More camping stories
Because the next few weekends are not going to be very good for camping, Tucker and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and take off. We left Saturday morning and headed to Manning Park. Normally, we avoid Provincial Parks, as they are super busy in the summer and quite noisy. However, I told Tucker I wanted to camp somewhere close to a few hiking trails, to work-out my walking legs a bit in preparation for the 60km walk I'm doing a month from now.
Manning Park is located about three hours east of Vancouver. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the main campground at Lightening Lake was already full (apparently, you have to reserve two weeks in advance to get a spot). That's 143 campsites completely booked... It was busy. We kept on driving to other camping areas and found a spot at the Mule Deer Campground. Now, this wasn't the wilderness camping we were used to, they had toilets that flushed, the highway was right beside the campsite (Highway 3 goes through Manning Park) and it was very exposed. This would have to do. We set up camp, made lunch and then headed back to the Lightening Lake day area to explore the trails.
Hiking around Lightening Lake is not hard, there is hardly any elevation and the trail is well-maintained. We were pleasantly walking under cover, protected by the lush forest of pine trees. Unfortunately, this also allowed us to see first hand some of the pine-tree beetle infestation the region has to deal with. Many trees were brown, twisted, clearly sick or already dead. Going around the lake took us a few hours and when we headed back to the campsite, we were nicely hungry.
We had chicken braised with cherry tomato and Parmesan pasta for dinner, with wine for me and beer for Tucker. We started a fire and had marshmallows afterwards. When the sun disappeared, the weather quickly turned to cold, it wasn't very long before we snuggled into our sleeping bags. We slept very well, hardly bothered by the occasional car or truck driving by.
This morning, we packed the campsite and returned to Lightening Lake. During our first visit, we noticed that you could rent kayaks for $15/hour, and we thought this would be a lovely end to the weekend. We rented a double kayak and paddled around the lake, checking out the scenery, the ducks, enjoying the calmer day. We then had lunch in the park next to the lake, watching little kids running after ground squirrels. We drove back feeling rested, relaxed.
Tomorrow is the first day at my new job. I've been going through a lot of changes recently and I'm looking forward to the new job not being so new anymore ;)
Manning Park is located about three hours east of Vancouver. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the main campground at Lightening Lake was already full (apparently, you have to reserve two weeks in advance to get a spot). That's 143 campsites completely booked... It was busy. We kept on driving to other camping areas and found a spot at the Mule Deer Campground. Now, this wasn't the wilderness camping we were used to, they had toilets that flushed, the highway was right beside the campsite (Highway 3 goes through Manning Park) and it was very exposed. This would have to do. We set up camp, made lunch and then headed back to the Lightening Lake day area to explore the trails.
Hiking around Lightening Lake is not hard, there is hardly any elevation and the trail is well-maintained. We were pleasantly walking under cover, protected by the lush forest of pine trees. Unfortunately, this also allowed us to see first hand some of the pine-tree beetle infestation the region has to deal with. Many trees were brown, twisted, clearly sick or already dead. Going around the lake took us a few hours and when we headed back to the campsite, we were nicely hungry.
We had chicken braised with cherry tomato and Parmesan pasta for dinner, with wine for me and beer for Tucker. We started a fire and had marshmallows afterwards. When the sun disappeared, the weather quickly turned to cold, it wasn't very long before we snuggled into our sleeping bags. We slept very well, hardly bothered by the occasional car or truck driving by.
This morning, we packed the campsite and returned to Lightening Lake. During our first visit, we noticed that you could rent kayaks for $15/hour, and we thought this would be a lovely end to the weekend. We rented a double kayak and paddled around the lake, checking out the scenery, the ducks, enjoying the calmer day. We then had lunch in the park next to the lake, watching little kids running after ground squirrels. We drove back feeling rested, relaxed.
Tomorrow is the first day at my new job. I've been going through a lot of changes recently and I'm looking forward to the new job not being so new anymore ;)
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