Nicola Day 2

On the second day we wised up and put in at the Anthony Joe Bridge on the Shackan Reserve just upstream of Fisherman rapid (so named by me because yesterday a woman was fishing from shore here).

Putting in at Chief Anthony Joe Bridge

This made for a more reasonable 2 hour paddle.

Dale's orange canoe looking very photogenic on the river

This time I had the presence of mind to take some photos in Red Rock Canyon.  Here's the raft coming into the eddy below the big drop.

Here's a shot of the namesake red rock in the canyon:

Thats fog on the lens, not in the air.

After a debriefing back at the campsite we packed up our trailers and headed for home.  Where shall we go next? We are expecting Dr. Bonnie to give the go ahead in a few days to travel out of our zone to other areas of the province.  

1st Whitewater of the Year

 

We camped 2 days this week at the Nicola River between Spences Bridge and Merritt.  The Nicola has a great Class 2 run with a canyon and one Class 3 drop.  

As retirees we able to snag the prime campsite at the end of N'kwala Recreation Site that we've been lusting after by showing up on Tuesday.  Nice and private and room for 3 trailers and 4 trucks.

Our New Trailer up against the rocks.

The first day we decided to start the run from the campsite.  Big mistake.  We thought we'd done it before, but it turned out it took us a long 5 hours, most of which was flat water (though scenic).  

See, scenic.

Also we ran into a log jam and had to take out our boats and portage across an island.

Lunch break below the logjam.

There were lots of birds along the route: many eagles, sandpipers, mergansers with ducklings, mallards, flycatchers, eastern flycatchers, a rough-winged swallow colony in a roadbank.

We were all pretty tired by the time we reached the action.  And because it was very busy, I took no pictures.

Water levels were the highest we ever remember paddling the Nicola.  After Leo and I ran the canyon we watched Dale flip over (extra points for paddling an open canoe through the maelstrom) and miraculously stand up in the middle of the river and empty his canoe.  It turned out he flipped on a rock and the eddy behind it was only 2 feet deep.

On the shuttle back to the campground we ran into these guys along the road.

Weather was nice but not as warm as we were expecting.  See our last Nicola paddle for tshirt and short action. (I was shocked to see our last "annual" trip to the Nicola was in 2015!)

See, chilly.  That's Cathy and Glen's identical trailer, not ours, in the background.

See, chilly, with bonus shot of Birgit and Dale's nifty A-frame popup trailer they can tow with their Jeep and accompanying portable outhouse.

Some Birds

 A few birds from a recent walk at Scout Island.  Above, a willow flycatcher calling "fitzbew."

Below, a soulful looking shoveler:

The bobolinks are back at Mission Road!  After seeing our first bobolink several years ago, now we see them regularly, but we missed several great pictures this year because Leo's battery was dead.  Two male bobolinks and a female flew right in front of us across the road.  The 2 males landed on the fence and proceeded to fluff up their feathers for the lady.

The same day we saw a male brown-headed cowbird counting a females while both were perched on a cow's back.

Shakedown Trip in the New Trailer

 We finally got our new trailer up and running and we took it 20 minutes from town to the Forest Service Rec site at Dugan Lake.

It was busy; there's a road crew repaving the Horsefly Road and many of them are camping at the site.  There's also a bunch of retirees camped in the meadow area, but the wooded portion was not too busy.  

Mark and Patti came out too even though they had appointments in town the next day.  Since it was so close they just drove in and came back out in the evening.

On Day 1 our friend Wilfred came out with his dog Coco.  We put our collapsible Klepper kayak together.  We haven't used it in 2 years so we had forgotten how to put it together; fortunately, I had a copy of the instructions on my tablet.  

The frame is a thing of beauty, Henry and Coco agree

Wilfred and Mark had fun helping to put it together.  Then we folded it into the skin, inflated the sponsors and put her in the water.

Wilfred and Mark paddled Mark's canoe.

Later we walked down to the dock.  Folks there were catching lots of fish.  One of the road crew guys gave us two nice rainbow trout, he had more than he could eat.  Wilfred took one home and Mark and I ate the other for supper.

Sun sets on Dugan Lake

On the second day, Glen and Rick came out for the day, and Rick paddled while Glen fished.  The fishing was good so I snagged another fish out of the deal.

Mark and Patti came back for supper.  We made dinner at their site and hung out till darkness again.

Trailer worked well.  We enjoyed all the extra space compared to our old trailer.  Great little campout.

Five happy campers!

SOLD!

 

Making the exchange in the Walmart parking lot, Prince George

We sold our GIANT tandem kayak.  It was a great boat.  We paddled down the Yukon River in it for 2 weeks and we also used it on the Bowon, and Clearwater and Murtle Lakes (twice).

But it was a killer to portage and we were getting too old and weak to hoist it up onto the pickup.  Our friends are still complaining about the time they helped us portage it between Clearwater and Azure Lakes!

We drove it up to Prince George last week and sold it to a fellow from Carcross, YT, who's going to use it to paddle with his family on Atlin Lake.  

The last time it was used was a year ago on Quesnel Lake.

Leo and Mark V on the North Arm, Quesnel Lake, May 2020

So long old Behemoth, you served us well.  And thanks to Glen for storing it for us these last few months.