August 25 to 31, 2019 ; Duncan Lake, Kootenay Rockies to home

Sunday ; Howser BCFSRS, Duncan Lake to Ainsworth Hot Springs

Sunny and warm.

We left the Howser BC Forest Service Recreation Site remote wilderness campground this morning around 11 AM. We drove back to Hwy. 31 and turned south. Just a few km. later we stopped in the village of Meadow Creek to shop at their weekly farmers’ market. It was a pretty sorry version of a farmers’ market and we did not buy anything.

We continued south on Hwy. 31 until reaching the town of Kaslo. We stopped to buy some milk and bread at the grocery store, then we walked up one side and down the other side of the two block tourist section of Front Street. We drove to a municipal park where we ate lunch in the camper.

From Kaslo we headed south on Hwy. 31 until we reached Ainsworth Hot Springs, our “ultimate destination” for this trip. We paid our exorbitant entry fees, then I spent 2½ hours / Joanne spent 3½ hours soaking in the hot springs pool, and occasionally wandering through the horseshoe shaped hot springs cave, the “original” / natural hot springs. Walking through the dark cave, with very hot water about waist deep, and dripping from the jagged roof of the cave, is somewhat like walking through a very hot sauna. It takes a few minutes to walk from the cave entrance to the cave exit. It’s not a recommended activity for anyone with heart disease … < shrug >. Or claustrophobia, I suppose.

We left the hot springs parking lot around 7:30 PM and drove about 5 km. / 3 miles south on Hwy. 31 to a bridge over Coffee Creek, where we pulled off the highway and parked for the night in a gravel parking area beside the creek and bridge, likely just a fishing access spot. Just a few minutes after we arrived, while we were still outside walking Ozzie and admiring the creek, a single woman in a car pulled off the highway and parked beside us, to sleep in her car overnight. I suppose if you’re a single woman sleeping alone in a car, being beside an old couple with a dog, in a truck camper, provides some safety.

Monday ; Ainsworth to Winlaw

Sunny and hot.

We continued Southeast on Hwy. 3A towards Nelson. We stopped at Kokanee Creek Provincial Park to refill our freshwater tank, have lunch, and view the red bodied, green headed, spawning Kokanee Salmon in the spawning channel of Kokanee Creek running through the provincial park. What an amazing spectacle ! We learned that Kokanee Salmon are Sockeye Salmon that have been landlocked in Kootenay Lake for 75 years or more, trapped from migrating to the ocean like all other Sockeye Salmon, by the building of power dams on the Columbia River in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

In Nelson we went “foodie” shopping in Nelson Food Co-op, a very eclectic store of gourmet foods, mostly locally produced, somewhat like a Canadian version of Trader Joe’s. We bought a variety of sausages, both beef and lamb, made in store, some authentic “home made / hand made” style Ukrainian perogies, and a large jar of locally produced Russian Doukhobor borscht. Before leaving town 

I refilled Lanoire with diesel at Real Canadian Warehouse Fuel Bar, while Joanne ran inside the store to buy an advertised special.

From Nelson we drove west on Hwy. 3A to Crescent Valley, then north on Hwy. 6 to Winlaw. In Crescent Valley we stopped at a beef farm / butcher shop to buy some beef sausages, made with collagen casing ( as opposed to the usual pork intestine casing ), only to discover that the beef farmer / butcher uses pork fat in his beef sausages. WELL … DUH ! Then they’re not beef sausages are they ? ! ? ( You Ukrainian moron ! )

Near Vallican we stopped at the home based business Kelly’s Doukhobor Foods, producer of the Russian Doukhobor borscht we had bought at Nelson Food 

Co-op. We had a long and interesting chat with Kelly, discussing the differences between Ukrainian beet borscht ( like my mother made and my sister makes ) and Russian Doukhobor borscht, made with cabbage instead of beets, and using copious amounts of butter and cream. And the difference between Ukrainian perogies and Doukhobor varenikys. We planned to have her borscht for supper, and return the next day to buy more if we liked it.

