paddling beaver lake

saturday christine and i put a canoe on truck 3 and headed up to beaver lake. it was sunny and hot with just enough wind.

we launched from the rec site and paddled around the northeast end of the lake, stopping to check out one of my favourite camp spots.  it was still there.

hydration is very important boys and girls

halycon the third

easter weekend. you may know by now that means a trip to halcyon hotsprings for christine and i.

things got off to a rocky start when the side window of our car was shattered by a rock from a passing car. rocky start... get it. i can laugh about that now. but after hitting reset and making a few quick calls, we were off. in a car exactly like ours but silver and automatic. i had to hold christine's hand when i was driving to avoid shifting the stupid auto shifter thing. ar at least that was my excuse.

our rental car and our sweet little cabin.

who logged the snowshoe trails?

Time to get the snowshoes white once again. this time we headed up to Kelowna Nordic. it was snowing on the way up, so that seemed like a good thing for snowshoeing.

We strapped on the shoes and headed into the bush. then, the bush was gone. just like that. 1/2 the trail area had been heavily loggeds over the summer. what the heck? sure changed the feeling.

christy in the newly created snowshoe fields.

snowshoeing at telemark

Saturday, Christine and I put on the snowshoes and headed to telemark, on the west side. actually, first we headed there then we put on the snowshoes.  The sun had begun its evening decent when we started, so we chose a 7k trail that would have us back before dark.

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.

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.

ainsworth anniversary

 

Friday, I took the day off.  I had been decided a while ago that Christine and I would spend out 10th anniversary at Ainsworth Hotsprings.  and so it was.

The drive there through cherryville and nakusp was awesome, as i expected.  it was our first time past nakusp and in new denver and kaslo.  what an awesome place.

big lakes, big mountains, big awesome

sunstar silverday. i mean silverstar sunday.

Sunday was sick. I wanted to spend some time with my wife and continue my eternal quest to check out fire watch towers and other adventur-esque locations. Found a way to do it all. It was awesome.

We headed to Silver Star for some hiking. Started off riding the chairlift to the top. that was pretty awesome. At the top, the very 1st thing, was the old fire tower. How sweet it is.

checking off and out another old fire tower

geocache saturday with christine

a great day to geocache was upon us. christine and i returned to mission creek to find some new ones. here are a couple of pictures of the event.

some hoodoo type thing??  we'll go for a closer look next time.

the creek is getting higher. 

It was a good day.  snagged 3 geocaches.  got some sun and fresh air. 

easter in nakusp. its a tradition now.

Easter time, and in our house, that means time to go to nakusp. This is the third time and this year it became official; this is a tradition. So we packed up the BRAND NEW CAR and headed east.  We also loaded up the GPS with geocaches.  as is required for most sweet trips.

1st stop.  the last spike geocache.

the view of arrow lakes from the hotsprings

hey.  it's us.

Most of our time was spent in the hotsprings.  i start teaching again when we get back to reality, so a good chance to relax a bit before then.  Christine works so hard that she always deserves some relaxing time.

we had the restaurant to our selves... as usual

from downtown nakusp

Everything about halcyon and nakusp was so awesome.  it always is.  thats why we keep going back.

3 valley gap. 

from our cabin

geocaching in nakusp

The other thing that we did a lot of was geocaching.  there is still one at these falls that is eluding us.  we will try it again next trip.

on the ferry across arrow lakes.

See you again next easter nakusp... or maybe earlier.  on another sweet adventure.

mission creek geocaching

spring is definitely here, and that means all the geocaches buried all winter are ready for picking. christine and i headed out to mission creek to snag some of them.

the creek is still pretty low

cliffs of mission creek

We've been along mission creek tons before, and it's a really neato trail.  heaps of geocaches all along the trail just makes it that much cooler.

in a few weeks, the flooding will likely be pretty crazy

christine on one of the bridges that crosses the creek

we logged 5 new geocaches and got to explore some of the trail we had never been on before.  a good time.  maybe with wheels next time.  2 wheels, and pedals.

snowshoe saturday

today christine and i got a late start, but better late than never as they say.  part of the delay was that we hit up teds used books.  tough to spend less than a hour there.  we took the lancer up to kelowna nordic centre and spent 2 1/2 hours snowshoeing.  made it back just as the sun was dropping behind the mountains.

big white.  there it is.

we had some sun at least.

Not sure how much longer snowshoeing will be a possibility.  a month or so.  maybe 8 weeks.  better get it while its cold.

We did a new trail up there.  snowbound i think its called.  always cool to check out new trails and areas.

the trees are much smaller there than at silverstar.  logging i suppose.

It was another great day.  no gloves needed and lots of snow.  the snow is disappearing quickly in the valley, but still enough for winter adventures at the higher elevations.

the paddle around dee lake

Dee lake is at the top of the beaver/crooked/deer/island/dee lake chain. i'd paddled them all except dee. saturday was the day to change that. Christine and i packed up the truck and headed up beaver lake rd to island lake. there we took off the canoe, hopped in and got to it. heres the photographic evidence...

through the channel between island lake and dee lake.  dee lake resort.

into dee lake

this island put the island into island lake

the island campspot.  menatl note to self... go here with a tent

christine checking out the island

good camping views

looking towards the island lake rec. site.

It was a sweet little day trip.  good roads (though bumpy enough to rattle off the front license plate it turns out).  we'll be back.  maybe ice fishing??  definately camping on that island.

the bowron lakes adventure: days 5-8

if you are reading this and have not read "the bowron lakes adventure days 1-4", i suggest you do that 1st.  thanks.

Now, on with the show....

