Saturday, July 31, 2010

Jones Lake Recon. Mission

A little birdie told Chelsey that Jones Lake is a good spot to camp so the kids and I scooted up there this morning to check things out. The road up is a tad bumpy but when you get up there it is bloody gorgeous; you get a wicked view across the lake of Mt Cheam. I think this would be a nice spot to go to early fall when the snow is starting to fall on the mountains. I am pondering taking the kids up there to camp tomorrow but it looked pretty busy and there were some people heading up as we left so I am not sure if we will get a spot or not. Also, with the camp fire ban on it takes a lot of the fun out of camping if we can't have a fire. Pictures after the jump...

Monday, July 26, 2010

BC Parks and I Always Forget the Camera

In the past two weeks I was able to hammer off another two parks from The List but we forgot the camera both times. Since I am forgetful I have stolen other people's pictures from the net.

Last week we drove out to Silver Lake Provincial Park. It was a very cold lake but had a decent camp ground. We just drove out there for the day to check things out; I think it would be too cold for the kids to swim so I am not sure how much fun it would be to camp there.

Yesterday I spent the day fly fishing the Skagit River, within the Skagit Valley Provincial Park, with a couple of dudes from work and I must say it was awesome. There is something about standing in a river in the middle of nowhere fishing that is very relaxing. It was hot enough that we didn't need hip waiters and were able to stand in the river in our shorts and flip flops - the river was a bit cold at first but got nice after a few minutes. The drive out to the fishing holes is about 45 minutes to an hour on a dirt road so make sure you don't mind a few chips on the paint. The area is very scenic and well worth the drive. We drove the extra 2km to Ross Lake which has a wicked camp ground; there is also a park for the kids and a large grassy area. The weird thing about Ross Lake is that it is part of the hydro system in Washington so it only has water in it a few months of the year; the border, which has a US Park Ranger Station, is only a hop skip and a jump from the lake. I am not sure of the full history but apparently we almost lost this lake/park due to the dam. We didnt catch any fish but the scenery and the relaxing fishing were well worth the drive. Pictures after the jump.

REDO: The Woods Chronicles - Episode Three

I just made a clip less then 10 minutes long as the last video did not work as it was too long. I did not edit it at all so if there are pictures of boobies or fat people I apologize. Original post on new video below...

In this, the third installment of The Woods Chronicles, I am able to turn a business trip to Kamloops into more of a fun trip to Salmon Arm. Chelsey had to work most of this past weekend so I took the kids up to Salmon Arm Thursday night for some fun and to give Kim some company. We spent the weekend there, I went to Kamloops Friday, and did some fishin', swimming in the lake, went to the water park and spent time in Kim & Nick's pool.

The kids were great the whole weekend, they saw LOTS of trains, ate like crap, stayed up late and caught some little sucker fish. This episode shows us doing some of that fishing and the kids running around the water park! Hope you enjoy!

Video via Youtube here

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

BC Parks

Those of you who have been following this blog since its inception will recall one of the original posts regarding the 50 Things to do in BC Before you die; those who missed that post can find it here. My goal was to start from the beginning as of mid-last summer and scratch them off as we go. One of the things to do was to visit all of BC Provincial Parks. This post contains a list of all of the BC Provincial Parks. I will cross them off as we visit them and link to the post with the pictures from the visit. So far this year we have only been to Sasquatch Provincial Park. I am sure we have passed through others but have no pictures to prove it. I was mountain biking on Silver Star two weeks ago but don't have any pictures. I will say Silver Star is by far my favourite bike park - the trails are comparable in quality to Whistler but at a 20% less cost and NO LIFT LINES!!! Enjoy the journey, I am sure we will!


Sparkling Hill Resort

The weekend of June 26 we spent 4 days in Salmon Arm/Vernon again as we had a wedding at the Sparkling Hill Resort at Predator Ridge in Vernon. Needless to say the place was not my type of joint but I could understand the need for 8 different scented sauna's and one that goes down to negative 110 ?!?! The food at the wedding was good and I must admit it was one of the better weddings I have been to. The room we were in was pretty cool, except for the dirty handprint above the bathtub (somebody got lucky!). After the jump there is a videoclip of the room and some other random pictures of the pool and saunas.

Fishin' at Hicks!

I have been lucky enough to discover Hicks Lake which is located within Sasquatch Provincial Park. I have taken the kids fishing their a couple of times now and this past weekend Chelsey, Colleen and Darcy came along too. If it wasnt for the fact that one of the reels went flying and I had to strip down to my boxers and go for a swim to fetch it the day would have been perfect. We hope to take the kids camping here within the next couple of weeks! Yes we are wearing sweaters on July 4th, summer didnt start until today this year. It is supposed to be in the mid 30's for the rest of the week. Pictures after the jump...