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.

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. 

terrace mountain and christie falls. most epic adventure in a long time

after waking up sunday morning and going for breakfast with tom in winfield, it was time to head out on what would turn out to be a very solid adventure. We didn't really know it at the time though. Good thing we had a breakfast of champions, because we were going to be champions by the end of the day.

the only idea we really had was to look for christie falls. somewhere on the west side, near terrace mountain. since we were in the area, it seemed necessary to drive up to the summit of terrace mountain. I'd been there in a past adventure with kris anderson, but it was a few years ago, and there was snow.

The road we took last time was now completely deactivated.  i mean completely.  almost tore the bumper off truck 2 before turning around and attempting to find a more sensible way up.

we stopped.  i peed.  on the way up terrace.  this was on the sensible road.

we met the original road after a while. it was not so sensible in many spots, but we soldiered on.

getting sketchy going up terrace.

the fire from a few years ago

Finally we got to the summit.  the 2 hikers we met up there seemed a little surprised to see us and a truck up there when we arrived.

at the top.  way to go truck 2!

After soaking in the view, we headed down and towards where we thought christie falls might be.  found what appeared to be the trail and off we went.

the eerie hike to christie falls

after a walk through the forest, we came to the cliff. the rope was very necessary, both up and down.

getting a little crazy going down the trail

Finally got to the falls.  it was SO worth the driving, and hiking, and almost rope burns

sweet.  so worth the cheating death multiple times that day

here's a couple of short videos tom took of the falls.  well worth the 40 seconds. thanks tom for the videos and some photos too.  you rule.

like 100 m high.  couldn't get it all in one picture

me, walking behind the falls

having been in iceland, i've seen a lot of waterfalls. never expected to see something like these in the middle of nowhere backroads okanagan. hope these can stay a secret for a little longer.

kinda puts the size into perspective

walking behind the falls.  they were really high, and really cool.  close to 100 meters, if not, more. 

tom walking around under/behind the falls

the rainbow coming from tom

what goes down, must come up.  not sure that's exactly the saying, but you know what i mean

after the hike, we had a little fire near the trailhead.  cooked up winkler farmer sausage and chilled out before driving home.

hey, that's where we were!

weirdest thing.  a 67 chevelle ss 396 was ripping it up in the mud.

such an amazing day.  spectacular views, great drives, and one of the best co-pilots ever.  You could come too.  whats your excuse?  probably it's lame and whatever you're doing besides not coming along is not nearly as cool.

tom and ryan at bear creek

so, since the truck is still kinda out of commission (i did manage to get the busted drive shaft out though), we had another car friendly adventure. This time, tom and i went to bear creek. not my first time there, but it was tom's. It was a sweet hike. a little muddy and icy, but that just made it more adventure-esque.


the view up the canyon

the view from the beer, on a bridge over the top of the trail

some gold-panners on the canyon floor. they may or may not have gotten some pee from the bridge upstream in their pans.

last time i was here, this was not burned. it got burned last summer. in a fire.

mountain sheep/goats/animals we saw along the road. pretty cool.

another good adventure. even without the truck...

this just in...

new pictures from tom's camera...

my pirate face on a bridge, with a refreshing laid back lager, brewed in kelowna, drinkin everywhere awesome happens

for tom, another pirate face, another laid back lager

this picture is pretty much what it looks like