A Fishing We Will Go!

What a summer, with mostly warm and sunny weather we have been living the life of Reilly.  We wanted to visit Linda and Al in Smithers to help celebrate their birthdays (39 again) and that gave us a good excuse to explore some of the northern B.C. territory that we always seen to be 'driving thru' to get somewhere else.  With no obligations except Linda's and Al's birthday celebration on July 11th we started looking at our B.C. Backroads Mapbooks and discovered one thing, we still had a lot to see.

Our first stop was Hyas Lake, above Chase, a beautiful rec site that Ken's brother Ron introduced us to.  Wow, went for a weekend and stayed for a week...even after Ron, Roseanne and Mercedes left we stayed on.  This campsite was close to Kamloops so after pulling up camp we stopped in at  Len and Heather's house and had a great visit with them.

With weather still beautiful we headed north a little to Greenie Lake just out of Lac La Hache. A pay rec site but for $12 it was nice and clean and paved right to the park entrance.  Ken caught fish and I did more kayaking, we even pedaled our mountian bikes down the 12 km to town for an icecream cone and back.

Time was running out, the party at Al and Linda's was approaching fast so we high-tailed it to Smithers.  A week with Al and Linda's... party's, visiting and just enjoying good friends and good food. Good mountain biking around their area too.

You know, we had been to this area of B.C. before but never spent much time so we decided to camp around northern B.C. for the duration of the summer.  From here on I could start a running commentary of our daily routines and places that we visited but let me just say this about that...camping, fishing, kayaking, a little hiking and more fishing.  Instead, I have decided to make a list of the campsites we stayed at, how long we stayed and what we rated them (out of 10).

Here it goes from the top:

- 6 nights at Hyas Lake Rec Site.  8/10, the score would be higher except for the resort (next door to campsite) running 24/7.

- 7 nights at Greeny Lake Rec Site.  9/10, the water had a lot of algae but the campsite was as good as a provincial park.

-1 night in the seniors parking lot in Vanderhoof beside the Nechako River  Bird Sanctuary.  8/10, better than Walmart.

-  6 nights at Bear Island Rec Site on Babine Lake.  10/10...wow and we had the best site  and all to ourselves.

-2 nights at Takysie Lake Rec Site.  7/10, a good place to do some rides and check out the area.

-2 nights at the Alcan campsite on Oosta Lake.  8/10,  the best sites were taken up by people who stay the entire summer but the most site were great with cut grass, running water, and wood supplied.  Unfortunately Ootsa Lake is full off wood debris from the Kenny Dam so we couldn't put the Zodiac in the water.

-2 nights at Lund Lake Rec Site.  10/10, what a beautiful setting and good berry picking and good fishing for small trout.

-6 nights at West Francois Lake Rec Site.  10/10,  our favourite  site over-all, with the picturesque Nadina Mt in the background.  The rainbow trout just wouldn't stay off Ken's line.  We even tried our hand at smoking and canning (6 hrs over an open fire).

-1 night at the Burns Lake Municipal Campsite.  8/10, what can you say it's free and close to everything we needed to restock.

- 4 nights at Petersons Beach Rec Site on Fraser Lake.  7/10,  a nice site but crappy fishing.  Ken bought his new 9.9 Yamaha motor for the Zodiac and we got in a nice hike to the top of Fraser Mt.

 

-2 nights at Sawmill Point in Francois Lake Provincial Park on the east end of Francois Lake.  9/10,  a free site in a Provincial Park, we camped right on the water beside the boat launch.  Ken could have stayed longer...he made another smoker, we are getting the hang of it.

 

-1 night at Dugan Lake Rec Site.  7/10, it must have been a Provincial Park at one time.  The long timers once again take all the  good sites  and the sites are not right on the water.  

-4 nights at the Gwe da Ts lh Provincial Park Campsite on Chilko Lake.  9/10, $18 was a little steep for a site that had little to offer but a magnificent setting.  The parks need to do a little better job preparing the sites.  We were wowed when a grizzly bear walked right through our campsite, within 10 metres of us (Ken and Ron also saw a mom and 2 cubs, twice while out fishing).  I did a great hike to the top of Tullin Mt with views of Chilko Lake, Coastal Range and the surrounding area.

-4 nights at Cochin Lake Rec Site.  8/10, great fishing.

That's it a fishing-full-camping-packed summer...so far.

The dock at Hyas Lake needs a little TLC but it still serves the purpose for boats and is a great place to sit and enjoy a morning coffee.

The moon rising over Greeny Lake.

A curious otter checks us out!

Shiners (little fish) nibble on Ken's legs (actually on his dry and dead skin), people pay good money to have this beauty treatment done...

A healthy lake with lots of fish always has a loon or two, I love to hear their call.

While in Smithers we did a bit of mountian-biking.  Smithers has lots of trails with something for all skill levels, the trails we took left right from Linda's back door.

