beaverdell mines and goat mountain lookout. and a bit of driving

Sunday.  what to do...  how about pester louie until he agrees to go on a random drive far away to a place that we don't even know for sure exists and certainly don;t know how to get there.

sounds good.  I had been to the mines at beaverdell before, but there is also the rumor of a sweet old fire lookout on goat mountain.  off louie and i go to find it, and check out some mines as well.  we also brought a bbq.

It was raining a bit as we headed out of kelowna, but soon it wasn't.  it stopped raining as soon as we left the pavement.  obviously a sign.

our first stop was this mine.  we went in.  alllll the way in.  tons of old railway tracks inside.  pretty cool.  we came to what was to us, a dead end, but could have been further explored with coveralls and better flashlights, but some common sense stopped us from climbing through a small hole in a tunnel that was 80% caved in.  we could see through and could have climbed through, but we didn't.  it was too early in the day to get that muddy on the 1st stop.

pretty cool

return to christie falls

Monday of the long weekend.  Jeff was leaving tomorrow so our last adventure needed to be something epic.  Christie falls came to mind as one of the most epic adventures, so why not head back there?  Why not pick up Tom on the way?

Why not indeed?.... so thats what we did.

We took a different way around Terrace Mountain, more east and closer to the lake.  The result was tracked some new roads and had sweet views of the lake along the way.

Theres the lake

Also along the road we found a pretty sweet cliff, so we stopped and checked it out.

tom and jeff looking down.

We kept driving and about 4:00 we got the the trail to the falls.  we didn't waste much time starting hiking, and about 25 minutes later we were at the top of the falls.

jeff and tom at the top

the top

Then it was time to head down the trail.  the ropes work well and are quite necessary.  don't get rope burn.  Definitely a cool trail.

going down mr. tyler?

sweet!

Then we were at the falls.  rounding the last corner before the falls are visible has an extra layer of awesome.

We spent about an hour at the bottom.  exploring the cave, having a beer, and soaking up the awesome.

its wet.

look up, way up, and i'll call rusty

The basin at the bottom is huge.  The cave is really big and really cool.  The ice around the edge was covering the trail and made access kinda crazy and a little dangerous.

me navigating the ice zone

jeff in the adventure pose, and tom in the wild man pose

Then it was time to go back up.  while we were chilling at the bottom, a huge piece of ice fell right on the trail, so we were more expedited about the climb back around the falls.

climbing up the rope way

We got back to the truck and commenced a mini tailgate party in celebration of our outstanding awesomeness.

the truck was waiting for us

jeff snipering the beer cans

A major part of the celebration included the launching of rocks off the nearby cliff.  so we did.

3-2-1- go!!

Here is a video of a 200 lb rock blazing a new route to the bottom. tress did not stand a chance.

We got the feeling we were not alone, and sure enough.........

a pic of the elusive Terrace wood elf.

until next time terrace mtn.

Of course, it was eventually time for us to leave.  but we'll be back.  you should come too.

Thanks to Jeff for coming to visit from Winnipeg, to Tom for coming along and for some of these sweet pics. 

may long and some dam camping

So this weekend jeff newman decided to return to the okanagan to guest star in the adventures of ryan. he got in thursday night and after work on friday we wasted no time in getting our adventure on.

We headed up to beaver lake rec. site, which was totally full by 6PM. we did not get a spot, and in hind site, we didn;t want one. too busy there. We kept on trucking a bit further down the road to the old rec. site, which have visited a few times before, but never overnight.

The only other group there was a dad and his 2 kinds, and they were pretty cool enough. the space was big enough to share anyway.

crooked lake from the dam

We shot the pellet gun and got a sweet feed on before turning in for one of the best sleeps ever.

Saturday was a bit rainy.  not hard, but light and constant.  we hung around the tent for a bit.  I did some fishing and pulled out a pretty small rainbow.  i let it go.

beaver lake.  the other side of the dam

jeff pondering the spillway

lunch.  porkchops

another group came to fish from the dam.  they didn't have any luck and soon were gone.

the fishermen on the dam

Once it stopped raining, or at least let up quite a bit, we headed off on an explore across the dam.  If i had a quad, i would pretty much live up there.  

the end of beaver lake

an old trail??

Our mine finding skills are quite honed, since we spent a lot of time in beaverdell and on blue grouse.  This old trail looked suspicious with an old pile of rocks.  we checked it out and it was an old mine.  gonna have to do a bit more research into it.

yes, to an old mine!!

Once back from the 2 footed explore, it was time to get in the canoe and head up corrked lake.  I found a fishing rod attached to a bobber that was floating in the middle of the lake.  score.

jeff riding point

the 'vette that came to visit. 

our little set up

After a super sweet saturday and another great sleep in the tent, we got up sunday and lazily got ready to go and packed up.  the drive out was wetter than the drive in, but thats a good thing.

2wd that baby.

What a sweet weekend, and it's not over yet.  stay tuned for more tomorrow.  better yet, come with us.

saturday. time for another shot at beaver lake. i packed up the fishing stuff, the canoe and louie and off we went. not as empty at the campsite as last weekend, and the ice is officially all gone!!

louie in the bow

i also packed the pellet gun and we both had some beer.  it was sunny, and i wore sunscreen.

all loaded up

We caught 4 fish.  only 1 was keepable sized, but we didn't keep it.  let it go to catch it again.

yea fish!!

On the way back to the truck, we stopped at our usual camping island.  the new canoe performed awesome.

the ripper.  good times so far. 

The island was not as we left it.  some people decided to build a big log thing.  not sure of it's purpose yet, but it's there.  seems like more than an elaborate way to store firewood.

the log thing

We spent an hour on the island shooting cans and chilling out.  a pretty amazing camp spot.  might be back next weekend, with tents.

louie showing how it's done.

pellet catching tree

Then it was back in the canoe and back to the main camp site.  we fired up the chainsaw and then the fire and then some smokies.  like i said, it was fuller than last weekend, but not as full as it will be next weekend.

You should come may long.  there will be a special guest and the usual suspects.  It will be good.

ice breaking in the new canoe, and the 1st camp of the spring

Now that we have some answers to the ice situation on beaver lake, it was time to break in a new canoe is got (old town tripper, woohoo!!) we'll take this time to dust off the tent and fishing rods as well. so saturday patrick, charlie and i loaded up the 4runner and off we went to beaver lake.


The first this was to break some of the ice on the lake.  the was about 3 inches of ice/slush that we plowed through.  pretty surreal.

ice trails

Then it was time to eat.  steak and potatoes for dinner.  charlie ate well this weekend.

charlie wants some

Beer was flowing and that the pellet gun got a major workout. tents were ready to go, so there was nothing left to do but relax.

evening chill time.

fire roaring and firewood waiting.

We had tons of firewood and comfy spots.  the evening was so awesome.  after a great sleep, the next day was upon us.

breakfast of champions

morning views.

Near the lake, i counted 5 firepits all within 20 meters of each other.  what is wrong with people?  the biggest and ugliest was full of glass and nails and right in the middle of the boat launch.

the fire fire pits of morons gone by

There was a short morning paddle around in another attempt to get some fish. it was a great paddle but an unsuccessful fishing trip.

new canoe

A great way to start off the camping/fishing/canoeing season.  what does next weekend have in store?  hopefully more of the same.  you should come.