Into the Wilderness We Go...

Well, sorta.

We were only about 20 minutes from civilization, but when you have to backpack and hike to your destination spot where there are no modern amenities (I'm looking at you electricity and plumbing), it feels like the deep woods. Realistically, we were just north of the valley town of Mission, BC. This spot is Devil's Lake, and it's very close by to massively-more-impressive Stave Lake.

This is probably the smallest lake I've seen yet up there, so small, in fact, I was surprised they even called it such. Stefan was used to smugly calling our Nebraskan lakes ponds, so with a body of water you couldn't even take more than a rowboat out on, I was a bit taken aback. Apparently the fishing is good here, because Saturday there was a large family fishing almost the whole day and then early Sunday morning two more guys showed up to fish.

The kids, of course, love camping and found instant gratification in catching 9 baby bullhead fish in the course of an hour or so. The water was clear, but I was appalled at the amount of trash that had accumulated in this area. During the morning while we were packing up, I went around and picked up the visible garbage and I filled an entire plastic bag! There was more on the trail and through the woods but it looked like the toilet paper variety...... nope, not touching that trash!

Mission is one of my favorite places in the area, because it's just so beautiful. It's north of the Fraser river and sits at the bottom of the mountains. It's less populated than other cities around the lower-mainland and property is cheaper out there, too. Unfortunately, there is only one bridge that connects Mission to the rest of the lower-mainland, and I'm sure that gets bogged down easily in heavy traffic.
Too bad, it'd be a nice spot to live if Stefan's job was nearby!