The Kispiox River, north of Smither.

Linda and I (and Ken) out for a day site-seeing around Smithers.

Totem poles in Kispiox.

The water of Babine Lake is like glass, Ken had better get out there fishing!

A Burbot or fresh water ling cod...good eating (the best as far as I'm concerned).

Lake trout, another of our favourites, Ken caught them all!

A warm, sunny and grassy camping spot at Takysie Lake.

Lund Lake, a smallish lake with a beautiful grassy knoll as a backdrop for the campsite.  Who knew the north had so many open grasslands cleared by the pioneers.  Lots of large ranches lay amongst the many lakes and rivers.

Believe it or not the fire lookout at the top of Verdun Mountain is one of the few that is still manned (in this case womaned) and she still uses an Osborne fire finder to pin-point the exact location of forest fires.

A bountiful season for wild berries!  Wild raspberries, huckelberries and a jar of homemade saskatoon jam (cooked over the open fire).  "Living off the land" as Ken would say.

A paddle in my Kayak up the Nadina River with water so still the reflection is like glass...

and so clear you can see river grass under the water.

What a view from our campsite at West Francois Lake.  Nadina Mountain, an extinct volcano sits off in the distance.  While camped at West Francois Ken and I did a bike ride along the base of the mountian...when he wasn't fishing!

A beautiful little buck.

A very large family of grebes, or maybe a grebie daycare, either way there were a lot of them.

No fire ban up north.  Ken caught so many fish we smoked some at West Francois Lake, using dry Alder, the fire pit and the top off our bbq.

We took a hike up Fraser Mountian to a microwave station, the route had great views of the surrounding area.

Another of Ken's smokers (what else can you do when you catch your limit every day).  This time he dug out a spot in the ground in which to build the fire from Alder and once again used the bbq lid for the top.  O.K. this method works great but may we do have to invest in a real smoker before Baja this winter!

Ken's brother, Ron joined us for a week or so camping at Chilko Lake and Cochin Lake.  At Gwe da Ts lh Provincial Park we got a nice site right on the water at Chilko Lake.  Behind the campsite you can see Tullin Mountain 

 

Ron brought his fishing boat, more than convenient when you are on a lake the size of Chilko.

Ken's happy with his catch of a rainbow trout, it's a beaut!

While the boys were fishing I took a hike with a German couple, Annetta and Mathis, to the top of Tullin Mountain, a good 3 hours up and 2 1/2 down, but what a view of Chilko Lake.  We brought along the bear-spray, just in case.  A hefty grizzly walked through the campground the day before ou hike, the salmon are just arriving up the Chilko river and the bears are all hungry.

Our campsite was located directly below the mountain, just across from the little peninsula.  Check out the colour of that lake!

A 'long' look down Chilko Lake with the snow capped Pantheon Range off in the distance.

Ron and Ken at Cochin Lake, showing off their catch of the day.

I think this hike to the top (nearly) of Perkins Peak had to be one of the most breathtaking views we have seen yet...One Eye Lake down below and surrounded by the Patheon Range and not to mention blue skyup above.

Ken was able to ride the KTM up about half of the trail to about 6200 ft leaving us only about 1000 ft left to hike.  Can you find Ken in this photo?  It's very tricky!

Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids

Check Ken out at the Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids.

Click on the You Tube link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62jzskr4fhw

Vancouver Island Bike Tour

I hate to use clichés but 'I love it went a plan comes together'.

A trip to Vancouver Island has been on our go to list in B.C. for a while, being about the only place Ken and I have not traveled together.  With lots of friends and family to see along the way I was wondering if 2 weeks would give us enough time.  The time was good and left us wanting just a little more so we will leave that for another time.

Some say that the end of May and early June is  definitely not the time to be planning a motorbike trip to Vancouver Island but as usual Ken and I threw caution to the wind and loaded up the Super Tenere and left for Vancouver.  With our riding gear zipped up tight, rain suits packed in the panniers and a thunder storm brewing all around us there were a few moments of indecision but they didn't last longer than Hope where things brightened up and from there 'there was no looking back'.

Always a nice way for us to start a trip is hanging with Shari (Ken's sister) for a few days, living in heart of downtown...walks in Stanley Park, good food and great company are always on the agenda.

  

Off to Victoria where we stayed in a "tent and breakfast" (only 3 sites allowed).  We pitched our tent at the small hobby farm with chickens, a big garden and a good cook who made us breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast (homemade bread) with homemade jam, waffles with fresh compote and whipped cream.  All this brought to your campsite first thing in the morning along with a thermos of hot coffee and tea.  It does't get much better!  While in Victoria topping the must do list was fish and chips, a walk around the waterfront and a tour of the Parliament building.   It just so happened that a couple of Kens school friends, Danny Ashton and Terry Lake were hard at work in parliament but Danny found time to give us our own private tour from top to bottom...thanks a lot Danny. 

