Long Beach

If you visit long beach on Canada Day, the parking is free. So we made the trip to the island to take advantage of the savings! Well, maybe we had other reasons as well. (Note the sentence that starts and ends with the word "well") . We were able to camp on the beach and it didn't rain at all! In fact it was about as good as it gets in terms of weather on the west coast.

Had a bear come through our camp. Of the 8 people in our group, Reg and I were the last ones to leave camp that morning. I was eating breakfast and was walking toward the food to get myself another strudel, when I looked up and saw the bear about 10-15 feet away! What do you do when you come face-to-face with a bear? I found out. I said "WOAH!!! Reg, there's a bear in our camp!"

What are you supposed to do next? I don't know, I never read that chapter. Apparently town-bears aren't phased by yelling and flailing arms. But clapping and thowing sticks seems to work...sort of. Two minutes later he came back through a different part of the bush. And THIS time I got my camera out.

We scared it off yet again with more sticks and clapping and that worked for a longer period of time. The thing about where we were camping is that we left our tents up. And even after we told the rest of the group about the bear, nobody was interested in checking on/taking down the tents. When we got back LATE that evening, the bear had taken down 2 of the 4 tents, looking for non-existant food. Fortunatelly, our tent was OK. But the others had to use a lot of duck tape to patch holes and mend broken tent poles. I can't believe we still slept there that night.

Long Beach was gorgeous, and the water was very cold. Peter brought a kite to fly, which was an excellent idea (I would have been SO bored otherwise). There was enough wind that we were able to attach bull kelp to the bottom of the kite. We made a tail about 20-25 feet long. This was a 2-string kite that you could control really well. We would whip that tail around and try to make it snap, or slap the ground with it. Good fun.

Peter & Bronwyn's dog Coda had to be kept on a leash, as per the sign and the park warden. But she never said the leash had to be attached to anything. So Coda ran free, dragging a leash behind her. Whatever.

The last night we stayed at Sproat lake. A nice place except for the 20 bucks a night. The water was relatively comfortable and the grounds were beautiful. A good place to go, the next time you want to camp around Port Alberni.

Floating down the canal

My oh-so-original title basically sums it up. At the end of June, Reg and I decided spontaneously to go to Penticton. More specifically, at 10:00pm Saturday night Reg mentioned his parents were in Penticton for the weekend and I asked him why we were sitting in Abbotsford! So ya, we arrived at 3:30am and stayed with Reg's relatives. Sunday afternoon we were floating down the canal.

It's a great thing to do in summer. I highly recommend it. If you provide your own floaty things and transportation then the ride is totally free. We each had an inner tube and we were both tied to the boat which carried all our worldly possessions. You need to be tied together or you will totally get separated. We were moving along at the pace of a fast walk (5.5km/hr). As to the state of Reg's undress, I'll let you decide.

Camping On Kenyon

Reg and I took advantage of a rare weekend when it wasn't supposed to rain. And it didn't rain so that was good. We camped on Kenyon Lake. It's one of my favourite places to camp, and judging by the amount of garbage thrown into the bush, I'm not the only one.

I got up in the morning, before the bugs had even woken up, and took a look at the lake. It was clear as glass. Not a trace of wind. The lake gave a perfect reflection of the mountains. All in all it was another successful camping trip--not to mention, fun.

Back to the Cave

At the end of May, shortly after I got back from Thailand, Reg and I went to visit our cave. It's still as beautiful as ever. And just as muddy. The entrance is eroding away, which is actually good because it means we don't get AS wet as we used to. On the downside, a lot of gravel seems to be building up on the lower (wet) end--the end we were hoping would eventually open up into more caves.

We both ventured down the hole that we once hoped was a lead to a new part of the cave. It still doesn't go anywhere but we like to check it out anyway. It is a tight squeeze with solid rock above you, rocky mud beneath you and rocks on either side of you. And it's at an angle so you have to inch your way back up to get out. There is one part which is REALLY tight. We jokingly called it the "birth canal". It's a good place to try out your claustrophobia. The picture doesn't do it justice.

And the last picture shows some of the flowstone. Ya it's a real cave with active stalagtites and flowstone. I still find it hard to believe that Reg and I were the first ones to ever see it.

Blog Junkies

OK you blog junkies, you know who you are. I'm posting some more stuff so you guys can get your fix. I'm posting each event as a separate entry so maybe PACE YOURSELF, cause I don't know when I'm going to be motivated to post again!