Flood to Fire

You have no doubt read in previous blogs about the flooding we are experiencing in the Okanagan Valley but yesterday we branched into forest fire season with no break! We were running errands in Kelowna when a friend sent me a text about a fire on the west side of the lake that looked like it was close to the campground. We quickly finished our running around and headed back to make sure Maxx was safe. There was a forest fire in the hills near the campground but fortunately local fire departments and the forestry department were on it quickly! While we worked away in the service yard doing some painting, the water bombers flew overhead and dump loads of water on the fire and soon had it under control. Another friend of our works for BC Ambulance and was posted at the marshaling ground so we were getting current updates on things were progressing … it is great to have friends who are looking out for us 🙂

The water level in the lake is slowly dropping and hopefully the worst of the flooding is over. Despite the lake taking over the beaches the campsite is still very pretty with lots of great views.

The Bridal Veil is in full bloom.

The ducks are still enjoying the lake!

I managed to get a few more pictures of pink flowers, for our new granddaughter’s room, by visiting a local nursery.

Actually this picture came from our daughters house … the rest are from a walk through The Greenery in Kelowna.

I’m really glad our daughter-in-law asked me to do this because I had a chance to learn a new feature on my camera … I’m pretty sure there will be more of these types of pictures in your future if you keep reading my blog 🙂

Until next time …

Fun With My Camera

We are expecting our seventh grandchild around the end of July and our daughter-in-law asked me for some pictures for the baby’s room. They know they are expecting a girl so the room has been painted pink and grey. She wants to put up three pictures of pink flowers with a black and white background.

Challenge accepted 🙂  So with camera in hand I have been walking around the park taking pictures of the wild roses and I’m please with the results.

I am not done yet, I will take my camera with me this week and try and find more pink flowers to photograph.

I also thought this was a cool picture of a spider web.

Until next time …

Mother Nature!

Up until today we have had awesome weather with above normal temperatures and sunny skies! Today we have rain and thunder storms, but it looks like we will return to sunny skies tomorrow.

We have really enjoyed our time at Bear Creek so far and are definitely keeping busy. Aside from walking around the park and chatting with campers we have hosted a happy hour for seven friends and on Tuesday we had our Tuesday coffee group out to the campsite.

Before everyone arrived, we had nine in total 🙂

Both events were a lot of fun and it sure is nice to be able to entertain again … I have really missed that.

It also seems like every few days somebody we know comes to camp at Bear Creek Provincial Park so we have been catching up with lots of people 🙂

Okanagan Lake continues to rise and is expected to gain at least another 10cm of water.

Well this is actually the mouth of Bear Creek but the high level of the lake is forcing the mouth of the creek to rise considerably!

There used to be a lot of beach in front of this bench!

But I don’t want you to think that the park isn’t very nice right now, because it is still a beautiful place to camp!

Do you remember the picture I posted of our site back in April when there were hardly any leaves on the trees?

The leaves have really filled in and now you can’t see Maxx from the road!

 Until next time …

Blood … It’s In You To Give – So Please Do!

Last Thursday Hubby and I were thrilled to be invited to the Honoring Our Lifeblood event in Kelowna.

Before we headed out on our across Canada down the Eastern Seaboard tour last August I made my 49^th blood donation and fully expected to make my 50^th when we returned home this spring. When I heard the dreaded words “you have cancer” in Niagara Falls last September I thought I had made my last blood donation. Fortunately I didn’t have cancer and we where able to head south once I had recovered from surgery, and when we flew home for Christmas I was able to make my 50^th blood donation.  On Thursday evening we joined many, many people receiving certificates for 50, 100, 150, 200, and yes even 300! blood donations.

It really hit home about how much our donations help when we heard from a fellow who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and needed 32 pints of blood during his many surgeries and long recovery period. If you don’t donate blood I encourage you to check into it, and give if you can … your donation will make a difference in someone’s life.

The event was held on the 17^th floor of the Landmark building in Kelowna and the views were stunning. Unfortunately I only had my cell phone camera with me so the pictures aren’t the best but I think they show how beautiful Kelowna is 🙂

The water in Okanagan Lake is still rising and has now reached the highest level ever recorded, which was back in 1948 … and it’s not done! With forecasted temperatures in the low 30C, mid 80F for the next week the lake is expected to rise another 10 to 15cm!

Normally, with the warm weather, the beaches at the park would be packed … but there are no beaches to be found, they are all under water 😦

Fortunately we sit on slightly higher ground so I think we are safe.

The leaves have filled in around our site and provided a lot of privacy.)

And I will leave you with a few more flower pictures … seriously I just can’t help myself 🙂

A perfect Wild Rose!

