the big trip

Just got back from my big trip of the year! I am glad to say the whole thing was a success! I went with the 2 guys i usually explore with as well we had a well known explorer from Winnipeg join us. We found many different things and had some great experiences.

Some of the things we explored:

• an airport
  
• hotel & bar
• large industrial building
• farms
• schools
• churches
• ghost towns
• community hall
• curling & hockey rinks

Some first time experiences for me:

• to explore an airport
• to explore a hotel
• finding a grow-op
• being in a house with the phone still working
• finding a colony of prairie dogs
• being in a house with no plumbling & finding sh*t all over
  
• finding an at home electroshock therapy device

I will be sure to post all my favorite pictures as well as some stories from the trip!

Cannington Manor

We took a trip to Cannington Manor Provincial Park:

A society built on Victorian social values, complete with fox hunts, dramatics societies, poetry clubs, croquet, cricket and tennis ... all supported by an agricultural economy. This was the dream of British settlers who homesteaded southeast of the Moose Mountains over 100 years ago.

Their way of life flourished for a few, brief years; but, by 1900, the village of Cannington Manor was abandoned. The short life was a merry one, led by the Cannington bachelors (Remittance Men) whose whiskey camps, thoroughbred racehorses, and rugby teams became legendary.

Today, Cannington Manor Provincial Park recreates this exciting period of history on the original village site. Original artifacts and reconstructed buildings allow costumed staff to bring Cannington Manor to life through interpretative programs and period demonstrations.

http://www.tpcs.gov.sk.ca/CanningtonManor

stone & brick

On our trip to the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan we travelled around to some of the stones houses & barns as well as some old brick homesteads. The history & stories attatched to these homes are amazing. I was priviledged to speak with the owner of one of these stone houses & learned a bit about the history of the homes. These houses were built so well it is to bad that most are abandoned or in ruins. I know if I have more money I would purchase one of these homes, fix it up & live in it. Anyways here are some of the homes we saw:

homestead trip

The plan for this trip was to hit southeastern Saskatchewan & spend some time with my family. Everything seemed to be going well at first, the car was packed the night before & we got up in the morning on time and hit the road. Just outside of the city i realized i forgot my sunglasses. Not bad considering we had packed everything else. I figured i could live without them and there was no replacing prescription sunglasses on the road. We drove for 5 hours and made a detour through weyburn to photograph the demolished mental hospital. We finally made it to our destination after avoiding many urges to stop at abandoned houses.

That night we went to set up our tent which i had let my friend pack. I get everything out and spread it on the ground only to discover we were missing the most important part of the tent. We ended up buying this lame pentagonal tent that has a black plastic piece for the poles to attach into at the top. Without this piece you are not able to set up the tent. This was a huge problem. I was already mad at this tent as i realized it leaked when i tested it out and had to go out and buy more tarps & pegs for it. I could not believe that my friend forgot to pack the most important part!! I would not have cared if he forgot the pegs or the tent tarp, anything but the plastic piece. Not replaceable we were stuck. Lucky were staying in a small town where my aunt knew people. Her friends brother ended up lending us a tent and we are forever thankful. What a start to our trip, eh?

Well things got better from there. That day we went to Cannington manor & explored the area a bit. The next day we went exploring around the area with my 10year old cousin who is very knowlegable when it comes to abandoned houses. She knew all the houses, shools, barns, etc. in the area. I was amazed and happy to have someone who knew the area. Her love for abandoned houses is impressive and i hope she keeps it up until she is my age. Who knows maybe i could pass on some of my locations to her in the future?

The trip overall was great. We met some very nice people, saw some amazing stone buildings, found some amazing 2 story brick buildings, many one room school houses, a ghost town and of course abandoned churches. I plan to explore this area more in the future as there is so much potential.

The following are some of the interior & abandoned buildings we saw on the trip. I will post the stone & brick houses we saw in my next blog.

heritage exploration

I am heading down to southeastern Saskatchewan to visit my relatives. Both sides off my family have originated from this part of the province so I have a lot of family down there and many of the farmsteads were originally a part of my family. On this trip I will be spending three days down there, all of which I plan to be exploring and visiting. I also plan to visit a large heritage site and meet up with my friend from Regina. All three days will be packed to the max and I am sure I will be exhausted in the end but it will all be worth it. I also plan to test out my new tent that I bought last year. I bought the tent in case I got stuck anywhere but never had a chance to use it so this year I will put it to good use. I just hope the weather holds out for us & the road conditions are half decent. Pictures & stories will be coming early next week.

statues & signs

I know I do a lot of blogs about signage in Saskatchewan. This is because there are so many stupid signs in Saskatchewan it is overwhelming. You can be in the middle of nowhere and find the strangest sign wondering why it is there. The same goes for statues & monuments. Sometimes you see something in the distance and you think you may know what it is but when you get closer it is some weird statue/monument. When something like this comes up all you can think of is “huh?” or “WTF”. Well here is a collection of some of the stupid signs & statues we found on our most recent trip.