Day 5


Due to all the rain the previous evening, we may have cheated a little and set up the tent in a bit more sheltered area.  OK, we totally cheated, but by cheating we had a great sleep and didn't have to put the tent away wet.  we deserved the epic sleep after the epic day of paddling.

is this cheating?  say "no" please.

 we packed up our gear and headed back out on Lanezi lake.  but just before we left, i spotted the superbee again.  snapped a quick picture of it ripping it up on  the woodpile.  i think we're being followed.

vroom vroom

 There was all kinda of stuff growing and we literally were canoeing through a rain forest at points.  this devil's club was one of the weirder things we saw.

devil's club

 Our first stop after we got into the canoe was a bit of a backtrack, but it was worth it to log another geocache.  The "W" shows designated wood cutting areas, set up in an effort to keep people from randomly collecting wood and trashing the shoreline.

got wood?

 The mountains along the lake were some of the best vistas of the trip, including the tallest peak in the park and some crazy snow fields and bowls.

father mountain and snowfields.  sweet views all day

 Another thing we saw a lot of were slide chutes.  not sure if they were snow or rock slides, maybe a bit of both.  most now sported some cool waterfalls from the higher melting snow.

dualing waterfalls

recent slide and fallen trees.

snow bowl above the alpine

 We got to the end of the lake, took a few pictures facing backwards, and entered the caribou river again.  views were minty.

looking back up lanezi lake

 Just at the mouth of the river, we stopped at this semi-flooded site for some hot chocolate.  we heard later that this site was dry 3 days later.

another flooded site, but dry enough for hot chocolate

 We filtered all our water with a MSR water filter.  Better safe than shitting and barfing uncontrollably in the middle of nowhere for a week.

 After the caribou river ended, we entered sandy lake.  the headwind was insane and the whitecaps were over a foot.  no time for pictures, just find the only sheltered spot and call it a night.

sheltered? yes.  dry and not flooded? no.

can you light a fire underwater?  no.

 We pulled the canoe up as high as we could.  the tent pads were no where to be found, either flooded and floating or floated away.

the tarp is tied to the outhouse. 

these trees do not need more water.

flooded.

 The highlight of the campsite was dinner.  we had mango chickpea curry that we had, once again, dehydrated at home.  SOOO good.

dinner.  yummm

 Day 6

After a brutal windy day yesterday, we full on deserved the glorious day we got today. we left our flooded site and back into the canoe and onto the lake.  so calm it was hard to believe it tried to kill us last night.

bye bye flooded site

hello calm water and sunscreen.

We got back onto the caribou river and headed to una lake. there is a trail to caribou falls we wanted to hike, but unfortunately, it was closed due to bad trail conditions, so we paddled around a few small lakes instead.

una lake.  a weird island tree.

 Today was the last day we would have to portage.  the mountains were in the background and the entire feeling of the trip changed.  smaller lakes, different forests and different weather.  3 portages today, but 2 were less than a kilometer, and all the lakes were very calm.

me and the portage cart.

 like i said, the lakes were generally smaller, and a few marshy spots.  marshy spots = moose.  we spent 30 minutes watching one in skoi lake swim from one shore to the other and eat a bunch of moose food, whatever that is.
 

the marsh into skoi lake

the moose

the last lake for the day was spectacle lake.  it was the biggest lake of the day, and calm and flat the whole day. a great way to end the day.

 When we got to the camp we were pretty relaxed.  there was another new cook shelter, but we slept in the tent because it was so awesome out.  we spent the evening hanging out, cooking and watching wildlife.  some kayakers joined us at the camp site, but it was a big site, so we each had lots of personal space.

an eagle a few meters from the tent.

fishing. caught 4 kokanee salmon

evening on spectacle lake

an evening fishing outing with doug, a kayaker.

the new cook shelter

 Dinner was another dehydrated awesomness.  chicken and peppers.  totally good time.

Day 7

We totally could have made it back to the lodge today, but we didn't want to.  So we spent 2 hours paddling to the last campspot on the circuit and had a relaxing day reading, fishing and just generally enjoying the awesomness that our lives had become.

paddling the end of spectacle lake

 The last campsite (site 52) was on the upper bowron river.  a river that eventually will end in the pacific ocean.  we were 5 km from the headwaters on a sandy stretch.  cool to chill out and watch the river flow by.

upper bowron

  There was a cabin, but it was our last chance to stay in the tent again, so we did.

last cabin on the circuit

tenting is better sometimes.

 accross from our camp was a huge marshy area, so we hoped for more moose sightings the next day as we were going to be paddling trough it.

 the mountains were still awesome, even from a bit of a distance.  a week and 100 km of paddling ago we were on the other side of them.

 It certainly was bear country, as the sign said, but we didn't see any until we were back in the car.  lots of bear poo on the trail though.

maybe this sign should be at the beginning?

trusty axe.  well worth carrying the weight.

 The sany shore here was easily eroded by the faster moving river.

crazy root exposed by erosion

trusty peak 1 stove.  bought in 1996.

what what what?  how did this beat us here?

Our last night was awesome.  relaxing day and looking forward to paddling tomorrow, but not looking forward to the return to civilization.  I tried to convince christine to do the circuit again, since we had enough food, but no dice.

Day 8

The last day.  Bitter sweet.  We packed up and got back into the canoe and back into the bowron river. it was going to be another short day of paddling, which was totally ok with us.

We come around the corner and are greeted by the 1st and 2nd of 9 moose.  these 2 were less than 10 meters away.  didn't seem to mind us.

a bull moose eating along the end of the marsh

One moose decided it didn't want to be around us, so it took off.  heres the video.  pretty amazing animals.

soon the landing was in sight.  as we got closer, our arms got more tired, but there was an idea to go around again.  i for one wasn't ready to get back to reality just yet.

the landing at our lodge

the canoe was tired too.

epic trip.  can't wait to do it again.  thanks christy :)