All the small places

From our last entry when we stayed at Boulderfield’s we headed North West out of Kelowna to a place called Beaver Lake. Again it was another free BC recreation site set about 11 Km from the nearest tarmac road up a dusty dry rough track. Beaver lake was beautiful, as are most of the lakes we have been to so far. Beautiful fresh clear waters and forest as far as the eye can see. We were the only people camping at this site and we could easily have stayed up there for a few days however the relentlessly thirsty high mosquito population at the lake shore saw to it that we moved straight on the next morning. I hate mosquito’s at the best of times but the ones at Beaver Lake were viscous beyond belief. Itchy and covered in bites we moved on quickly the next morning as we couldn’t take any more.

 

Next up was the quaint little village of Lumby. We hadn’t had a proper shower for about a week and given that temperatures are currently up there with Asia in the high 20’s low 30’s we decided to stay at a paid site so that we could get ourselves freshened up a bit. The camp ground at Lumby is a bit of a strange one. The village is tiny and the camp ground is a section of grass located next to an old peoples sheltered housing complex. It felt a little weird, like staying at some village green with all the locals curious to see who you were. Cooking your food with Old Whiskey Pete checking on you from across the road. That said everyone was very nice and friendly and it was a pleasant enough place. I love these little villages and towns, they are so much more interesting than the big cities and have way more character. All of these places have a little museum or a community centre with something going on. The community centre at Lumby is right next to the camp ground and on the night we stayed they had bingo on. We would have gone but it was for over 50’s only and despite my silvery whiskers and sagging eyes I’m still not quite old enough that I would qualify for the local bingo night. By 6:30pm the street was filled with cars and trucks as what appeared to be half the village turned up to hear two fat ladies eighty eighty. I suspect the over 50’s bingo night is the local singles club so probably best that we couldn’t go.

With our one night a week of luxury camping done we headed off towards the small town of Nakusp, a place that Tom from Princeton told us about. The drive there was a real treat. There are two kinds of Highway in Canada. The many-laned madness of the city highway’s and the single lane snaking highway’s that hug mountain-sides and cling to lake shores. The road to Nakusp was the latter and it didn’t disappoint. The traffic on these roads is a lot lighter than the cities and we cruised along at our own pace. We had our music on in the background and beautiful mountain vistas around every bend we turned.

 

We crept into Nakusp in the baking hot mid afternoon sun. Nakusp sits on Arrow lake and like a lot of lakes we have seen so far it has a multitude of beach areas for you to relax on. We checked out the local tourist info and museum as always and then headed further North up the lake-side to find a wild spot to camp at for the night. The spot we found was stunning. High mountain peaks opposite us where the sun sets and peace and tranquility in abundance. We sat watching the local house martin population swooping and diving their merry dance and then about an hour before sunset we had a guy named Arron arrive on his bike to camp up for the night. He was really friendly. A fireman from the Calgary area. We sat up until the early hours with our camp fire roaring, sharing drinks, smokes and stories and ideas for other places to visit. This spot at Nakusp was beautiful and we ended up staying a second night before heading South East,, back through the small village and on towards a town called Nelson.

En-route we passed through another couple of small villages, New Denver and Silver. Old mining towns now with only a small population and the usual tiny tourist info centre and micro-museum. From there we headed into Nelson a bigger town with a lot more going on. Nelson has a very laid back hippy-artsy feel about it. Beautiful old period buildings that have been well kept or restored, a few local breweries and a great charm about the place. We wandered around for a few hours wishing we could stay and have a few drinks and settle in but driving the van I was unable to do this so we headed off to find our free camp for the night at a place called six-miles-lake. This lake is really up in the wilderness and as we drove up we had the distinct feeling we were in bear country. Six-mile-lake is beautiful and we were surprised when we arrived to see a couple from Estonia there that we had met the previous night at the lake shore in Nakusp. They had taken a different route here and we exchanged stories about the places we had visited and what was worth checking out. We decided we would do a loop of the area down here near the US border and eventually work our way back up to Nakusp and then further North to Revelstoke.

Thankfully we didn’t get pestered by bears that night and at long last we now have our bear spray so we feel a little more prepared for any close encounters of the bear kind. We hung around at the lake for a few hours as we read that you can see beavers here but we didn’t see anything other than the local bald eagle perched on it’s favourite branch. Impressive non the less. We bounced our way back down the narrow bumpy access road and headed back towards Nelson to spend a bit more time there. 

 

Once back at Nelson we found a camp site located at the outskirts of the town, which in my mind reads as “within walking distance of pubs”. It was a paid site, but with showers, washing machines and free WiFi we decided to spend the extra money and stay for the night so that we could check the town out more and also have a few beers without me worrying about being the designated driver. It was a great night….I think, I can’t remember going to bed so it must have been.

From Nelson we headed North East, knowing that the road we were taking would eventually loop back round towards Arrow Lake and Nakusp.  We had left Nelson quite late that day so we spent the night at the roadside near a place called Fletcher falls before moving on further the following morning. Following some tips from the Estonian couple we arrived in the sleepy small town of Kaslo. Kaslo was great, another tiny place oozing character. A beautiful restored steamboat sat at the lake side is the pride of the town. It has been restored without any financial aid from the government, purely by donations and volunteer work from the local community. We love the community spirit that you feel in these small places. Everyone seems to come together to make the best of their small place and to try and get visitors to stay as long as possible. Obviously any money coming into the town is a great help. We spent a couple of hours sat in the local cafe chatting with a dutch couple on holiday and the whole time we were in there there was a slow and steady stream of locals coming in requesting various pies to be made for peoples birthdays etc. A real sense of community. The local foot bridge was constructed purely by donations from the various local small businesses and individuals, built by volunteers etc etc. You see various art works hanging outside peoples homes and get the impression that the local artist is supported by the community as everyone seems to have at least one painting that they have bought fro them. 

From Kaslo we continued for another few hours before turning off the road and up a dusty track to the old silver ghost town of Sandon. On the way up we were very lucky to experience two black bears close up. They must be young siblings as they were quite close together and we got to enjoy them in all their glory from about 10 metres away (and the safety of Buddy the van). Sandon was yet again another great experience. A population of less than 10 but they have tried to make so much of the place to keep a slow and steady income into those that remain. An old working generator from the early mining days, various old buses they have managed to pull together, a small museum, an old steam train. These ten or so people have put a lot of work into keeping the place worthy of a few visitors a day. 

With the day drawing to an end we pushed on with the last hour or so of driving until we were back at the same wild camp spot North of Nakusp that we left about a week ago. Camp fire roaring and drinks in hand again. It’s been a great few days. We love all the small towns here so much. Each has it’s own little story. All of them seem to have warmth and friendliness that is genuine and it makes it hard to move on quickly. So far we have drove over 2,000 miles in Buddy but when checking the map we have hardly moved anywhere in Canada, the place is just vast. Yes we could cover a lot more ground if we wanted to but why do that just to check off a bunch of places and take a few photos to say you have been there. It’s so much nicer to follow your nose, stop and spend time at the small places and to be driven by the stories and locations of the people you meet along the way. This is turning into one of our best road trips yet and we still have so much more to come.