back to the cabin

it's august.  sure there are fire bans, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun.  in a sweet cabin, on a sweet lake, with awesome all around.  so thats what brian, wayne and i did.

a little cabin we like

we had a few days, and a few nights at the end of august, so we decided to check out this place we like.  we being myself, louie, wayne and mary.  time to get in a weekend of paddle time, fish time and awesomeville time.

eureka. were we camped in a fire tower

turns out we had 3 days for an epic adventure, so wayne, mary kris cruise and i headed up to this cool spot we heard about.  We originally had plans to return to twin lakes, but that fell through.  this was a worthy replacement.

we could see tiwn lakes, and the pinnacles.  

we go winter dirt camping, again.

Mary was back from school. Kris wasn't working, and i could get away for a night and wayne was in.  lets go winter dirt camping again.  dirty snow camping?  whatever.  Norm and sonja came with us for the day and we headed to one of our favorite lakes.  of course it was frozen and there was tons of snow.

following sonja and rocksteady.

remember to go adventuring

It's the middle of the week, how about some adventuring? Kris, ross and i hopped in our trucks for the first adventure together.  after a tour of some trails in the area, we ended up at a sweet place for a fire.  so we had one.

ross has a scope.  is that cheating?

an adventure to a very cool place

During my internetting, a occasioanlly came across a place called stocks meadow.  it looked cool, so kris and i decided to see for ourselves.

IMPORTANT!!! This is private property.  many people choose not to believe that or to disregard exactly what that means.  Bad karma will come to the disregarders.  I found out who owns it, called him up and explained that we just wanted to adventure time to it.  he said ok.  if you want to go here, do that too.  or bad karma to you.

Kris and i hopped in the truck and off we went.  Not gonna say much about exactly where this place is, but we could drive to it and it wasn't far away.

We pulled in an were immediately awenomified.  this place was cool.  it still is cool, but definitely not as cool as it was 20 years ago when it was in action.  apparently about 25 people all lived here.  lots of activity.  judging by some of the buildings, they also had a LSD tree growing somewhere.

told you it was crazy

1st trip of the new year.

It's the first weekend of the new year. time to get out there.  louie, kris, scott, mary and i headed up beaver lake road looking for an epic spot.

the convoy

short test run with pellet guns

Changed the rear leaf shackles on truck 3 in hopes of fixing some of the rear end sag.  Patrick came over and gave me a hand.  then it was time for a short rip up some trails off beaver lake road to test them out.  here are the pictures.

the only puddle. 

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.

we got bored this weekend

This weekend it was time to make more woodchips, and boards.

Saturday, Kris and i headed up to the wood storage facility up postil and got the chainsaw all set up.

1st cut

Our mission this time was to make a sweet post.  pretty much the same procedure as boards, just wider cuts. 

cutting up the post

another truck sunday to celebrate autumn

so its the first day of fall. how to commemorate it? how about 4x4ing up a sweet trail with kris, a chainsaw and a dog? off we went.

where we rung in autumn

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.

friday, in 4 low.

fryday night. its time to go out and get the truck dirty with tom. little did we know how muddy it would get.

we headed up and found a few people were already there. they had a fire going and were happy to let us chill. we hung out around the fire and shot some cans with the pellet gun.

then the trucking began..

the road in.

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.

saturday. time for another shot at beaver lake. i packed up the fishing stuff, the canoe and louie and off we went. not as empty at the campsite as last weekend, and the ice is officially all gone!!

louie in the bow

i also packed the pellet gun and we both had some beer.  it was sunny, and i wore sunscreen.

all loaded up

We caught 4 fish.  only 1 was keepable sized, but we didn't keep it.  let it go to catch it again.

yea fish!!

On the way back to the truck, we stopped at our usual camping island.  the new canoe performed awesome.

the ripper.  good times so far. 

The island was not as we left it.  some people decided to build a big log thing.  not sure of it's purpose yet, but it's there.  seems like more than an elaborate way to store firewood.

the log thing

We spent an hour on the island shooting cans and chilling out.  a pretty amazing camp spot.  might be back next weekend, with tents.

louie showing how it's done.

pellet catching tree

Then it was back in the canoe and back to the main camp site.  we fired up the chainsaw and then the fire and then some smokies.  like i said, it was fuller than last weekend, but not as full as it will be next weekend.

You should come may long.  there will be a special guest and the usual suspects.  It will be good.

ice breaking in the new canoe, and the 1st camp of the spring

Now that we have some answers to the ice situation on beaver lake, it was time to break in a new canoe is got (old town tripper, woohoo!!) we'll take this time to dust off the tent and fishing rods as well. so saturday patrick, charlie and i loaded up the 4runner and off we went to beaver lake.


The first this was to break some of the ice on the lake.  the was about 3 inches of ice/slush that we plowed through.  pretty surreal.

ice trails

Then it was time to eat.  steak and potatoes for dinner.  charlie ate well this weekend.

charlie wants some

Beer was flowing and that the pellet gun got a major workout. tents were ready to go, so there was nothing left to do but relax.

evening chill time.

fire roaring and firewood waiting.

We had tons of firewood and comfy spots.  the evening was so awesome.  after a great sleep, the next day was upon us.

breakfast of champions

morning views.

Near the lake, i counted 5 firepits all within 20 meters of each other.  what is wrong with people?  the biggest and ugliest was full of glass and nails and right in the middle of the boat launch.

the fire fire pits of morons gone by

There was a short morning paddle around in another attempt to get some fish. it was a great paddle but an unsuccessful fishing trip.

new canoe

A great way to start off the camping/fishing/canoeing season.  what does next weekend have in store?  hopefully more of the same.  you should come.

sunday ice recon at beaver lake

is the ice off at beaver lake? can we fish there yet? can we canoe? can we even drive in to the site? inquiring minds wanted to know. so mike and i went to find out on sunday evening.

but the most pressing question is...  can i use a golf ball on my clutch cylinder since the original became a mushy chunk of rubber?  Well... yes you can.

my new clutch cylinder lid. 

one the clutch was sorted out, it was time to answer the other questions.

the road into beaver lake site

The road in was a little snowy.  nothing major.  so in we went.

the ice.  still there.

The ice is still there.  about 15 feet of clear water along the shore.  pretty much the same schedule as last year.  i checked last years blog posts, and maybe we are a little ahead this year.  a little.

truck and fire shot

had a fire, shot some guns.  good times.

found a MIA soldier from last time

Mike also had a ping pong ball full of gunpowder. we used it to thin the troops a bit.

I think a camping trip is in order. next weekend we are gonna set up some tents here and try some very early season fishing. might bring the canoe. you should come.