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| View from the cabin deck at Tatlayoko Lake. |
Driving up from Hope, we spied our friends Bill and Heather Collins who we were to join up with later in the day in William's Lake walking through Clinton as we were driving through…what a coincidence. After visiting with Elaine's Uncle Gideon at the Float Plane Base at the Lake, it was off to provision up for the week…lots of food (including the prized Maple Leaf Balogne- twould make a Newfie cry), beer, rum and Margarita fixings..what could be better! Off we were to Tatlayoko Lake arriving late afternoon. After a great BBQ and a few too many drinks, our evening walk took us down to the lake and wouldn't you know that nothing would do but Elaine and Bill had to go swimming; needless to say the water this year is even more brisk than usual which had a sobering effect on our two erstwhile swimmers at the "clothing optional beach"-(Bill liked this). The weather for the entire week of Bill and Heather's visit was spectacular, but with the very wet early summer the bugs were out in force.
Our day hike up to the top of the Potatoe Mountains from Bracewells' Logde was a memorable trip. The day started with switch in barrier lotion which turned out to be Mennen's Menthol Speed Stick and not Glide,which caused a certain member a bit of discomfort, but gave the rest a bit of a chuckle. Bill took amazing video's of our hike up the side of the mountain through what can only be described as the most heavenly of wild flower meadows we have ever seen.
There was a partly of 65 Neamiah and Redstone First Nations people having a gathering at Echo Lake Lodge; Elaine and Heather were eager to drop in to see what was up, but had to settle for seeing seven of them mounted on horse riding across the meadows. The view from the top was spectacular. On our return, we tried our hand at Glisading; need to watch out for the stopping as the snow runs out pretty quickly. We had a tour of Bracewell's Lodge and our hosts Anna and Aaron Bracewell treated up to a glass of ice tea which went down well after our 6 hour hike.
Bill longing to return to his roots as a geologist brought up his gold prospecting kit; sieves and diamond pans. We were schooled in the art of gold panning and on several occasions during the week took to opportunity to see what we could find; we were not disappointed…there's Gold in them thar hills (however not enough to retire). We have our samples of black sand back at the cabin.
Our friends Joanne and Len from the Valley joined us for dinner one evening. Afterwards around the fire, Bill and Len played their guitars, Heather sang her heart out, the rest of us accompanied as best we could. This was all under the full clear starlit night and a few shooting stars till late into the evening. Len has now become enthused about playing again.
Elaine and Heather took the Kayaks up the lagoon at the top of the lake while Bill and I tried our hands at fishing at the mouth of the Homathco River. Elaine tried to limbo under the low hanging tree on here return to experience a wet entry, but provided the gathered crowd with a bit of entertainment; no harm done.
We resurrected Grandpa Dan's boat to get out on the lake one day. After a bit of a slow start, we were off to explore the lake. We got down to Jaimeson Creek and the wind was giving indications to do its normal blow up, so we decided to stay in the North End. We prospected a few creeks that looked promising, were successful in getting our dinner (2 nice Rainbow Trout), did a little swimming and had a great day.
Too soon the week came to an end and Bill and Heather headed off down the road back to Victoria. I am sure they will be back next year for more Tatlayoko adventures.
We had the place to ourselves for a few days prior to heading off to the Bowron Lakes. The weather was great so had lots of swimming and playing around. We got to visit with Manfred and Debbie before they headed back to Germany, hopefully we might see them in France next spring. They had a visit from the Momma Fox who was into stealing shoes and loaves of bread..fun to see.
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