return to pinnacle lake

as a mad send off for mary, who was certainly one of the gang, the four of us decided to hike to pinnacle lake.  it was also kinda a send off to summer and a chance to do some awesome.

the 4 awesomers

so mary, kris, louie and i piled into louies truck and headed past cherryville and to the trailhead for the 7 km-ish hike to pinnacle lake.  these are their stories...

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

pinnacle lake. wow.

Saturday morning.  time to go.  picked up mike, brian and kris and off after a bit of packing and shopping, head towards cherryville and ultimately, we hope, pinnacle lake.

We got to the trailhead about 1ish, and after a little repacking, we were off.

the 4 adverturees.  im leonardo.

It wasn't a steep trail, for the 1st hour anyway.  we were in and out of the forrest and passed through some big avalanche chutes.

thats where we are going.

echo lake. it's pretty awesome.

 I'd never been to echo lake near lavington before.  seen it on a map, but never been there.  Now i wonder why it took so long.  Wayne and Natasha suggested it for what has turned out to be the weekly ice fishing adventure.

long narrow echo lake.

It's a provincial park and apparently has sandy beaches.  no sand visible when we were there, but cool misty skys in the early afternoon and even some sun.

pat and charlie at their hole

Mike had his big red in the back of his van.  the fun got turned up to 11 when he pulled it out and we took turns blasting around the lake on it.  no injuries.  just saying.

mike and the trike.

this thing is mad fun.

There were lots of dogs in attendance as well.  Dog, and lula came with natasha and wayne.  Charli can with patrick, and oscar showed up when Ian did.

dog waiting for the fish to bite.

got cloudy later in the day

There were quite a few of us, maybe a record for an adventure.  in attendance was myself, mike, tom, patrick, wayne and natasha.  Ian popped by for a visit as well.  a sweet surprise.

good times right there.  good times.

The clouds that rolled in later in the day didn't make us sad.  i was happy to see the sun at all, and the clouds added a cool vibe.

Even a 1970 toyota celica gt was spotted on the lake.  enough ice so that it didn't break through.  should have seen that thing drift!

'70 celica gt.

Another successful trip in the books.  no fish of course, but whatever...  Next sunday possibly out to fish lake.  the name sounds promising.

and cheers to wayne, i stole some of your pictures.

return to cherryville and the shuswap river

So the shuswap river at the Cherryville forestry site was so sweet last weekend, we decided to head back again this weekend. This time with tents, food, beverages, and more friends. Toms brother bertie and his wife diane were in from manitoba, and the had staked out a camping spot the night before. When we got there, we wasted no time having a sweet time. We didn't take any photos friday night, so we'll start the photo documenarizint on saturday morning. With a complete breakfast (that means a corona along with eggs, bacon, sausage, and pan fries) at the golf course.

tom and breakfast

Then it was back to the river.  Bertie had spent the day before building this sweet dam.  created some awesome spots to sit and really turned up the rapids.

the dam and our swimming rapids

tom and our camp. I didn't use the fly on my tent the whole weekend.   

bertie and his sweet camping set up

downstream on the shuswap river

the lower picnic spot right by the river

a grand torino and optimus prime were also in attendance.

It was SOOOO sweet.  We saw a bear in the campspot, attended a huge farmers market in cherryville, and christine came to visit on saturday.  As well, it was the weekend of a mad meteor shower, so we were awake watching the show.  The screen tent made it easy to be in bed and watch the stars at the same time.

Crazy plans in the works for next weekend.  You should be there.

twin lakes- aug long weekend

Twin Lakes, just north of Cherryville, has been on the adventure radar for a while. We (Tom, Partick, and I) decided that this would be the time to do it. I picked up the truck on Friday from a mechanic who said he couldn't fix it, tweaked the clutch myself, and we crossed our fingers. an hour from pave,ent and cell service is not the best place to have your truck crap out.

We picked up patrick at 2... a little later than we wanted to leave, but as the saying goes, better late than never. It was a 2 hour drive to the trail head from pat's in Vernon, with the last hour being forestry roads.  We got to the trail at about 4:30 and wasted no time getting moving.

The trail climbed steeply for the first hour.  really steeply.  Then we reached the alpine meadows.

the view north from the 1st meadow

more meadow views

pretty sweet.  i want to go there too.

soon the top was in sight, and what a sight.  there is the mark berger traverse trail.  a 3 day treck along the ridges.  it starts at the same trailhead we used, but keeps on going.

ridges headed south

must be getting close now

the last meadow

pretty sweet vistas

Soon we left the meadows andinto more rocky terrain.  We followed the contours of the ridge and began to see snow fields around us, even though it was 25 degrees.

tom heading through the rock fields

Then, there were the lakes below us.snow and sun and mountains and awesome views of everything.

finally we can see the lakes

this 71 maverick somehow beat us there?

Unfortunately,we couldn't stay much longer.  it was getting dark and we still needed to get back down and find somewhere to camp.  Next time we'll bring our tents.

time to head back down.

patrick heading up from the lakes.

tom and patrick crossing a snow patch

these things were everywhere in the meadows.

We had some sweet views going down.  you don't always see what's behind you until you change directions.

It was pretty dark when we finally decided to set up camp. like "can you set up your tent in the dark" kind of dark. we found a clearing with firewood close by, cooked some food and passed right out. this was what we saw in the morning.

our "camp spot"

The next day we spent at a forestry site near cherryville. There were people, but not too many. We spent the day swimming and drinking beer and eating. I took my phone and camera for a swim as well. they didn't like it.

patrick showing us how to count to 2 in french

shuswap river

Such an epic trip. So much more to see in the area too. We'll be back, earlier in the day and ready to camp in the alpine. You should come. Thanks to tom for some of the great pics.