A few miles down the road we stopped at Winlaw Mini-Mart, where Kelly advised us we could find Dancing Baba’s ( another local business ) perogies and varenikys. We bought some varenikys ! And refilled an empty propane tank. It was time to stop for the night, so we about twelve km. down the road we found a Slocan Valley Rail Trail trailhead parking lot to boondock overnight. Before having Kelly’s Doukhobor borscht for supper we took Ozzie for a long walk on the Slocan Valley Rail Trail.

Gawd … the borscht was good ! ! ! ! ! You know where we’re going tomorrow morning, don’t you ? ! ? HA HA HA !

Tuesday ; Winlaw to Granby-Burrell BCFSRS

Sunny and hot again.

This morning we headed back south on Hwy. 6 … directly to Kelly’s Doukhobor Foods ! HA HA HA HA HA ! We bought two more one litre jars of her borscht, one jar of “traditional” and one jar of “extra spinach”.

In keeping with my “mantra” … “I brake for panaderias” … developed while travelling in Mexico, when we passed Fomi’s Bakery, another home based business, I was quick to slam on the brakes and make a U-turn. HA HA HA ! We bought bread, buns, and a pastry for tomorrow’s breakfast. It did not make it to tomorrow’s breakfast ! HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! It became our bedtime snack. HEY … wasn’t my idea !

Kelly ( of Kelly’s Doukhobor Foods ) referred us to Slocan Valley Co-op where we stopped to buy some of Dancing Baba’s perogies. The Winlaw Mini-Mart only had Dancing Baba’s varenykiys ! So … now we have both Dancing Baba’s perogies and her varenykiys ! Let no one accuse me of not being well rounded ! HA HA HA HA HA < ROFLMAO >

We stopped at Legendary Meats, for me to browse once again for all-beef sausages or other interesting beef products. The man who was working the counter … the owner, I believe … was rude and disinterested. I bought nothing !

We stopped at Sentinel Meats. I was served by both the husband and wife team of co-owners. The difference in customer service attitude between Sentinel Meats and Legendary Meats was like night and day ! The husband was just bringing a rack of smoked beef briskets out of the smoker. He sliced a piece of the end of the smallest brisket for me to taste … < salivating heavily >. KA-CHING … 

SOLD ! ! !  I asked the wife to slice the brisket for me on their meat slicer. She was happy to do so. Then I asked her to divide the slices into four approximately equal batches, and vacuum package them for me on their vacuum packaging machine. She was happy to do so. WOO-HOO … ready for the freezer !  I also bought two coils of their beef triple garlic sausage / kielbasa.

Joanne had waited in the truck with Ozzie while I went into Sentinel Meats. As we continued driving to Castlegar I told her about my shopping experience, and how pleasant and positive it was. When we got to the Doukhobor Museum on the outskirts of Castlegar, we stopped. Not to go into the museum, just to hunt for Porcini mushrooms on the grounds. HA HA HA ! We had found Porcini mushrooms there previously, but none today. Too early … probably next month for Porcinis.

As we left the grounds of the Doukhobor Museum, Joanne chastised me for not buying more of the interesting beef products that were available at Sentinel Meats, so … back we went, 12 km. back to Sentinel Meats, where Joanne bought a chub of beef salami, and two chubs of beef pepperoni for pizzas.

The fact that my ulcerative colitis condition prevents me from eating pork products means we have not had pepperoni on pizzas, or any kind of “regular” sausages or luncheon meats, for almost thirty years !

We returned to Castlegar where we used the sani-dump station behind the Visitor Information Centre to dump our waste holding tanks and refill our freshwater tank, then had a very late lunch parked beside the Visitor Information Centre’s park like grounds. Thank you, Castlegar !

