…just outside Merritt, BC. After a few rain showers, we took a short hike along the shore of Nicola Lake, following a pretty trail winding through towering ponderosa pines. These are such beautiful trees, so striking with their red trunks and long, long needles. I’ll keep it brief and let the trees and the lake do the talking below!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’re currently camping among the trees in the coastal fringe behind Miracle Beach. Isn’t that some name, Miracle Beach? One minor miracle so far? Mostly sunny skies and very little rain! That hasn’t always been the case, as expected late summer/early fall in this little corner of the Pacific Northwest. Earlier, before Miracle Beach:
Miracle Beach is located on a shallow bay, so low tide reveals miles of sand, but when it turns, farewell to the sandy beach, and make a quick retreat to the rocks. You can walk out on a high tide quite some distance with the water only knee high.
The view across the strait is wondrous, miraculous even – coastal mountains stretching each way into the distance, north and south, capped by low clouds.
We saw a heron patiently stalking in the shallows and the hunting was good. We were too far away to spot the prey – perhaps small scuttling crabs along with a few fish? We’d seen both earlier.
We enjoyed watching the tide ebb and flow, the scene one of constant change – ripples and waves on the water and on the sand.
One afternoon the sky was a series of perfect blues, from dark to light, high to low over the distant mountains.
Miracle Beach? We thought so, with all that space, light, blues, greens, ripples and waves!
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s September already?! Yikes!
We’ve been out on the coast for the past little while, enjoying the contrast with what we experienced up in the north. Since then, as time has moved on, it is starting to feel distinctly late summery, even early autumnal-ish as night falls sooner and daytime highs drop.
Being on the west coast, we’ve had sunny days, rainy days, misty and foggy days, and sometimes all of those in the same afternoon! The ghostly grey mists and glowing silver seas and skies have been delightful, and after the relative aridity of earlier in the summer, I can almost feel my leathery (yet rugged and really rather handsome) features beginning to rehydrate.
What a transformation, and I now look barely a day over 95… As for that pesky frizzy oceanic hair, let’s just say that ship sailed many seasons ago, so no worries and the cap/toque stays on. (And what hair up top there is does tone really rather well with those aforementioned silvers and greys…)
We’ll be enjoying the west coast for another week or two before beginning our trip back to Alberta, and having to come to terms with the end of road trip and camping season. Although, winter camping is an option? If Mrs. PC could be persuaded… (Nope, no chance – Mrs. PC)
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful long Labour Day weekend!
We haven’t had too much wifi connectivity the past few weeks, but when we have had it, scanning the headlines seems to indicate peace is very far from the hearts of so-called leaders… hey ho… we half joke that whatever apocalypse occurs next could take place and we’re so far away we wouldn’t know – at least, not until we return to “civilization” only to find a pile of smouldering ashes. Probably shouldn’t joke like that…
The mighty Peace River was a sight to see as we headed north, then more north. We stopped for a few days in the Fort Vermilion area, camping in a small forested site on the north bank of the Peace River, a few miles outside the hamlet of Fort Vermilion.
Sunny skies gave way to clouds, some rain and a couple of deafening, ground shaking thunderstorms! One overcast and stormy afternoon we wandered the south bank of the Peace, taking in some of the history and enjoying the river views.
In settler terms, this area is old, one of the first to be settled in the late 1700s, the Peace River being part of a network traveled by trappers, traders and voyageurs. The old Bay House has been renovated and preserved, an historic site of some significance. It appears very grand compared to other dwellings, and that was probably the point back when it was first built, conveying the power of the HBC. I liked the paint job…
Our campground doubles as a community gathering space, and what a surprise it was one Saturday evening when a large group of Mennonite families arrived to enjoy a campfire meal. Big pick up truck after big pick up truck, full of hungry people who worked quickly to set up the meal. (We weren’t staring or anything – our site was opposite the central meeting space so we couldn’t help but observe all that was taking place). Anyway, I’m not too sure about the men and boys wearing regular jeans and all while the women and girls all dressed in more traditional clothing, but that’s just my view, not really all that relevant, and anyway, everyone gathered was clearly happy and having a fine old time.
The following afternoon, a group of ten or twelve young Mennonite women met by the fire. We heard them laugh, tell stories and play games. It shouldn’t have been, (and says more about my own preconceived notions) but it appeared incongruous when several of the women, dressed in Sunday finery, wielded axes with precision, starting and maintaining a campfire – just the thing to keep the (not too bad) mosquitoes at bay. At one point, all the women stood as one and glided – I can’t think of a better word – as a group away from the fire and down to the river. To pray? Maybe? They looked happy and graceful and a world away from what we think of as the normal world… It was a peaceful scene, one of many by the mighty Peace!
