My Name Is Mud

I had planned a hike at Taylor Siding with my wife to meander along and perhaps make images of old railroad trestles on an abandoned rail siding. A bit of a funny story there. I had been to the place before with my friend James, prior to the start of this blog where we happened across some funky old vehicles. The forest fire smoke was bad that day. I mean, REALLY bad. I couldn’t see the trestles just a bit farther down the road path, or much else. I didn’t recognize the place when we got there today until I spotted the old vehicles themselves. Not that it mattered, but more on that in a bit.

To get to Taylor Siding from Strathmore, the best route is past the Village of Hussar and then through the Hamlet of Dalum. I hadn’t been in Hussar before and wanted to check it out. We found some old buildings we kind of liked. I had spotted the church in Dalum when passing it on previous trips and really wanted a piece of it, but it was hard to pull in at the time. I wish I had as I suspect it would have been much nicer with leaves on the trees. Oh well.

Hussar wasn’t much to look at, but we did find a neat old store on main street that I had fun with. I’d like to go back and work it some more when I’m not in a hurry. When days are as short as they are at this time of the year, you’re always in a hurry. So we continued on through Dalum (quick stop for the church) and then to Taylor Siding. Well.

My wife took one look out the window at all the mud and NOPE. Nope nope nope. She was not getting out into it and she didn’t want me driving her van down into it to get to the trestles (there was admittedly a chance we may not get back up the hill). And she certainly wasn’t letting me park there and walking with me down the muddly incline. Just nope. Yeah, it was really muddy, but I’m half nuts and never let that sort of thing bother me. She’s the sane one. We kept rolling.

We wound up at the McMullen Island Day Use Area just outside the main part of Drumheller, Alberta. I didn’t figure out where the island was, but there’s a nice trail alongside the river that is loaded with Chickadees. My wife held her hand out and had one land on it, which was cute. Then it pecked under her fingernail trying to find a seed, which was not.

There are bridges large and small along the route. Some kind soul had sprinkled sunflower seeds on the railing of the small foot bridge and the birds were going gangbusters on them. It was fun to watch, but, of course, I had the wrong camera with me as usual. My tele lenses were at home so I made do with my Samsung.

We enjoyed our gourmet PBJ sandwiches, had a walk, listened to the birds, and it was a nice day even if we didn’t get to our main objective. We’ll try again once it freezes up.

Images from my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. I had my OM System Tough TG-7 along as well, but it never left its pouch.