Like the rest of the world, we're spending the summer close to home. In BC, we're so lucky to live near mountains, challenging hiking trails, and amazing places to camp. We kicked-off the summer exploring some of the Forest Service Roads (FSRs) near Boston Bar and ended up finding a great spot to camp by the creek. It was hot, quiet, and we were surrounded by mountains - we just had to hope there wasn't going to be another rock slide! We liked it so much we returned later that month with friends.

With the borders closed and COVID warnings on flights, this is clearly the summer to explore a little more of our province. I've always wanted to see Castelgar and Trail, so we took an extra few days off around Canada Day to drive about 8 hours east of Vancouver. After some exploring, we ended up finding a campsite in the Kootneys along the Columbia River at Beaver Creek. We were only going to spend one night, but we loved it so much, we stayed two! There was also some pretty competitive cribbage going on while we were there.

On our route home, we stopped by Christina Lake for some hiking.

After our hike, we continued our drive looking for a spot to spend the night. We saw a sign for Jewel Lake, so we took a right turn off the highway, followed a narrow road up a hill for about 15 km and found ourselves another place to camp.

The next day took us through the stunning town of Osoyoos in Canada's only desert, and then back to Vancouver.

We started the August long weekend, driving up the Sea to Sky for a bit of hiking around Whistler, then met up with some friends for camping along Duffy Lake Road.

After two nights of camping, we packed up and headed towards the Fraser Canyon. The drive took us past BC Hydro's Seton Lake, where we had to stop for a quick dip.

Once we were in the Fraser Canyon we took a hike for some views of the canyon and its rail lines. Our campspot also had spanning views of the mountains and cute little chipmunks running around the site. Or at least I thought they were cute until we discovered they were making a nest on our engine and we had to go to great lengths to scare them off.

With our friends already having found a boondocking site, Chris and I headed out on Thursday evening to join them. The spot they selected was along an FSR by Silver Lake. Because of COVID, all of the campgrounds are packed so this is definitely a summer for boondocking. The site itself was ok with lots of dust from the road and very uneven ground requiring us to level our vehicle for the first time, but the area was beautiful.

On Friday I went for a run in the morning, taking care to carry my bear spray should I have an unexpected encounter. In the afternoon we hung out by the lake. The water was very cold, but it was refreshing in the afternoon sun. I loved the lake so much, Chris and I returned the next morning for an early morning dip.

On Saturday afternoon, we explored the nearby FSRs on foot. It only took us about 10 minutes to hit the end of the first one. We had to crawl under and over lots of fallen trees which ended in a small clearing, great for those just wanting a secluded spot to tent camp. Our second FSR went up a hill for a long time. We kept seeing a turn and wanting to see what was "just past the turn", which always resulted in another turn. After about 5km of doing that, we decided to head back. The views from the hike were unbelievable and there was just enough shade to allow us to hike uphill in 30+ degrees C.

On Sunday our friends went home and Chris and I had planned on going for a hike, then finding another boondocking site. As we were driving towards the trailheads, Chris re-read the descriptions of the two hikes I had selected and neither one sounded appealing to us. They both were reviewed with lots of steep, narrow sections covered by slippery rocks. Neither of us felt like risking it. As we were making this decision, we found ourselves in front of the very popular Emory Creek campground. We turned off the highway to check it out and see if we'd have any luck finding a spot. It turns out we did! We were able to get one of the last spots which had just opened up. We spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the tiny spot of shade on our campsite in the 38 degree C heat and hanging out by the river watching some sturgeon fishing. In the evening, our friends came back to check out our site and join us for a campfire.