island lake... should be called "really small fish lake"

Sunday may 20th, time to canoe. and fish. mike, tom and i all piled into truck 2 and headed past beaver lake to island lake. it is part of a 4 lake chain that we decided would be a good place to do some fishing and canoeing. The forestry site is pretty easy to get to, and we didn't waste much time getting ripping.

launching pen 15 at island lake site

mike and i lighting the fire.  how else do you cook chicken?

forgot the bbq tongs.  necessity is the mother of invention.  and possibly frustration the father

the previously mentioned chicken, cooking.  tongs in action

the canoe beached at the our cook spot on deer lake

there are fish in the lake, but they are so small that we didn't keep any of them.  Great spot to canoe, lousy spot to fish.

my camera decided that the batteries, although charged all night, were going to be dead this morning.  wtf man.  thanks to tom for providing some sweet shots.  more to come possibly.

fast friday at beaver lake

firday night. what should we do? how bout grab tom and go have a fire up at beaver lake. ok. so that what we did.

tom and his axe.  the other dood in the camp totally loved it.  really.  he did.

my axe.

random 67 gtx we say tearing up the trails there.  we had too pull it out once.

getting dark on beaver lake.

good times. next friday anyone?

may not-long-enough weekend

so what to do may long? well the plan actually started the weekend before, on the beaver lake mission. after seeing the sweet island camp spot, that became our may long goal. tom, patrick and i packed up friday night and headed to the beaver lake rec site. which we found totally full at 7pm when we got there. no worries, we headed to another spot that tom and i saw the weekend before. when we got there, we found the hugest redneck party ever, so we doubled back and found a quiet spot next to a creek. it would do for the night. up went the tens and out came the food and beverages.

the tents in spot 1.  it was cold that night

pat and i in the morning, getting ready to move to the island

saturday morning, we woke up and tom and i took our tents and stuff to our island paradise.  we did some fishing on the way back to camp 1.  i got 2 rainbow trouts.  then i hoped in the truck and pat hoped in the canoe with tom.  I headed to the rec site with the truck and tom and pat headed to the campsite.  then pat came and picked me up from there.  3 people and 1 canoe.  a little weird sometimes, but we made it work.

the road to and from spot 1.

Once we were all on the island, we proceeded to get comfy.

tom, getting comfy.

Shortly after we were all settled, wayne shows up.  what a sweet surprise.  he brought his 2 dogs and the 7 of us (4 people, 3 dogs) we all proceeded to get more comfy.

our spot.  all settled in.

We fished all day, and ate fish too.  I finished with 8 fish.  tom got one too.  Patrick and charlie were fishing in the canoe when i woke up.  calm lake was sweet.

pat, charlie and the "log cabin"

wayne exploring the limits of our kingdom

breakfast was a 3 hour affair.  with bagels, bacon, sausage and of course fish.

wayne manning the frying pan.  he's a good guy to have along.

dog chilling on a log.  looks like he's taking a shit...he's not.

most comfy spot.

A great trip with a great group of adventurers. 

group shot.  me, tom, wayne and patrick

it was raining a little on the paddle back.  not enough to get us wet or dampen the sweet trip.

charlie and patrick on the paddle back

charlie sleeping in my driveway

a little google earth map

11 fish, 2 nights, and about 50km of canoeing later the trip was done.  a great first camp of the year.  and im starting to get the hang of this fishing thing.  More next weekend, i hope.  We got room for more, you should come.

a solid sunday on beaver lake... with fish!!

Man was Sunday awesome. Tom and I packed the canoe on truck 2 and headed up to beaver lake. We were expecting ice on the lake, since Friday night there was still a lot. We were blown away by the 0% ice factor. i guess plus 25 does that to ice. we met mike lau up there and proceeded to do some fishing. I'd never caught a fish in BC before, and this was going to be the year where i finally break that streak.

beaver lake.  where did the ice go?  it was there on friday

The sun was blazing and we didn't waste any time getting on the water.

me.  canoeing.

We found some ice in a little bay.  We reeled in our lines and headed straight for it.  What a blast!  plowing through the icy slush and trying not to pull a titanic.

our swath of destruction through the ice

tom.  the canoe.  ice.

We explored around an island and made our way through a literal maze of dead heads.

paddling through the dead flood zone

up a small creek we found some crazy water fall foam.  Know what i mean?

tom and his foam

We also found fish!!  i broke my dry spell.  had tons of luck.  so much it wasn't luck.  it was skill.  Landed 3 trout and christine and i had fish for dinner.

fish 3

We checked out another island.  Christine and I had canoed past it last year and saw a camp site on it.  This time we stopped to check it out.  It is where we will be spening May long weekend me thinks.  You are invited.

may long, this is where we will be.  camping and fishing on this island

mike.  in his boat.

What a solid adventure.  Can't wait to do it again next weekend.  Same bat time, same bat channel.

a quick friday night at beaver lake

Needed to get out for the evening.  We did.  Here are the shots.  From beaver lake.

Mike and Tom and Truck 2

Beaver Lake.  Check last weekend for a comparison of the ice.

It was sweet to get away, even for the evening. Ate some hotdogs, drank a beer, and generally chilled out.  Where were you?

going postil wednesday

So Wednesday, Tom and I decide to hit up postil for some riding.  Tom's 1st time on this type of track and possibly this type of bike.  It was a blast.  Tom crashed.  Usually it's me doing the crashing.  He's ok.  

Looking down the run to the wall ride

 A big road gap

hey!! thats me

tom by the ski jump

bikes all loaded.

steak, peppers and potatoes etc make it all better.

It was a blast.  We'll do it again.  Just you wait and see.

mission: doreen lake

Sunday it was time to see what the forestry sites on the Thompson PLateau were like. could we drive in? were the lakes still frozen? whats the deal in general? to find the answers to these questions and more, tom, louie, mike lau and danny and i headed up towards doreen lake to meet natasha and wayne.

the road into beaver lake site. someone went to town with a chainsaw, presumably a logging firm of park clean up crew. the site was barely recognizable. 

louie and his beer checking out the still 95% frozen beaver lake.

mobile mike owning the "road" to doreen lake.

our view for the 5 hours we spent at doreen lake.

the gangs all here.  why aren't you?

the mission was a mad success.  mike brought his honda trike and that was a source of sweetness.  also, wayne and natasha brought their pellet gun.  everyone left with their eyes.  Wayne tried fishing, but no luck.  

it's good to know the sites up there are open and ready for business.  you should come next time.