NewWorldOverland.ca

Two weekends ago, Melissa and I decided to take a little trip up the hills. I told Melissa that we were going to Kelowna. And then I changed my mind and completely forgot to tell her! Let’s just say i’m still paying that one back.
As we headed down 97, everything was peachy until I took a sudden turn, that was labeled, “Pinaus Lake, 12km”. It only took about 10 minutes before we were high above the valley, amongst the deer and snow. Now, Melissa likes deer, but she doesn’t like snow, especially when we are camping. Neither do I, but I kept thinking “the campground is at 800m. How much snow can there be?” Well, after a few clicks on the muddy, snowy, rutty, awesome road, we arrived at the egde of Pinaus Lake. At this point it was obvious to Melissa that we would be in the snow. Camping. An awful silence filled the truck, and I made a futile attempt to pretend that this is what we had planned to do all along. Well, after setting up camp and having a few drinks, all was well and we enjoyed sitting around the fire. I had too much to drink, but hey, is anyone surprised??

We slept in the RTT for the first time since last September, and it was great! We slept with the ‘back’ door open, so you could look out on the lake in the morning.

After breakfast, after packing up and visiting with out new ice-fishing buddy, we drove back out and hit up the Douglas Lake Road.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Douglas Lake Ranch, it is one of the best things to see while around Kamloops. Measuring in at 145,000 acres, it is an incredible sight indeed. Straight out of a western. Old homesteads, free-range cattle, roaming horses, and villages with white walls and red roofs.

After our jaunt through the ranch, we pushed throught Merritt, along highway 8 to Spences Bridge. It was my goal to take the road along the eastern shores of the river, however it is closed to public access, so we were stuck on the old HWY-1. Not to complain of course, as the views are always stunning. From there it was back to Kamloops, and the regular life.

Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, you can see all the recent pictures by browsing around the “photos” link you can see the most recent attempts at art to spew out of my camera.