We headed southwest from Castlegar on Crowsnest Hwy. 3, our “home” road. We stopped at Christina Lake Provincial Park where I had a nap. At Grand Forks we turned north on North Fork Road, heading 40 km. up into the mountains to find a BC Forest Service Recreation Site remote wilderness campground. At some point I took a wrong turn, and 40 km. later, instead of arriving at the remote wilderness campground, we arrived back at Hwy. 3, on the opposite side of Grand Forks. How frustrating !

We headed back up into the hills, for “take 2”. This time we found the campground, beside a bridge where the Burrell Forest Service Road crosses over the Granby River. It was late, and had been a long day. We were tired, 
I didn’t feel like lighting a campfire, so I cooked supper on our small propane barbecue.

Wednesday ; Granby-Burrell BCFSRS to Jolly Creek BCFSRS

Sunny and very hot, temperature 93º F / 34º C.

This morning we drove south, 40 km. back down the mountains into Grand Forks. We stopped at Extra Foods where I refilled Lanoire with diesel, and Joanne went into the store to buy a few grocery items. We dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank at Grand Forks municipal sani-dump, behind the arena, beside the skateboard park. Thank you, Grand Forks. We like Grand Forks, it’s a pretty and pleasant town, with everything you could want. I can understand why one of my mother’s older brothers settled here to start a business and raise a family, almost a century ago.

We continued west on Crowsnest Hwy. 3. Just past the village of Rock Creek we turned north on the Baldy Mountain Road and found our way to Jolly Creek BC Forest Service Recreation Site. We had been to this small, remote wilderness campground before. I have pleasant memories of having a lot of fun here with our previous dog Bo, who madly dashed through the small creek, chasing the small Rainbow Trout that I was catching, as I reeled them in. HA HA HA ! We miss you, Bo !

In the evening I lit our final campfire of this trip, and cooked foil packets of lamb sausage patties, vegetables, and potatoes on the campfire.

Thursday ; Jolly Creek BCFSRS to home

Sunny and hot.

We left the Jolly Creek BC Forest Service Recreation Site remote wilderness campground this morning around 11 AM and headed west on Hwy. 3 towards home. We stopped at Sanderson Farms in Keremeos and bought fresh fruits and vegetables. We arrived home around 1:30 PM. As we were dumping our waste holding tanks at our park’s sani-dump station our new next door neighbour came over to invite us to a small yard party they were hosting this evening.

After a late lunch we did some unloading of the camper. Since my computer had run out of battery power a few days ago, I did some online catch up work this afternoon. At 6 PM we went next door to participate in the neighbour’s party. 

< sigh > Nowadays it pains me to attend social events ! We spent three hours at the neighbour’s party. I spent that time huddled in a corner talking to our friend Jeanine.

Friday ; Sunny and hot.

Joanne went into Penticton by herself today, for a physiotherapy appointment and to run errands. I stayed home and got caught up on a four day backlog of credit card accounting, and my daily diary / journal entries. My laptop battery died Sunday night and I have not been able to write my daily diary / journal since then. She didn’t return home until after 7 PM. So … I made supper while she put away the grocery purchases.

Saturday ; Partially sunny, very warm, brief violent thunderstorm with heavy winds mid-afternoon.

This morning I downloaded photos from my camera to my laptop, processed them, and selected some to post to my journal / blog. I did some routine maintenance on the truck and minivan. Joanne did a lot of laundry.

After lunch Joanne went to an “appreciation party”, at the home of our 

neighbour / friend Christine. She wanted to express her appreciation to the women who helped with the recent “celebration of life” for her recently deceased husband. I posted last week’s journal to my blog, six days late !  I downloaded month end bank statements and investment updates.

After Joanne returned home we took Ozzie for a long walk. I went to our community’s book exchange library in the clubhouse, and restocked books for reading, some for in the house, and some for in the camper. I cooked Rainbow Trout for supper.  Tried a new technique.  Didn't work out well !

DSK