Last week I talked about our drive down the Cowboy Trail. Having arrived safely at Highway 3, we turned west for some unforgettable experiences in the Crowsnest Pass. Our first goal was to watch for the historic Burmis tree as we travelled west.

The Frank Slide is one of the most awe-inspiring sights that I have seen. There is an excellent interpretive centre where you can learn about the tragedy, the heroism and twists of fate that saved some and condemned others.

If you would like to read more, our library has some histories of the slide, such as The Frank Slide and The Frank Slide Story. You can relive the terror through the experiences of the heroine in a recent novel, The Outlander, by Gil Adamson.

We also visited the Bellevue Underground Mine, or I should say, my daughter, son and niece went underground while my sister and I guarded the car (I'm really not fond of dark, closed spaces). The kids were amazed at how dark it really was and intrigued by the fact that the walls of the tunnel were built on an angle. As well, the girls weren't sure about the fashion statement that the hard hats made.

We finished off our afternoon in the Crowsnest Pass by visiting beautiful Lundbreck Falls. I love waterfalls and would have been quite happy to just sit and watch the water for hours. This is a great place to picnic and there is a campground there as well.

There is a lot more to see and do in the Crowsnest Pass but that is all we had time for in the half-day we were there. Bill Corbett's Day Trips from Calgary has a good section on the Crowsnest Pass. You can also find more information at the Crowsnest Pass webpage.

My jar of raspberry jam

Ever read a slick blog where the photos have a casual, but charmingly messy feel to them? I was hoping to be that blogger, with gentle, homey photos like the one below, crumbs askew, some chic disarray on view.

Cannelle et Vanille blog photo

Instead, alas, I look more like a slob. So sorry. Sloppiness aside, my raspberry jam is slick! And it couldn't be any simpler. It is just raspberries and sugar mashed together and cooked over medium then low heat until thick and jammy. I do add a wee pinch of kosher salt to brighten the whole experience and that's it, folks. My formula is simple: equal parts mashed fruit to sugar. Cook. Cool. Eat or freeze. I don't even bother with the canning routine. Bought an extra freezer and in go all my jams, perfectly preserved for those dark winter mornings when toast and jam and hot coffee are the recipe for comfort.

Here is the way I make jam, albeit, messily. Take a few cups of fresh raspberries and place them in a heavy bottomed pot. Add a little pinch of kosher salt. Mash them with a potato masher. Measure the mash. Add equal amounts of sugar. Cook mixture, stirring gently, over medium heat and adjust temperature as needed to maintain a slow simmer. Boil until thick and jammy, stirring more as the mixture thickens so as to avoid scorching. You can use a candy thermometer to gage the exact moment of doneness at 220 F or drop a glop on an ice cube and see if it holds together in a jam-like fashion. I did neither, just used my eyes to decide that the right time had come, a thick sludge of ruby toned sweetness sitting in my pot. I lifted the spoon and the jam looked dense and heavy, falling off the spoon in large, slow blobs. All this is to say that you can measure with instruments and use temperature as a guide, but nothing replaces sensory input, where you look, feel and use some intuition as well in knowing when your jam has set.

You may be wondering about pectin and why I don't use it. I don't like it. It is bitter, so you need more sugar in your jam, diluting the intensity of the fruit. Raspbery jam always seems to set beautifully without it, so why use it when you don't need it? I love the pure simplicity of jam made with just fruit and sugar.

Once your fruity mass has become what you intend it be, ladle it carefully into clean jars and either process them for canning, freeze them or store them in the fridge for a few weeks. You will be happy with the pure jolt of fruity denseness each mouthful yields, a concentrated hit of raspberry essence much superior to commercial products. Use your jam liberally on warm whole wheat toast, on buttery scones, overtop vanilla bean ice cream, baked up into delicate rugelach cookies, or, my personal favourite, in Jammers, a special cookie project I will deconstruct for you on this blog very soon. Wait for it.

Get busy making jam while fresh fruit is upon us.

THE COWBOY TRAIL

One of my favourite drives is the Cowboy Trail, which meanders through such small towns as Longview and Black Diamond, and wanders along beside the foothills, with great vistas across rolling fields to the mountains. The Cowboy Trail is actually Highway 22, tucked in between Highway 2 and the Rockies. We travelled south from 22X to the Crowsnest Pass.

