Thursday, July 23, 2015

Eureka Peak: Epic Hike/Run

Aren't we supposed to retire to take things easy?  So how come we keep doing these activities that totally exhaust me?  

Leo and I drove east out to Crooked Lake on Friday and camped at the rec site.  We had the place all to ourselves and went for a paddle on the lake.  Leo's orienteering partner Bryan and his wife Debbie showed up in the evening.


In the morning Leo and Bryan took off for a six hour training run up Eureka Peak.  Debbie and I  waited for the rest of the hikers to arrive and then we hiked for 5 hours up the very steep trail.  Fortunately it was a mostly cloudy day, but the flies were relentless.  Nevertheless the views from the alpine and


the flower meadows 


were well worth it.

It was another three hours back down to the lake.  We were both exhausted but had to head home to meet my sister and her husband, just returning from a trip to Norway. Then we got a flat tire on the way.

We were never so happy to see that Sybille and Dave had already ordered pizzas.

The bad news is that Scandanavia is having their coldest. rainiest summer in memory, and in a few weeks we are heading to Lapland (north of 60) for a month!



Chilcotin River: Epic Paddle

So epic in fact that Leo felt it was appropriate to purchase a new boat for the occasion.

Leo's new boat, the Dagger Mambo

And a good thing to, because the water level was higher than we expected so the added volume in the new boat came in handy.  I myself paddled the safety inflatable with our friend Rick, 

and even so we all fell into a big hole near the end of a very long day.  Leo's excellent boat got him out without flipping, and Rick and I were able to clamber back on board pretty quickly.

We paddled from Hanceville to Farwell Canyon,  We had a large crew, 5 in Glen and Cathy's raft and 5 kayakers/inflatablers.  The scenery was awesome and the waves were HUGE!  It was an 8-hour paddle - quite exhausting for us over 50's. Fortunately, we had Glen and Cathy's son to drive shuttle so we didn't have to drive the long way back to get our vehicles.


Raft's eye view - unfortunately, nobody ever takes any pictures of the big waves - too busy!
(photos thanks to Cathy)






Monday, July 20, 2015

Stampede Weekend and Canada Day

Both of us played in the Stampede Parade.  It was a hot day, especially for those us us wearing a kilt and woolly knee socks.

The next day we headed out west to Fletcher Lake in the Chilcotin to camp out with Leo's cousin Greg, his wife Lynda and grandson Damien. Trout was eaten, mosquitoes were swatted, and the lake was the perfect temperature for swimming. 


We both performed again for the Canada Day celebration.  The community band played appropriate music for the occasion like Oh Canada and Farewell to Nova Scotia and the Maple Leaf Forever.

Leo sang with his quartet Synergy, and performed such Canadian classics as the Log Drivers' Waltz.