WTF IS THIS?!?!

This sign was down a basically abandoned road, seriously who is going to see it?

not sure what this one said? looks like one of those "crime watch area" signs

seems a bit dramatic considering its in the middle of nowhere?

GPS

I bought this GPS months ago because I can be directionally challenged at times and would hate to be lost in the middle of a city or the middle of a field. The one I bought has most of the gravel roads in Saskatchewan and comes in handy at times. As much as I love the GPS I do not trust it all the time.
I have heard stories of people who will follow the GPS all the time even if the road looks unsafe. Well I know from experience that the GPS may tell you there is a road there but in reality there is not. I know at times my GPS will want me to drive down a road that is a field, down a hill into water or even through a lake.
I use common sense because if you don’t you could end up stuck in the middle of nowhere without cell reception wondering how the heck you are going to get back.

km to nowhere

I decided to take some time and go on another road trip. I woke up early, packed the car, waited for my friend to finally be ready to go and we hit the road. No destination planned but we knew what area we wanted to explore. Last time we were in this area it had much potential and didn’t let us down this time.

We started on the highway but soon after crossing the river we turned onto gravel. From there we took many winding roads through fields, over hills, through thick groups of trees and ended up in the middle of nowhere. Some roads we took ended up being wet which forced us to drive fast enough to make it through and fishtail many times on narrow gravel roads. This was the first time that I had ever lost complete control of my car, minus the time I drove into a ditch of snow. It was awesome. In the heart of all the trees we ended up on roads where the grass was as high as the car and there were trees growing in the middle of the road.

We did find some interesting things on this trip. We found some old farmhouses, one of them being a heritage home abandoned in the 50’s. An abandoned schoolhouse on the side of a road, old abandoned church, which we had been to previously, and of course we found animals. We saw 4 deer, 2 of which were fawns, had been followed by the biggest bee I had ever seen in my life, almost hit multiple gophers as well as a woodpecker (no animals were hurt or killed on our trip) and at the end of the trip we found a fox den!

On this trip I learnt that God really does have a sense of humor. I knew this previously but this trip proved it more than ever. I had decided I wanted to check out a Ukrainian Church in the area. We searched all over for the church and had no luck. We ended up down this “road” which was a nightmare. Wet spots everywhere, narrow; full of trees we had no idea where we were. We went for quite a while until finally we hit a crossroads. Not just any crossroads but one that had this church at it. The church we had been looking for. I was both excited and annoyed. At first I did not believe this could be the church I had searched so hard to find but at the same time I did believe it. After all the searching we did, all the roads we had tried and finally giving up, we find the church.

You will always find things when you stop looking. This goes for anything in life.

"the church"

route 66 maps all over the house

this fur coat is the biggest & ugliest thing i have ever seen

suitcase packed but never taken

hair oil? red?

the road to get to this house was hell, but all worth it

lonely kitchen

roadside church

I know this is not exploring but seriously this tree is totally alone in the middle of nowhere
It deserved a picture.

old schoolhouse

my favorite abandoned church in the entire province

old barn - its still red!

old house - fox den in abandoned shed nearby

new camera

I got a new camera. Well actually my friend had bought me the camera and I bought a kit lens for it. His plan is to have 2 bodies that work with all the lenses he has. Nonetheless I get to use the new one. It’s a PENTAX K100 D SUPER, which is a nice small DSLR that takes 4 AA batteries (which works well for me as I have all rechargeable batteries) and it has a nice auto mode which automatically detects what you are taking a picture of. I am not big into photography so I do not know how to use the manual mode but I do need a camera with a wider lens then my little point and shoot. It seems every time I go to take pictures of churches I cannot fit the whole thing in the frame. Now with my new camera I can and it will make it a lot easier to draw from. So far I am enjoying the camera and cannot wait to get out and test it while exploring. Of course I will always bring my Canon point & shoot because it is indestructible and I would rather have that dropped on the ground then my new one.

Look forward to new pictures coming soon!