Originally I had booked my “bobsled” ride for today and intended to take most of yesterday to enjoy the scenic delights of Banff NP. However, I had done all the waterfall walks I needed and the scenery was not revealing itself so I rescheduled the ride and drove to Calgary early. This left me with this morning completely open and, rather than searching for something to do in Calgary, I decided I would use the time to prepare to document the upcoming solar eclipse on my way to Pincher Creek, AB. Every detail of the trip, so far, was timed so that I will arrive under the shadow of the moon on Monday morning and, after Monday, I revert to my normal day-by-day planning..

They say that “failing to plan is planning to fail” and that really summarizes my day. There’s really no need for anyone else to read further but I am going to briefly recount the failure so my future self remembers where the day went. The map and road video are here.

Since it was back in June that I experimented with getting good photos and video of the sun using solar filters, I thought it would be worth a trial run of setting everything up from the back of the car and testing it out. I assumed that, during today’s journey, I would pass a rest area or a park where I would be able to do this but didn’t bother to plan a location. Of course, no opportunity came up and I ended up in Pincher Creek around 2 PM. Even if I couldn’t check in, I thought, I could ask at the motel office where to find a local park – but the office was not yet open. I consulted my GPS unit’s POIs and found Oldman Dam Provincial Recreational Area just 6 km away so I drove there. The dam was 6 km away but the signs indicated that the actual recreational areas and parking were another 20 km away on dirt roads so, after taking a couple of photos of the dam, I returned to Pincher Creek. As I drove into town I came across a local park but by now the sky was mainly cloudy so I gave up, went for a beer, and returned to the motel to check in having achieved nothing except travel.

A view of Oldman Dam near Pincher Creek.