Sunday ; N’Kwala BC Forest Service Recreation Site
Late last night ; We climbed up into our bed area (over the truck cab), Joanne went to sleep, and I lay on top of my sleeping bag reading a book for awhile. When I was ready to sleep, I put the book down, turned out my bedside light, climbed into my sleeping bag, then leaned over towards Joanne to give her a goodnight kiss.
OW ! … OW ! … OW !
Something was stinging me ! Repeatedly ! ! ! In my armpit ! ! ! ! !
I was screaming. Joanne woke up and sat up, wondering … WTF ? ? ?
With my left hand I was grabbing at my right arm pit wondering what the hell was hurting me so bad ? I felt something, grabbed it, and tossed it ! I turned on the overhead light, with burning agony invading my armpit. Joanne was still trying to wake up … WTF ? ? ?
There on Joanne’s pillow, where I had tossed it … sorry, dear … was a wasp ! ! !
Joanne got up, passed me a paper towel, and I killed the wasp.
I was in a lot of hurt ! Three stings in my armpit ! ****ing wasp ! ! !
Today was overcast and mild during the day, becoming chilly and windy about 6 PM.
Late this morning we went for a long, leisurely hike, hunting for mushrooms. We knew it was unlikely that we would find wild mushrooms in this arid area, but we wanted/needed an exercise walk anyway. We hiked for about forty-five minutes. As expected, we did not find any mushrooms.
After lunch I napped briefly, then went fishing. I tried a different spot on the river, and rather quickly caught three very small Rainbow Trout. I didn’t want to continue catching little fish, and risking harming them, so I returned to the place on the river where I fished yesterday … and in previous years. I caught another Rainbow Trout. It was borderline between large enough to keep, and too small to keep. I released it. Before calling it a day after about an hour of fishing I caught a Mountain Whitefish and released it.
When I returned to the camper Joanne advised me that the camper fridge had malfunctioned. I puttered around with it and discovered that the burner igniter had failed. I don’t know why, probably just age. I was able to dismantle the burner assembly enough to light the burner using a barbecue sparker. That’s what I’m probably going to have to do a few times a day for the remainder of this trip, and/or until we have the problem diagnosed and fixed.
Monday ; N’Kwala BCFSRS to Kamloops to Skimikin Lake BCFSRS
Mostly sunny and mild.
Before leaving the campground at N’Kwala BCFSRS this morning we went for our early exercise walk. We left the campground shortly before noon heading southeast on Hwy. 8 back to Merritt. At Merritt we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled with freshwater at Canadian Tire’s free sani-dump station. Thank you, Canadian Tire. We drove across the street and Joanne went into Dollarama to buy some stuff. I was pissed off that she was unable to pass by a “dollar” store without stopping to shop. Until I saw the credit card receipt and realized … OH … she bought a birthday card and birthday cake frosting. <sheepish>
From Merritt we headed north on Hwy. 5 / the Coquihalla / “Highway Thru Hell” to Kamloops. It’s easy to understand why “the Coq” becomes the Highway Thru Hell in the winter. The speed limit is 120 km./hr., therefore ALL truckers feel the need to travel at 130 km./hr., summer or winter, rain or shine, or … snow/sleet, etc.!
At Kamloops we stopped at the Visitor Information Centre to have a very late lunch and get access to Wi-Fi. The Visitor Information Centre was closed due to Covid-19, but their sani-dump station was available, and their Wi-Fi was accessible in the parking lot. While I researched an RV fridge repair business in Enderby Joanne walked across the street to Aberdeen Mall to shop for watch bands at Hudson’s Bay. We both wanted / needed a new watch band. She found a watch band kiosk in Hudson’s Bay and came back to the Visitor Information Centre to get me. We drove across the street to Aberdeen Mall, went into Hudson’s Bay, and each bought a new watch band. And had them installed on our watches.
We left Kamloops heading east on Trans-Canada Highway 1. Our planned destination was Salmon Arm. But as I drove Joanne was researching her BC Forest Service Recreation Site guide book. And found a desirable sounding remote wilderness campground not too far from Salmon Arm. So … ten km. before Salmon Arm we left the highway and drove ten km., all uphill, to Skimikin Lake BCFSRS, arriving there at 6 PM. It’s a very nice pair of campgrounds, one on each side of a pretty lake.
