Long Beach

Much to our surprise it was raining when we got up in the morning, but just as we decided over coffee that we better go to a museum, the sun came out.  So we walked along the seawall past the aquarium

Long Island is full of ceramic mosaics, this one by the aquarium

 and over to find the Catalina Island ferry berth, checking out the birds as we went:  buffleheads, surf scoters, water and eared grebes - fellow snowbirds from the Cariboo like us, perhaps?

In the palms and eucalyptus trees we also spotted a rufus hummingbird and yellow-rumped warblers.

In the afternoon we took the bus to Belmont Shores (a Long Beach suburb) to pick up some last minute ultramarathon supplies (gels and socks) at a running store, and then we walked the three miles back along the beach.

There we spotted the bird of the day

Red-shouldered hawk and right beside it, a kestrel feeding on a mouse.

We passed several of these "islands", actually oil rigs planted with palms to disguise them.

26 Miles Across the Sea

Santa Catalina is a-waiting for me.

Downtown Long Beach

We are on a short trip to Southern California where Leo will run a 50 mile race on Catalina Island on Saturday.

We flew out of Vancouver on Wednesday morning, arrived in Los Angeles at noon and caught the Metro to Long Beach.  Did you even know there was a metro in Los Angeles?  Well neither does a large portion of the population of L.A.  We were practically the only white people on the system.  Unlike in the rest of the world, in L.A. the middle class does not use the transit system.  But for $2.75 for me and 1.75 for Leo as a senior citizen, we traveled from the airport to our motel in Long Beach in the same time as it would have taken a shuttle van at a fraction of the price ($50 for the 2 of us).  That's your budget travel trip for the day.

We're staying in Long Beach because this is where the ferry to Catalina Island sails from.  It reminds me of either Penticton or Dallas Road, only much bigger and with way more homeless people (true of all American cities, in my experience), and with way more houseplants growing outside:

There's high rise apartments and hotels lining the shore, but the streets were very empty during the day, the residents presumably at work, and the hotel guests all at Disneyland?

Later in the evening we went to the supermarket and the streets were busy with people walking their dogs and buying their groceries.

Witchcraft

Here's Cariboo Gold playing my favorite song, "Witchcraft"

Click on the box on the lower right to expand to full screen.

Extra points for spotting the "tiny trombonist."

Cariboo Gold Performance at the Limelight

We had our big annual concert Saturday evening.  Pretty cool, eh, our name on a marquee.  That's because we rented the former movie theatre for our concert.

Our guest star was Bill Runge, a professional saxophonist from Vancouver.  

More on our concert from the Tribune.

(Old picture, some of these people have moved on, one has passed away, one's been replaced by a newer band teacher, one's left us behind to become a professional singer performing in Vancouver concert venues, and one person's hair has grow a lot!.)

The hall was full, and everyone had a great time, especially the musicians.  This was our big event of the year, but we'll also be playing for the Senior's residence Christmas party in December.

Harvest

Salmon Arm being fruit growing country, Leo's niece has a plum tree in her yard overflowing with fruit this year, and we were gifted with 3 boxes of delicious plums.  Also Leo's cousin Eric has an apple tree in his yard in Williams Lake, also overflowing with tiny apples.

So I have been occupied this week with freezing, stewing, baking and dehydrating.

Dried Apples

I have my own dehydrator, but had to call in the big guns for all the fruit.  A friend lent me his high-powered, 8 tray dehydrator for the week.  

Dried Prunes

And today I'm using my own dehydrater to experiment with a small quantity of less than perfect pears. I 

I also baked some Zwetschgenkuchen, a German tradition in the fall, and the best cake ever, for tonight's potluck, where we will welcome the refugee family from Liberia we've been working to bring to Canada since January.

What have We been up to?

We've mostly been staying close to home since we got back from the Yukon.

But we did get out camping with Leo's cousin Greg & family on the Labour Day weekend.  Sunday was nice and sunny, but not terribly warm.  We were prepared, however, and brought our -20 sleeping bags, so were cosy in our tent.

Monday was not so great as you can see below.

Camping at Timothy Lake

We also celebrated Leo's 65th birthday that weekend.  He's looking forward to his first OAP cheque, and racing in a new age class where he's the youngest in his field.

Last weekend we went to Salmon Arm to visit our niece and family.

On Saturday we drove to Revelstoke for Great Nephew Tristan's soccer tournament.  Between games we went up to the skihill and checked out the Pipe Mountain Coaster (not me, too chicken).  Check out the virtual experience here.

Leo survives the Coaster

On Sunday we participated as a family in the Vernon ALS walk.

Last Day on the Snake - Aug 12

View of Peel River from Taco Bar

Our last campsite was only a few kilometers from the mouth of the Snake River, and when we reached the Peel River it was in flood and backing up into the Snake.  Large trees were drifting down the Peel.  

Our takeout, where the plane was scheduled to pick us up the next day, was Taco Bar, a large gravelbar 1.5 km downriver from the Snake on river left.  We ferried across and followed the left bank so we wouldn't miss it.  What we didn't realize was the bar was flooded so that all that remained was a small treed island with a flooded channel between it and the shore.  As we floated past the island looking for a gravelbar, we heard shouting from under the trees.  

"Where's Taco Bar," we asked.  "This is it,"  they answered.  Another group of paddlers was on the island waiting for their pickup.  We had to line the boats back up the shore to paddle over to the island.  If they hadn't seen us we would have missed our pickup and would have had to paddle all the way to Fort McPherson, 4-5 days away.

The other paddlers were a guided group from Switzerland who'd been on the Wind River.  The previous day their campsite upstream on the Peel had flooded out overnight an they'd had to pack up at 5:30 in the morning when their beach disappeared.

Their plane had been unable to land because of all the debris coming down the river, so they'd stayed overnight on Taco Bar, and the plane was due in a few minutes to pick them up.

The pilot suggested he return in the evening and take us out today rather than wait till the next day.  The airline had a busy day tomorrow, as a third group of paddlers who'd been on the Bonnet Plume River were stranded above the Peel River canyon, which was running so high they were not able to paddle it. Blacksheep Air was going to send in a helicopter to fly them into a lake where a plane would pick them up.

Waiting for our flight on Taco Bar

We unloaded the boats and deflated the raft in preparation for the flight. When the plane returned we had to ferry the gear out in our kayak, as there was no landing spot for the plane on the island.  The channel was chest deep, so the ladies were also ferried out in style.

Ferrying out the gear

And then we were off.

Mouth of the Snake River from the air

Thumbs up for our pilot

We got into Mayo in time for supper at Mayo's only restaurant, Tony's Pizza, which also had a decent special of chicken with roasted potatoes, and much appreciated fresh vegetables.

Then a 2.5  hour drive to the Coalmine Campsite in Carmacks, where we slept in a cabin on the Yukon River.

Yukon River in the morning

The next day we drove to Whitehorse, lunched together, and Leo and I drove all the way to Boya Lake Provincial Park.  The next day we drove Hwy 37 to Smithers, and finally saw a our first bears of the trip.