WILLIAMS LAKE TO HILLS RANCH

July 12, 2014

Well, that wasn’t fun. Our first choice for camping was Lac La Hache Provincial Park, which is right off hwy #97 but advertised as ‘lakeside’ camping with beach, boat launch, picnic tables etc. Well. The campground was on one side of the hwy – all treed sites – looked ok although there’d be a fee (we’re so cheap!) … but the ‘lakeshore’ bit … not so much as the lake was on the other side of the highway! You could sort of walk there but it’s a ways and of course you’d have to cross the highway. Not very convenient for us to launch our boats etc.

So we opted out of that choice and decided to try for a small rec site we saw on the map. It was ‘only’ about 10km off the hwy so didn’t look too far to go. Well. First of all it was a very VERY dusty gravel road, twisty and turny. And when we finally got there it was PACKED! We keep forgetting that it’s – #1 summer now and, #2 it was a weekend. These small (11 spots) rec sites are going to be getting tougher to get into. So we had no choice but to drive back out the dusty, twisty road and back on the highway towards 100 Mile House. We figured for sure there’d be at least some private campgrounds if all else failed. Well … there were, but they were all full! Even the 100 Mile House Motel & RV park (another park behind a motel … no thanks!) was full, so we went to the tourist info place where they suggested a few places. We had them call the places for us and were surprised to find that they were ALL full. The final place she suggested was off on a secondary road about 35 km away, the Ponderosa Resort on Canim Lake. It had space so we were off! It was a nice drive through some beautiful ranch country. The resort was really nice, but catered more to groups of families etc. It was on a lake but the ‘sites’ were either smooshed together on the lakefront (which were full) or in the trees. We found a spot in the trees and it was ok but couldn’t really see the lake. The ‘beach’ area was full of families and kids … seemed to be all of a large group. There were motorboats and skiers on the lake and not really the kind we’d like to paddle, so we stayed close to camp and relaxed and read for the afternoon.

Ponderosa Resort on Canim Lake

July 13, 2014

Up early and heading out towards 100 Mile House to see what’s there. We stopped along the way for a quick break at the 108 Mile House Heritage Site It’s a very nice town, very cool shops and flowers and flower baskets all around. We found a Laundromat and did some domestic stuff, and had coffee while we waited. After that, we toured around a bit, then stopped for lunch and on to the ranch where we’ll have our lessons and trail rides.