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.

quick trip to beaver lake island

It was time to head out again. just a short trip to beaver lake. tom and i were going to camp at the rec. site, but it was full. that meant we had to head to the island, one of our favourite places. The bugs were bad, but the times were good. no fish this time. Heres the pics.

evening when we got there

just 2 tens this time.  the whole place to ourselves

dusk on beaver lake

the lake was calm.  can't help but be chill.

It was a great little escape.  just what the doctor ordered. 

next weekend = birthday party.  you should come.

Winter camping on the High Rim Trail

December, anderson and I snowshoed in the High Rim Trail for our first un-supported winter tenting mission. by un-supported, i mean the truck was 3 km from our camp, not a drive up winter camp as usual. We packed pretty liberally, including, but not limited to, 4 3hour fire logs. We figures they might be the best way to get a fire going. we also had 2 camp stoves, 3 bottle of liquor, 2L of sunny delight and a bunch of food. The snowshoe in was pretty crazy. lots of powder, first tracks, and 40-50 pounds of stuff. We set up camp almost in the dark, lost a bottle on the way in, and found it during a random night mission.

once we got the fire ripping, it was good times. actually, it was good times before then too.


in the morning we had a sweet view above the clouds


our camp spot, looked great at night and during the day


the road to the trailhead


anderson manning the trangia. dinner cooking.


It was a very successful mission. we'll do it again sometime.

hydraulic lake, nov. 2010

what a trip. not much to say. i'll let the photos do the talking.

it was not snowy in kelowna, but the roads went from this:


to this:


and finally ended up like this:


there was some of cooking and eating like this:



steve playing in a sand pit off the KVR


kris contemplating if we should move in or not.


we left, the cabin was just too far to commute.


a good trip, but only because i didn't have to sleep in a van partially submerged in a freezing creek. Steve's van (and the occupants) slept in the van/creek until morning when i was woken up from sleeping in a warm bed to go rescue them.

night hike and plane crash

finally went to find a plane crash on okanagan mountain.

we hiked up mtn. goat trail. it took 3.5 hours, and the last 45 min by flashlight, mostly bushwacking after we lost the trail. we camped at divide lake and left for the wreck around 10. it was not easy at all. 1.5 km off the trail as the crow flies, but it turned into just over 2 each way. the wreck was exactly where we expected it to be. i felt it was pretty anti-climactic, considering how freaking hard it was. the only savior was the occasional fallen log that formed a 20m bridge. there really is not much left of the plane. just the last few feet of the broken tail. we did find a few 3 foot pieces of aluminum on the way back out, but hard to if they were there from the crash or dropped there by people who got tired of carrying their souvenir. back to divide lake to pick up our packs, then back to the truck at the south parking lot by about 6ish. The south parking lot is kinda tricky to find, but its a rough road to the right, directly across from a fallen chute lake sign. the trail shown in the backroads map book that leads to the site does not exist. bring tons of water.

here are some pics...

jeff and patrick at the crash site.  it was pretty burnt from the 2003 fire.

down the mtn goat trail.  south down okanagan lake

the trail was pretty open and rocky.  looks a lot different in the daylight.

It was a solid trip.  next time, leave earlier.  if you go and find the wreck, keep your hopes reasonable.  there is no big wreckage to pretend you are flying or anything.  a good adventure though.  do it.