We left at about 9:20 and headed towards Nakusp. I had asked a park worker if there were any WiFi hotspots in Nakusp...and I’m glad I did! We parked on the street in front of the Kuskanax Hotel where I pulled out my iPod to see if I could hook into their WiFi and...Yay...I’m on! I checked our email...and downloaded close to 100 messages. There was one that we were particularly looking for...the pathology report on the cyst removed from Steve’s armpit...but nothing. Hmmmm...they said they would email the results...it’s been over 2 weeks now...I wonder how long it takes? We had also had emails from friends wonder where the heck we were since our blog had not been updated since June 20th. So I posted a note on Facebook as well as on our blog...just letting everyone know that we were fine, having a blast and just unable to communicate due to no internet or cell service. It was great having that brief connection to the “outside world”!
We decided to drive north on highway 23 past the hot springs (both Nakusp Hot Springs and Halcyon Hot Springs) to Galena Bay where another free ferry goes across the Upper Arrow Lake to Shelter Bay, just 50 kms from Revelstoke. Along the highway, we stopped at the Ione Rest Stop where we discovered this beautiful waterfall....There isn’t a community at Galena Bay...just a steep hill down to the ferry. The ferry itself is much larger than the Fauquier one that we saw the other day. After turning around, we went back to the junction of highway 31 and decided to head east to check out Trout Lake. We had heard that it is a great spot with free camping right on the beach. It sounded like a great place but we wanted to see if we would be able to get our rig into a spot. The paved highway turns into a gravel road, mind you it is probably one of the smoothest gravel roads we have been on!
We’re glad we checked it out first because we wouldn’t have been able to get in with our 5th wheel. The lake was very high and a lot of the beach area where people were camping was flooded.
But it was a beautiful spot...except for the bugs.
This is the wharf at the community day-use area...
And some pictures of the homes/cottages in the area...
After touring around the small community...there are a variety of homes from shacks to new homes under construction and some nice summer cottages right on the lakefront...we headed back. Highway 31 is not a major highway. It goes southeast to Kaslo on the Kootenay Lake but most of it is unpaved. The bit we were on to Trout Lake was good hard-packed gravel but beyond that, it’s hard to say...it is not recommended for large semi-trucks.
This is a picture of Staubert Lake...it was on the way into Trout Lake...
We arrived at Halcyon Hot Springs just after noon. It’s a beautiful spot overlooking the Upper Arrow Lake...which, by the way, is actually the Columbia River that has been dammed up. We paid our $11.50 each and went downstairs to the change rooms. The facility is really well maintained with lovely clean change rooms. I met Steve out by the pools...where he had already selected 2 lounge chairs. There are three pools “up top”...107F and 100F degrees along with a 55F “cold plunge”; and a big swimming pool “down below”. 
These are pictures of the "lower (swimming) pool" from above...
We spent an hour relaxing in the pools and on the lounge chairs enjoying the hot sun...then decided it was time to go in for showers. It’s probably better to visit hot springs when it’s not 32C! We met upstairs on the deck of the restaurant overlooking the pools and lake where we shared a burger and had a cold frosty beer. Pretty darned nice...
On the way home we stopped on the side of the highway to take pictures of this cool spot...Halfway River rushing into the lake.
There were definitely storm clouds coming in...as we arrived home, it was starting to get quite windy and we could hear the rumble of thunder off in the distance. It was 4:30 by the time we had finished putting some things away and sat down in our chairs (with a drink) to watch the storm. We had missed a good portion of the thunder and lightning but Steve noticed a lightning strike on the mountainside across the lake...a small fire had started. It didn’t seem to amount to much...just smouldered, but Steve did tell the camp host who said that lightning strikes were quite common in the area.When the wind really started to whip up again and more ominous clouds rolled in, we decided it was time to head inside. Soon after that, the rain started. We had dinner, did up the dishes and were watching TV when more flashes of lightning lit up the sky followed by thunder. It must have been far away because it sounded quite distant and didn’t last very long.
It looks like there is quite a change in the weather coming in...with a forecast high for tomorrow of only 16C...a far cry from the low 30’s we had been enjoying over the past couple of days!
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