So the summer holidays have come and gone. Back to work and the oldest kid will soon be back to school, the youngest is back in daycare already. I have had so many awesome experiences this year, and this summer held many as well.
My eyes were really opened when we were away this year, as we drove out to the mountains. We went for a run and to see family. It was a nice road trip for us as a family, the kids did really well for a 14 hour drive... straight through. Along our travels I was disturbed to get to the end of the wilderness and found that we had not seen much wildlife at all. As a matter of fact I felt like we had just entered a horror movie, an end of the world type where the earth is dying all around us and we are not yet aware of the tragic end that is about to befall us as a species.
I guess this story starts back a few months ago when an old movie comes on TV, actually there were several, but the one I got caught up in was called "Soylent Green", staring Charlton Heston in 1973. The movie takes place in the year 2022, 12 years from now 49 years from the time the movie was actually released. Neat to find out that it won several awards in the science fiction categories for the time. This is the regular type end of the world movie in where we have killed off the green growing things as well as the animals on the planet and are trying to survive anyway we can. Water is rationed, food is rationed, strawberry jam is $150 for a 6oz. jar, few people have seen anything like lettuce or meat for that matter and soylent is the processed product everyone lives on. What really took me in this movie is where Charlton Heston's' character refers to the problem as "Global Warming". I thought that global warming was a fairly 'new' term, this movie was released in 1973! I found it surprising that 35 years ago we saw this happening to our environment enough to have it put into a movie.
We recently watched the movie "The Book of Eli", wow. Again I found that to be another powerful movie, with a similar theme, the world is desolate, people are power hungry for what food and water is left. In this the hero is travelling on a quest to preserve a book, following a vision he had.
Actually there many more of these movies in the recent years, foreshadowing our killing the earth in one way or the other. If not the earth, then at least ourselves. I'm still surprised that global warming was a term used in a 1973 film to describe the horrible state of the world and how it came to be that way!
Back to our holiday.....
From Manitoba down to Pincher Creek! 14 hours!!! Nice little camp ground, some ant hills on our site so they don't mind moving us over so they can later deal with the ant problem. (environmentally, with hot water apparently) 4 nights there. A fantastic storm on the Saturday night that even the owners of our campground comment that they have never seen something that bad over their years there. Under our tent,when we moved it to dry out our tarp, we found a salamander resting comfortably in a puddle. Little did we know this was a wildlife highlight along our way. We put him back in the creek quickly so he wouldn't dry out.
A day trip to head smashed in buffalo jump, there is a sign telling all who are there to be especially aware of your small children because of the wildlife, which goes unseen. Then later to Waterton national park. We go for a walk where we find out there has been a grizzly with her cubs playing down in a ravine under a bridge and later a black bear 10 feet from a road. We stay away from the road where the black bear was, because we grew up in bear country and we know how fast they are! On our way back to our camp site we see a grizzly bear playing in a field. Stop for a quick picture (yes, we stayed in our car; those babies are bloody fast when they want to be!!) 
The next day, Monday, it is time to head out, our next stop is Lake Louise. Absolutely beautiful, the lake is so green from the glacier water it is hard to describe. I have been there a few times over the years but the beauty of the mountains never gets dull for me. We decide to camp here after a small hike around the lake. There is an electrified fence around the camp ground to keep the bears out. There is no sign of wildlife.
Tuesday morning it is time to keep moving and we are off to Jasper. Up past the waterfalls, stop to see the Columbia ice fields. This is incredible to see how fast they seem to be melting. (my awesome boys by the 2000 marker!) And continuing up to Jasper where I know we will definitely run into some elk at least. My mother in law sees a doe elk in the woods, one. Passing by the salt licks, nothing! Here there is usually some mountain goats, but not now. A night in Jasper. There is no sign of wildlife.
