Meanwhile back at the Mahood Lake Campground

Leo went on a few hikes and viewed a few waterfalls.

Checked out some baby loons

And some baby grebes.

Took some artsy photos.

It got a bit smoky.

But that made for some dramatic shots:

After the paddling trip, we stayed for a few more days with our friends. 

The weather turned rainy and cold, but we managed a short hike to the Canim River Bridge.

Leo drove back to Williams Lake with Dorothea so she could pick up her vehicle and drive back to Victoria.  Then Leo drove all the way back to Mahood to collect me and the trailer.

Meanwhile our friend's daughter Matilda arrived to celebrate her birthday.

A few rounds of bocci ball were played.

We bundled up and enjoyed our last morning on the beach.

Its Happening!

 

Retracing our Steps

 Thee next day we packed up and paddled back to our first campsite.   There were so e white caps when we left but the wind was in our favor and pushed us to our destination.

We reached the campsite in time for lunch.

The next morning we set out on a glassy smooth lake.

Dorothea tried out the kayak.

We stopped at the same beach where we waited out the storm on the first day and had a break.

Last chance for a selfie! Note wildfire smoke.

Our next stop was the point where Desolation Creek empties into the lake.

Still hazy

We ate lunch there.

The bear came back, evidently, and left a deposit.

Not sure what her berry of choice was.

From there it was a short paddle to the takeout.  Leo planned to kayak out and meet us but we arrived much earlier than expected.  Shortly after noon.

Our welcoming party

Our friends from Williams Lake had arrived and were coincidentally at the boat ramp.

The conquering heroes return (complete with photo bombers)

A Hike to Sylvia and Goodwin Falls

 It was windy in the morning but just a short hop in the boats across to the other side of the river and the third campsite and start of the trail to Sylvia and Goodwin Falls.

There was a lot of dead fall over the trail and the trail climbed up and up to get past cliffs along the river.

Typical trail conditions

Then the trail dropped quickly back down to the river level and we passed through birch forest.

Eventually we had views of the river

And then the top of the first falls.

A little further and we reached Sylvia Falls.

We could also see where Goodwin Falls dropped off ahead.

That green patch below Sybille is just below Sylvia Falls.  We never got down to the second falls because at this point we temporarily lost Dorothea.  But I did get a brief glimpse of Goodwin Falls while trying to track Dorothea down.

Once we were all reunited we ate our lunch in the green meadow below Sylvia Falls 

with this great view:

Spectacular!

Two kinds of mint and fringed grass of Parnassus growing in the mist shadow of Sylvia Falls

It was a strenuous hike back to the boats, up a very steep trail and over many deadfalls in the afternoon heat. We paddled back to our campsite and went for a swim.

We saw some interesting creatures:

This is a water stick insect (Ranatra) (it's about 3 inches long).

And also along the shore we found this toad doing the dead man's float (it was quite alive).

And the day ended with another fantastic sunset.

Sisters' Paddle Day 2

Packing up to go

 We had a short paddle to the end of the lake on Day 2, and there were no waves. 

Shortly after we put in we paddled by some cliffs.  From here on in the shore was mostly large boulders with only a few microbeaches, in high water there'd be very few places to take out.

At midmorning we took a break at a pretty little beach.

And by noon after 2-1/2 hours paddling we reached our second camp at the outlet of the lake.

This campsite had a picnic table with a bench and a covered cook shelter protected from the wind and lots of nails to hang things up on. It looked like it was used more than the first camp.

We went for a swim and checked out the outlet into Mahood River.

There was supposed to be a trail along the river, but we could not find it, probably obliterated by all the blow down around the campsite.

The beach here is round cobble, rather than sand. At night the waves lapping on the shore sounded incredibly loud with the pebbles rolling around.

During the night all three of us were wakened by a loud rustling outside our tents.  Dorothea thought it was a bear; I thought it was deer browsing.  Whatever it was it didn't react to my banging on the tent walls, but when I turned my headlamp on it went away.

The next morning Dorothea and Sybille found holes nibbled in their dry bags they left outside their tent.  Definitely not a bear.  Possibly a pack rat? No wonder there were so many nails for hanging things up.

3 Sisters Paddle Trip to Mahood Lake

 

My sisters and I went on a five-day trip on Mahood Lake in Wells Gray Provincial Park.  Unfortunately as we were driving to the park Dorothea's vehicle started acting up.  We couldn't keep going to the park because it's an hour and a half from the nearest town with no cell reception or telephones.  So we turned around and drove back to Williams Lake. Dorothea left her car at Canadian Tire for the week for diagnosis, we transferred her canoe to our truck and we drove back to the park. 

The next morning we set off while Leo remained at the park to camp for the week.

Putting in at the Mahood Lake campground

Along with Dorothea's canoe, we borrowed our friend Mark's fancy sea kayak with the idea that we would switch between the boats.

The lake was glassy smooth when we left and in 45 minutes we reached the point where Deception Creek empties into the lake.

Here we saw

Bear tracks!

From here the wind picked up and we paddled into the wind for the rest of the day.  By lunchtime there were quite a few white caps so we took a long break, went for a swim and waited for the wind to die down.

Sybille read her book in a shady spot.

We also found a beautiful green toad:

After an hour and a half the wind died down and we were on our way again.  We weren't really sure how far it was to the first of three semi developed wilderness campsites on the lake.  The parks map was not very detailed.  We stopped at a nice beach for a rest at 3 pm and were happy to discover we'd arrived at the campsite.

Nice beach

The campsites have an outhouse, a firepit and a bear cache provided by the Parks.  Locals have built a bench and a table. It was a very comfortable setup, and the site looked lightly used. We never used the firepit as there was a fire ban on in the Kamloops Region.

Dorothea uses the table

In the late afternoon, a boat cruised by and stopped for a chat.  Other than a few boats out fishing near the Provincial campground, they were the only people we saw all day.

Sunset enhanced by smoking blowing in from Kamloops area forest fires