Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New Happy Place

I spent this past weekend camping with my daughters, along with my cousin and her two girls, at a lake in the mountains about forty minutes from town. It was a sun-drenched, lazy-water weekend with long, hot afternoons and just the right amount of breeze. I took some pictures for you. (Click 'em - you'll be glad you did.)




I love how the lakes around here are all the same - deep, cold, clean, with conifers right slap up to the edge. It was a bit crowded, though: there were four other families enjoying this lake on the same day we were there - a Saturday. It was hard to get along sometimes, but we managed not to step on each other's feet too often.


I'm being facetious.






Here's where I realised I was not capturing the feel of the day and the lure of the water, so I shifted my perspective a bit. I put my camera in mortal danger for you all




but decided it was worth it.


<



This is such a cool spot. On the left of the above picture you can see there is a narrow channel (it's about 8 meters wide) between the mainland and the sandy beach of an island. The children could easily cross this little land bridge - it was covered by only about 70 centimeters of water.



We took the girls up to one of the boat-in sites we could see from the beach - it was vacant but I promise you, at this time next year it won't be. (I'm looking at you, Mark. I'll bring the Hermann's.) This was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been - looking down on the bay in which we'd just been swimming.





There - you can clearly see the little neck of water between the island and the mainland.





It was hard to get a smile - everybody was hot and thirsty by now.





And here they are, happy and tired. They're smiling now because I am holding up two golden marshmallows on a stick.






Pepsi and a Top Dog, and a spot out of the smoke...doesn't get any better than that...even if you DO have a gigantic mosquito bite on your leg.

-------------------------------------

I have finished Drifting, and will show you blocking pictures tomorrow. It's beautiful. I'm seaming right now but have yet to pick out buttons. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow as well.

16 comments:

Ames said...

That really is gorgeous. Did you take bug spray this time? Was there a fire ban? That water looks so inviting.

Gwen said...

Oh, that looks lovely. I'm in throwing distance of camping ability.... I can hardly wait.

Anonymous said...

Let me know where this is (please)! I don't recognize it ... and we're going out next week with Mum.
I was so glad the weather was good this week-end, thought about you out there.

Jo said...

That is absolutely beautiful, Shan. Would you mind emailing me and telling me where it is? I think I would like to see that my next trip up north.

Jess said...

shannon that is beautiful! where is it? I must go there sometime in my life!

Shan said...

Kate, I believe you and your penchant for publishing to be at least partially responsible for the crowds of hoi polloi that are always thronging my OLD happy place, Morton Lake. Now I shall have to extract a solemn promise from you not to tell a soul about this spot, before I betray my NEW happy place.

Shan said...

Ames, we did bring bug spray, though the mosquitoes weren't as bad this trip as when you were here. There was no fire ban - it was lovely. The BC Forest Service publishes fire bans on its website, so I made sure to check before we went out - and we brought out own wood this time!

Sonya said...

Looks like an amazing place! We're really late on the camping this year, but planning to get my alpine lake fix labor day.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for endangering your camera! One of my happy times involves my daughter and a camping trip to Maine- your pictures brought back those memories most excellently.

Ames said...

Shan, now that I think about it, I was responsible for jinxing our camping trip when I bypassed the Black Pop in the grocery store. We were doomed.

Shan said...

Ha!

Anonymous said...

I pinky promise to not write an article on it.
...
At least not using my real name (ducks and runs).

Susie Hewer said...

What a heavenly spot!

Linda W said...

Heaven. Yes, you've found Heaven. I'm in So California and the idea of only four other families . . . it boggles the mind! : )

Anonymous said...

I just want to dive right into those pics.

Annalea said...

Oooooo . . . thank you for endangering your camera for us. Those photos are beautiful; especially where you can see right into the water. It's like getting to swim in the gorgeous water, without nearly dying of hypothermia. (I jumped into Lake Pend Orielle once. It was nearly the last, the cold was so shocking. ;o)