last night

after chad and i went for a drive on thanksgiving weekend, i was kicking myself for not bringing a camera. i know its hard to take pictures in the dark, but even blurry night pictures can be better than no pictures sometimes. so when we went for a drive last night, i made sure to bring my camera. here are some pictures of that event.

frozen puddle at night. its dark, but trust me...there is a puddle, and its frozen. and we have to drive through it. we do. its not really a problem at all.


we went up postil lk rd and then turned off to go have a fire at bullman lake. we got sidetracked by a sidetrack that either led or didnt lead to beaver lake. anyway, the trail passed through an open gate, and i was pretty sure the gate at the other end would be locked and we'd have to come back the way we came. open gates give me the heebee jeebees because i never am sure if they will still be open gates when i need to get back out. we went anyway. it was a good trail that did in fact lead to beaver lake. we crossed the top of the small dam and came to the locked gate at the other end. back we go, but not after having a moonlight beer or the dam.

we made it back to the gate, and it was still an open gate. then off to bullman lake forestry site to burn the 2x4's i got from patrick. and burn them we did. and we didn't even use any gas to start the fire.

there was a little snow falling, and the puddles in the road were frozen over. that means you should stay tuned for the annual winter adventures of ryan. appearing here. when its winter.

thankful for adventure.

lets set the stage...

friday night. 9:00 pm. time for a short lakeside campfire with chad. we met up at the airport and headed up bata road. its has officially been deactivated. that means 2 foot trenches across the road. turns out, we had 1st tracks over and through these new trenches. no pictures of this trip, but what a great time. gotta love night wheeling. shoulda brought the camera, but they would have been pictures of blackness anyway. trust me, it was sweet.


the part of thanksgiving weekend i did have a camera for was christine and my trip up to oyama lake fishing resort.

cool "ice house" cabin at the resort. good for summer.

the dead tree graveyard part of the lake

we found this diving board on our way to log a geocache


christy paddling. we met up with the creek from the streak lake trip

cool evening light

such a brilliant night

cool morning light. fog and rain rolling out

christy and big red on the deck of cabin #2

inside our place

this trip was so awesome. the temperature and wind didn't allow too much canoeing, but such a minty trip anyway. we'll be back oyama lake... we'll be back.

edmonton, the adventurous part

a prairie sunset from grant's deck

I recently got to spend a week in edmonton for a work conference. the conference part was not an adventure because there was no camping, canoes, bikes, trucks, fires drinking or cool people. Luckily, i got to stay at me buddy grant's house. he lives in edmonton with his girlfriend bev. both are cool people, so part of this trip certainly was an adventure.

the first adventure was an evening (a tuesday evening) fire at out friend seth's acreage. it was kinda dark by the time we got there, so the pictures aren't so clear.

fire pit area and comfy chairs



one of the smaller guest cabins


main cabin. very nice.

we had a great evening here exploring the trails that go around and through seth's 50 acers. i remeber this place the day after he bought it. no pond, no cabins, no golf hole (yup, there's a golf hole). its changed completely. very nice place now. wish it could have been brighter to get pictures of all that stuff. next time i guess. thanks seth

We also spent what was supposed to be 1 short night at steve's acerage. but after the invention of the brutus (a ceasar with a knife in it HAHAHAHA) we decided to stay a little longer. here are some pictures.

here's steve and a friend of his (can't remember her name) sitting around the fire pit. she was painting.



a shot of the trails all around his acerage. fall was full time ripping.


grant and steve at the top of a small hill


grant whipping up some breakfast


grant whipping of some sick bass tunes.


guess which one is me. heres a hint. brap brap.

another sweet weekend.

the sign of a good day ahead of you...


i just found out about big ed and a ton more marked, built and buff trails in the area above kal park in vernon. When news like this hits my ears, it prompts a mission. so, there was a mission. I met Patrick at his place in vernon and we headed up king edward fsr. big ed was right where he was supposed to be.



Like i said, the trail is built and buff. here is the end of a log ride i couldn't take pictures of until i was off it.



and an action shot. so actiony and action filled it was blurry.


in case you can't tell, that's me killing another log ride.


one of the coolest spots wasn't rideable, unless you had a parachute or a hang glider. thats 'cause it was a parachute or hang glider launch. what a view of the valley.


we ripped for about 2 hours. what a solid run on a great day. and the weekend was not even half over.