We checked out both campgrounds and selected a site. Before lighting a campfire and preparing supper we went for our late exercise walk, walking around the campground and doing some mushroom hunting in the woods. While Joanne “prepped” supper inside the camper I lit a campfire then cooked supper on it. It was new recipe, baked chicken thighs with peaches, and turned out very well cooked over the campfire, despite our initial skepticism about “baking” a meal over an open fire.
HEY ! Emma LOVES baked chicken thighs. AND baked peaches. HA HA HA … who knew ?
Tuesday ; Skimikin Lake BCFSRS to Salmon Arm to Enderby to Armstrong to Vernon
Mix of sun and clouds, mild.
We had a very difficult and stressful overnight. Emma was very ill, spewing out both ends. Multiple bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. <sigh> She doesn’t have much time left. Perhaps I shouldn’t feed her baked chicken thighs and peaches !
Before leaving Skimikin Lake BCFSRS around noon we went for our early exercise walk, around the campground. We drove ten km. back down to Trans-Canada Highway 1, then ten km. east on TCH1 to Salmon Arm. We used the free sani-dump station at Piccadilly Mall to refill our freshwater tank then headed south on Hwy. 97 to Enderby, finding our way to the elusive Hillstreet RV Fridge Repair. Should be called Hillstreet RV Fridge Repair & Hoarding ! The owner was absent, but I had a productive discussion and demonstration with the service technician. He explained, and showed, what I need to do to clean and adjust our RV fridge burner and igniter, which should solve the intermittent “fail to ignite” problem. Wish me luck.
We continued south on Hwy. 97 to Armstrong where we stopped for an extremely late (3 PM) lunch at Village Cheese. WOO-HOO … today was the weekly fresh cheese curds production day. We each ordered a bowl of their wonderful soup with cheese curds “to go” and took them out to our camper in the parking lot. MMMMM … as usual, I had their borscht with cheese curds and sour cream. After eating our soups we went back inside to buy many packages/types of cheese, including a large bag of fresh … like minutes old … squeaky cheddar cheese curds. Inspiring me to beg Joanne to make poutine for supper. She readily agreed. HA HA HA … thank you, my dear.
We continued south on Hwy. 97 to downtown Vernon where we found our meeting place for tomorrow morning’s wild mushroom hunting course. Then we backtracked a short distance to Superstore, our boondock location for tonight. We refilled the truck with diesel at Superstore’s Mobil fuel bar, found a good spot to park overnight, then Joanne went inside the store to shop for a few items (including a can of poutine gravy !) while I got a bit of work done on my laptop. After Joanne returned from grocery shopping we went for our late exercise walk around a couple of the large shopping malls’ parking lots, then began preparing and packing stuff for tomorrow’s mushroom hunting course.
Poutine supper was … well … you know ! ! ! Unfortunately I’m currently in the midst of keeping a food diary to be reviewed by my obesity clinic. <shrug> Oh, well !
R.I.P Eddie Van Halen
Wednesday ; Vernon to Lumby to Mabel Lake to Cottonwood Beach BCFSRS
Today started out cloudy and chilly but cleared and warmed by mid-morning, becoming a lovely warm fall day.
We were up at 7 AM to be ready for our Wild Mushroom Hunting Tour at 9 AM. We met the group and leader at the downtown Vernon meeting place and after some paperwork we headed east on Hwy. 6 to the group leader’s family dairy farm near Lumby. We found and studied Comb Tooth Hericium and Oyster Mushrooms. Joanne and I were already familiar with the latter, but not the former.
Today’s mushroom hunting course did not quite live up to our expectations, although it was interesting and educational. The course/tour spent a lot of time and effort finding and identifying many non-edible mushrooms, while what we (and probably everybody else on the course/tour) wanted was to find and learn about edible wild mushrooms.
