At it again on Rattlesnake Beach

Just a couple of days on the beach and already Ken is having some fun (and luck) fishing!

When you gotta go

When you gotta go, just pick one with a door!

We had a great trip down the Baja with stops at Gonzaga Bay (above),  and Rice and Beans in San Ignacio.  It's good to be back on the beach. 32 C in the day, 25 C at night and 29 C in the water all day long.

   

 

                 

                

Another end to Summer

Again another summer season comes to an end, and really I can't think of too many places more beautiful and versatile than the northern stretches of BC and the Okanagan.  Aside from the weather this year, which you really can't do a thing about, it was a great summer. There is just so much to do and see, we still haven't seen a half of it.  Bareing that in mind, the weather turn cool and then cold in the northern reaches of the province and the warmth of the Baja beckons. Cool lakes and ragged mountians trade places with warm seas and desert as we start our (some would say) our snowbird migration south.

The truck and camper on a small ferry which took us across the North Thompson River, on the way to Dunn Lake Rec campsite. JUST enough room!

The KTM will eat up almost any backroad, even with me on the back.  But make sure the tires are in good shape or you may end up walking...

We huffed it up the last hour and a half to the Baldy Mountian Lookout.  What a view of Dunn Lake, Barrierre, Clearwater,  and even as far away as Kamloops, 100 km away.

Dunn Peak in the background, I can hardly stand the wind is so strong.

A loon cruises, first thing in the morning the air is so cool the steam rises from the water.

Friends Chris and Kim enjoy a little time off work to ride with us, them on their BMW 800 and of course we are on the KTM.

Joe show off the pizza Katherine whipped up for dinner.  He sure knows how to use that pizza oven!

This year was a bumper crop year for wild mushrooms.  We had some Shagymanes in beer battery with a glass of wine for an apply one night.  I also pickled the mushrooms in the bowl with the peppers, yummy!

It was also a year of MANY bear sighting, this guy posed for the camera at the Hydro campsite just outside Lillooet.

Like water off a duck back...if you look really close.

Georg and Christine, from Austria met us for a bit while they camped BC.  We always have a good time with them, here or in Europe.

Back in the Okanagan, a walk along the lake just north of Summerland is always a nice thing to do on a cool fall afternoon.

A trail joins the north and south Okanagan Lake Provincial campsites, again great views of the Okanagan Lake.

We spent a weekend with Sue and John, and Al and Val in their cabin, up at Beaver Lake. A cute place  called Dunmoovin, a great place to get out of the rain.  Yes surprise, surprise more rain this summer.

The cabin had the cutest outhouse, complete with a chandelier.

The rain stopped long enough to take ourselves and the dogs on walk to a great viewpoint.  Beaver Lake is up in the mountians, on the opposite side of the Okanagan Lake, and has a different view then we are used to on the west side.

Rose and I are the apple of Ken's eye on a hike around the Mcdougall Rim.

Once again Rose, myself and Ken had a great view on the Okanagan Lake as well as the floating bridge and Kelwona.

Thanksgiving was a treat. We drove to Bowen Island with Kens parents to visit (not to mention eat and drink too much) his sisters Shari and Joanne and her partner Bruce.  On the list of things to do on Bowen is a walk around Kilarney Lake, always colourful in fall.

Summer Continues

The summer continues!  Maybe with a little more rain than we would like but fun still the same.  With a visit from Shari and Tani while we were camping at Tatla Lake to time spent with Chris and Carl at their cabin in Likely, we have been keeping busy.  We have been picking lots of huckleberries, hiking and of course Ken is fishing.  Take a look...never a dull moment!

We love that view and the hike at Fraser Mountian.

And we love the huckleberries!

Ken is parked in front of this huge windmill blade, on his bike in...you can barely see him!

We always wondered what it would be like to live life in the pioneer days, and found out during our visit to Fort St James National Park.

Looking down on road down 'The Hill' and the clouds in the Bella Coola valley.

