Murtle Lake, BC

The morning after we arrived back from Tofino, we met with a couple of former colleagues of Don's, then started driving northeast, to Blue River, BC. Blue River is about 2.5 hours north of Kamloops, and 6 hours from Vancouver. Don's mom, Peggy, and her partner Garnet joined us that night, and on Saturday, we all drove another 15 miles up a logging road and portaged our canoes 1.5 miles in to Murtle Lake, the largest canoe-only lake in North America.



Our progress the first day was hampered by strong winds, but we managed to find a sheltered spot to wait it out:



The next day, we made it to the end of Murtle's West arm, and set up camp. No sooner had we done so than we were pummelled with hail:



In the evening, the weather improved and we went fishing just offshore from our camp. Kate caught her first fish before Don could even get a line in the water. We kept three nice rainbow trout, which made for a tasty dinner that night:





The next day we did some more fishing. Here are Don and Peggy near the outlet of the lake:



And the day after that we hiked to McDougall Falls on the Murtle River:



On our way back to camp, we saw this family of river otters:



It was time to start heading back out, but the fun wasn't over. We were treated to more incredible scenery:





And on our last day, just as we were getting back to the take-out, we saw a cow moose with a calf, and a few hundred meters away, a young bull moose.





All in all it was a great trip and a wonderful chance to soak in BC's natural wonders!