From Victoria we traveled north up the coast to Port Renfrew and across to Lake Cowichan on a forestry road that was always gravel and had only been paved a couple of years earlier.  It made a great short cut over to the east coast.  Nanaimo is the new home of our friends Patricia and Pierre (neighbours on the beach in Baja) so we stopped in to checked out their new digs.  After a chin-wag we jumped a ferry to Gabriola to check out one of the smaller islands and do sunset kayak tour with Patricia's daughter at Silva Bay Kayak Adventures...a great way to spend the evening!

After landing back on 'The Rock' (Vancouver Island) we headed north through Coombs, with the goats feeding on the roof of one of the General Stores, to Port Alberni where we stayed with Jim and Gloria (more friends from Baja).  Port Alberni was a bit of a surprise to us, the first surprise was how economical it is live there...you can still buy a nice house for $250,000 (definately not the Okanagan).  The second surprise was the weather, temperatures are always the warmest on the island and relatively dry to boot.  While visiting Port Alberni we took a day to ride out to Ucluelet and Tofino and back...great ride and great places for lunch, coffee and a walk on the beach but boy are they touristy towns(oh well, I guess that's what we were, right?).  The next day, which was a little drizzly (thank goodness we were sleeping under a real roof) we took a boat ride, actually a working freight boat, out to Ucluelet and back. This was a great full day experience, leaving at 8 am and returning at 6 pm.  We enjoyed the scenery of the Alberni Inlet as the barge stopped in at communities and resorts that are only reached by water, delivering mail, groceries etc., a good day on the water.  A good time in Port Alberni.

We were back in the tent as we headed to Comox to catch the ferry back to the mainland and thankfully the weather was back on our side.  Before we caught the ferry we took a quick trip out to Gold River, a nice ride on the Island Highway South to Campbell River and then Gold River Highway out to the Upper Campbell Lake, along the way we passed the road to Westmin Mines, where Ken worked back in the 80's.  The night before the ferry we stayed at a great R.V. park, the Salmon Point R.V. Park about 20 minutes north of Comox.  The park sits on a beach on the Strait of Georgia and is complete with kitchen, entertainment room, pool and hot tub and a pub close by for diner when you don't want to cook...which I didn't.

I saw my first Orca on the crossing to Powell River, pretty far away but still a big dorsal fin came out of the water several times before finally going down and parting our company. We rode north of Powell River to Lund which is the end of the pavement on the Sunshine Coast Highway then turned around and headed south to spend the night at Egmont and see the Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids, I will tell you they are impressive!  The speed and amount of water that goes through that channel is amazing.  

We ended our trip at Joanne (Kens sister) and Bruce's place on Bowen Isand, staying five days to catch up on a little R and R (ha ha).  We enjoyed walks in the park and were  able to attend a pizza party they were hosting, yummy!  Their place is beautiful, they are great hosts and we always have a good time when we are there.  The addition the guest studio was nice and made it even harder to leave. 

 

The first of many ferry rides on our trip.

The Parliament Buildings were built on what was once a bog, let's hope we don't have a big earthquake our government could crumble.

'The Floating Boardwalk' on Lake Cowichan at the municipal campground.

Looking out over Silva Bay on Gabriola Island.

There are some VERY BIG trees on the island.

Drumberg Provincial Park on Gabriola Island, it is easy to see that these are volcanic islands.

The group before our 'Sunset Paddle'.

A mumma seal (very pregnant) and another smaller seal sticking it's nose up out of the water just hanging around a lighthouse on a very small rock outcropping.

One of the views on 'The Wild Pacific Trail' in Ucluelet.  A couple of paddleboards aren't put off by the cooler weather.

Colourful murals adorn buildings, including this coffee shop, around Ucluelet.

One of the Tofino marinos, I was hoping this was not going to be the only Orca I would see on the trip.

Now that is one 'Long Beach'!

The Frances Berkley freighter, our cruiseship.  Less than $80 for a day on the water was a pretty good deal.

Salmon berry season was in full swing.  Yes, we did indulge...a little.

The cement barges that make up the breakwater at Powell River.

The Skookumchuck tidel rapids.

Ken's sisters Joanne and Shari with 'The Aunts', Eva and Margaret, standing on the deck of the guest studio on Bowen Island.

Joanne and Shari whipping up a few artisan pizzas.

Diane and Larry watch and take a few notes as master pizza baker, Bruce, deals with a full line-up.

I wouldn't call myself a true foodie but this foicacca bread went great with ...

the garlic prawns...both cooked in the pizza oven.

Ken thinks they both go great with a nice chilled glass of white wine!

Good to the last drop!!!

Flying high

I can't wipe the smile off my face as my German pilot and I fly over the San Felipe area in his ultralight aircraft.

