Day 09 - Thursday, July 9/2009
Starting Location: Claresholm, AB
Ending Location: Waterson Lake,
Distance Travelled: Approx. 100 miles or 160 km by truck only.
Today, we stayed a while at the home of Chris & Adrienne Bolton and explored their backyard...an endless grassland range of the rolling hills of the foothills. Adrienne & Chris offered to take us on a tour of Smashed-In_Head Jump. This is a protected heritage site where the Indian tribes of the Blackfoot would herd buffalo along a 85 mile corridor that they gradually narrowed, using buffalo runners dressed in wolf skins to keep the herds moving. At the right moment, when the sun was strong in the east, a young boy, dressed as a baby buffalo, would cry for help as other Indians would jump up, wave brushes and holler and would create a stampede of the buffalo who would, blinded by the sun, and in a frenzy, run right over a small cliff known as a jump. The blackfoot would then use the dead buffalo to survive on for the winter, using almost every part of the buffalo, leaving no waste. Very interesting site. Also saw a buffalo hide that shows a small pictogram of a significant event that happedned in the year, for the past few hundred years (ie. first sighting of a building other than a tent).
Adrienne was an amzing guide thru the museum, having previously worked there as a guide. Her knowledge of the area was amazing and very informative.
Next, they drove us to Waterson Lake which is spectacular in beauty. Huge mountains that border Alberta, B.C. & Montana. A lot of wildlife, a quaint town and an amazing view. Had a coffee and bought souvenirs from an amzing resort. The person I bought the souvenir from, Luke, is a co-op studnet from Niagara College and lives only a few miles from me in St. Catharines. Such a small world!
Thank you so much Chris & Adrienne Bolton for your exceptional Albertan hospitality.
Tomorrow, we are off to the Banff area and then up to Jasper.
Gas:
None today
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