August 28 to September 3, 2011

Sunday ; Today was very hot, triple digit temperatures. Waaaay too hot for the Penticton Ironman Triathlon which was today. And the forecast is for one more hot day of summer, then much cooler temperatures as we move into September.

This morning we attended a potluck breakfast here at Riverside RV Park Resort. It was ... < ahem > ... well, moving right along ... ! Afterwards I helped a neighbour diagnose an electrical converter problem in his relatively new RV. And in the afternoon, I completed the installation of a check valve on the outlet side of our trailer's freshwater pump. I won't know for a day or two if that solves the problem that I'm trying to solve, but ... it appears as if the installation of that check valve has created a whole new other problem. < SIGH >

Wednesday ; The weather has cooled a lot. We spent the day exploring Nickel Plate Mountain and Apex Mountain with our neighbours Robbie and Christine. My objective was to find Nickel Plate Lake.

Joanne and Christine prepared picnic lunches and this morning we headed out for a day of back roads exploring. Robbie and Christine had never driven up Nickel Plate Mine Road to the top of Nickel Plate Mountain, so that was what we did first, with a few stops on the way to take photos. Past the Mascot Mine, past the Nickel Plate Mine, and past the Nickel Plate Nordic Cross Country Ski Centre, we began to search for the turn off to Nickel Plate Lake. I had a vague idea where it was. We found it. The 3 km. "road" to Nickel Plate Lake was ... a snowmobile and cross country ski trail ! But Lanoire in 6WD is unstoppable ! I hope !

As we began to see Nickel Plate Lake through the thick forest off to one side of the trail, suddenly there was ... HUH ? ... a teepee in the forest in front of us. An honest to goodness Indian teepee ! We stopped to take a look. We could see Nickel Plate Lake some distance away through the forest. Downhill through the forest ! We entered the teepee and decided ... what a great place to have our picnic lunch ! Inside the teepee were ... a large carpet covering half the floor area, a firepit, a few pieces of triangular shaped wood furniture to fit around the inside perimeter of the teepee, a few sections of raised floor made out of wood, and a wooden bed. On one of the tables was a sacred “smudge stick” bundle of sage and sweetgrass. We don't know who the teepee belongs to, or why it's there, but what a privilege it was to find it and have our picnic lunch there.

While Robbie and I were standing outside the teepee eating sandwiches, and considering hiking downhill to the distant lake, Robbie raised his arm to point towards the lake. He was holding a sandwich. SWOOOOP ! ! ! A Gray Jay dived down and snatched at Robbie's sandwich. He and I both just about jumped out of our skin ! HA HA HA ! What a bold little bird !

After lunch I hiked down to Nickel Plate Lake. Nobody wanted to join me. It was a steep, difficult, downhill hike. BUT ... the uphill return hike was BRUTAL ! We were at a high altitude, with thin air, and my lungs were SCREAMING ! We drove back to Nickel Plate Mine Road and continued on to Apex Mountain and Apex Ski Village, then took the “civilized” route from Apex Village down to Green Mountain Road and Hwy. 3A leading home to Keremeos.

 Saturday ; September weather has arrived. Sunny, warm days, and cool evenings. We've always liked September weather. In our younger days it was usually the month that we would take our "summer vacation" time. Our neighbours Bob and Christine ( not to be confused with our neighbours Robbie and Christine ) invited us for dinner tonight, as appreciation for the help I gave Bob a few weeks ago with making a difficult hitch king pin adjustment on their new fifth wheel trailer. We had a lovely dinner, and a very pleasant evening of chatting on their patio.

DSK