By the time this is posted, we should be up into the Northwest Territories and find ourselves somewhere on the southern shores of Great Slave Lake. That’ll be as far north as we’ve ever camped in Canada – so far!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Lesser? There’s a bigger one?! Yup – maybe we’ll get there in a few weeks…
Lesser Slave Lake is about 100km long east to west, and the widest point is about 15km across, north to south. We’ve had a mix of wildfire smoky days and clear blue sky days. On even the clear days, we were unable to see the far shore, so it feels more like being at the sea rather than on a lake.
Perhaps due to the fairly remote mid Alberta location, the lake and surrounding area is quiet in terms of visitors. The sandy beaches are pleasant, quiet, and the perfect place to sit and spot bird life. I’m not good at identifying birds, but the bald eagle was easy, along with the loons. We’ve seen other ducks – mergansers? – and a hawk or two, as well as terns, crows and those small birds that refuse to slow down so we can identify them! If you’re into bird life, then this is the place!
Mixed boreal forest kept us well shaded on the hot days, and the mosquitoes knew where to find us. Bug bite count? It’s gone up from two…
If you’re ever looking for quiet camping in a rugged location, and you don’t mind a bug or two, then Lesser Slave Lake might be perfect for you. We love it here!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Or did I? Perhaps this is a health and safety advisory? No, all clear here. Goodness, I don’t miss doing the safety assessments for field trips with students. Of course slips, trips and falls – otherwise, why be a child? All part of the fun…
A few photographs this week of our short out and back again hike to Margaret Falls, a lovely spot in Herald Provincial Park, BC.
A narrow trail, criss-crossed with tangled tree roots, follows the Reinecker Creek into a deep canyon as you head up stream. Not too much sunlight gets in, so the tough trees growing in here cling to the steep sides and reach for the light. Tenacious growth! Some have grown too large and heavy to cling on and have tumbled down, falling across the narrow creek, left partially held up by one side of the gorge or other.
The conditions are cool, damp and mossy, increasingly so as you approach the falls, and a welcome break, if you’re looking for it, from the warmer temperatures at the nearby lake. When you reach the falls – it is hidden from sight almost all the way by the twists and turns of the stream – it is a noisy and spectacular water force!
If you’re ever in the Shuswap region, a quick side trip to visit these falls is a pleasant diversion! It’s worth the slight risk of a slip, trip or fall…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We mostly had a spring in our step, enjoying the fresh greens as we hiked in the foothills through stands of aspen and spruce.
Most days started sunny and finished cloudy, with temperatures below seasonal. Cooler conditions, fewer bugs! The big show was on our last night, featuring several thunderstorms with heavy rain and some hail, rolling through one after the other. We don’t mind that weather, but Scout isn’t a fan, trembling more than those aspens.
One morning, at second coffee o’ clock, a bear wandered by, just a few metres from where we were sitting. Scout, who always lets the deer and squirrels know who’s boss (don’t tell her, but they are) didn’t even look up. All that time she spends playing at being a wolf, and she couldn’t be bothered with as little as a token growl.
The bear wasn’t bothered, not by Scout, nor by us, and off it went in search of more wildflowers, perhaps hoping to be a step ahead of the many deer in the area. We finished our coffee and enjoyed a short loop hike above the Sheep River, close to our campsite, where we saw the clouds building up over the mountains nearby. We just made it back before getting a soaking. Phew!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
As I wrote previously, we were fortunate to enjoy mostly blue skies on our trip to the western edge of Vancouver Island. But, it being largely a temperate rainforest location in the PNW, it wasn’t always wall to wall sunshine. There were a couple of almost foggy/definitely misty mornings, times that contrasted pleasantly with the overall brightness.
I’ve included a few photographs this week highlighting those coastal contrasts. What a wonderful spring delight it was to be in the greens and blues of western BC.
We’re back in landlocked AB now, where spring is in the ascendant at last, a time of rising (to near normal) seasonal temperatures, with more than a few rain showers to encourage the emerging plant life to get with being green – or what passes for luxuriant greenery in the space between the mountains and the prairies!
We’re hoping to spend a few days out in the foothills next week, see for ourselves the long awaited switch from chilly late winter (friends in Canmore have – they hope – finally put away snow shovels) to proper mountain spring. It’s a fifteen minute season before full summer…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Leaving the mountains behind us, our task was to find spring, or at least a place with no recent snow on the ground.
So we headed west across mountains, and more mountains, emerging onto the flatland delta, continuing until the road stopped. There, we got on a ferry to cross the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island, disembarked, and headed west once again until the road stopped again.
We have found spring (almost summer by west coast standards) in one of our happy places, and, even better, have been catching up with old friends. Hard to imagine we were cooling beer in the snow a week ago.
It feels as if winter has finally let go for real, spring has arrived for sure, and summer isn’t too far around the corner. Camping days ahead!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
At last! We’re camping, and it’s spring! No, not the spring found on the calendar but it’s still snowing outside – instead, it’s the real and actual spring where the sun shines and snow is a distant memory (just over a week ago, but it’s gone now…)
We’re out in the prairie badlands (bad? good!) a couple of hours northeast of Calgary. Spotty wifi but lots of wildlife, so more to share at a later date.
In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
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