Tuesday, August 25 to Monday, September 7, 2015 (Monck Provincial Park, Quilchena, BC)

Well, I guess it's about time I hunkered down and worked on getting our blog up-to-date...here we are heading into the middle of September already! I wasn't very motivated to do an update while still at Monck...not much new to report, so I decided to wait until we got to Fort Langley to do a recap. Well, the "recap" ended up being waaaay to long, so I decided to break it down into a few blog posts (okay...five or six? lol)...So here we go...


Life carried on as usual at Monck during our last couple of weeks there. More smoke from wildfires funneled in through the Nicola Valley but it didn't stop folks from getting out and enjoying the lake...



Sunset on the late shift...

Time to start gradually packing up...

One of the campsites had a bear visit during the night...

 ...leaving paw prints on the table as it checked out dishes left out...

 Paw prints on the bear-proof garbage bins...

 More evidence of a bear in the park...

 A very windy day out on the lake...

The campfire ban was lifted and on September 1 we had our first "real" campfire since the ban went into effect last July 3...

Steve's last early shift and time to reflect...

We enjoyed happy hours around a real campfire!

As Steve worked his last few shifts, he took some pictures of what the outside guys have been dealing with over the summer. Most campers are great, but when you have to deal with the mess from those that have no respect for the park or consideration for staff on a daily bases it wears you down by the end of the season. Toilet paper on the bathroom floors...

...garbage left in and around the firepits...

 You wouldn't believe how many rocks and bolders the guys have had to pick up since last April!

Monday, September 7 was our last day of work. We both had the afternoon/evening shift, so we hitched up and were basically all ready to leave first thing in the morning...

 My final shift in the gatehouse...

...and Steve's last shift...Yaah!

On Steve's last shift there were several bears spotted in the park.  He chased this one from the gatehouse and out of loop one...

To celebrate our last night, Doug and Sue had a campfire going when I got off shift at 7:30. Friends of theirs, Mark and Linda, also popped up and joined us for a bit. By the time Steve got off work, he was "a few" drinks behind...but he joined us in a toast to the end of the summer season at Monck Park. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures...sheesh!