Jodie Ponto Photography

Once upon last week Miss Quincy, The Showdown, and I did something unprecedentedly sporty — we woke up at the buttcrack of dawn and went hiking in the Kootenays.  After our attempt to hike up Idaho Peak and frolic amongst the legendary wild mountain flowers was thwarted by a washed out road we decided to re-route our hike along the K & S (Kaslo & Slocan) Rail Trail, an old mining railway that was used from 1895-1955.

The trail begins at Sandon, a ghost town that during a late 1800′s mining boom boasted 5,000 residents, saloons & brothels galore, and was the first town in BC to be fully electrified.  It also served as a Japanese Canadian interment camp during WWII.

Buttcrack of dawn.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown go tour bus shopping amongst Sandon’s collection of vintage Vancouver trolley buses.

Why go hiking in hiking boots & fancy sweat-wicking clothing when you can go hiking shirtless & in flip flops?

Hitching a ride in a construction truck instead of making the grueling 2 hour uphill climb back to the trail-head.

Would you pick this girl up if you saw her hitchhiking?

Nothing cools you off after a long hot hike quite like 4 litres of Vag Watre.

Shari shaves her legs while Miss Q goes in to wash her hair during a post-hike Kootenay Lake bath. Shortly after this photo was taken a crusty old lady threatened to call the cops on us for indecent exposure.

Ruby aboard the Osprey 2000 headed from Kootenay Bay to Balfour.

Miss Quincy writes a new song, Shari picks her bass blisters, and Holly contemplates the view.

Beeeyoootiful Kootenay Lake.

Mistaking the Kootenay Lake Ferry for the Titanic, Shari and Miss Quincy belt out My Heart Will Go On from the bow.

Camping with an all-girl rock n’ roll band doesn’t usually involve roasting marshmallows around a Kumbaya singing campfire so much as it does rolling into the campground after the office closes, drinking beerverages, donning costumes, plugging in the band’s sound system to have a late night outdoor dance party, and rolling out the next morning before anyone has time to come around and collect the camping fees.

Photos below are from a rare night off that Miss Quincy, The Showdown, and I spent camping near Waterton Lakes National Park, AB.

A doe and her fawn right outside Ruby.

Getting the dance party started while setting up Camp Quincy.

Shari & Miss Quincy perform an impromptu air upright bass & guitar concert for a few lucky campers.

Camping costume change in Ruby. Notice the Bose speaker plugged into the trailer.

Picnic table costume change.

Shari as a camp tramp pin-up postcard.

You may remember meeting Ruby last year, Miss Quincy’s 1974 Trillium trailer.  We lived large in her for one whole week of tourcation before a misadventure with a tow truck driver left her stranded in Jasper for the rest of the summer.

After a year at the trailer rehab center, Ruby is not only back on the road with us, but has been revamped into a little jewel that would give even the most modest vintage trailer enthusiast a boner.

Ruby parkin’ with the big boys.

The newly revamped insides of Ruby (click on the panorama to get a better look). Yes, those are pin-up girl curtains.

In true trailer trash fashion, using an extension cord to steal power from the venue so I can compute and Miss Quincy can blow-dry her hair.

Curbside dressing room.

Miss Quincy on-demand silkscreens a Pussies Are For Eating t-shirt in Ruby after a show.

Having a beerverage in Ruby with C.R. Avery and Noah Walker (The Broken Mirrors) at South Country Fair.

Jamming in Ruby with Scott Cook at Freedom Fest.

I don’t know how many nights I’ve spent at Tracks Pub in Olds, AB … But more often than not it all ends in 3am table-top dance parties, inventing new interpretive dance fueled drinking games like Beer Pass, or one of the band members’ moms having to come pick us up in her pajamas late night high school style because none of us are fit to drive.

(Photos from Miss Quincy & The Showdown‘s July 14, 2012 show)

Instead of drinking $7 cans of Budweiser amongst hundreds of thousands of pretend cowboys, Miss Quincy spent the Calgary Stampede getting a new tattoo (to see photos of her pin-up girl tattoo click here).

Tattoo by Kevin Johnson

Once upon the first Saturday of the 2012 Calgary Stampede we found ourselves on Mike Slater’s Kensington balcony for our third annual Stampede kick-off street party. Just like every year, the block was blocked off, Mike mixed vats of caipirinhas with his cricket bat, the crowd danced up a free-flowing keg frenzy, and after a set by Miss Quincy & The Showdown, Victoria’s The Party on High Street set the lawn a-boogie until the cops shut the party down.

To see photos from the 2011 party click here, to see photos from 2010 party click here.

Bird’s eye view.

Suburban dance circle, part 1.

Suburban dance circle, part 2.

Miss Quincy flying fancy free without her customary hat.

A few photos of Miss Quincy & The Showdown‘s heatstroke inducing set at the inaugural Freedom Fest in Moose Jaw, SK.

The scorching sun reflecting off Shari’s bass head.

It was 3 hours into a 4 hour 80′s playlist and we were en route from Calgary, AB to Freedom Fest in Moose Jaw, SK.  I was behind the wheel belting out If I Could Turn Back Time when the van’s back tire popped harder than those sailors who watched Cher prance around on the USS Missouri in nothing more than a fishnet body stocking.

This is the 2nd consecutive year we’ve broken down on the Friday before the Canada Day long weekend (check out photos of last year’s adventure in road travel hell here). Coincidence or not, we’ve decided Canada Day long weekend’s eve shall forevermore be a day spent drinking, not driving.

Busted flat.

The Badlands.

Waiting on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway while Miss Quincy fishes the spare tire out of the Vangina.

You know it’s a blustery day when Shari’s ass-length dreads blow in the wind.

Shari “The Chip Burglar” Rae holds up Miss Q & Holly while waiting for a new tire in Medicine Hat.