Fraser Lake / Fort St James

Settled into the family campground at 24 for about a month, with a short camping trip up to Ft. St. James with Jack and Kathy and Kathy, and a couple quick runs back to Alberta with the Jeep to pick up and drop off Wendy's sister Kathy and her dog Ellie.  Mo, Christina, Bella, and Emir came back out with us the second time and spent a week or so.  Chris, Kelly, and Chase came out a couple weekends (must suck to have to work and only get away on weekends), and we had mom moved into the house for the duration.  Lots of yardwork but lots of fun too.

Some people need a cell signal wherever they go.  Can you hear me NOW?

Lac la Hache

For a couple nights.  51.85845, -121.63477

Allison Lake

From Castlegar we headed east past Osoyoos and then north, spending a couple nights at Allison Lake (49.68105, -120.60240).  I've accidentally lost all my photos from Castlegar to Christmas (oops) so from here on just a few borrowed ones.

Rest in Peace Huw

Sadly, the reason for the Castlegar trip was to attend the Celebration of Life for Huw George, who I went to school with.  Like Cliff, Huw passed away much too early in life and will be missed by many.

Castlegar

Rainy, rainy trip down along the lake, and we wound up motoring through to Castlegar after not finding any campsites to our liking along the way.  Kootenay River Kampground (49.31485, -117.63497) was a gem, so we booked in for a week.

I love these shots. Makes the motorhome seem supernatural.  

Campground is just to the right of the pillar.  A few people were catching; I hooked a couple trout but didn't get any to shore.  Nice spot though.  

Along the road to Deer Park.  

Wendy's early birthday present.  Looks like she hasn't quite relaxed yet.  

Shelter Bay

After a stopover in Golden to visit Alyssa, off to Shelter Bay (50.637643, -117.924987) for a couple days.  Got the boat in the water, Wendy caught a nice (and tasty!) trout on a Wooly Bugger, and we got caught in a sudden squall that soaked us and forced us to leave the boat down shore a bit and walk back.  Great fun though, after we were warm and dry again.  And had that tasty trout in our bellies.

Harlech Recreation Area, Crescent Falls, Bighorn Reservoir

On the road for the summer, bound for Castlegar and Fraser Lake.  First stop at Harlech (52.50187, -115.91402) for a couple days to explore the Nordegg area.

About as close as she'd get to the edge.  Smart Gabby.

My kind of country.  (-:

Rest in Peace Cliff

July 1st was a sad day, as my brother-in-law and good friend Cliff passed away much too young.  He will be missed by many.

Bedroom Renovations

Now that the house renos are pretty much done, time to turn attention to our hopefully new home.  The bedroom windows and back wall had a little water seepage, which messed with the panelling.  Time to fibreglass over the cracks and strip down and rebuild the bedroom inside.  A little time lapse from the 3 weeks or so the project went on:

No pics of the outside repairs as they look pretty bad.  I suppose I won't be taking that up as my next career... 

Mid week fishing

You know, a person could get to like mid-week fishing trips.  This is Touchwood Lake after the May 24 long weekend.  Had fun with a few little Jacks on the fly.  They were quite fond of my "red and silver tinsel streamer on a jig hook with a stinger added" creation stripped through the weeds.  Also the gold and silver version.

So long Cavalier!

No need for so many vehicles anymore, so the Cavalier went off to help the Kidney Car Fund.

Camping with the Safiehs

A little spring camping trip to Wabamun Lake.

Change of Career!

April 30, 2015 marked the end of my career with Parks Canada and the beginning of my new career as a gypsy and leech on society.  There's dancing in the streets in a couple provinces!

Now we just gotta get the house sold and move on!

Lake Mohave

After watching that great Super Bowl game, in which my team* demonstrated their true superiority, we packed up on Monday and moved a couple hours north to Katherine's Landing campground on Lake Mohave, about 10 minutes north of Bullhead City and Laughlin.  This will be our staging area before we make the push north.  Besides being close to last-minute shopping and cheap, it's got a dump station for that final winterization before we become poor ba$tards again.

We toured this area on a previous trip and decided if we were going to spend a few days this campground would be a much quieter area than the casino parking lots.  Cost is $10 for a 7 day pass (although it's dated for 12 days, so maybe there's a winter discount) plus $10 per night in the campground.  A very reasonable price, especially compared to other government-run places I've seen.

*I'll admit, the Seahawks only became my team sometime in the first half.  Hard to believe that Denver could fall apart so utterly and completely.

The sites here are very wide, but not deep.  Probably would have fit better cross-ways.  

Somehow we've only had a handful of these this trip.  

From a little hill beside the campground.  This is southwest, towards the marina and lake.  

Northwest, loop A.  Find our site?  (Hint: look for Sarah.) 

One of the other landings north of the campsite.  

Davis Dam, the creator of Lake Mohave.  

Found an unmarked gravel road on the Nevada side and followed it down to the lake.  This is a view of the campground from across the river and up the hill.  

One of the side trails brings you down to this little beach on a bay.  Mouth of the bay is to the right.  Nice spot for tent camping, or pickup & camper.  Definitely no trailers or motorhomes through the canyon enroute to here!  

The main gravel road leads to this beach/campground.  No charge to stay, 14 day limit.  Pit toilets and a garbage bin provided, otherwise no services.  

To the right of the previous shot.  

And to the right again.  No designated sites; vans and motorhomes parked along the beach, or anywhere.  Nice spot!  

When we got here we realized we'd not had our Mexican meal yet, so Thursday night we went out.  Wendy liked the Saguaro-stemmed glass, but resisted the urge to slip it into her purse.  

The last dutch oven meal of the trip - Cowboy Stew with biscuit dumplings (not added yet)! Can't wait for summer to break it out again!   

Not to be outdone, Wendy made desert:  pudding cake with ice cream.  Yum!  Take that, Cathy!  Extra points again if you can figure out who got each bowl...  

That's it for now.  Sadly, we'll be on the road tomorrow (Sunday) heading north, so probably no more posts til we get home.  Try to make the weather a little warmer for us enroute, and we'll try to bring some sunshine back with us.  Cheers!