Monday, August 11, 2014 (Travel to Monck Provincial Park, Nicola Lake, Quilchena, BC)

Steve managed to get a good picture of the setting "super moon" this morning (his night pictures didn't turn out)...

As part of his normal walk-around before we hit the road this morning, Steve noticed that his temporary patch job on the underbelly of the trailer was starting to come down...not unexpected. And we hadn't even gone anywhere yet! His next option is to pick up some Gorilla tape and see if that will hold better than the duct tape. Our plan today, was to go to Harmon Lake...the lake that our friends, Ray and Deb, had stayed at earlier in the summer and had also shown us when they took us on a sight-seeing drive of the area when we first arrived at Paska Lake. However, we might have to go to "plan B" (Monck Provincial Park) since the drive into Harmon involves about 9 kms of gravel road...we have a hard enough time keeping dust out of the trailer, let alone have a gaping hole in the underbelly of the trailer!

We decided to wait until we got to the sani-dump at Logan Lake where Steve could have another look at it, and then decide where we were going. Once there he determined that the patch job definitely wasn't holding...so Monck Provincial Park is our destination today. Which is fine....it is a park that we also wanted to see. Hopefully being Monday, we'll be able to get a first come-first serve (non-reservable) site. That way we won't have to worry about being booted out because someone has reserved it.

After we were finished at the sani-dump, we continued east through Logan Lake on hwy 97D towards hwy 5. I managed to capture this picture of a deer on the side of the highway...it was a good-sized buck...

Then we headed south towards Merritt on hwy 5... aka the Coquihalla Highway...

As we entered the north side of Merritt, we took the exit to hwy 5A that heads northeast through the Nicola Valley. About 10 kms in, we turned left onto Monck Park Road. This is the tip of Nicola Lake...the smoke is starting roll in...

Although a beautiful and very scenic drive, the 12 kms to the park is very lumpy (but...it is paved!).

It was just before noon when we arrived at the gatehouse for the park. Described as "a very popular family-oriented campground in a hot, dry setting this park has very high use during the summer season", we were hoping we would be able to get a good site. We were in luck...site 70 is a non-reservable site and is on the lake (well, just above it). Doug, the campground manager took Steve in his cart to take a look at it while I chatted with Sue at the gatehouse. Steve seemed to think it would be okay...so we decided to pay for a week.The road through the campground is one-way...basically a one-way loop...that curves around through tall trees...none-to-wide!
But we managed...the site itself was easy to back into...love sites that are on a curve in the road! If it weren't for the fact that we need to put down the rear stabilizers, we could have backed up further on the site, having the back of the trailer overhang the slope. So once unhitched, parking the truck was a bit tight, but do-able.

A beautiful spot with a great view of the lake...but there is a lot of smoke in the air from the many forest fires burning throughout the province and Washington State...

It was blasting hot out...mid 30's C (high 90's F). After lunch, we got all set up and then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon outside in the shade. We have great cell/internet signals here so it was nice being able to be connected again!

Late afternoon, Steve brought out the TV so we could watch it outside...it's way too hot inside! We spoke to Rob, Angie and Conner...and a little later, Chris...via Skype. It had been ages...it was so good seeing and chatting with them!

It was going on 10:00 by the time we decided to pack the TV back into the trailer and call it a night...still pretty hot inside, though...I think we will be leaving the windows open tonight, it just doesn't seem to be cooling off. Steve did get a cool picture of the moon tonight...very colourful from the smokey atmosphere...