another fire tower, or at least there was... once.

we found ourselves with another free weekend. mary found herself in the okanagan and kris and i found ourselves in her new truck driving towards pinaus lake as well as the site of another old fire tower. at least there was one. it's gone.

muddy roads.  tuk in the back.

tuktakamin used to have a fire tower, and even though it's gone now.  the views from places like that are usually pretty awesome.

we loaded up mary's new to her pathfinder and headed up.  the roads were good mostly, a but muddy and a 4x4y at times.  we made it up and had some sweet views.  look...

the very base of the tower was still visable, but now the top is home to a picnic table, some radio buildings and towers and this big green dink of a repeater.

i think i know why it's called pinaus lake.

we could see silverstar no problem, and a few other big peaks.  maybe towards revelstoke or 3 valley gap. south towards kelowna was row and row of low mountains.  a very cool perspective.

the sun started to get pretty low while we were up there, so we started the drive down to the lake.  took some pretty awesome back ways and the pathfinder was a champ.

we got to the lake with just enough light to get some wood and set up the tents.  we had the whole place to ourselves and it was awesome. 

we had garlic bread and the best baked potatoes ever and a few courses of meats.  the garlic bread is a rarity for us, but i think it made it's way into our hearts and will become a regular.

In the morning we fixed a bit of a rattle that seemed to be coming from the back of the truck. 

and got a movin'.

one of my favourite trees is the tamarack, and it was so cool here to see the needles down like a yellow brick road.

it was really sweet to check out another fire tower site, even it it wasn't there.  incidentally, the tower is not gone, it's on display in the town below.

there is a sweet fire tower mission in the works for this summer.  check it out here.

thanks to mary for many of the sweet pictures.  ryan out.