Camping

Sorry I haven't been very diligent with updating lately...

Greg and I had a really nice camping trip. On Friday I picked Greg up from work, we packed up some wood from the mill, Greg came home and had a shower and we were on the road by 4:30pm. We drove to Lumby and picked up some beer and ice and that is when the locals laughed at us for attempting to go to Mabel Lake as there was a fishing derby that weekend. I have to admit, I did call the park operator who informed me that there would be a fishing derby that weekend, but I really thought by his tone of voice and the fact he did not elaborate that it was a more local event. It turns out that this fishing derby draws people from all over...lol. So we asked about Echo Lake and the locals specifically told us that there was camping up there. We decided, as it was only a couple of hours away from sunset, that we would try Echo Lake instead as it would be much more quiet than a fishing derby campground.

We drove 25mins up a bumpy dirt road to discover a sign that clearly said "ABSOLUTELY NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING" <--- thanks Lumby residents, thanks. So now the sun is setting and we are driving around with a car full of camping gear and no campground. We decide to try for Mabel/Sugar Lake afterall. We head out there to find just as the locals had predicted (OK so they were right once), an overflowing campground with RVs, boats, and fishers.

Getting panicky as the sun goes behind the mountain we finally realize that camping is becoming out of the question for the evening. I said to Greg, let's just drive to Harold Park (outside of Salmon Arm). We saw a backroad between Mabel Lake area and Enderby and drove all the way to Salmon Arm (we just took the reaaaalllly long way to Salmon Arm). By this time it was almost 10:30pm and I was exhausted. We ended up staying at the Best Western. I had the best sleep even though the train tracks run less than 20 feet from the hotel.

At 9:30 we were at Harold Park and it was pretty much empty...yay! We found an awesome site right next to the bathroom (score) and a view of Shuswap Lake. Harold Park is so beautiful with all its cedar/birch trees. We saw tons of squirrels, a couple of osprey's, and tons of deer on the drive.

I have to share a story that is probably funny to the rest of the world except me.....but don't laugh too hard, I didn't have to share this. So we bought a bike rack for our car and brought our bikes camping. I suggested once we got to the site and unloaded the bikes that we should take off the bike rack... Greg didn't think we had to bother... little did he know... so I am milling about the campsite setting up and I decide, I should close the trunk so that the light doesn't wear out the battery... I pull down on the trunk lid as hard as I normally do and get smoked in the face and then the chest plate by the big freakin bar that sticks out for the bikes to rest on. I had a swollen eye with a cut under it and a bruise on my chest afterwards and a seriously hurt ego for being sooo dumb. I'm totally fine now by the way... and you can stop laughing now.

Anyways, I should wrap this up because I am typing more than I had planned and you are probably getting bored of reading by now... few more things... we went hiking up Margaret Falls three times... I can never get enough of that beautiful walk in the canyon with fallen cedar trees, a crystal clear rushing creek, and loomingly (not sure if this is a word) high rock faces covered in moss. We also hiked up on top and around the canyon (much more difficult and wearing of a hike) and saw what we think were fresh cougar prints in the clay of the still water at the top of the trail... needless to say we didn't hang around long at all after that. And finally we road around on our bikes a bunch which was really nice because I haven't done that in years.

I will post pictures once we get them developed; we forgot our digital and had to buy a disposable. Stay tuned!