Sunday, named ofter the sun presumably. and a sun-day it was. christine and i decided to explore postill lake via canoe. i don't usually make it that far up the road, because the drop in for addiction is quite a bit lower, but i was glad we did. turns out to be a great place for a day canoe.



the shoreline was kinda weird. not the normal log jammed shore i was used to on the resorvoir lakes of the thompson plateau. the weird stripes looked like set of stairs, not at all natural looking.



i guess i should mention the forest fire. we watched it grow from a whisp of smoke to a pretty crazy scene. the picture of the smoke didn't turn out, but this is one of the 8 or 9 aircraft that were on scene.



at the end, we were assaulted by a bunch of very cute but persistent ducks. one almost got in the canoe, and they were all so close that paddling was pretty tricky without knocking a duck



well, that was the weekend. i hope the next one is as sweet.

Rossland, year 3

Labour day weekend = rossland bike fest. this year was as sweet as any other, and sweeter than some. The crue was down from last year, from 5 to 2. Patrick and I represented as well as 5 though.

We didn't want to take the truck, or patrick's car, so we rented a car. I fully loaded ford something. It was even more fully loaded after we got all our stuffs in.



We left saturday at about 7, and got to rossland at 12ish. we got the exact same sweet campsite as last year and got settled in pretty quick.

The next day i had to meet up with some other guys and get a shuttle up to the mid-way station where i was volunteering. It was the same spot where we had to abandon the ride last year, so my plan of finishing the trail after volunteering was looking good. Volunteering was an absolute riot. I got to meet all the riders as they came through the station. riders like this guy...



After a few beers, and a lot of sun, I saw patrick making his way to my station. (i should probably mention it was also the chocolate fondu station). He chilled out for a bit, then i suited up and we began to rip the remainder to the trail. most of the climbing was done early on, and so the last 2.5 hours was a dusty rocky descent at max speed. The first 2 hours was along a sweet ridge with the whole valley blasted out below us.




red mountain in the background

The whole trail there are so many sweet places to stop, catch a snack and take some photos. because it wasn't a race, there was no pressure at all. This was one of those spots.



so is this...



Even the drive has some epic views. This shot is leaving rossland, and the first 2 summits.



and big blue. a random bridge over boundary creek, just east of christina lake. we stopped and threw some rocks off it. and peed.



so thats it for this year. stay tuned next year for the 4th installment of the 7 summits adventure.


riders on the ridge. yea.

oyama backroads explore

For a while (like a few years) i've been wanting to make the drive from beaver lake to oyama lake, via the back way. This weekend mike and I did it. turns out it really was no big thing. It certainly was a cool trip, but not too dramatic i mean. We camped at streak lake, a small lake that connects to oyama lake. the road into the actual forestry site is kinda bad. a minivan could make it, but you might lose some parts.

The lake itself is long and narrow. I did 2 solo trips around in my canoe, and paddled through a small lily lined channel and ended up in oyama lake. Mike caught 2 fish, i caught zero. i did see a moose. pretty cool i think.

the view for 2 days


the channel into oyama lake


oyama lake


On the way out, we headed for oyama lake road but stopped and checked out a few other forestry sites on our way. King Edward Lake is a nice lake, but the forestry site is rihgt along the road. High Lake has a small site, but the road in is barely a trail. almost rolled the truck there. do not try and drive in, but the short hike leads to a nice site. Dalmer lake is nice too. not far off the road at all, and the lake looks minty. Finally oyama lake site. The lake is really sweet and pretty busy. The forestry site is shit though. basically a parking lot with a fire pit. don't plan on staying there.


mike on his way in. view from the campsite


i didn't put the fly on my tent, the weather was so perfect. sun all day, clear all night. cool but not cold. and zero bugs.


oyama. wood lake on the left, kal lake on the right

New (to me) canoe

So we bought a canoe. it was part birthday present, part anniversary present. It's a 15 foot penwood canoe (now named pen 15), made in penticton. I bought it off a super religious guy for $400. It's maiden voyage was a trip around duck lake in winfield. a nice flat 8km to get used to it and try it out. Expect many more canoe adventure to come!

here is a shot pulled up on a beach on duck late. good times.