What the Fish?

Man in hat included for scale

 Do you recognize this fish?

Turns out it's a burbot and they are excellent eating!  We found it dead though so we did not taste it.

I was trying out Mark's kayak that I'm going to borrow on Williams Lake.

Spiffy Delta kayak in lower left of photo.

We paddled over to Dutch Point for a swim.

We shared the beach with 2 deer

The heatwave continues. And my blog is all caught up and ready for the next adventure.

Hike to Mt Agnes

 Leo hiked up Mt. Agnes near Wells, BC, with a group of his running buddies.

It made for a long day, with a 2-1/2 hour drive each way and then an 8 hour hike.

At Groundhog Lake

They walked right through Barkerville, then past the Richfield courthouse and up to Groundhog Lake.

Believe that peak on the left is Mt. Agnes

At the summit

The gang back at Barkerville

Paddling the Horsefly River

Famous wave at Fast Eddy featuring new sandals

 We didn't make it out to the Horsefly River this year till late July, but we're making up for lost time.

One time Leo found a waterlogged man's wallet on the shore.  The next trip we found a pair of pink chest waders.  When Leo finally contacted the guy, he found out that he had been on the river with his wife in his drift boat.  He flipped on the Steps, a riverside ledge upstream from our usual put in and lost everything, including his fishing rods and his boat.  Fortunately, he and his wife were able to get to shore.  The chest waders belonged to his wife so we returned them.

The next time we went down the river we saw scraps of fiberglass caught up on rocks, and Mark saw a fishing rod on the bottom of the river.  He paddled back up but couldn't relocate it.

These pictures were taken last weekend when we paddled with our friends for their son's 17th birthday.

Attempt at selfie

Leo and Margaret Ann try to surf the wasp nest wave

Margaret Anne and the boys run the big wave at Fast Eddy

Lady the adventure dog takes in the surfing at Fast Eddy

Action shot at Fast Eddy

Swimming at Fast Eddy

Floating to the take out

Till Lake

 

We went out to the Till Lake rec site for the day.  

We paddled around the lake, had fresh fish for lunch.  After lunch we paddled over to the swinging rope for a swim.

Just as we pulled into shore, I saw a garter snake swimming in the water.  He landed on the rocks beside us with a fish in his mouth!  Which he then ate.  Fascinating.

We then discovered we could paddle into two other smaller lakes that are not usually accessible when the water is lower.

Another great day in our long running hotspell.

Beaver Valley

 

A group of paddlers floated down Beaver Creek from the bridge at the Likely Road to Zirnhelt's property on Opheim Lake.

Heading off from bridge at Likely Road

It's a slow and windy creek, with spots where you have to beat through the willows.

Narrow and windy

But there were no obstacles till we got to a bridge that had been built atop another lower down level that was impassable.  We had to portage over the bridge, a major obstacle being the line of electric fence meant to keep cattle in (or maybe paddlers out?)

Portaging Jean's canoe

Leo and Mark both got shocked, but we figured out a method to prop up the wire while we passed through.

A few more turns and we'd reached our takeout at Opheim Lake.

Rock Lake

My cousin George came to visit.  He had a guide to the best birding spots in BC and one of them is Rock Lake, 30 minutes west of Willliams Lake.  Leo and I hadn't been there in 20 years so we jumped at the opportunity.

On the drive out we spotted a herd of female bighorn sheep on Stafford's Ranch,
 

Including this one with a radio collar.

Rock Lake is a protected area because of its large nesting flock of eared grebe.  There were many of them on the lake, most of them too far away for good photos.

Eared grebe and chick, a bit blurry

Also protected is this hill which is actually a big pile of rocks, a hibernaculum for hibernating  garter snakes.  We didn't see any snakes there but I guess you have to catch them when they are migrating.

We lucked out because it was pouring rain when we left town and we watched thunderclouds skirt us all afternoon but never got rained on.

As well as grebes, there were shorebirds like this sandpiper

And this kildeer.

Long Weekend at Horsefly Lake

We showed up at Horsefly Lake Provincial Park in the morning blissfully unaware that it was the Thursday before the BC Day weekend.  The campground was already full for the weekend!  Fortunately, Mark had arrived slightly earlier and snagged the last campsite.  The park operator was determined that that noone would be turned away for the weekend so she let us squeeze in too.  It made quite a shady enclave in a very busy campground during a hot spell.

We spent the rest of the day between our site and swimming in the lake.

On our second day we toured the Horsefly River falls.

The first falls were pretty but you could only view them from above.  The second falls we could hike down to.

Leo and Mark both ran the 2nd falls in kayaks years ago in the fall when water levels were low.

There were many of these brown butterflies flitting about.

I was trying to take a picture of a swallowtail that landed on my my shoe when I noticed this toad right by my foot.  It must have come out of the hole under the rock I was sitting on.  It panicked and started hopping towards the rapids.  Luckily I was able to catch it and return it to its little cave.

The access to the third falls was down a slippery slope, overgrown with devil's club.  When we slid down, the view was pretty much obscured by a recently downed tree.  Not worth the effort!

There's a short trail from the campground to a viewpoint that overlooks the lake.

The haziness is likely from the Forest fire near Lytton, it soon cleared up.

We love the forest on this trail.  Such a contrast to our dry Douglas fir forest in town.

The rest of the weekend was spent working up a sweat playing bocce ball and then dipping in the lake to cool off.

Patti bowls

It takes three to determine the score

 

Last day at Big Bar

Glen and Cathy went home the next morning, but not till Mark demonstrated "the Clam", his instant pop-up bug tent.  Unfortunately, much to the amusement of our neighboring campers (and ourselves) he had forgotten the first important step, wound up erecting it inside out and had to dismantle the frame to untwist the canvas.  Needless to say, it was not very instant! Alas, no pictures, but we all had a good laugh. And once he'd sorted it out, he did erect it in less than a minute.

After a tour around the marsh trail, Mark also left in the afternoon to meet up with his climbing buddy at nearby Marble Canyon Provincial Park.   We spent the rest of the day with a leisurely paddle around the lake.

Birds were seen:

Two young loons

Ducklings

Bald eagle

The next morning we hiked one more time around the marsh, then packed up and drove home.

Couldn't resist one more photo of this guy: