A Wedding in Horsefly

The daughter of one of our trumpet players (see gentleman in tuxedo on the left in photo) got married last weekend so the band was hired for the event.  The venue was the Sunshine Ranch near Horsefly.  They rent out their barn for weddings, it's a beautiful site, and they cater a fantastic meal.  The bride even sang a few songs with us.

Sunny Days

Volunteer sunflowers in our backyard

We had a few days of rain in the last week, and the smoke is mostly gone, it's still a little hazy, but it's safe to go outside again.

During the worst of it they rescheduled the last Performance in the Park to beheld in the recreation centre to avoid the smoke, but during the performance people were coming in and going out.  By the end of the concert you could see the haze in the stage lights.  When we stumbled out to the parking lot at 8 pm, the lights were already on:

Same or worse?

But not as bad as Prince George

Abysmal

Can't even see the hills across the valley.  We resorted to going to the rec centre this morning to get some exercise.

Time to hit the road again, methinks.

Smoke gets in our Eyes

We're actually having a pretty low key fire season this year compared to other parts of the province and, of course, compared to last year.  We've only got 3 wildfires of note and only one of them is threatening homes and it's in a remote area not a town. 

But it's gotten really smoky in the last week, coming in from the Chilcotin, I think.  This morning the air quality risk is at 10, very high, though this is nothing like it was last year before we evacuated. 

This means we have to keep the windows closed in the house to keep the smoke out and yesterday was the hottest day I think I've every experienced here, 40C downtown and 38C at our house.  Fortunately, a breeze came up last night, clearing the air so we could open the windows before we went to bed.

I thought it was smoky a couple of days ago when I took this

We did get out to the Horsefly River yesterday.  It was really smoky in Horsefly when we drove through but it cleared up once we were on the river, and we had a great afternoon on the water.  A great way to spend the day on the hottest day of the year.  And we saw three otters swimming down the river, a Horsefly River first for us. 

African Queen

We'd planned to go to Moose Valley Provincial Park , southwest of 100 Mile on Monday.  But when we stopped in at the Tourist Information Centre to see if they had a map, they told us the road was closed due to a forest fire. No, we said, not Flat Lake Provincial Park, the other park southwest of 100 Mile with a canoe route, where we knew there was a fire, Moose Lakes.  No, she said, they both have a fire.

So we made a quick change of plans and headed for 108 Mile Lake.  Our friend Mark brought his canoe, so we paddled around the lake and then some of us went for a dip off the swimming platform at the public beach.
One of us forgot to bring her bathing suit, so she missed out.  None of us knew there was a public beach at the 108, but now we do.

108 Mile Heritage Site seen from the lake.  That's the world's longest log barn on the extreme left of the photo.  Okay the website says it's Canada's largest, but where else would there be a bigger one?

Next we drove to Lac la Hache and looked for the public beach at the south end of the lake that Leo remembered.  There didn't seem to be one, but we found a boat launch/lake access which served our purpose.

There's a section of the Moose Lakes Loop that is called the African Queen because it can get so shallow you might have to get out and drag your canoe like Humphrey Bogart in the movie (and possibly get covered in leaches?). (Note the park website tells you not to do this to protect the marsh.)

Well we may not have been able to go there but I felt like the African Queen as I lolled in the middle of the canoe and Leo and Mark paddled me through the rushes.

Lot of birds in the marsh here:

Spot the great blue heron.  Bird of the Day?  Why not.