overnight at oyama lake

long weekend time. pat, charlie and i packed our tents and headed up to oyama lake to do some winter camping and ice fishing.  the truck was full, and we were ready for anything...

the road up to oyama lake

the hole into oyama lake

as usual, we didn't catch any fish that evening, but we had a great time.  soon it was time to start thinking about setting up the tents.

pat trying for dinner.

hi charlie

After messing around on the lake for a few hours, it was time to set up the tents, but not before a walk through the resort.  on the way through, we ran into jordie, who we met last st. patricks day.  we told him we were going to stay in some tents to which he replied "why don't you stay in one of the cabins?"  but with more slurring of the speech.  so we did.

pat getting the fire going in the cabin

We slept warm and well in the cabin.  so well, we were up on the lake at 8 am for more ice fishing.

sunrise on oyama lake

the resort from our ice holes.

We left without fish, but had a mega blast regardless.  might head back to the cabin next week, if you want to come.

thankful for 2 wheels and 4

The Sunday of a 3 day long weekend seems like the perfect time for an adventure, so thats what we did. Pat, Charlie and I piled our bikes (not charlie's bike...he's a dog and can't ride a bike yet) into the truck and headed up beaver lake road. destination: high rim trail. This is a part of the trail i've been on a few times, and also the part of the trail the Herman the Adventurous mouse started his journey in the geocache christine and i placed.

We unpacked everything and immediately got riding.   Weird that i had no recollection of the long uphill right at the beginning.  Once we got to the level top part, it was hard smooth single track.  good times.  We chilled out in a meadow that overlooked the central okanagan pretty awesomely.

the sweet singletrack through the meadows.

stopping for some pictures (and a beer)

okanagan lake in the back, duck lake in the front.

sweet okanagan day.  20 degrees.

The spot we stopped also happened to be in wrinkly face cliffs provincial park.  A place i can see from my living room window.  Cool to be ion the top of it looking down, instead of the other way around.
 

patrick chilling atop the cliff.

And, wouldn't you know it, we stumbled upon a 1971 plymouth gtx.  Stopped for some pics with it.

patrict and the gtx

hope the owner doesn't come find us messing with his car

after our break we got back on and kept on keeping on up the trail.  Patrick uttered the words "looks like this is where the shit starts" referring to fallen logs and more pointy rocks.  at that exact moment, i got a flat tire.  the shit did start there.

a little flat repair.

After fixing the flat, it was time to turn around.  there was a campfire to be had and some green army guys that we needed to shoot with the pellet gun.  so we returned to the truck and quickly found a close place to have a fire.

there are 7 army guys hiding in this picture

We spent the rest of the afternoon/early evening shooting and generally relaxing around.  good times.

It's starting to get colder here.  freezing at night and stuff.  not sure how many biking adventures we can have before we trade the bikes for snowshoes.  I'll obviously let you know.

Or... come for a first hand experience yourself sometime.  we got room.

7 summits and rossland. year 4.

Labour day long weekend only means 1 thing to partick an I... 7 summits poker ride in Rossland. It was our 3rd year doing it together, and my 4th overall.

Things got off to a rough start Saturday morning when we had to switch rental cars. The Avenger was not big enough, so we got a mitsubishi rvr. Not a big deal, but it put us a little late starting. We hit the road like, ... well, like something determined to have a sweet time... whatever that might be.

Our first stop was our ritual pee stop at this crazy blue bridge. We couldn't stop our tradition now, so we stopped. and peed.

71 charger on polson bridge

the valley from the bridge

We got to our campsite and settled in pretty hard.  That evening was pretty chill, just getting set up, having some dinner and doing some shopping.  Getting ready for the next day.  I had to meet a dood to get to the volunteer station at 7:30.  I'd spend the morning there serving chocolate and checking riders in.  The plan was to take off once patrick got there, and we'd finish the ride together.

the fondu station

Once pat arrived, off we went.  It's a 45 minute climb from the station to record ridge, a sweet spot the relax, put on your shin guards and get ready for some fast dusty rocky down parts.

looking back at old glory

from record ridge

another from record ridge

After a short chill at record ridge, its 90% down from there.  fast flowy down.  the kind where you should wipe out a lot but don't, because you are just that awesome.

pat down the trail.  pretty dusty.

We got to the bottom, had the provided celebratory beer, then caught the shuttle back to the festivities at the campsite.  The rest of the evening was spent meeting people, eating and swapping stories.  Really sweet.

The next morning, we laughed at the guy who was puking from his mad hangover while we packed up our car.  Then off. 

the 71 charger was camped right next to us!!

We stopped at Midway at the Kettle Valley Railway Mile Zero museum.  A cool little spot.

KVR mile 0 museum

charlie and i at mile 0

And 1 more stop at the kettle river provincial park, to stretch and pee.

kettle river park

364 days until the next time next year.  We are trying to get more people to come with us, so consider this more than enough notice for you to get time off.