route we also visit the community of Ramsay (very historic too) and has us spending time with the Bow River.

Presenting for your enjoyment this post published March 18th 2020…Bow River Loop + Inglewood & Ramsay.

On Prairie View.

Category: Hikes & Summits. Here’s a loop trek taking in the Prairie Creek and Powderface Creek Trails in Kananaskis west of Calgary. It’s a nice pleasant outing that can be done pretty much any time of the year. It takes in one valley, then goes up and over that ridge in back to take in another, and when done you’re almost back to where you started.

It’s April 01st 2020, and after what seems like an eternity, it’s here…Prairie Creek – Powderface Creek Loop.

We’ve come for Bolers!

Category: Boler! We’ve been to Rowley Pizza Night countless times. Come for the eats and stay for the ghost town ambience. You can visit any time. Those restored grain elevators rock, but this visit, it was all about Bolers! A bunch of them were camping just outside town and so you know where we were. This was not planned, making the discovery all the more pleasant.

Finally, the piece has been published April 08th 2020…King of Bolertown (again).

The perfect horror movie set.

Category: Exploring History. All that’s needed is some half dismembered body hanging from that hook. A perfect slasher movie setting, it’s remains of an electrical substation once used to supply a large coal mine and processing plant in the Crowsnest Pass Alberta. It’s a large building, solid too, otherwise empty if not for that overhead crane. And this hook…on which the victims of the “Crowsnest Slasher” are found to hang each October full moon. HE’S IN THE BUILDING…BEHIND YOU!

Here’s the post, gory details and all (snicker), published April 24th, 2020…The BIG Hook.

One evening in downtown Stettler.

Category: Other Fun. We simple LOVE to walk about small towns in the evening. While on the road it makes a great way to wind down after dinner. Here’s downtown Stettler Alberta just before they rolled up the streets for the night. It’s dead quiet, near devoid of traffic and completely empty of pedestrians if not for us. In the soft and ever fading light, we simply roam about aimlessly.

Posted March 31st 2020, it’s…Stettler, After Hours.

A steamer built it 1944…

Category: Old Things. It’s not just any steam locomotive, but one of the most iconic in the entire county. And we got a tour! Here, in a building only slightly larger than it, a view of its naked form all stripped down in anticipation of a full on rebuild later. Steamers are high maintenance!

…It’s legendary #6060.

Category: Old Things. Yes you’re looking a famous steamer, all vulnerable and in the raw. As soon as funds are secured they’ll get to work piecing it all back together with the hopes that one day it can again polish the rails. For decades it’s been pulling excursion trains, a job it’s itching to get back to. This post will likely not appear until the fundraising campaign commences, with us of course showing you how you can contribute. Till then it waits. Oh, and did we say it was HUGE?

Two in one day, here’s #41.

Category: Old Things. Not far away, another steam engine. This is Alberta Prairie Railway Excursion’s #41 built in 1920. It sits out of work in the shop for want of one relatively trivial part that would need to be custom made. It’s not this that’s the main problem, but the resultant inspection needed on completion that would send costs soaring. Till the funds can be found (never easy), much like #6060 it waits.

Finally…Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions #41.

Behind the scenes…

Category: Other Fun. The Team’s been involved in a couple documentaries now, one in which they were the “stars” (Forgotten Prairie) and another where they worked on the crew. In addition to being a production coordinator (film speak for “gopher”) for Rueben Tschetter’s Soviet Threat, we shot a behind the scenes piece. The film is a look that most tense period in history, the Cold War, from a Canadian perspective. This was one amazing experience and the resultant film pure magic.

It’s gone live, December 17th 2020…Soviet Threat: Behind the Scenes.

…It’s the filming of the Soviet Threat.

Category: Other Fun. Looking in on an interview. Here’s the daughters of a person whose job it was to help prepare the county for all out nuclear war. They were green screened into a suitable bunker type setting (real places we visited). Watch Soviet Threat to see how this scene looked in the film.

It’s happened, December 17th 2020…Soviet Threat: Behind the Scenes.

Roaming the Red Deer River Valley.

Category: Other Fun. You’ll often find us in the Red Deer River Valley, in and around Drumheller Alberta. It a place full of history and scenic wonders (win-win!). Here we randomly drove about over two evenings snapping photos. Didn’t think much of them till we looked closer recently. Yeah, there’s something good here!

Here’s the latest post, published April 15th, 2020…Red Deer River Valley Wanderings.

One year later.

