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.