The view looking down at Pete's Camp where Ken and I camp on the way down and up the Baja.

Another look at Pete's Camp and the coast of the Sea of Cortez, San Felipe is in the background at the base of the hills.

Ken kicks back at Pete's Camp after I arrive back safe and sound.

...and what a sunset we saw that night.  Our last night  in Mexico 2015.

Check out more on my ultralight flight by clicking on the YouTube link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHTuaY9VgCo 

Bye-Bye Baja, camped just north of Coco's corner we found a great spot for the night, with a margarita and pico de gallo in hand.
 

End of a Season

It is time for the changing of the seasons here in the Baja.  The warm days and cool evenings have slowly gave way to days with a more intense heat and nights that stay just warm enough as you're not quite sure if you need that blanket on or off (maybe that is just my problem!).  The winds that once blew from the north have turned somewhat to the south bringing with them a little more humidity.  The Sea of Cortez has warmed to a pleasant 73-74 degrees, up from the 67ish,  but still refreshing.  The thing we are noticing the the most is the start of the great migration north by the snowbirds.

The writing of the blog didn't seem quite as necessary the last few months, while we have been at the beach in Baja.  The days were much the same and at the time there didn't seem to be much in the way of news, but looking back I can see we really did have a busy winter that went all too fast.

Ken continued to catch his fair share of fish and managed to keep food on the table all winter.  When he wasn't fishing we managed to slip in a few day rides, on the KLR, back in behind Loreto on roads that we have been on before but just love to ride again and again.  We met a few more people here that had bikes so we were able to be tour guides on some rides and that is always fun.  

We headed south to La Paz to visit friends and take in the pig roast at Mike and Hortensia's place, which is always high on our list of things to do and we actually planned our trip to La Paz around it.  While in La Paz we stayed with Ralph, which was very convenient because our whole truck and camper fit right inside his garage where we had electricity and a dumpsite while being out of the sun.  Carnival was on in La Paz during our time there, street vendors with lots to eat, parades and entertainment in the evening; this was our first time at this event and it was fun and within walking distance of Ralph's place.  La Paz has turned into a big city with some big city problems but although there was lots of crap going on between drug gangs we didn't see any evidence fighting, we enjoyed our stay and I even took in a movie (50 shades!).  

Back home on the beach after two weeks it was back to bacchi, kayaking, fishing and generally enjoying life.  There were lots of whales this year, hump backs, blues and greys and Ken and I both got a chance to see some up close and personal...a kayak really seems small when a whale comes up a few metres away.

I guess that's it for the season!  We are now heading north with a few more stops but we will be home before we know it, I'm sure.

A sign I noticed on our motorbike ride to Comondu.  We have tried the wine made in this mountian village on previous visits but it was the small signs warning about the bear and moose that we found amusing this trip.

The mainstreet in Comondu, cobble-stoned and constructed hundreds of years ago when the missionaries were settling the area.

Mardi Gras in La Paz, these 'lovely ladies' (take a closer look) where having a really good time.

Three nights in a row the parade travels down the malecon in La Paz, and every night there is a great turnout, we went on two different nights ourselves!

Brian, now here is an idea for your next BBQ function!

Buganvilla lined the streets in Cabo...the end of the earth in the far background and I just about blend into the flaura in the foreground.

The annual pig roast at Mike and Hortensia's was a great success.  Jeff, Ralph and Mike close up the sack and get ready to cook in the ground with oranges and cactus.

 

Hortensias flan, yum, yum.

Ken went out fishing with friends Bob and Rod.  What luck!  A 20 plus lb yellowtail and a nice cabrilla.  Smoky and Rio couldn't care less about the fish Ken caught, they are looking for something for themselves.

Lots and lots of flowers this year, due to all  the rain. 

The beach at San Basilio, 42 km north of Loreto and 25 km or so off the Mexico 1 Hwy back to the Cortez, you can dry camp here, the kayaking is the best and it is a great anchorage...needless to say this place was drop-dead gorgeous!  We took the bike in on a day ride which was very scenic, the road runs mustly up a arroyo bed but was generally pretty good.

In San Basilio there is a villa, built by a Spanish Countess years ago, friends Patricia and Pierre just happen to be staying at it on the day we arrived and invited us up for a cold drink and tour.  Amazing is all I can say.

The tip of Dazante Island.  I paddled out and around the island twice this year, a total of about 15-17 km a trip.

Like I said the flowers are blooming like crazy in the desert.  These are mesquite flowers that look like little paintbrushes.

The not so typical vacation foot picture.  Relaxing on the zodiac with the Gigantes in the background.

Hey captian what are you looking at?  Do you see something through your glasses?

Whale watching was great this year, with Greys, Blues and Humpbacks all making an appearance.  We had many shows as they slapped their tails, breached and generally hung around the bay in front off the beach.