Category: Other Fun. In June 2018, we did the El Camino Trail Spain. Come on you must have heard – we didn’t shut up about it for the longest time. On the one year anniversary we do a hike in the city in honour of that event. It’s twenty some clicks (a typical day on the trail) pretending we’re back there again with a fine Spanish meal at the end and a couple beer or coffee stops (as is tradition) along the way. If but for a day, we’re Peregrinos again. El Camino = “the way”.

Posted! Here it is on June 30th, 2020…El Camino Calgary: Peregrinos Once Again.

Alberta GTC time!

Category: Exploring History. For years now, every summer a bunch of us get together and explore some section of Alberta (or sneak into SK). A tour is done of old abandoned places and museums and anything else historic that can be arranged in the area. So much fun is had that the photos almost seem unimportant. Still some nice ones are captured. Here’s a fine old truck in small town museum. The colour pops!

Due to Covid, it’s likely this post will not be published…sorry.

One country church…

Category: Exploring History. There’s a congregation called the Meota Parish with three separate country churches opened to us for a tour. You know we love places like this. All three can be found in a small area, one in this village, one in that town and one down some rural backroad. Here’s St James in Priddis Alberta.

Better late than never, this piece has been posted July 21st, 2020…St James Priddis.

And two…

Category: Exploring History. This church (St Georges) is in Turner Valley and the newest of the three, but still an oldie, and for a building well travelled (more on this in the post). They allowed us to light them up too. Once published, we’ll give you a little backstory about each. All hearken back to a time less complicated, yet to this very day serve the very same purpose on which they were designed. All are amazingly well kept and so charming and peaceful. We photograph churches often and never tire of it.

Perpetually behind, it’s finally been published, September 08th, 2020…St George’s Turner Valley.

And this makes three.

Category: Exploring History. Here’s the oldest of the bunch (Christ Church), a very rustic building in a rural setting. If there ever was a “cowboy” church this is it and during the Sunday service I’m certain pickups outnumber all else by a huge margin out in the parking lot. The open door beckons one to step inside – yes there will be an inside tour too.

It’s September 17th, 2020 and it’s been posted…Christ Church Millarville.

Once a railway bunkhouse.

Category: Exploring History. Moved to a farm not terribly far from where it once stood by the train tracks, it’s this old railway bunkhouse now functioning as a storage shed. It retains much of its old flavour, including the old station board which if you look close reads “Dunshalt” (Alberta). It’s a little rough, and perhaps not destined to last forever, but it has there’s a story to tell.

This piece has been posted, April 29th, 2020…Dunshalt Bunkhouse.

Johnnie agrees, Carolside is no more.

Category: Exploring History. Hanging with the Godfather Johnnie Bachusky exploring a true ghost town. There’s almost nothing left in Carolside (Alberta), some odd depressions marking where houses and businesses once stood and this here grain elevator foundation. That’s all. It’s as though the town never existed. Ever. As far as the eye can see, there’s really nothing to speak of. Even the ghosts have moved on. It’s in the running as the saddest place on earth, but didn’t quite win. That’s reserved for Alderson.

It’s March 25th 2020 and here’s the post…This is Carolside.

In the middle of nowhere.

Category: Exploring History. One of the more odd rural discoveries, this community swimming pool found in the middle of nowhere. On a hot summer’s day, kids would come from all around and partake in the cool waters and waste the day away. Now it’s abandoned and falling into disrepair.

It’s June 15th, 2020 and here it is…Prairie Swimming Pool.

A literal time capsule.

Category: Exploring History. An incredible house with many possessions left behind. It appears they started packing, then just up an quit. We know what music they liked, the magazines and books they read, it’s a real peek into the lives of the folks who once called it home. And now it’s a time capsule in their memory. Curious? Us too!

Unfortunately, this post has been cancelled. Sorry.

The silence broken for a minute or two.

Category: Exploring History. Another place, similar to Carolside seen earlier, a town of which little is left. On a dusty old backroad, little visited, it’s Alderson Alberta. Every once in a while a train breaks the silence but otherwise, it’s dead quiet here among the ghosts. A grave in the cemetery is seen here – many German names (here Goehring) with the town being a little further down the tracks. Nothing remains there but some building depressions and odd bits of metal. We love places where what’s left today only hints at what was and it forces us to look that much harder.

On May 06th, 2020, this post has gone live…This is Alderson.

Wee Helen died too young.

