We are Shag-a-Laggin'

So... two days ago, we hit that crazy Crow's Nest Highway and got ourselves (and our doggies) moving on the road toward the coast. Our first official stop was Keremeos ---a serious Canadian cow-town & a place of many youthful rodeo & camping memories for me.

We nestled ourselves in at the Ashnola Campground (run by the Lower Similkameen Indian Band) --- unbelievably gorgeous & simple campground, right on the Ashnola river with big sites & the sweetest caretaker ever! We both wanna head back, maybe in late May or early Sept, and check out one of their public Pow Wows. It cost us $10 to spend the night and there wasn't a soul around for miles (except Mary, the caretaker).



This old, red covered-bridge (at left) is one of only two rickety structures that span the Ashnola River. The covered bridge was under construction (as it has been since I was ten years old) and we had to drive down river a ways & take Shaggy over a narrow agriculture plank that seemed to be made of balsa wood. We survived (Tim kept his eyes shut).

Anyway --- we survived the bridges of Ashnola County AND the Crows Nest Pass and even stopped briefly at Hedley and Harrison Hot Springs (since we were in an "H" mood....AND a lot of my childhood "hippy" memories come from those towns....)


By Tuesday, those dependable BC Ferries had dropped us on Salt Spring Island, as promised, and we set up our "Shaggy home" at the Cedar Beach Resort on Saint Mary's Lake. (The picture at left is of Tim, checking out the "fishing possibilities" from the campground's dock.....) The Resort really IS surrounded by cedars (many) and we're one of only two vehicles camped here --- the other guy works for the Ferries so he's hardly ever around. Basically, we have the whole campground to ourselves. Which means that the *&$ing caretaker watches us like a hawk. She's already nailed Tim for having his fire "too early" in the evening (huh?) and for having Baileys off leash for a millisecond. I'm thinking we'll be the top of "Salt Spring Island's Most Wanted" list by the end of the week.


We've clocked about eight hours of hiking so far in the last two days (thanks to my intensely pushy husband). Everyday we walk past rolling hills of farmland, grazed over by fat, woolly sheep and threatening-looking alpacas (we're kinda scared of alpacas now....) We've done some beach combing (in the rain) and a bit of culinary touring (in the rain) -- apparently the sun will be showing itself momentarily this coming weekend. We look forward to that. The photo at right is from a hike we took today in this most gorgeous rainforesty gulley -- on a path that was lined with ferny tree trunks & moss-covered everything. I stood against a tree for a minute and moss started growing down my arms! So I had to move....







Everything is so lush & green & overgrown here --- and it's only March. We're enamored with the papery, peeling bark of the Arbutus trees and, altho it certainly has been damp since we arrived, we purchased really good raingear before we left so Tim is having an absolute BLAST "testing" the effectiveness of his anti-rain suit. In fact, Tim says that tomorrow we're spraying our clothes with some fancy aerosol plasticy stuff to further strengthen their water-repelling abilities. I'm quite happy to do it because, according to Murphy's Law, if we spend THAT much time on our raingear, it will definitely stop raining.

We stopped in at a Seafood Specialty company called Sea Change Foods today and bought, among other things, some Lobster Pate & Maple Smoked Salmon. They had Ice Wine-soaked salmon & the ice wine came from Quail's Gate ( a little "culinary coincidence" for us since we live right below that winery....)

Anyway, we hobbled home (after our four hour walk today), cracked open our afternoon bottle of Chardonnay and shared it with some Lobster Pate which we spread on this crazy awesome loaf that I bought here called "West Coast Trail Bread" -- full of nuts & raisins & goodness. We sat by the lake at our campground, heard a crazy screech & looked up to see the eagle (photographed above) perched high in the tree right above us. We think it was sent to spy on us by the "Campground Warden".

There's a gorgeous, handcarved wood gazebo at the lakeside here and we drank our wine & watched the sunset over the mountains while the eagle kept his eye on us.

It's supposed to be drier here over the next few days so --- we're hoping to pull the tarps off our bicyles & ride to the south end of the island for some wine & cheese touring. Then we'll hit the outdoor market on Saturday (if weather permits). Meantime, it's still lots of hiking (with raingear) & wine & seafood. Rough life, but we're surviving... island-style!