9 Pounds of Water

Today I went caching with my caching partners in crime, Nurse Hatchett and Lillooet Lady. We decided that we would try the Taggart Peak Trail. Carol (Nurse Hatchett) is an ICU nurse and her days off are scheduled long in advance so we plan our hikes long in advance and then hope that the weather will cooperate for that day. Unfortunately, this time it couldn't have been much worse.

The day started cloudy and progressively got worse from there. It rained and rained, soaking the forest like one of those misters you see in the produce section of the grocery store.

Now if you're not from the Pacific Northwest you have to understand what it's like to hike in a temperate Rain Forest when it's raining. Let's just say they don't call it a rain forest for nothing. By the time we had reached Taggart Peak #12 we were soaked to the knees. By the time we reached the lookout there was no point in trying to stay dry.

It was around this time that Lillooet Lady imparted us with one of her famous wise thoughts, one that made us go hmmmmm..."Why don't they make towels out of denim?" she said, "Because I'm sure I'm carrying about 9 pounds of water in my jeans!"

It never fails to astonish me what I will go through and put myself through to get a couple of smilie faces. If you're a cacher and you're reading this maybe you have an insight into this phenomenom? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why is that when I came home today I was soaked to the skin, shivering and miserable yet completely happy?


Hmmmm?
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to wring out my jeans.

Watch Lake - Camping with Our Friends

Every year, on the first weekend of May, we go camping with the Veers & Klassens... and every year we try to go somewhere different. Seven years ago when we first started this tradition it was to find some pictographs in Lillooet near Seton Lake. The second year we decided to explore Hedley. We stayed at the Colonial Inn, saw all the ancient paintings on Old Hedley Road and took the tour up to the Mascot Mine. It was incredible.

But then the boys (Tony, Terry & Werner) decided that this holiday needed something more. Something they'd enjoy. Apparently pictogaphs and historical tours weren't cutting it for them. They needed something else...like fishing.

So we added fishing to the mix. The boys were happy. And let's face it ....if the men aren't happy no one is happy.



Around the same time I discovered this wonderful little thing called GEOCACHING. And, lucky for me, the girls (Joan & Carol) really enjoy it too and love going caching with me...so now we had to add geocaching to the holiday!! This is getting complicated!

Fortunately British Columbia is loaded with history, fishing lakes, pictographs (though they are trickier to find) and caches....loads and loads of caches!

This last trip we spent at Watch Lake where, much to his amazement, Tony caught his biggest Rainbow Trout ever - 10lbs and 30 inches long! What a happy man. Terry and Werner caught some nice fish too. We sat around the campfire, listened to the loons and ate, alot! Carol, Joan & I had a blast exploring the Painted Chasm, Clinton, Green Lake & 100 Mile House. We cached and explored for two days straight and I found my 1500th cache at Crater Lake... with my two awesome friends!



So once again we had another great holiday with our kindred spirits. Thank goodness BC is a big place... it's nice to know that we will never run out of places to fish and to hike and to cache and to explore.