Monday to Saturday, April 20 to 25, 2015 (Monck Provincial Park, Quilchena, BC)

A week has gone by and it has been another busy one...working four straight days (Monday to Thursday). There are still only four (out of seven) of us working...two are still sick with bronchial infections and one won't be back for awhile due to cracked and broken ribs from an accident. The new contractor still hasn't provided equipment for the park but the (sick) manager did make a run into Merritt to pick up wider rakes, making life for us all much easier as we continued raking up mountains of Ponderosa Pine needles. We are trying to give the new contractor some slack because the company has taken on additional "bundles" of provincial parks, most of which (we understand) were poorly handled by the old contractor. The new contractor for Monck is a big company that has a number of other park "bundles" so is not new to the business. In the long run, this is a good thing for Monck Park but there are obviously growing pains for the company as it takes on the additional park bundles. Having said that, the water hasn't been turned on yet, equipment for cleaning washrooms hasn't been provided...and administrative items such as wi-fi to access the reservation system, receipt books, cash float, etc isn't here...and the park opens to full service with fees collected on May 1st (yes, that's in less than one week!). Oh...no uniforms yet either.

Since Steve and I leave May 1st to go down to the coast and island for the month, we have been hard at it trying to get the sites, trails, and roadways cleaned up...a big job with only 4 of us. Plus without additional help we've had to look after the day use area and loop 1 that's now open to campers, so there's the fire pits, garbage and more raking. Our bodies have been screaming at us by the end of each day...so last week we did 3 days...increasing to 4 this week. We have adjusted though, and it is getting easier.

Monday, we finished off the day-use area and parking lot. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! The lake was so flat...





Steve "caught" Sue and I taking a bit of a break...

Tuesday we started on loop 2...it was another beautiful day. So far we have 32 truck loads of needles in the compound ready to burn once we have water available. With no more room we are leaving the remaining raked piles of needles in loops 2 and 3 there until the burning begins...




Wednesday we continued with loop 2...and had it finished by the end of our day.
 A "before" picture...
...and "after" picture...
Break time...
Tucker wanted his dad to share his snack...
Steve had to take the trailer back up to the compound...it had a flat tire...

Thursday we got started on loop 3, managing to finish 17 sites, trails and the roadway. The remaining 34 sites, roadway and trails will have to wait until next week. We only have another 4 days left next week, so hopefully we will be able to finish the loop and get started on picking up the piles of needles. That is, of course, if the water gets turned on so we can start burning.

It was so nice on Friday morning to not have to rush to get ready for work. We had a leisurely start and really didn't do much all day other than a lot of odds and ends. We managed to get out for a walk late morning before the dark clouds came in. Doug and Sue went into Kamloops to take care of a bunch of shopping, so Steve and I took Tucker out on our walk.

We've been watching (and hearing) these Osprey nesting in this old tree near the day-use parking lot...


Tucker in his glory...he loves swimming!



Hmmm...looks like it is snowing over there on the hillside, I think we had better get home before it gets here!
This appears to be a duck and a loon...

We had all sorts of weather today...rain, hail and sleet/snow mix...it was a very chilly day! What happened to the beautiful spring weather we had been enjoying?!

The Stellar Jays arrived, trying to get birdseed out of the feeder that is made for much smaller birds...
 And this little fellow also made a visit...we've seen a number of Marmots in the area...

So far with our testing of Irish Spring soap as a mouse repellent we have trapped 7 of them. Myth Busted!! Doug and Sue's daughter will be visiting after we leave so she is picking up the Fresh Cab that we ordered from Amazon in the U.S. at a border crossing. It's much cheaper than Amazon in Canada. The four of us have decided to share in a larger order. Doug has offered to place some in our rig. Thanks Doug! So in the meantime we have decided to try something else that is recommended. We have purchased 90' of rope lights and surrounded our rig. Supposedly because mice are nocturnal they won't cross the lights. Will this be another Myth Busted? Saturday morning the trap in the kitchen was empty, however the one in the basement storage area was missing so Steve had to unload a few things but eventually found him...#7 still alive...but not for long. We're assuming he was already in our rig before the lights were placed...but time will tell if the lights work.