For some great trivia on the Cowboy Trail, and off-the-beaten-path places to visit as well as suggested restaurants and accommodation, take a look at The Cowboy Trail by D. Larraine Andrews. For instance, did you know that the Sarcee name for Black Diamond is klas-hlath-tidi, meaning white mud, while the name, Black Diamond, refers to the abundant black coal found in the area? Or would you like a recipe for Bread Pudding and Whiskey Sauce from Memories Inn in Longview or perhaps Butterflied Prairie Oysters from Rusty Luca of Lucasis Ranch?

A tip from one of our CPL staff members - "We had dinner at the Longview Steakhouse a couple of weeks ago. My husband said the salmon was delicious. It is owned by the Belmoufid family and located at 102 Morisson Road, Longview, right beside the Esso. The phone number is 403-558-200. It is a bit pricey compared to stopping in for a burger at the hotel, but is good food. They let us in even after we were out in the woods for 4 - 5 days." And, of course, the restaurant is noted for its steak dinners.

Among the many places to visit along the trail is the historic Bar U Ranch. Some of the more well-known names associated with the Bar U are John Ware, the Sundance Kid, H.R.H. Edward Prince of Wales and two of the founders of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede - George Lane and Patrick Burns.

Visit the Cowboy Trail Tourist Association site for more places to go, things to do and a map.

Marcin, a CPL staffer, suggests that the adventurous traveller take the Forestry Trunk Road from 22X to Coleman. (This is Highway 40). It's a maintained gravel road. Some sections are excellent (smooth,good visibility) and you can safely travel at 80 km/h. Some others are not as good (limited visibility, pot holes especially near the texas gates). The road condition also depends on the season. These roads tend to deteriorate in the fall and get fixed in the spring. It's a great access road to numerous hikes in the Highwood/Cataract area. (The same road also goes north towards Nordegg.)

Best of all, when you get to the Crowsnest Pass and Highway 3, there is lots more to see and do. More about that next time.

For books on exploring Southern Alberta, choose the tag, staycations.

Happy trails!

May 23-24

Colin’s cards wouldn’t work at an ATM so we spent some time getting a Visa cash advance, then filled the car and hit the road. Big 3-lanes (ish!) in each direction to Amman; we’re only going 1/3 of the way – till the turn-off to Wadi Rum. The biggest hazards are the speed bumps which can come as quite a surprise if you’re not paying attention! Otherwise the roads are really quite empty and so far it’s very easy driving.

Reached the Wadi Rum Visitors’ Centre around 10:30; paid our 15 JD entry fee and called Mohammed our tour operator to tell him we were here. He gave us directions to drive to the village (about 6 km further – on paved road), where we were met and led to his garage. We parked, had tea and eventually transferred our overnight bags to our tour Land Cruiser (which had certainly seen better days!). Our young guide/driver’s English was very rudimentary, but his driving (except when we were outside exploring dunes and he was making doughnuts!) was fine. He took us on the pre-arranged tour of Wadi Rum: a great desert plain with fabulous rock formations all around. TE is the local hero and many features are called “Lawrence this” and “Lawrence that”. Much of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here and we thought we recognized some of them! We reached the Bedouin Camp around 5:30, but don’t think goats and other livestock. These are pure tourist camps, and there aren’t many tourists (not sure if it’s due to low season or Middle East troubles…). Our camp had the main eating tent and lots of small sleeping tents; ours had foam mattresses, unnecessary quilts and pillows for 4. There was also a nice toilet/shower block. The tents themselves are black/brown/white striped heavy woven wool, presumably authentic. The “host” was a German woman called Barbara who was volunteering for a number of weeks to learn more about Bedouins and Wadi Rum. She was the general camp cleaner, and she did a good job! We sat and waited for sunset, and a 2^nd vehicle disgorged 3 American flight attendants seeing the Middle East in 8 days! One had just worked 1^st class from LA to Heathrow and said Peter O’Toole was there (she didn’t recognize him; we thought he’d died a couple of years ago!). Anyway, he had his foot in the aisle and someone trod on it and he yelled “You just trod on m @!&#% foot!” She apologized to the woman accompanying him, who told her he was O’Toole!

