25.10.11

clear creek hotsprings

as october continues to give us nice weather, kylie and i have been outdoors every chance we get. our trip to clear creek hotsprings was planned for the only rainy day in the forecast, but as we drove out of the rainy fraser valley and out along harrison lake, the clouds parted and the sun appeared!
the drive out took us less than 2 hours. east harrison forest service road was beautiful in the sunshine with the fall colours coming on. the last 30 min was pretty bumpy and a bit technical. i had a wonderful time driving, and ty enjoyed the ride, however, kylie wasnt buying the whole "but the journey IS the destination!" thing.

these springs arent quite as natural as sloquet creek. there are two nice homemade wooden tubs and 3 old hottubs in various states of repair. the view is wonderful though, and the setting is perfect.
the wooden platform was great for changing, but ty found it pretty slippery! the top tub was piping hot, while the middle one containing kylie and ty was just slightly cooler than your average public pool hottub. each tub in the line is slightly cooler than the one before. all with a simple system of siphoning pipes. impressive backcountry engineering.

after a good long soak it was time to throw some rocks in the water. i love this picture's clear portrayal of ty's determination. he had just decided to abandon rock throwing and go find mommy, who we had left soaking in the tub. as i hefted the camera to capture a throw, he dropped his rock, executed a neat about face and began marching toward the springs muttering "mama... maMMa"

after one more soak, we threw everything and everyone back into the 4runner and drove down the valley and back to harrison lake.
the road descended to a couple logging camps and then led to a beautiful beach where we sat down for a snack. kylie had purchased a selection of scones from our favourite bakery. moist pumpkin spice scones are delicious on a beach in the evening sun.


the beach also offered numerous gnarled rock formations to jump around on. we stayed until sunset and then drove home in the dusk.
on the way home we saw a black bear crossing the road. no picture, but i did take a picture of these tracks on the beach at jespersen dyke, one of our favourite running spots.

16.10.11

Lethbridge

This crazy lady just had a birthday! Thus, we headed to Lethbridge to help her celebrate


Nana picked us up at the airport and helped welcome Ty to Calgary by helping him ride a horse in true Stampede fashion. We started out the week staying with Nana and Grandpa and headed to Crazy Cakes for their classic spudnuts on a rainy Thursday morning. (Can you believe that I grew up in Lethbridge and had my first spudnut at 32??!!! Me either! Good thing Ty is making up for lost time and trying them at 1!)

We also got to meet our new nephew Fraser while we were there. We welcomed him in party hats in classic Julie and Lowell fashion!!
He's wearing one of Ty's sweatshirts in this picture! I love sharing Ty's clothes and seeing other little bambinos enjoy them.Fraser junior is cute!! (He also met Fraser senior this week, see Fraser Sr. later on in this post)

Ty and Fraselnut (Or Fraselberry' (as the French ‘fraise’ means ‘strawberry’), 'Fraselator', 'Frasenator', 'Fraser the Laser', 'Fraisin', 'Frasel-rock' (like Fraggle Rock), ‘Crazy Frazie’, 'Frazie Fraze’, and 'Frasel-boy'. These are all on top of the popular ‘Fraselnut’ (which has somehow evolved into ‘Fraselnut butt’ at times). All those nicknames were taken from Julie's blog!! This kid isn't going to know what to call himself! :)

Ty helped drive out to the Crownest Pass for Grandma's birthday weekend. He looks like his daddy when he's about to take a curve a little too fast for my liking.

We did a couple of hikes while we were there. Ty attemped his first summit of a rock. ;) He didn't make it. Simultaneously his father was trying to give me a heart attack by jumping off the rocks. First comes climbing, then comes jumping. AHHHH . . . the things I have to look forward to.


We had a great weekend away visiting with Brad and Raquel and my mom. Ty and Maria had a fantastic time playing together and kissing and hugging, as all cousins should when they are under 5.
My mother may take offense to this but I think her and Ty are in the classic 'sasquatch' pose here. Look out Crownest Pass, there is a pink and green monster roaming your hiking trails together!

We also went for a very nice alpine hike behind the visitor centre in Coleman. Pretty scenery and lots of creek crossings! I only got my feet wet 3 times.





Brad and Marc also did a quick summit of Goat Mountain one morning and had fun repelling down the ropes left by power line construction workers.



Thanksgiving Monday was a beautiful day with no wind!!! so we headed down to Indian Battle Park for a walk with my dad.This family was having a lot of fun!

Marc spent some time biking in his beloved coulees and went out one day with Fraser Sr.Speaking of Fraser . . . we continued our Lethbridge visits in Vancouver on Sunday by hanging out with him and Kally on Sunset Beach in Vancouver. A great way to ease us back into BC life after two great weeks in Alberta!!

1.10.11

harrison lake

after returning from the desolate east, it was time to refresh and revitalize utilizing immediate proximity to the healing waters of harrison lake.
harrison is 60 km long, with both shores offering a myriad of beaches and coves perfectly suited for front country camping. unfortunately this fact is better known in surrey than it is in chilliwack, and thus in mid summer the beaches are often covered in garbage, 4x4 tracks and toilet paper. luckily, camping midweek at the end of september allowed us our pick of empty beaches and the garbage was almost nonexistant.

this summer we have officially established that ty loves camping. his favourite activity is probably throwing rocks in the water.
he also enjoys walking on logs. i sort of regret teaching him this; he witnessed me hopping from log to log and soon enough he was clambering on himself. at least the beach provided a soft landing.
when all the natural stimulation was just too much for him, he could sit down and read a good book.
speaking of stimulation, niko loves camping too. he enjoys digging sticks out of the lake, harassing squirrels and keeping an eye on tyrn. i think he was up all night keeping watch, b/c he flaked out every morning when we got up to take over.
this particular cove offered an endless supply of dry driftwood. we cooked over an open fire, making bacon and eggs, grilled cheese, hotdogs and mini cherry pies. mmm...

having my kayak along allowed me the opportunity to commune with some playful seals in the afternoons.

harrison offers amazing views, real solitude and hotsprings! we didnt get to the springs this trip, but we hope to be back in a a few weeks.
goodbye harrison! thank you for treating us so well. i feel both refreshed and revitalized.