Hazelton

For our holidays this year we headed north.  Partly because we wanted to catch up with long lost friends and see Haida Gwaii, and partly because we're so lousy at planning there were no other options for accommodation anywhere else in the province.

Turns out it was an awesome decision! We spent a few days with Marty, Stacey and Caleb in Hazelton where we were given the royal treatment and taken fishing, 4x4'ing and jet boating!!  What a great time, definitely going back next year to stock up on more sockeye from the Skeena.

Early morning start to a long day of fishing for sockeye.  The weather was so nice we spent all day in the river in just shorts!

 

 

Even the kids got into it.  Tobin and Caleb hauling in sculpin's and rainbow trout off the back of the boat.

Hard to believe, but Marty got this 18' aluminum jet boat up on a plane with 10 people on it.  There's a lot I didn't know about driving jet boats on a river!

 

  

Just another Marty creation.  1960's era Muskeg tracked vehicle with a dodge fargo body...  How the hell he does this is beyond me.

 

Oh, and another one.  Diesel powered Suzuki samurai rock crawler with some kind of homemade transfer case...*

Before our 4x4 outing Marty gave a safety briefing which was along the lines of "keep your head and hands inside, and if it rolls jump clear!"

 

Rancho Strachan-Brown

 

*the boys and I have decided to sell the tacoma and buy an older, more capable truck we can turn into our own rock crawler.  Theoretically, this is a fantastic idea.

Chilcotin!!

My new favorite place.

I managed to finally round up some partners and we headed to Goldbridge for three days this past weekend.  We had a vague plan, a lot of power gels and granola bars, and enough ambition to survive whatever was encountered!

It.
was.
AWESOME.

The forecast for the weekend was for a high of 39 on Saturday, and 40 on Sunday!  It was so hot!!!  Especially the 3 hour hike-a-bike up to Deer pass, at 4:00 in the afternoon.  I think we rode about 80km over two days, which isn't a ton, but we were in the saddle for about 9-10 hours each day.

Up Gun Creek

Swim in Hummingbird lake.  *not warm*

...along past Trigger lake

boom.  Start going up.  Horses can ride on much steeper trails than mountain bikers...

trees getting smaller...

  Finally the pass!

Settling in to "camp".  I had a super light down bag, but no sleeping pad.  Travis had a bivi sack and a deluxe sleeping pad.  Corey had a nylon sack.  Corey was cold, with Travis a close second in discomfort.

Travis amused because he just remembered where he learned the word 'taint'.

 

so cozy.

Moses, stalking a deer

OHMYGODTHESUNTHESUNTHESUN!!!!!!!!!

big descent into Tyaughton creek

first of five very cold, successively larger creek crossings

back into the alpine - Windy pass.  So stunning.

Massive descent back down towards Eldorado basin.  So amazing.

More wildflowers, more singletrack

The final push up to the top of Lick creek.  Mega 1200m techy descent.

down down down down down

Christina lake and Mountain biking

Tobin and I rode Flowdown yesterday.  This is the newest of our XC mountain bike trails in Revelstoke, and is 7km of super buff singletrack.  He did so well!!  He styled all the bridges, rocky, off-camber sections and bermed corners.  He was pretty proud of himself when we finished.  Rightly so.  Here's a little video of him riding and me following.

boys

 John teaching the boys to balance.  I love this photo of Tobin spotting Nick!

 

 Tobin creating tailings.

 Caught mid dam building

We were working outside and I asked "who wants to help me clean up?"  Expecting that one of them would carry the drill, and the other the screws.  But of course they both lasered to the axe and pulaski.

 Tobin has started his rigging again.  He took a break from this for awhile, which was nice.  There was a time where you couldn't walk through the house without getting tripped up in one of his webs.  Here you can see the integrity which defines most of his workings.  A true booby trap.  I can imagine a scenario of me getting up in the middle of the night, triggering the trip wire, letting out a FUUUUUHHHH!!!!  followed by the sound of breaking glass and crashing hair product.