back up to and down to christie falls

some people i know had never been to christie falls.  time to break them in.  kris, louie, mary and i headed up there.  we took a road up we had never taken before.  good road.  some big holes.  it was some good old remembrance day fun.

finding our new road.

last weekend of fishing without an auger

remembrance day. that means, remember to go fishing and stuff.  6 of us headed up to one of our favourite spots to visit jordie and make the most of the last weekend before freeze up.

we didn't waste much time on the way up.   the only stop was the lookout, and that's never a waste.

obligatory lookout stop

a cruise with brian

saturday my buddy brian was back in town for a bit. no way i was going to let him leave before he rode shotgun on an adventure.

looking down to kelowna

whats down this road?

Saturday was another day to explore some previously unknown to us roads.  We headed past beaver lake and took a left by dee lake.  the backroads map book showed a few roads that were worthy of our attention.

up towards the kettle valley

beauty of a sunday.  time to go.  Louie, Mary, Kris and I hopped in some trucks and headed up towards kettle valley.  hoping to get to the KVR through the back door.

short test run with pellet guns

Changed the rear leaf shackles on truck 3 in hopes of fixing some of the rear end sag.  Patrick came over and gave me a hand.  then it was time for a short rip up some trails off beaver lake road to test them out.  here are the pictures.

the only puddle. 

labour day. no lablouring was done.

Summer is ending.  Need an epic way to end it off.  how about 9 of us head up to a lake and have a time. will do.  Steve and friends got up to the cabin thursday and help it down.  waiting the arrival of the rest of us.  So saturday morning we wasted not much time getting going in TRUCK 3.

tarps, campfires, truck 3 and bikes

 This weekend 4 of us loaded up bikes and camping gear in truck 3 and headed north for some camping and biking.  this was truck 3's maiden adventure, so it was important.

wood (thanks norm) and bikes and sitch.

christine and ryan on azure and clearwater lakes. days 4-7

Day 4... when christine and ryan go exploring for a day to the end of azure lake

we decided that today the tent would stay where it was, but that we would paddle the 7km to the east end of azure lake.

luckily we started off with a solid breakfast of rainbow trout.  5 minutes from lake to frying pan.  i got 4 fish in about 15 minutes, but gave away 2 and threw 1 back.  we only needed 1.

breakfast.  5 minutes ago this thing was swimming.

ryan and christine on clearwater and azure lake. day 1-3

it was time for christine and my annual epic canoe trip.  this year we chose clearwater and azure lake in wells grey park.  not exceptionally far from murtle lake, which we hit up last year and also this year with my dad, bro and kris.

Day 1... in which christine and ryan paddle up clearwater lake.

on the way to pick up our canoe, we couldn't resist the hike to helmcken falls.  its big.  like real big.

helmcken falls.  real big

a weekend on beaver lake

 time to get out the canoes and stuff and head to beaver lake for some dirt camping.  that means we left the tents at home.

big waves and wind.

return to murtle lake

the time was upon me for another sweet canoe trip.  usually i would head to manitoba around now to accomplish this, but this time around, mark and rude dog came to bc.  add kris to the party and you have a party.  4 people, 2 canoes, 4 days, 1 lake.

their plane landed at midnight thursday, and by friday 430 am we were on the way to blue river and murtle lake.

step 1, portage 2.5 km to the lake. 

saturday. fish for dinner.

Saturday Wes picked up my canoe and I and off we went to Beaver Lake. Our mission was simple... catch fish.

Wes pointing to where the fish are.

may long. another tradition.

saturday a few of us decided to head into them hills and do some camping.  and canoeing.  and fishing. and standing in the rain.

we loaded up the ripper and took off towards beaver lake.  being may long and all, the site was totally full, and them some.  so we continued towards island lake.  a place i've been before, but not recently.

1st fish of the year.

back to the bush

what to do this weekend? how about go help out a buddy up in the bush? ok. so friday we headed up into the snow zone in mary's sweet 4x4. nothing could stop us!

meeting mr. bear

we got up there friday about 9pm.  the road was passable and not nearly as bad as everyone we met thought it was. we met up with our buddy right away and got to it.

halycon the third

easter weekend. you may know by now that means a trip to halcyon hotsprings for christine and i.

things got off to a rocky start when the side window of our car was shattered by a rock from a passing car. rocky start... get it. i can laugh about that now. but after hitting reset and making a few quick calls, we were off. in a car exactly like ours but silver and automatic. i had to hold christine's hand when i was driving to avoid shifting the stupid auto shifter thing. ar at least that was my excuse.

our rental car and our sweet little cabin.

a short drive and walk in the postil region

tom and i went for a walk. at postil. there is still lots of snow. we had a little off-trail explore and the snow was thigh deep. recon for summer camping will have to wait a bit longer. here are pictures.

forest trail

kris's birthday... in my new (to me) wall tent. yea.

Kris's birthday.  Also, the weekend after i scored a wall tent and stove off the local internet classifides.  Kris's party seemed like an epic time to try the tent.

heading up off the main rd.

who logged the snowshoe trails?

Time to get the snowshoes white once again. this time we headed up to Kelowna Nordic. it was snowing on the way up, so that seemed like a good thing for snowshoeing.

We strapped on the shoes and headed into the bush. then, the bush was gone. just like that. 1/2 the trail area had been heavily loggeds over the summer. what the heck? sure changed the feeling.

christy in the newly created snowshoe fields.

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.

echo lake. it's been a while.

This weekend we headed up to echo lake near lavington to do a few things; snowmobile, shoot guns, fish, drink beer, and (last but not least) visit wayne and natasha. we did it all. what a great time.


We got set up on the lake a bit later in the afternoon, but packed a lot of awesome into it.

Step 1.  drill a hole.

snowshoeing at telemark

Saturday, Christine and I put on the snowshoes and headed to telemark, on the west side. actually, first we headed there then we put on the snowshoes.  The sun had begun its evening decent when we started, so we chose a 7k trail that would have us back before dark.

quick trip up oyama

Saturday, it was time to get the truck snowy. norm and i headed up to oyama lake. not a crazy trip, but a good one.  had to get out of the valley to enjoy the sun, so we did.  here are some pics.

told you it was sunny

New Year for New adventures

i know yesterday i was literally sitting on a beach getting a tan, but now it's time to get back to the reality of canada. Can't let a bit of snow stop me. We were going to go icefishing, but a lack of volunteers and a bit of a late start. better late than never.

i met up with louie and we hopped in my truck, heading up to chute late.

our 1st stop was at the top of gillard on the KVR. we whole valley was covered in cloud, and we were well above it. looked like a valley full with snow. pretty cool.

panorama of the cloudy valley