I haven't posted much to the blog in a while but I have had some 'post worthy' adventures recently so I thought I would do one big long winded post. So if you hate long winded posts, you've been warned, this is a long one.
Two weekends ago I mentioned to Steph that it would be fun to take a trip into British Columbia and explore the area north of us. I didn't get the vibe that she was gung ho on this idea so I figured we probably wouldn't do it. She surprised a few days later when she said "let's pack up our clothes and hit the road!" Since I need very little prompting to go out on a road trip adventure, I was ready in about 10 minutes. We didn't bring much, just a change of clothes in the event this long day trip turned into an overnighter.
It was kind of cool how it worked out. We had two options. The first option would have been a long road trip (but no overnight stay) where we went into Canada north of Metaline Falls, Washington and cut over on 'provincial highway?' 3 over to Creston, Canada. The other option was to drive up to Nelson, BC and then take the free ferry across Kootenay Lake.
When we stopped for lunch in Metaline Falls, Steph shocked me again by suggesting that we do an 'overnighter' and take the ferry across the lake. I reminded her that after we left Nelson, I couldn't guarantee the quality of lodging as we would be going through some of the tiniest communities in B.C. She said "let's go for it." So with a smile I plotted a course for Salmo and onto Nelson.
Below are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.
The last three pictures are of mountains surrounding the lake.
As a kid I liked floating around in my rubber raft. I would probably still be content to float around on the rubber raft if it weren't for my Dad and his canoe. Once you have paddled in a canoe and felt the feeling of gliding through water 10 times faster than a rubber raft with half the effort, it is hard to go back. Plus, in a rubber raft you can take a painful shot to the tailbone if your in fast moving water and you hienny makes contact with a shallow rock. In a canoe you'll bounce around a bit but you won't take an "up the spine" shot. Well, a canoe is a bit unfeasible for me because I would probably spend 90% of the time in it by myself, which would suck on windy days. I figured a better option would be to get a kayak. I can get exercise paddling around and do not need to spend money on gasoline or engine maintenance. I don't have to license it and I don't need a trailer. I have taken the kayak out a couple of times to get used to it but I wanted to see how well I could fish out of it.
Yesterday I took a day off from "end of the semester madness" (last minute grading and final exam writing, etc) and drove up to Bead Lake to see how well the kayak worked as a fishing vessel. I have to say the day was a '10'. Well, actually more like a 9.5 because I didn't bring home any fish for supper. But it still was a pretty awesome day.
Bead Lake is north of Newport, WA. I drive this way to visit my folks and I've always been curious to see what is off of the "main route." Yesterday, I took one of those turn offs to see where it went.
This is the kind of lake I like to paddle on. It's big enough to sustain a healthy fish population without stocking, but small enough that you will not have hordes of motor boat enthusiasts. Actually, if you wanted to launch a big motor boat on this lake, you would have to get wet because the boat ramp does not have a dock. So pretty much any motor boat on the lake would be operated by someone who has waterfront property.
With a kayak though, you can put the back end on land and the nose in the water and the you can step in without getting soaked. After few shoves with the paddle, you're on the water, no dock required.
I spent most of the morning exploring the bottom right "thumb" of the lake and that is where I had a few bites but I couldn't get them in the boat. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too hot and nor was it too cold. For the first 4 hours on the lake I was the only boat on the water. There was a little bit of wind but it wasn't too insane.
Here are a few pictures of Bead Lake
After exploring the southeastern branch of the lake and paddled over to the middle branch. The fishing over there sucked but it was the more scenic and interesting with a lot of little coves to explore. I was cruising up the west side of the middle branch and decided to stop for a snack and stretch break in the cove about half way up the branch that points to the northwest. I was going to stop on the north side of the cove so that I could enjoy the south facing beach sunshine. However, something on the south side of the cove caught my attention. It looked like a building but I didn't recall seeing a road on the map that accessed that part of the lake. Otherwise I would put in there away from the private houses which are near the public boat ramp.
I paddled up close to the shore but I still couldn't get a good look at the structure because it was shrouded by bunch of cedar trees and some brush. I'm a sucker for old cabins, houses, mines, barns, etc. I guess I like to imagine what these structures were like when they were first built; who built them; how long was it used; did any significant events take place at that location. Maybe I watched too many Scooby Doo episodes when I was a kid. This structure interested me because it was tucked away from the main part of the lake with no road access, this would mean it would probably was some kind of vacation property.
I didn't see any "NO Trespassing" signs, I also didn't see any fencing so I figured it was fair game to poke around. In more recent times it looks like folks have used this area as a "boat in" campsite.
This place is hidden pretty well, from the water (in this picture to the right) there is a thick wall of cedars and shoreline brush. I looked on google maps and you can't really see it from above either. After I got on shore I felt better about snooping around someone's vacation property because this hasn't been used as a shelter in a long time as evidenced by the tree on the roof and holes in the wall.
It looks like whoever used this place had quite the setup, wood stove, kitchen area with shelving, two sets of bunk beds and some other random stuff. I didn't want to step inside because I didn't want to run a rusty nail through the bottom of my shoe.
As I walked around the structure I noticed some wiring that suggested this cabin had electricity at some point. That was a head scratcher, how the heck to they get electricity out on this side of the lake? I guess that it is possible that they could have tapped into a nearby transmission line but that just seemed weird to bring in electrical power without also having a road coming into the area. It's possible but I didn't think very probable.
At this point I was in "full exploratory" mode and walked around trying to find the road that helped facilitate bringing in power lines. I didn't find a road but I did find evidence that solved my question. It looks like the folks brought in their own fuel and ran a generator for their electrical power. However, in the process of finding the answer to a question, more questions pop up. I was thinking why the hell do you need electrical power at a cabin anyway? You can use propane lanterns for light and you can cook food on the wood stove. Maybe they wanted to stay out at the lake for a while and wanted to keep food cold in a small refrigerator. Then again, how peaceful can a lake trip be if you have a noisy generator running just so you can have eggs and sausage for breakfast? I think I could 'rough it on dried food' for a while to have a tranquil experience. Maybe they needed electricity for entertainment. I think battery powered radios have been around for a while, I don't think that was the case. Did they want to watch television? It could have been a simple case of "if I can do something, I will do it just for the sake of proving that it can be done." Who knows, during the cold war craze people went nuts on the whole "self sufficient personal bomb shelter" trend, who knows maybe somebody applied this enthusiasm toward the building of a lake cabin.
I was out of the water by about 6 P.M. and my shoulders, wrists and arms were sore but it was totally worth it to float the whole day on a lake I had never been to before
1 comment:
Looks like that was a real cool mini trip. Fun in the sun and all that. I would have looked around for a hidden gold mine or a placer diggings on a nearby creek. Who knows what's out there.
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