Summer Camping

 

We didn't get out camping till Barkerville in the beginning of August, but we made up for it the next to weeks trips to Horsefly Lake and Big Bar Lake. 

Unfortunately  I lost my camera at Horsefly Lake (it may have fallen into the outhouse!)  so there's not many photos available. (Check out our almost identical camping trip last year for similar pictures.)

According to Leo's camera the most important events were:  Lots of fun bocce games,

A giant hornets nest in the woods next to our site,

A chipmunk hopping around in the thimbleberry bushes picking berries.

We walked up the short trail to the viewpoint several times a day so Leo could train for his backpacking trip later in the month.

Connie, Rick and the 30 lb pack at the viewpoint.

After every hike we went for a swim.  On the second day it started getting smoky so we headed home the next morning hoping things were better at home. Nope.  Then the fires in the Shuswap and the Okanagan started to blow up.  The Central Cariboo, however remained a oasis of calm in the midst of fires all through the province.  We've been lucky to have a gullywasher of a thundershower almost every week.

The following week we headed down to Big Bar Lake again for a few days (Sunday to Wednesday to avoid the weekend crowds.)  This time we pumped our boat up as soon as we got there to be sure to get out on the lake.

It worked!  We got 2 paddles in.

Every day we hiked the very lovely 1-1/2 hour Otter marsh trail.  Leo had to get his backpacking practice in.

Leo, Mark and Henry rest and take in the view.

Same bench, another colder day.

It was too smoky to do a major hike in the Marble Mountains so we decided to drive up to the Jesmond Forestry lookout.  We were hoping we would be above the smoke but no luck.

Xx

The lookout was very well maintained.

Nothing to see here.

Coincidentally, there was a BC 4-wheeling association calendar propped up and open to August 2022, featuring a photo by our nephew Chris.

Yup, pretty smoky.

The views from our campsite we not great either!

The next day we hiked around the marsh again.

The loneliness of the long distance hiker

We love walking along the giant esker above the lake.

The chipmunks in our campsite were very bold.   One of them ran right up to Henry the dog and sniffed his paw.  He just watched it.

We drove over to Little Big Bar Lake to check out the rec site and play a little x-country bocce.

There are lots of sopallallie bushes growing along the lake; we saw not one single berry.  A bad year for bears and Indian icecream afficionados.  One the other hand, the junipers were loaded with berries.

A good year for Townsend's solitaires and gin distilleries!

Barkerville Days

We used to go to Barkerville every year with Leo's brother and our niece's family.  Then after Arthur passed away and Monica moved from 100 Mile House to Salmon Arm we visited less frequently.  Now it's been so long I can't remember the last time we went. All I know is great nephew Tristan was still a little kid and now he's 17 and graduating next year.

So we met up on the August long weekend and camped at Forest Rose campsite.  Good news!  You don't need a reservation to camp at Barkerville on the busiest weekend of the year! There were lots of empty sites.

The trees have really grown up since we first camped here.

We did the usual Barkerville things.  First, we dressed up and got our photo taken.

Hah!  I've aged into the Queen Victoria dress!

Here's the finished product:

From left to right, Connie, Leo, Tristan's friend Spanish exchange student Marti, great-nephew Tristan, niece Monica and husband Darren, Tristan's friend Landon, Landon's parents Steve and Jenn, their daughter Ella, and Landon's girlfriend Alina.

We also ate at the pretty decent Chinese restaurant. My theory is they have to have authentic food for the busloads of tourists from China. 

We ate lots of sourdough bread.  They have new owners at the bakery.  Now they have really good sourdough bread.

I was suffering from a bad cold so spent a lot of time resting in the shade.

Of course Leo had to take some artsy photos.

There were lots of Stellers jay's.  Whiskey Jacks too, but no photos.

Detail:

 

A Last Goodbye

My mother's house sold at the end of July so we went up to help clean it out before the new owners took possession.  Fortunately my mother worked hard to empty the house out in the years since my Dad died so it wasn't too difficult a job.  Also the new owners were new homeowners and happy to keep most of the furniture and kitchenware, tools, plants, @etc.  That made our task much easier.

One evening we went for a walk to Seymour Lake, near my sister's house.

Seymour Lake 

Comparing our bird apps.

Hard to believe we won't be coming back to this house again.

Boxes of books to be given away to the 2nd-hand store

Cleaning out the kitchen

 

We found this old plastic jug in the basement. Our mother  used to use it to wash our hair over the bathtub when we were kids.  It's probably 65 years old!

Out and About in July

 

Buckeye tree in our friend's yard

Some colourful thistles down in the creek valley

Watching Leo and the Cariboo Connection perform at the farmer's market

Smoky skies

Performances in the Park was moved to the arena because of the smoke. Not quite the same ambience but we enjoyed the performance anyway.

Hike to Farwell Canyon Sand Dunes

We went out to Farwell Canyon to hike up to the dunes.

There were a few mariposa lilies still blooming in a shady part of the trails.

Skies were a little smoky.

The dunes are a little different every time you come.

The ladies at lunch:

On the way out we spotted a herd of male bighorn sheep.

Rear view!

Afterwards we stopped in at the Chilcotin Inn for cinnamon  buns. Yum!

R

Last Days in Dartmouth

Our favorite thing to do in Dartmouth is take the pedestrian ferry over to downtown Halifax.

Heading over to Halifax harbour

Here's another ferry returning to Dartmouth.

Those are all new highrises going up along the Dartmouth shore.

We walked along the waterfront, redeveloped for tourists.

You can take a cruise on the tall ship Silva.

There's lots of opportunity to stick your head through things for photo ops!6

Closeup:

Another:

This one is an ad for the Maud Lewis exhibit at the Art Museum of Nova Scotia.

How'd she get in the picture?

The next day we walked to Birch Cove on Lake Banook where used to take swimming lessons when he was a kid.

Some little girls were getting ready for swimming lessons when we arrived!

We also walked by a house that had filled their front garden with ceramic mushrooms.

Later Cathy and Heather came in from Chester Basin and we all went out for deep-fried clams. THE place to go for fried seafood in Dartmouth is John's Lunch, but it was closed, so we went to its sister establishment the Pleasant Street Diner, just down the road, run by the same family.

Mmmm, deep fried whole fresh clams. Not to be confused with clam stories.

And that concludes our trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  We caught our flight back home early the next day and arrived in Vancouver at 10:30 am, then drove home the same day.