winter camp on beaver lake

it after christmas and before new years.  kinda an awkward time.
why not go camping?  ok.
how about skiing and snowshoe camping pulling trailers with our gear?  ok
why not go across a frozen lake and spend 2 nights under a tarp?  ok.
and ice fishing?  ok.

we go winter dirt camping, again.

Mary was back from school. Kris wasn't working, and i could get away for a night and wayne was in.  lets go winter dirt camping again.  dirty snow camping?  whatever.  Norm and sonja came with us for the day and we headed to one of our favorite lakes.  of course it was frozen and there was tons of snow.

following sonja and rocksteady.

a day on oyama

a cloudy day in the valley means we should head up to oyama lake, check the place out and find some sunshine. so kris and mary and cruise and i headed up. these are our stories.

we spent the first hour or so exploring and walking around on the ice.  it was sunny and clear and awesome.

ok mountain is more than just ok

Long weekend of a saturday. time for adventure. Tom and i hiked into okanagan mountain park. It was good.

We went in at a new place and climbed towards wildhorse canyon.  we had snowshoes in the truck, but we didn't bring them on the trail.  good thing.  we didn't need them.

tom doing his turn on the catwalk.  on the catwalk.  yea.

creeks are starting to flow.

The creeks are melting and flowing at lower altitudes.  spring is coming.  woot.

towards goodes basin

The fire was through here 10 years ago, but feels like it was yesterday.

hot chocolate time

I brough the new stove i got after christmas to test it out.  the hot chocolate and bailey's was hot a bailys-a-rific.

don't be sad tom. 

This trail actually goes right around the park and might take 3 or 4 days to hike.  I think the summer will see a return to this area, with tents. you can come.

Winter camping on the High Rim Trail

December, anderson and I snowshoed in the High Rim Trail for our first un-supported winter tenting mission. by un-supported, i mean the truck was 3 km from our camp, not a drive up winter camp as usual. We packed pretty liberally, including, but not limited to, 4 3hour fire logs. We figures they might be the best way to get a fire going. we also had 2 camp stoves, 3 bottle of liquor, 2L of sunny delight and a bunch of food. The snowshoe in was pretty crazy. lots of powder, first tracks, and 40-50 pounds of stuff. We set up camp almost in the dark, lost a bottle on the way in, and found it during a random night mission.

once we got the fire ripping, it was good times. actually, it was good times before then too.


in the morning we had a sweet view above the clouds


our camp spot, looked great at night and during the day


the road to the trailhead


anderson manning the trangia. dinner cooking.


It was a very successful mission. we'll do it again sometime.

winter camping, and yes, we were warm enough

so on nov 28 we returned to hydraulic lake with a truck full of stuff. our mission, to sleep in a tent in the snow. we toured the campground until we fond a primo spot. not surprisingly, we were the only ones there.

we brought the usual pallets, aluminum foil and random meat. it was a darn good mission. we (kris and i, who else) had 6 sleeping bags, therma-rests and even pillows!! talk about luxury.



the entertainment for the evening consisted primarily of getting pulled around a gt snowracer behind a truck. the result is some sweet bruising all along one leg. no pics of that, sorry.

sven and tim joined us around the fire for the evening, but felt their own beds were far better than sleeping in a tent in the winter in the snow. they definitely were welcome company.



It was snowing all evening, but when we woke up it was sunny. we had a sweet breakfast, but not as good as the bird did that stole kris's marinated steak and a bunch of his bacon.

sorry this post is lacking the normal enthusiasm. it's monday. i didn't take many pictures, but i hope you get some of the idea from the ones i did take.

until next time...