eating fish on a monday afternoon

I can't think of a better way to spend a monday than paddling on a sweet lake, catching fish, and eating them on an island on the way home.  that's what we did.  here are the pictures chris took.  that's one of his things.

i dig this shot.

night canoe and fish for breakfast on beaver lake

2 nights to spend on beaver lake? lets do it.  kris, mary, louie, nathan and i headed across the lake in the dark.  under this moon...

night paddle moon.

elton lake at full moon solstice

the end of june i ended up back in manitoba and managed to fit in a few days paddling in nopiming park with rude.

we headed for elton lake.  3 portages and some sunny lakes in from the truck.

lunch at site 2

it's may long weekend again!

may long has long been a time for awesome. we knew we had to keep that going.  we did.

we hit up a little lake we've been to before.  in fact, kris left his phone there one day.  in february. in 3 feet of snow.  in the middle of the random bush.  we also camped there last winter.  under a tarp.  in 4 feet of snow.  in the middle of the random bush.

the perfect spot

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.

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. 

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.

1 weekend, lots of adventure

friday and saturday night were full of 4x4ing.  but because it was night, there is a distinct lack of light for good photos.  i certainly tried, but the only ones that turned out were of the aftermath that awaited me in the driveway in the morning.

muddy good times.

whats latin for adventure?

this weekend it was time to check out a new lake.  mike had been talking about it for a month or so, and we believed him that it was cool, now we just needed to experience it for ourselves.

we got prepared for the adventure by opening a keg at mikes on friday night for his birthday.  happy birthday dood.  thanks for the party.

saturday, it was time to get going in the direction of away from it all adventure.

going up bear creek

skunked at beaver lake

it had been too long since the last time i was canoeing. 6 days. mike and i decided to remedy that by fishing out on beaver lake. we didn't catch any, but we had sweet times.

We hit our regular spots and a few new areas on the way.  i had one on the line that jumped twice and then was gone.  After quite a few hours of fishing, we headed to the island.  maybe the last people there were Kris, Tom, Steve and I.

pulled up in our regular spot

labour day weekend... no labouring was done.

Sunday.  got monday off and i got friends who want to adventure.  more specifically, tom kris and steve and i decided to head up to beaver lake for the night.  camp in one of my favourite camp spots, do some fishing and some paddling.  all good.

The 1st problem was can i get 2 canoes on the roof of the truck.

2x4s and ratchet straps.  all good here officer.

paddeling murtle lake. 7 days of adventure. days 1-3. aka the north arm.

So after last year's sweet bowron lakes adventure success, christine and i decided to do it again. this time at Murtle Lake, in wells gray park.

We spent a few hurried days dehydrating food and packing. actually, most of the packing was done on the morning we left.

Saturday, after packing, we hopped in the car and headed north on the yellowhead to blue river. We had a sweet little (really little, but cool) cabin reserved for saturday night so we could get a fresh early start on sunday morning.

our little cabin for saturday night.  tons of blue berries

murtle lake day 4-7. in which christine and ryan canoe the west arm

Here it is.  the west arm of murtle lake and days 4-7 of ryan and christine's 2013 canoe adventure explosion supreme.
 

Day 4

We woke up in the sun.  finally.  like a "it's gonna be sunny all day today" kinda sunny.  christine celebrated by going swimming, i read a book and made pancakes.

christine and the morning "bath"

We were on the lake around 10ish and there was no wind.  0% wind.  We made our way back down the final 2 or 3 km of the north arm and then headed west. i put on lots of sunscreen.

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

paddling the rabbit river in manitoba

Canada day weekend, time to head back to manitoba and put the paddle in the water.  i landed on thursday afternoon, and mark, dad, jeff and i were at the put in to the rabbit river in nopiming park less then 12 hours later.

the rabbit river is 15km long and ends at cole lake.  the plan was 2 nights at cole, then back the way we came.

and off we go

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. 

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.