The Slocan Valley, Okanagan and Home

These photos are in reverse chronological order. The bears and face in the wood were captured in Hope on the way back to Bellingham just before crossing over at Abbotsford. The face was eerie. It was rainy these last couple of days although the mountain views (of the cascades) out of Hope were magnificent.

The next photo is of Slocan Lake, in Silverton, near New Denver. Across the lake is Valhalla State Park, only accessible by boat.
It was here that I met a bee-keeper, his wife had left to go back one day early ... so we shared stories of the wildernesses we'd visited. At 9pm I could just make out a pair of Ducks pulling into shore right in front of us to go to sleep. They happily snoozed there until about 10am the next morning when the sun fell on them, woke up and then were easily identified as Merganzers. The lake has so much inflow that the water is replaced at least twice a year. In the past mining operations had poisoned the lake ... but the strong inflows guaranteed its recovery, thank goodness. Just north of here was Nakusp Hot Springs ... where I camped. I had been strongly led to here and met two lady ex-teachers who happened to be camping next to me and run wilderness educational camping trips for kids in California. They actually strongly encouraged me to consider the private sector, having been disillusioned by 30 years in public schools, where their hands were tied. The springs themselves were very hot and I could only hack an hour before retiring to a good nights sleep.

From here I continued South and stopped off at Nelson (no photos) where the happy coincidences continued ... I found a fantastic French bakery (Fougasse and spicy Ginger Cookies were my choice) and then a used bookstore where I found the fantastic Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez and the Canadian classic Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat for $2 a piece! and directions to Oso Negro coffee shop. A well-spent 2 hours. I even called in at the Pacific Insight factory to enquire after a job on my way to Christina Lake.

Of course life is never perfect and I caught a speeding ticket (for doing 70 km/h on a 60 km/h freeway ramp when joining the freeway ... I guess they need their revenue any which way they can). Camped at Christina Lake ... and this time it was free ... must be end of season. Again really friendly people.

The open park picture with the tables is of Bear Creek campground opposite Kelowna city. My best campground ... here I was simply taking photos and came across Tania ... really just starting her journey but willing to share her dreams while living by fruit-picking and resort work. Here it wasa balmy 75 deg every day and no mosquitoes. This campground was exceptional for its wide open fields and picnic spaces and its lakefront beaches where a lazy hour or two could be spent.
In the campground itself it seemed that most people were vying for the largest camper award ... one of them people were actually flocking to see ... was 3 stories high and not quite as long as a bus ... just like the Star Wars sand-people transporter! Autumn had arrived and the light breezes covered the whole area in a blanket of yellow leaves.

The next 3 photos were taken on the Bear Creek hiking trail ... I had been trying to shoot a clear photo of the logs for 3 days and was finally rewarded. The feeling I got from this hike was of "dryness" .. so the last photo of the trio was trying to capture this expression in a photo ... have to think some more about this.

My car on the ferry was just south of Revelstoke on the way to Nakusp. The toad photos were taken at Summit Lake ... where there are many thousands of these tiny half-inch toads everywhere.

What looks like a lakeside cabin was actually an old boat house on Slocan Lake, in New Denver ... this pristine lake would be fun to canoe on.

The cloud, bike on roof and Takkawa Falls were taken in Yoho NP ... when I took the photo of the falls it had dropped to 40 deg and I was freezing (in shorts). Takkawa means "magnificent" in Cree ... I agreed ... and tried to capture this in this detail shot near sunset.

The rainfall in the sun was captured at Revelstoke ... from the mountain it reminded me of Tolkien's city of the elves in Lord of the Rings ... the river is the Columbia and I camped on the other side. This was the campground of the bear and deer ... a lively place ... my first night a bear gave 2 long sniffs about 100m from my tent :)





































































































The flower is Valerian ... the falls are the Athabascar Falls near Jasper ... apparently some of the most powerful falls. The trip from Jasper to Yoho was accomplished in a day ... so my musings were limited ... but its safe to say I would not choose to return to Lake Louise ... too many tourists!!

The last 3 shots are some of my favorites. The open plain with the mountain in the background ... I will post-process ... to emphasize the snow layer ... it looked just like icing on a chocolate cake ... this one I may blow up for my wall. The fluted mountain top detail made me think of God plastering his landscape and leaving the implement embedded in HIS work and then a detail of Lake Louise where I just managed to avoid any tourists.



The trip brought me to strength and taught me to listen carefully for all HIS instructions, while maintaining the constant daily disciplines.

Canada was filled with welcoming people who, almost daily, invited me to live amongst them ... who knows ... someday perhaps. Much of my trip avoided the highly commercial tourist operations in the NPs ... I mainly explored the Provincial parks, which were a lot less developed.