On our way out of Jasper, high on a mountain side I see two white spots that would be a mountain goat and her kid. That's the end of the wildlife we get to see. From Banff through Lake Louise all the way up to Jasper! Still on our way out of the park as I watch the forests and mountains pass I start to see a dead forest come into view. Maybe it isn't dead? The trees are all grey, there is grass on the ground, but nothing on the trees, there are no leaves on the ground either. The sign we pass says Talbot Lake. I am finding this very eerie, kinda like we are entering the beginning of one of those movies. 
Where has the wildlife gone? How much more of the forests are gone or going? Is our roadway that much more important than wildlife? We are actually building bridges for the wildlife to go over our roads, and culverts so they can go under our roads. This has its advantages because we don't want to create more road kill, but of course it seems silly for us to consider slowing down to let a deer pass safely. Please don't get me wrong, I do think the bridges and culverts are a great idea so wildlife can safely pass on their journeys, especially because the fences now keep them off the road ways, and they do need to migrate. As a species we seem to think that everything needs to convert to OUR way of thinking. How selfish and small minded we are. Even if God did give us charge over all the animals, He expected us to CARE for them. (Genesis 1:28)
I have had my eyes opened up over the past year, feeling very much like Neo from the movie "The Matrix". I have taken the pill (read some books) and now feel that I see the world in a different light. Not being in this more 'awakened' state I wonder if I would have noticed the lack of wildlife? Now I have the opportunity to do something about it. This year I had already decided to use my car less, get out the bike or walk. Get the kids using their bikes. Recycle more, start composting, pre-cycle even more, eat better, waste less, and the list continues. So it must continue, working on my part of this little world; hopefully bring about a better little part to infect the bigger part, and so on.
It's a small world after all!!
The next day, Monday, it is time to head out, our next stop is Lake Louise. Absolutely beautiful, the lake is so green from the glacier water it is hard to describe. I have been there a few times over the years but the beauty of the mountains never gets dull for me. We decide to camp here after a small hike around the lake. There is an electrified fence around the camp ground to keep the bears out. There is no sign of wildlife.
Tuesday morning it is time to keep moving and we are off to Jasper. Up past the waterfalls, stop to see the Columbia ice fields. This is incredible to see how fast they seem to be melting. (my awesome boys by the 2000 marker!) And continuing up to Jasper where I know we will definitely run into some elk at least. My mother in law sees a doe elk in the woods, one. Passing by the salt licks, nothing! Here there is usually some mountain goats, but not now. A night in Jasper. There is no sign of wildlife.
On our way out of Jasper, high on a mountain side I see two white spots that would be a mountain goat and her kid. That's the end of the wildlife we get to see. From Banff through Lake Louise all the way up to Jasper! Still on our way out of the park as I watch the forests and mountains pass I start to see a dead forest come into view. Maybe it isn't dead? The trees are all grey, there is grass on the ground, but nothing on the trees, there are no leaves on the ground either. The sign we pass says Talbot Lake. I am finding this very eerie, kinda like we are entering the beginning of one of those movies. Where has the wildlife gone? How much more of the forests are gone or going? Is our roadway that much more important than wildlife? We are actually building bridges for the wildlife to go over our roads, and culverts so they can go under our roads. This has its advantages because we don't want to create more road kill, but of course it seems silly for us to consider slowing down to let a deer pass safely. Please don't get me wrong, I do think the bridges and culverts are a great idea so wildlife can safely pass on their journeys, especially because the fences now keep them off the road ways, and they do need to migrate. As a species we seem to think that everything needs to convert to OUR way of thinking. How selfish and small minded we are. Even if God did give us charge over all the animals, He expected us to CARE for them. (Genesis 1:28)I have had my eyes opened up over the past year, feeling very much like Neo from the movie "The Matrix". I have taken the pill (read some books) and now feel that I see the world in a different light. Not being in this more 'awakened' state I wonder if I would have noticed the lack of wildlife? Now I have the opportunity to do something about it. This year I had already decided to use my car less, get out the bike or walk. Get the kids using their bikes. Recycle more, start composting, pre-cycle even more, eat better, waste less, and the list continues. So it must continue, working on my part of this little world; hopefully bring about a better little part to infect the bigger part, and so on.
It's a small world after all!!
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