Category: Exploring History. Back in the old days many couples suffered the misery of loosing a young one. Be it to disease, some accident, or whatever, the didn’t change the sorrow or pain. Here’s the gave marker of little Helen, who lasted a brief half a year before passing. And with that her parents, for the rest of their time, carried the weight of a broken heart. One knows it to be true. This is the Nordegg Alberta Cemetery, today an almost ghost town, where coal was once king.

We’re back after taking some time for our book and here’s the article published June 2nd, 2020…Nordegg Memorial Cemetery.

Sizing up an old train bridge with Rob Pohl.

Category: Exploring History. A giant mass of steel that once supported a railway line. Dating from the 1930s and replacing an earlier wooden structure, countless coal trains once crossed this very span. The line was abandoned in the 1960s and that it was deemed too costly to remove is the reason it was never dismantled. It’s a walk to get to this one.

It went live March 24th 2020…Taunton/Fortner Bridge.

Those who visited this backwoods cabin.

Category: Exploring History. Here’s a century old cabin in Banff Park. It’s pretty solid still and in a pinch could be used as a (spider infested) emergency shelter. On every visible surface are the signatures of those who’ve stayed here over the years. Included in them are two notable figures, who dropped by in 1947, Joe Brewster of Banff Brewster fame and Isaac Twoyoungmen, a long serving Chief from the Stoney Nakoda Nation.

Here it is, published April 03rd 2020…The Ranger’s Cabin.

SK Roadtrip!

Category: Exploring History. This day we just randomly wandered about, taking in what ever random road that struck our fancy. We’re on the plains of Saskatchewan east of Regina. We saw some grain elevators, including this one, found alone off in a field with nothing else around. There used to be a rail line that passed it by but you’d never know by looking. No farms, no town, some muddy old road, and that’s it.

Made live, June 8th, 2020, here’s some fun…Backroads Saskatchewan.

Closed for all time.

Category: Exploring History. Later that day it was ghost towns, towns flirting with ghost town status, some old machinery and vehicles and all manner of interesting things. Sometimes it’s fun not knowing where one is bound or what to expect. Just point in direction and go! Wind in the hair (I know, what hair) and adventure in the cards. Here’s a former business on some small community main street.

On June 8th, 2020, we present…Backroads Saskatchewan.

Things seen in Wolseley Saskatchewan.

Category: Exploring History. For one amazing long weekend our base of operations was Wolseley Saskatchewan. Over two evenings, we simply wandered about town taking in all the historic structures (lots of stone places). Here’s the old town hall lit up for us, that today is used as venue for events and such. The building is amazing!

It’s January 06th, 2021 and we’ve gone live: Wolseley Places Part One.
And on April 02nd 2021, this: Wolseley Places Part Two.
Finally, on April 16th 2021 comes the final installment…Wolseley Places Part Three.

This old stone house.

Category: Exploring History. There’s some amazing stone houses in Saskatchewan. Here’s but one, that due to a failing wall may soon collapse. The skill to make such a structure was amazing. If not for the wet weather, we would have seen many other stone houses in the immediate area. But we’re due back in 2020 (Update: 2022 – thanks Covid) to continue where we left off. Also seen up the road was a nice stone church.

February 02nd, 2022 (it took a while), here it is…Loganston.
December 15th, 2020, here’s the church…St Andrew’s/Moffat United.

A walking tour of downtown.

Category: Exploring History. Here were take in downtown Wolseley. As you can see it’s historic and well kept. Let me tell you about the best Butter Chicken the Team has ever had, in that hotel in back. Served on an army style mess tray and cooked by a little elderly lady from the old county, it was pure heaven. And exploring the business district was icing on the cake.

Made live April 16th 2021…Wolseley Places Part Three.

Category: Shorts and Boler! There’s lots of both of these coming, but previews aren’t necessary. Let them be a surprise!

And so ends part one. Stay tuned of the second instalment which should be hot on the tail of this one. There’s all kinds of amazing things to see. Trust me, the posts when published with be smoking hot, but even the previews will be amazing.

They’re saying…

”Their photography is wonderful and I love to read the background stories to the images” Peg Strankman.

Now on to the second instalment…
On The Way! (2)

Random awesomeness…
Greyhound Has Left The Building – A sad ending.
New Horizon Mall is Strange! – A modern mall utterly deserted.
After Hours @ Fort Steele BC – After everyone’s gone home.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date of Adventure: 2019-2020.
Location: All over the freaking place!
Article references and thanks: See individual posts when published.