Sheri and Tani (Sheri's friend from Missouri) and Ken are lost amongst the cedars on our walk through the Big Tree trail.

This little fox didn't give much notice to us at we watched him catch a little mole for his lunch.

The sun shone on us even as the clouds filled the skies over Tatla Lake, which was so clear you could see the bottom for a very long way out.

Wild daisies and Chilcoltin fences line Hwy 20.

Ken parked in front of an Inuksuk.

Always the end to a great day...the sunset over One Eye Lake.

Sandhill Cranes, in Carl and Chris's pond, visited us many mornings.

A long view up the East Arm on Quesnel Lake as seen from Rogers 20 ft Hewscraft aluminum boat.

Another Niagra Falls, this time on Quesnel Lake.

The prospecting town of Quesnel Forks on the banks of the Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers. This ghost town was once the largest non fur-trade town north of San Francisco and was proposed to be the capital of BC until the main road was rerouted to Barkerville.

Wayne was a great guide on our hike to the top of Brown Top Mountian, a great 1 1/2 hour hike to the sub alpine.

And still snow on top at 2000 mts...even at the end of August.

Along the Williams River Trail you can see years and years of erosion.

The trail is a multi use trail which runs 12 km from Williams Lake to the Fraser River.  What a great bike ride!

The Lakes District

We have found an area in B.C. that just won't quit!

Endless numbers of lakes with fish that just refuse to stay off your line, miles of back roads that seem to go on forever amidst lakes and rivers and mountians, and recreation campsites with nearly a soul in them until we arrive with our truck, camper and trailer in tow loaded with the tools of the campers trade...kayak, canoe, zodiac, dual sport bikes, mountain bikes and fishing gear.  The Lakes district that lays between Smithers, Babine Lake and south to Oosta Lake including Francois Lake and too many lakes to mention by name really is an outdoors persons dream.  We spent some time in this area last year and loved it so much we came back again this year.

We have seen an amazing amount of wildlife this year...and more bears than ever, and some a little too close for comfort.  The abundance of rain has laid a carpet of wild flowers that is amazingly colourful. Though the wild berries are just starting to ripen they are promising to be as bountiful as we remember from last year! and this years, once again thanks to more rain, lots of boletus and oyster mushrooms and even giant puffballs.  And fishing!!!what can I say Ken has been lucky on the lakes and has even smoked a few rainbow to perfection (so he claims).

The weather so far this year has not quite lived up to the warmth of last year with quite a bit of rain but starting TODAY the weather is beginning to get better...right Mother Nature?

While spending time at Bear Island Rec Site on Babine Lake we had the opportunity to watch a cow moose swim with her calf across to Bear Island where she left it for the days while she continued to swim back and forth, from the island.  She left every morning and came back every night.  We thought maybe she did this because it was safer for the calf on the island as there was a mother grizzly and three calves spotted in the area around our campsite.

Yes, we have had lots of rain, but it made for beautiful rainbows.

Just one sample of the many fish Ken has been catching, a Lake Trout or Char.

Bear Island out in of our campsite on Babine Lake on a rare sunny day.

Ken digs a drainage ditch beside our camper otherwise we may have floated right off of terra firma and into the lake.

Houstson's biggest fly rod.

Al and Linda with her son Scott and family, in Smithers.  A quick game of Mexican Train before dinner.

Kingfishers, friendly neighbours during our stay at Francois Lake West Rec Site.

During frequent paddles on Francois Lake I was able to get as close as 9 or 10 ft from a doe that always hung around the same area.

Quite often while paddling, beavers would circle my kayak checking us out, they are very curious.

While Ken is fishing I'm paddling with the locals.

This is just the biggest of the giant puffballs we found...

And yes, we did eat some of them.  Sliced and fried in a little butter with salt and pepper.

I could include a hundred of these, just another beautiful sunset over Nadina mountian, taken from our campsite on Francois Lake.

Can you see the bird walking on the lily pad?