I awoke feeling indecisive, a fairly common occurrence these days. Having finished packing up my tent I found myself sitting in the car humming and hawing over what to do next. A local had recommended I check out a place called The Caves on my venture south and I decided I’d take them up on the recommendation. With a destination to aim for I set off eager to catch a glimpse at something new.
The roads took me past rocky terrain decorated with all sorts of graffiti, some marked in some pretty impressive locations as endless lakes made a home among their feet.
It wasn’t too long until I arrived at The Pas, a small town close to the Saskatchewan border. I topped off my gas, did a bit of exploring and was off once again heading slightly north to Clearwater Lake. Upon arriving in the provincial park I came to a quiet sandy beach where I stopped to take a closer look. I met some friendly strangers, one being a woman named Ruth that had worked as a guide of sorts. We did laps back and fourth across the beach as she shared the history of the town with me, filling me in on the various places worth seeing and how to get there. It came time to say farewell and I set off to the main attraction of the day, The Caves.
I arrived feeling excited as I quickly laced up my boots and set off to along to trail. It wasn’t long before I found myself crawling up and down over rocks, sneaking through cracks and crevasses as I explored the gorges. Having Winnie with me was admittedly challenging at times, often I would have to lift her up and down some of the bigger drops.
Along the way I came across two women who worked at the campground nearby. Winnie being ever the popular little celebrity ran up and greeted them with abundant enthusiasm. We struck up a conversation and they invited me along to see a secret spot off the trail they knew about. Climbing over the rocky terrain we soon arrived at a serene shore, crystal clear water revealing an abundance of skipping stones strewn about. Strangely enough there were hardly any bugs, something that surprised us all. We shared in all sorts of stories as we skipped stones for hours along the calm waters.
The sun began to set and our conversation faded to wonder as we quietly sat in amazement at the fiery spectacle unfolding along the horizon, it’s radiance setting the lake in a blazing dance as ripples mirrored the warm colors. With the dusk now drawing closer we set about heading back to the trail where we navigated our way back to the vehicles. We began to say our goodbyes and one of the girls named Shayla offered to show me a way back to the campsite where I could set up for the night. I took her up on the offer and she guided me down the roads to the site itself. Upon arriving we waved goodbye and I began to unload my tent. As I was doing so I looked up and found myself staring at a sky with very little light pollution, stars without number appearing in greater abundance as the night brought the last light of day to rest. I ventured out to a nearby beach where I must have stared up at the sky for 30 minutes. To my surprise I even saw some shooting stars among the firmament. It was time to head to bed and I set off back to the tent, a day of adventure and wonder coming to it’s close.