From the leader/teacher’s family farm we continued a short distance east to the village of Lumby, then north a short distance to a recreation park at the site of a small BC Hydro dam at Shuswap Falls where we explored wild mushrooms found there. Then about another half hour north to Mabel Lake Provincial Park where we had lunch sitting at picnic tables beside the beach on Mabel Lake before resuming our mushroom hunting. We spent about half the afternoon searching for, finding, and learning about the many types of wild mushrooms to be found at Mabel Lake Provincial Park, including edible Lobster Mushrooms (well known to us … I found the first one today), Pine Mushrooms/White Matsutakes (new to us) and Shaggy Manes (well known to us).
Our final mushroom hunting spot was further north, on Mabel Lake Forest Service Road. We spent about the last hour of the course there. Most of the participants were getting pretty tired, and losing interest, us included. But … we learned that there was a BC Forest Service remote wilderness campground only about eighteen km. further north on the Forest Service Road, so when the course ended at 4 PM and the rest of the group headed back to Vernon Joanne and I continued further north to Cottonwood Beach BCFSRS remote wilderness campground on Cottonwood Bay at the north end of Mabel Lake.
Nice wilderness campground ! We selected a site then went mushroom hunting. Until exhausted ! I lit a campfire and was about to grill a nice fillet of Sockeye Salmon on the open fire until Joanne opened the thawed package of fish and discovered that it was ruined by “freezer burn”. DARN ! Plan B was a sirloin steak, still frozen. It’s difficult to cook a frozen steak on an open fire. The outside becomes charred while the inside is still not cooked. Either skill or luck was on my side today. The steak turned out perfect ! After supper we sat around the campfire for awhile.
Life was good today ! Thank you for the wild mushroom hunting course birthday gift, my dear.
Thursday ; Cottonwood Beach BCFSRS to Box Lake BCFSRS
Mostly cloudy, mild.
We left Cottonwood Beach / Cottonwood Bay / Mabel Lake this morning around 11 AM and headed back south on Mabel Lake Forest Service Road until reaching Mabel Lake Provincial Park where we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank at the sani-dump station. <whispering> Then harvested a nice batch of Shaggy Mane Mushrooms !
More south on Mabel Lake Forest Service Road until we reached Lumby. I parked at the little shopping mall in town and while Joanne cleaned the Shaggy Manes I took our provincial election mail in ballots to the Post Office, then bought a few grocery items at the grocery store. Including cream with which to make Cream of Shaggy Mane Mushroom Soup. WOO-HOO !
We had lunch while parked in the shopping mall’s parking lot, then headed east out of Lumby on Hwy. 6. It was a long, tiring day of driving Hwy. 6, a very winding and difficult to drive road. Mid-afternoon we stopped at a rest area to take an exercise walk and hunt for edible wild mushrooms, finding none. Around 5 PM we reached the western edge of Arrow Lake at Needles, then took a ferry across Arrow Lake to Fauquier on the eastern shoreline. About half an hour later we reached Nakusp, and Hwy. 6 turned south. By 6 PM we were at Box Lake BCFSRS where we hope to harvest some Lobster Mushrooms tomorrow, as we did last year in late September. I was too tired for a campfire, and it was dark shortly after our arrival.
Joanne’s home made Cream of Shaggy Mane Mushroom Soup … with added cheese curds … was excellent ! Too bad she burned the Texas Toast to a crisp ! <snicker>
Friday ; Box Lake BCFSRS
Today was cloudy and cool, with light rain until late afternoon.
Late this morning we headed out to hunt edible wild mushrooms. We walked for about an hour down an ATV trail through the forest. We found … Lobster Mushrooms, Cauliflower Mushrooms, a single Pine Mushroom/Matsutake, and Chanterelle Mushrooms. YIPPEE ! Chanterelles were one of the two edible wild mushrooms on my “bucket list” that I had not previously found. The last remaining one I want to find is … Morels ! It was obvious from the amount of cut stems and discarded mushrooms that the professional mushroom pickers have been active in this area.
We returned to our campsite, had lunch, then Joanne spent quite a bit of the afternoon cleaning and cooking mushrooms. I napped and fished, catching nothing. I lit a campfire, left Joanne “in charge”, and walked down to a nearby dock to fish some more. Inexplicably … she “killed” the campfire ! By the time I returned from an hour or so of unproductive fishing, she had made another campfire. HMPH ! Didn’t know she was capable of that !