Dinner cooked by a Sudanese man (we noticed in Aqaba that a lot of the hotel staff looked to be Pakistani: right religion, will work for lower wages?), and was nice but not the feast I was somewhat hoping for! Perhaps if a whole party books the camp they will cook accordingly. The night was beautifully clear. We didn’t feel the need to sleep outside, and I for one slept really well tucked in my sheet bag…

Next morning we had breakfast and our camels were waiting for us before 8 am. Unlike my Bactrian camel rides, these (single-humped) dromedaries have fancy saddles, and the 4 camels were tethered together (Colin got the tallest and he led the pack). We plodded and sat between the front and rear pommels, with our legs bent over the neck – quite comfortable actually. (In Mongolia there’s no saddle just a thin blanket covering the very bony back and stirrups, and my guide made me jog; I refused to gallop!) It was a 2 hour ride back to town. Back in Mohammed’s house we were served tea, and likely could have spent the rest of the day there, but we wanted to get moving, so we paid and left.

Back in the car we drove towards Wadi Musa, the town where Petra is located. We searched for our hotel, only to find that it is still undergoing renovations (I confirmed our reservation a few weeks ago; we heard that someone called to book 3 days before arriving!!!) Anyway, keen to find a hotel we went for broke and checked into the extremely fancy Movenpick hotel which is right at the entrance to Petra (nice to have working Visas!!!). The hotel is designed in a Jordanian theme and has antiques and beautiful rooms. We washed, washed clothes and went to explorePetra.

One day tickets are 50 JD each and 2-day tickets just 5 JD more, so we went for 2-day ones (no discount for students, but we met a really nice American mother and her 2 daughters, one of whom is studying in Amman and has a resident’s card, and she got in for 1 JD (x 1.4 = US$)).

We took the “free” horse ride down to the start of the Siq, then walked slowly down through the canyon, admiring every turn in the way…then suddenly, there was the “Treasury” (actually a funerary temple), and benches to sit and admire it and catch your breath. We walked slowly marveling at the temples and other buildings hewn out of the rock, and the later Roman additions (amphitheatre, colonnade, etc.). We felt walked-out around 6 pm and slowly made our way back out and back to our hotel. Here we met the American family, and walked back with them. Once at the hotel we stopped off at the bar (a beautiful Arabic room); Anna and I had wonderful lemon juice and mint slushies and Colin downed a beer. Too tired/lazy to venture out, we ate in the very fancy restaurant: buffet everything from grilled quail and seafood pasta to sesame dessert (delicious; rather like liquid halva!). Anna was wearing her long green tunic and black pants, and was complimented by one of the extremely gracious staff (turned out to be the Food and Beverage Manager); Colin commented to him that she only needed something red and white and she’d be wearing the Jordanian flag. He returned a few minutes later bearing a red apple and a glass of white wine!!! We had a nice chat with him about tourism in Jordan; apparently the tours that “do” Egypt, Jordan and Syria have cancelled, but those that just do Jordan have not; so tourism is down but not disastrously as in Egypt!!!

Explore Petra yourself through Petra, Jordan, a 2007 DVD available through theCalgary Public Library:

Gerry will be sharing her travels through Egypt and Jordan in a multimedia presentation as part of our 2011 Travel Day. Check out our upcoming programs on our homepage or through our program guide.

Southern Alberta for City Folks has just arrived on library shelves.

Caroline Steman, a city folk herself, shares some of her favorite hikes, drives and places to go in Calgary and Southern Alberta. Her choices require no special experience or equipment. This is a slim volume of 41 pages packed with beautiful colour photographs and lots of historical tidbits.

Another, slightly older, book which follows the road less travelled is Country Roads of Alberta (2007).

"This travel guide to the country roads of Alberta emphasizes locations that are "off the beaten track," offering plenty of color photography that should entice travelers to be more adventurous in their next Canadian sojourn. Bryan, a noted journalist and former co-founder of Western Living magazine, seasons this travelogue with historical facts and geological information while pointing out notable landmarks and wildlife. Detailed maps and driving directions enhance the stunning images, making this book a welcome traveling companion." (Book News Inc)

Other books that will help you explore Southern Alberta are:

West on one : the stories behind the scenery : fascinating facts, stories and pictures along the Trans-Canada Highway from Calgary to Lake Louise by Kathryn Manry (2010)

In plain sight : exploring the natural wonders of southern Alberta by Neil L. Jennings (2010)

And a couple of older titles that are still full of great information:

Alberta history along the highway [1996] : a traveler's guide to the fascinating facts, intriguing incidents and lively legends in Alberta's past by Ted Stone

Backroads of Southern Alberta by Joyce Donaldson Yarmey (1992)

Have fun exploring!!