Until next time …

Found

Okanagan Lake continues to rise about 3cm a day and that is causing havoc for lakeshore homes with docks. In fact if you are missing a piece of your dock we found it this evening  🙂

This piece of dock washed up near the cement pad that I use to check how much the lake has risen. It’s a good thing it washed up because without we can’t reach the cement pad to measure the water level 🙂

We haven’t seen the end of the rising lake and probably won’t until mid June. While I have been enjoying the warm sunny weather, and temperatures are expected to hit 30C (86F) over the weekend that will only cause the snow pack to melt faster. I suspect we may have a few flooded campsites before this is all over.

Fortunately we are far enough away from the lake that we should be okay. So I will continue to monitor the lake and enjoy the wild roses that are starting to bloom.

I know the leaves on this plant look different than the picture below but it’s the same plant. One picture was taken with a flash and the other wasn’t.

Soon the park will be alive with pink roses!

There are also a few other plants in bloom. I have no idea what they are but they are pretty so I have to share them 🙂

Until next time …

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

Kelowna is in a serious flood situation! At one point 400 homes were evacuated and at this point many of those people are still out of their homes. While the creeks have started to return to lower levels …

Picture taken two weeks ago

Picture taken May 15th, the creek dropped almost two feet overnight!

All that water has to go somewhere and now Okanagan Lake is only 30cm from the flood mark and rising an average of 5cm a day!

Picture taken May 2nd

Picture taken May 7th

Picture taken May 12th and I had to stand in water to take the picture. I can no longer get a picture of the shore without wading out into the water.

Since May 15^th I have been using the concrete step down to the beach as a marker for how fast the water is rising in the lake.

Picture taken May 15th, water is just starting to come over the concrete.

Picture taken May 16th, water is just coming over the metal lid.

Picture taken May 18th, water is completely covering the metal lid.

I mentioned in a previous blog that Okanagan Lake’s surface area is 351 square km. I saw this on the news this morning and thought it really put into perspective how much the lake is rising every day. A 1cm rise in lake water equals 3,510,000 cubic metres of water, which is equal to 1404 Olympic swimming pools! The lake has risen at least 2cm since yesterday, that’s 7,020,000 cubic metres of extra water … and we are not done yet 😦 We are still getting snow at the higher elevations and it has been raining off and on over the past few days in the valley. Next week the forecast is for sunny warm temps in the high 20’sC (low 80’sF) and while that is awesome for people like me who have really missed the warmth, it’s not so good for the lake and rivers. The higher temperatures will cause the snow pack to melt faster than normal and will add more water to the already high water levels, so Kelowna and surrounding areas are into heavy flood preparations around the lake. Fingers crossed that all that work is just a precaution and isn’t really needed … time will tell.

Friday marks the beginning of the first long weekend of the summer, Victoria Day, and the campground full sign went up first thing this morning. Hubby has been helping out all week with repairs to the bridge that were caused when two large trees came down a few weeks ago. The bridge needed to open today so that campers could get into the third loop of campsites.

Photo taken May 6th

The work was completed this morning, just in time to open the third loop which is fully booked from today through Monday 🙂

There was also a push to redesign the site that washed into the creek a few weeks ago. This is a popular site and is fully booked for the summer.

You can see the old picnic table in the creek. It was washed away when the end of the site fell into the creek.

Newly redesigned site, it turned out pretty good!

Tomorrow is a district wide Pro-day for the teachers so our daughter is bringing out the kids to camp with us for a few nights. I think I’m hoping for good weather but then again I don’t want the snow pack to melt to fast … hmm I’m not sure what I’m hoping for 🙂 

Until next time …

Escapees Lunch

If you have been reading my blog since Christmas you may remember that our son and daughter-in-law gave us a membership to the Escapees for Christmas. We haven’t done a lot with the membership but we did join the Boondockers chapter in Ajo, Arizona for happy hour one afternoon in late February.

The main reason we were interested in the membership was to find more boondocking places and have the opportunity to join other people in some of those locations. The other thing we were interested in was getting to know the people in the Okanagan chapter of Escapees and yesterday we had that chance.

On the second Tuesday of every month the Okanagan chapter meets at the Grand 88 Buffett for lunch so we joined them this month. They were a very friendly group of people and we had a great time. We also learned they are holding two rally’s, one at the end of this month and the other one just after the September long weekend. Unfortunately, due to our commitment as camp hosts, we won’t be able to attend the rally’s 😦

We did pick up information on some new to us RV Parks, one of which is an Escapees Park where we get a cheap rate. We are looking forward to checking that park out this winter and we also hope to join up with the boondockers as well during the winter.

Time will tell whether or not we want to renew our membership but we really appreciate the gift and the opportunity to check out the club 🙂 

Until next time …