Shortly after 10:00 Saturday morning, Sue and I loaded our dirty laundry into their truck and headed into Merritt...laundry day, along with a couple of other errands.

While we were gone, Steve joined Doug on a walk around the campground with Tucker...and then took care of a few things around the place.

Well, that was a fast two days off...time to get back to work tomorrow. Only for four days, though, and then we are on vacation for a month. We are really looking forward to seeing Chris and Angela next weekend...and then over to the island to see Rob, Angie and Conner.


Sunday, April 19, 2015 (Monck Provincial Park, Quilchena, BC)

I woke shortly after 1:00 this morning to a very odd noise in trailer. I couldn't figure out what it was...it sort of sounded like something rattling but when I got up, it stopped. Back to bed...and it would start again. I finally realized it was something scurrying around and thought a chipmunk or squirrel had somehow gotten in...it made way too much noise for a mouse. At this point, I woke Steve up and asked him where he had put the mousetrap...in the corner of the kitchen. Well, it wasn't there, so the strange noise was a mouse running around with the mousetrap attached to it...great! Steve saw it under his chair but when he went to get it, it ran under the sofa. With nothing we could do about it, we both went back to bed. That didn't last long...the critter resumed running around. Steve got up again and after searching, he saw the mousetrap at the corner of the kitchen cabinet...I guess the mouse was trying to get out but was stuck with the trap. That's our second mouse! We really need to get more Fresh Cab!

Needless to say, neither one of us had a very good sleep after that. We were up early but at least we could relax and have a lazy Sunday morning.

Today was a household chores day for me...with a mouse running around the trailer, I vacuumed, washed floors...along with a bunch of other things. I had a very productive day!

It was "play day" for Steve...at 10:30, he and Doug headed out in the truck. They are going to off-load the quads for a day of exploring the area. So I will pass the blog over to Steve to tell you about his day...remember, just click on the pictures to enlarge...

Coworker and my newest bud Doug and I are heading out to explore the back roads above Nicola Lake. This is Doug's first ATV trail ride.

The blue flag (bottom centre) was where we off loaded the quads, just above Monck Park. The red line shows the route we took to the four lakes Mab, Conant, Sheep and a no name lake (above left) We climbed from 2265 ft to 4462 ft.
The next 3 photos are looking down on a very glassy Nicola Lake. What a beautiful day for a ride...


Up we go...
View of Sheep Lake...

My BC Backroads map showed a turnoff a couple of miles back to Mab Lake Rec Site but it no longer existed so we took the next left on a power line road, then another left. We new we had driven a U shape around the lake but still couldn't find the rec site road so decided to head back when I noticed a snow covered area that turned out to be a road...

I went in first to check out the snow depth and road conditions then returned to get Doug. The snow covered road was melting from underneath and had deep ruts below. This was Doug's first challenge...
Good job Doug!
Finally we reached Mab Lake and a small campsite. There was still ice on the far side...
Time to head back out. Doug maneuvering around a deep hole that I fell into when the ice gave way on my way in...
Doug in a rut. Even though he got stuck shortly after this shot he did really well for a newbie ;-)
Next stop was Conant Lake where we had lunch at a hunters camp...
There were a bunch of old buildings on the other side...
We'll have to go explore those...
Doug is thinking this would be a great spot to bring up the float tubes and do a little fly fishing...
I concur...
Doug's next challenge was getting over this log...
We had to drive through the lake to get to the cabin...
Cabin and out buildings...
There were four horse stalls in this structure...


The clearing on the far side is where we had lunch...

On to the lake with no name...




Snow on the shoreline...
We are now on the opposite side of the lake...
Not sure what kind of structure this used to be...

Time to head back...
There was a geocache in this area above Nicola Lake but we couldn't find it. We'll return another day and have another look...
You'll have to click on this photo to enlarge...three V formations of very noisy Sandhill Cranes...

Doug did really well and had a great time. Now we have to talk Sue into that Polaris side x side Doug wants. :-)   A beautiful end to the weekend...Happy Hour with Caesars. It's back to work tomorrow.