Waiting for the thaw

The last few weeks have been frustrating, although Spring is here the temperatures are abnormally low (if I ever paid attention to meteorology or the weather forecast I'd be able to wax on about the effects of La Nina and the Jetstream here) and still drop below freezing every night. Consequently there is still several feet of snow on the ground in most places. Here and there the sun has exposed stretches of hillside and deer are out eating what passes for grass (kind of a sandy-coloured squashed stuff, plastered to the hill).

The local ski hills just closed for the season but up to last week the Spring snowboarding was awesome, the days would start out a little icy but then the snow would get sugary in the afternoon. Added to that the ski hills stopped grooming most runs and last weekend there was actually a fresh dump of snow, meaning my last day on the hill this season was a powder day!

My friend Matt and I recently went snowshoeing on a trail maintained by the local Cross Country Skiing facility, that was pretty cool too. I'd not tried it before and had to borrow shoes and poles from Matt, then we hiked up into the forest covering a small hill. Apart from where the trail crisscrossed the ski trails there wasn't a soul around, and it was a really tranquil afternoon in the bush.

Matt is a sea kayak instructor so naturally whilst we were hiking we discussed kayak touring, and started to form a plan to paddle the entire lake circuit in Bowron Lake Park more info . The circuit is basically six major lakes in the Cariboo mountains linked by various rivers, and is meant to be an awesome wilderness paddle "one of the top ten canoe trips in the world". We figured we could do it in four days in sea kayaks, without rushing and missing most of the point of being there ;)

Our plans have developed a little and we now hope to start the trip at the end of June allowing five days to complete it, the only minor drawbacks being 1) I don't have a sea kayak, 2) I don't have any wilderness camping skills or experience and 3) June is still mosquito season. I'm hoping to rent a boat and I guess learn the backcountry camping thing as I go, but am more worried about being eaten by mozzies than being eaten by a grizzly, oddly.

Later in the summer I'm hoping to fit in a bike tour and a decent hike too, something like the West Coast Trail. All depends on time and inclination :) Anyway as soon as I have firmer plans for those trips I will post here. I'll definitely be blogging the Bowron trip too.

Meantime the wait for the rivers to thaw goes on. Last weekend we stopped at the Willow and Bowron rivers to see how the melt was going and found them still pretty icy, with the Willow canyon still completely frozen over in places. The rivers in town are looking pretty good though, the ice shelves have almost gone and if it wasn't for lots of little icebergs and a stinking cold* I'd be paddling today. Until next weekend at least, looks like paddling will continue to be in the swimming pool ;)

Frase.

* Yeah I know, I must be getting old.