She also baked a birthday cake for me for tomorrow. And had grilled some chicken thighs on the campfire, and had made Lobster Mushroom Risotto. Talented woman ! I, on the other hand, came home with a nice Rainbow Trout. Given to me by another fisherman on the dock ! When I filleted it at our campsite picnic table, I sliced one side off making a perfect fillet. The other side … looked like I had filleted it with a weed whacker.
One perfect fillet. One botched fillet. Of a fish given to me by another fisherman. HMPH ! What a loser !
Saturday ; Daniel’s 66th Birthday ; Box Lake BCFSRS to McLean Creek Rest Area
Cold and raining all day, occasionally very heavy rain. YUCK !
Emma woke me up asking to be fed at 6:30 AM. It was the crack of dawn. So … after feeding her I went fishing for about forty-five minutes. In the rain. And caught nothing. So I went back to bed ! And slept late.
We left Box Lake around noon, heading south on Hwy. 6. At New Denver we stopped at New Market Foods, the town’s grocery store, to buy three large jars of Kelly’s Doukhobor Borscht. We would have bought more, but they only had the “Traditional” style, and we wanted some of the “Spinach” style as well. While in New Denver I retrieved phone messages. One was a birthday wishes call from my sister. The other was a message from the owner of Dancing Baba’s Perogies. I had previously arranged to meet him today to pick up and pay for an order of four bags of perogies I had placed by phone a couple of weeks ago. We played telephone tag until his wife reached me with the message that my order was waiting for me at the front counter of Winlaw Mini-Mart, the little grocery store in their town. WOO-HOO !
We continued south on Hwy. 6, stopping to have lunch at a rest area before reaching the village of Winlaw. When we arrived at the Winlaw Mini-Mart and I went to the front counter to pick up my order of perogies … they had no idea what I was talking about. I phoned Dancing Baba’s … got their voice mail, as usual … waited ten minutes for a return phone call, then left ! Without any perogies ! I guess my money will be better spent elsewhere ! ! ! <fume>
We continued south on Hwy. 6, then Hwy. 3A, to Sentinel Meats, a beef farm and butcher shop specializing in beef products. We bought a lot of beef salami, beef pepperoni, and beef garlic sausage. When we came out of the butcher shop, it was raining very heavily. We continued south on Hwy. 3A to Castlegar. On the outskirts of Castlegar we pulled onto the grounds of the Doukhobor Museum to look for Porcini/King Bolete wild mushrooms. None today ! HMPH !
We continued into Castlegar to refill our freshwater tank at the sani-dump station at the Visitor Information Centre. As I began to refill the freshwater tank, it began to rain exceptionally heavily, with lightning, thunder, and little ice pellets/hail. Our water tank was near empty, so I stood there beside the camper for about fifteen minutes being pummeled by ice pellets while the tank refilled ! I had a rain hat and rain coat on, but still … my nose hurt from the ice pellet pummeling ! And I was drenched from the knees down ! Including my shoes and socks ! Happy ****ing birthday, Daniel !
We found our way to Castlegar’s grocery store Kootenay Market. There we bought three more large jars of Kelly’s Doukhobor Borscht, this time the “Spinach” variety. We had planned to boondock overnight in the Visitor Information Centre’s parking lot, but it was now signed “no overnight parking”. So … we left town, heading west on Hwy. 3, our “home highway”. It was raining heavily again in Castlegar, and we were hoping to escape the heavy rain.
We stopped to boondock overnight at a rest area about halfway between Castlegar and Grand Forks. I began to feel quite ill. Joanne prepared my favourite dinner as a birthday treat, then presented me a birthday cake as a bedtime snack. Thank you, my dear ! What a lovely birthday card !
HMPH ! SOME people get taken to the Eiffel Tower in Paris (her 50th) or the Colosseum in Rome (her 40th) on their birthday. OTHER people get taken to the sani-dump station in Castlegar, BC. HMPH !
HA HA HA HA HA !
DSK
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