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.

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.

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

told you we were gonna get more wood this weekend

so, not that i need more wood, but i needed to run a saw in the bush and drive around in 4x4. we did just that. again.

back up to postil for the sawing part of the program.

working hard

Then back up to the cliff to burn some of it.  and shoot some guns.  and generally have a time.

sunday is for firewood

sunday was time for more firewood, so i met norm at the bottom of postil and up we went.

our usual firewood spot

a lot of the wood in the usual firewood spot had been burned.  not cut and burned at home, but burned on the spot.  not sure why the forestry compamies do this.  it they leave it there, it will all get cut up and brought home by someone.  probably me.

1st run in the snow

sunday was time to see how much snow was in the mountains. we could see it from our window at home, but mike, kris and i needed to experience it for ourselves. 1st hand.

going up beaver lake rd.

four by fogging

saturday was time for kris to take out his sidekick to get in adventured up.  him and steve were inside, and mike rode with me in truck 2.

it was really really foggy.  we started up the back way to chute lake around 1.

going up in the fog

we got bored this weekend

This weekend it was time to make more woodchips, and boards.

Saturday, Kris and i headed up to the wood storage facility up postil and got the chainsaw all set up.

1st cut

Our mission this time was to make a sweet post.  pretty much the same procedure as boards, just wider cuts. 

cutting up the post

another truck sunday to celebrate autumn

so its the first day of fall. how to commemorate it? how about 4x4ing up a sweet trail with kris, a chainsaw and a dog? off we went.

where we rung in autumn

the twin lakes adventure

after such an epic trip into the monashees and pinnacle lake a few weeks ago, it was time to go again.  this time to twin lakes.  Tom, Patrick and I have been there before, but we didn't have tents or plans to stay the night.

this time, my bro Mark, Kris and I were the intrepid adventurers.  Mark got in Friday night, just in time to party on my deck with some hitchhikers i picked up.  we welcomed mark to my house in proper style... with extra old stock.

Saturday morning Anna dropped off kris, we packed up the truck and off we went.  ok, it wasn't quite that organized, but close.

our goal for the weekend

fishing in a hail storm

Saturday.  time to go fishing up at beaver lake with louie and his grandkids sean and liam.  we got off to a sunny start, but after louie had 2 casts the sky opened up and we were caught in the middle of the lake in a pretty crazy storm.  we headed to the island for some shelter and to let the storm pass.

wow did we get wet.

saturday in the 4runner, and out of it.

saturday is here. what to do? a few options presented themselves, and we ended up in the truck heading up beaver lake road. knowing the rec sites would all be pretty crazy busy, we headed up a little trail towards some of the more little known rec sites. they were busy too. but we stayed anyway.

flyfish lakes #2

sunday, back to the bush

time to return to the trail that mike, dave and i had to abandon last weekend due to lack of a chainsaw. this time we would have a chainsaw, and a hero chainsaw operator on a mission from gad.

we pretty much made a beeline for the daedfall that held us up. first was the greasy hill climb, which was no problem now that we knew what the deal with it was.

soon we came to the first blockage.  mike went to work with the saw while we (mostly louie) cleaned up the result.  

mike and louie.  the road clearing crew.

we bought farmer sausage for dinner, but we didn't need it!!!

Saturday. time to get some more miles on the canoe and also put my fishing license to use.

Tom and i loaded up and were on the lake by 10:45. The forestry site was pretty full, but we didn;t need a tent spot, just a parking spot. it was such nice weather it was no surprise there were so many people there, but it did mean there were quite a few boats on the lake.

we paddled to an area we had some success in past years.  i like paddling. 

friday night

its friday. what to do. how about check out postil? ok. lets go.

truck in the back.  way back

a 4runner friday

friday night my neighbour and trusty backyard mechanic mike and his buddy dave says to me "we are going 4bying at 6:00. wanna come?" i said "yes". so off we went up oyama lake rd. about 5 k up the road, we left the road in favour of some sweet trails none of us had explored. these are their stories...


first was a greasy uphill.  time to use the 4wd.  dave didn't have quite enough momentum had had to stop and air down half way up.  i learned from him and fully committed in 2nd gear.  the rain made it sketchy but pretty doable.

a weird place to stop, but not much choice.

saturday, home by noon... with firewood

 Saturday morning, Wes calles me for a firewood mission.  not many pictures, but it really was an epic trail.  lots of mud, bumper scraping and road deactivations.

We went up postil past the mud pits and onto some old road.  there was mud, and lots of it. 

wes's truck was supposed to be in the shot.  more than just the tires.

friday, in 4 low.

fryday night. its time to go out and get the truck dirty with tom. little did we know how muddy it would get.

we headed up and found a few people were already there. they had a fire going and were happy to let us chill. we hung out around the fire and shot some cans with the pellet gun.

then the trucking began..

the road in.

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.