4 weeks in Calgary…

Monday: First day of Fridas work. Then after morning chores I went on another ride. Well, actually I have had a lesson of english riding. La tought me again. We learned or beter we improved the rising trot. I got better, I got sometimes the rhytm, could hold me longer in the right spot. So I get better. It is really exhausting, makes fun. After that I was tired, hopefully my muscles won´t be sour tomorrow. Fingers crosssed😊 After that we cleaned the paddock. Beautiful weather… plus degrees in mid feb in Canada. Hell, OMG, that is just unbelievable:)

I really don´t know if I mentioned it so far, but….

I will leave the farm in two weeks on the 8th of march. I will live in an AirBnB togehter with Sandra and Lina in Calgary. Maye some of u still remember them from the first Farm where I´ve been. They went together on a RoadTrip through Ontario and then flew to Calgary and now they are living and working here. Luckily the spot where I wanted to come was free, so know I will spend  one week with them together. Perhaps, we are goign to rent a car couple of days and we will drive to some places in the rockies. Going for hikes, something like that. I am looking forward to it😊 After that week, I will fly on Monday to Vancouver. It is just an hour fly, but the funny thing is that there is also an hour time shift. Anyway, I will land there around 5pm and going to drive with the train to Mel, a couchsurfing place where I will stay probably for a month. This is not fix so far. Anyway I will spend one month in Vancouver and probably I will rent a car then and gonna go on a Road Trip on Vancouver Island. This is all not fixed but, the rough plan is in place. What am I gonna do one month in Vancouver? After 5 months working on two different farms, I just wanna spend some time in a big city, experience there a lot, maybe gonna sign in in a Gym, going for hikes, apparently there are also helicopter flights above Vancouver (what I would love to do) , cooking, running… So I think I won´t get bored. Maybe I am also trying to get to know new people. Currently that isn´t really easy, but I´ll do my best, I promise xD

Wednesday: I tried after morning chores, country cross skiing. La brought her husband equipment and I tried it. It is quiet fun, if u have some good trails for it and if you go downhill. I just tried it on the property, so it was quiet boring, but still cool.

Thursday: Such an amazing day. After morning chores and lunch feeding, Frida and I went to Brag Creek. A big area where u find a lot of hiking trails (even riding trails), Cross Country skiing paths and lots more. Anyway, La brought us couple days ago her and her husbands equipment and we wnt Cross Country Skiing in the Mountains. Me, Tom, 19 years old, never been standing on skis before, had such a hard time in the beginning. „One more time uphill“, just one more time… thats what Frida said the whole time. I didn´t know the technique… so it was really hard form e to get up. But after a couple of minutes and some hills I knew how I would go Uphill and how to go downhill without having to much speed. I have to admit that I felt one our 7,5 km route about 5 times, but I guess thsi is pretty good. Weh ad beautiful weather, plus degrees, a lot of sun and had a lot of love. Especially in the end, when I knew how to ski, well, actually I knew better than before about How do I ski… it made a lot of fun. We will do it next week again. I am lokking forward to it😊 Now only one more day of work and… weekend:) I guess we are gonna do some cool things, we already have somthing in mind.

On Friday, I had another riding lesson with La. It was really nice, she told me afterwards that this lesson was a big step forward. So, a proud young boy went up the house and is looking forward tot he next riding lesson. Because this will be the first time that I won´t ride at the longe line, first time on my own with rains. A bit scared, but more excited😉

Next day… one of the best days so far here in Canada.

Frida and I checked an app called “AllTrails” on Friday for hikes and trails we could hike on Saturday. We found something…

The “Suphur Mountain”, a 2400m high mountain in the heart of Banff. Right in the Rocky Mountains. So we decided to hike the 11km trail on Saturday at noon. We left for Banff at 10:00, after 2 hours of driving, we arrived on site. We had feared that the hike will be very difficult, because there was fresh snow the night before. Luckily for us, a few people had already hiked the trail before us, so that we could actually get the 700 meter elevation behind us relatively well. The trail is known for its many swift backs and the continuous slope. We had a good pace on it and have many people overhollt and were after a good 2 hours at the top. Especially the last part was hard for us. Extreme slope, slippery and slippery snow under us (luckily we had spikes with us), so we were all the more happy when we arrived at the top. My problem was not the effort, yes it was very exhausting, but I had sweated a lot because of it and I was clear, at the top I will cool down quickly. Fortunately, at the top was a restaurant, souvenir stores and viewing platforms. We had sat down at a place in the restaurant, ate burgers and enjoyed the great view. Dreamlike! After some time I had warmed up again and we went out after a delicious lunch and took pictures, enjoyed the view and enjoyed life. It was dreamlike. With sunshine we had an incredible view over the mountains. The effort, the sweat hustle and bustle were definitely worth it. The Suphur Mountain Trail is very challenging with the 11km, 700 meters of elevation gain and the many swift backs, but it is worth it. After about 2 hours at the top, we made our way down. You could have also taken the gondola for a lot of money, but a Berlage does not do that and also hikes back down 😉 if already, then already! Down it took an hour and it was not a bit strenuous. Since it was so steep, we are also slipped down in some places. Great, it was fun. Then we went by car through Banff back to the Black Whiskey Ranch. An incredibly beautiful day that I will not forget. So, anyone who wants to go to Canada, take a day to hike the Suphur Mountain Trail, near Banff. You will love it. Tomorrow we will go to Calgary and then the last week on the farm begins.

Sunday: I spent the day resting from our hike yesterday. Had a great talk with Sina, Elias and Moritz (greetings to the three), then with my parents and in the evening we went with Frida to Calgary downtown to a festival, which takes place every year. Nevermind, I wrote the line one day before. Frida went trail riding in the mountains and came back soo late, so that we couldn´t go anymore. I was a bit upset. Anyway…

I am now looking forward to my last week here on the farm and my stay in Calgary Downtown together with Lina and Sandra. Reporting. I also probably found a travel buddy for the West Coast Trail ( if you want to read about it already: https://blickgewinkelt.de/west-coast-trail-kanada-fernwandern/ ) and the planned road trips. I’m rooting for you all in Germany and from where you all are reading this post. See you very soon.

Your Tom