Breaking Into Summer and Vodka...

Even I will admit how late this post is. What can I say? I'm a busy person. Just ask all the people who try and make plans with me....it's next to impossible...

So I started the summer with a camping trip. For those of you who know me, camping has never been at the top of my list of fun things to do. In all honesty, it's never even made the list. Whenever I think of camping, I imagine how unpleasant it would be, no electricity, flushing toilets, comfy beds and the bugs. And then, of course, there's the Blair Witch. Nobody wants to run into that in the middle of the night.

I had been asked to join a friend and her family on their annual vacation to Ross Lake. After much debate, I decided to take the plunge and go. What's the worse that could happen? The lake runs across the BC/Washington border, somewhere around Hope. We were planning on fishing, so I had to buy two licenses, 1 for the US and 1 for Canada. While I may seem cheap in other aspects of life, I will always spend money on fishing licenses. =)

We drove up on a Wednesday night after work. I actually missed a hockey game, but I got over it. It took us about 3 hours to get there, the last part of the drive was along a gravel road. The more I hang out with Helen, the more interesting things I learn about her. At this time, I learned that she has almost no fear behind the wheel and thinks that 85km/hr on loose gravel is slow. Surprisingly, we made it there unscathed...

The first night was pretty mellow, dinner, drinks and campfires. Seeing as I was a bit apprehensive still about this whole camping thing, I decided to sleep in the car. At the very least that would protect me from bears and drunks. Almost froze to death in the middle of the night....I questioned whether it was summer at this point. I got up ridiculously early the next morning, it was probably around 5AM, but that was purely for survival. I had to get up and get a fire going in order to defrost. It was July 1st, first day of fishing on the lake. Eventually everyone else got up and so began the fishing competition. It wasn't really a competition, but if it was, I totally won. I caught 11 fish that day, only a few were keepers, but it's quantity, not quality, that matters in my books.

After I won the fishing derby , we hung around the campsite, mostly drinking. I vaguely remember specific details of the camping trip beyond this point. I do remember almost always having a drink in my hand. And yes, everyone else was drinking too. In fact, everyone else started at 7AM with booze in their coffee, where I didn't start until at least after lunch. At one point I remember whittling sticks with a ridiculously sharp knife, which just goes to show that drunk people, combined with other drunk people with knives, can be volatile combination. Hope was only an hour away...

On the Saturday, three of us decided to hike up to Hozomeen Lake, which sounded like a great idea when you look at pictures, see below:The trail is just under 7km each way. On the way up, it seemed like a pretty decent hike. Mild inclines, relatively clear trails. We got to the top feeling rather proud of ourselves. The way back down was a bit of a different story. The first bit seemed fine, I was even racing with the dog at certain parts, but after the 3rd KM, it was like the energy was sucked right out of my body. I always thought downhill was the easy part, apparently I was wrong. By the time we got back to the camp, my feet were killing me and I was exhausted. Actually, we were all exhausted. For some reason, we had forgotten that before the trail even starts, there's a 2km stretch along a gravel road. At the end of the day, we had hiked close to 17km. Not much else happened that day, some people went swimming. I was not part of that group. The temperature of the water was perfect, if you're a trout who enjoys glacier fed waters. I gave up my days of polar bear swimming many years ago and have no plans on revisiting.

After much more fishing and drinking, the camping trip was over and it was time to head back to the real world. I have discovered that I love camping, especially the fishing and will definitely be doing more of it.

Here's a list of things I've learned about camping:

1. There is no Blair Witch at Ross Lake
2. Some outhouses are not as horrible as you think
3. Corn Beef hash tastes better when cooked on a propane stove and served on a paper plate
4. It's never too early to wake up someone to go fishing
5. The water is always colder than it looks
   
6. Don't put chocolate bars in the cooler
7. You can live without your cellphone for up to 4 days
8. Don't walk by the fire when you have been drinking
9. It doesn't matter how old you are, catching frogs is always fun
10. And finally, Vodka tastes good in anything...

One day I may post pictures, but don't hold your breath....


~ Bean