Shuswap

Dates: July 2003 to Present

Christine's family has been renting a cabin on the shores of Shuswap Lake since the summer of 2002.  The Shuswap is located approximately 570km west of Calgary along the Trans-Canada Highway.  I've been lucky enough to tag along every year since 2003.  This year's trip (2013) will mark the 10th time I've spent the first week of my summer vacation soaking up the sun on Shuswap Lake.  It would have been trip number 11 for me, but we had to make last minute changes to the 2012 vacation due to tremendous flooding.  That summer we ended up enjoying ourselves in Windermere, which is the community just south Invermere, British Columbia and about 280km southwest of Calgary.  I'm not going to create a separate post for all of these trips, instead you will find a sampling of some of my favorite pictures from all of our previous trips combined.  The pictures are in order from the earliest trip to the most recent.  It is such an amazing way to kick-off the summer and I'm very lucky to have been part of this tradition for so long.

Area map of Shuswap Lake.  Most years the cabin has either been in the Scotch Creek or Blind Bay area of the lake.

Me and Christine in 2003

Sisters standing lakefront

The girls cliff jumping off of Copper Island

While we were in the area we thought we'd do some white water rafting.  I don't think any of us had ever rafted down a river before so we were all pretty excited, but a little nervous at the same time.  We booked our trip through Adams River Rafting in Scotch Creek and eagerly awaited the trip.  The Adams River has Class 1 and 2 rapids with a section of Class 3 through the Adams River Gorge.  We would definitely be getting wet!

White water rafting with the Plants.  This is the Adams River Gorge.

Brittany and Sarah

Beach campfire

Great name for a pub in Salmon Arm

The haunted A-frame cabin of 2004

Me and Chris on the tube

Adams River Rafting.  Second year in a row of rafting the river.

Not the sign you want to see!

Made it back safe and sound...just a little wetter!

Me and Christine under a Willow Tree

Foggy drive to the Shuswap this year

Our cabin in 2005

Christine kneeboarding

Sarah kneeboarding

Sunset over the lake

The Capewell's (minus Adam) at our annual wrap-up dinner at Finz

Christine and Gizmo fast asleep on the drive

The 2006 cabin

Me cliff diving.  Very poor form equals a painful landing!

The cabin in 2007

Chris wakeboarding

Adam relaxing in the hammock

Rented a Pontoon boat this year

Floating store at The Narrows

Unnamed Falls

Beautiful sunset over the lake

The drive to Finz

Capewell siblings attempting to play some mini-golf!

Sisters

Captain Jerry!

Riding a Grizzly Bear in Golden

A real Black Bear that we spotted on the drive home

The 2008 edition had a house...

...and a lakefront cabin!

Loons

Rosemary, Sarah, and Gizmo on the boat

Dalene and Garth Phillips

Osprey eating a fish

Our cabin in 2009

Jeff kneeboarding.  This was Jeff's first year coming to the Shuswap

Me kneeboarding

Gizmo sleeping on a deck chair

The boys tubing!

The 2010 edition of the cabin

Adam water skiing

Sarah wakeboarding

Pictographs in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park.  These ones are faded and smudged.

Most likely created by the Shuswap People long before Europeans arrived

Depression in the ground from a kekulis (pit house) that was built by the Shuswap People

Chris, Rome, and I in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park

Sockeye Salmon

Jeff and Sarah on the mini-golf course

Our cabin in 2011 and 2013

Sitting around the campfire

Sarah & Chris on the stand-up paddle board

Marla, Sarah, and Christine on the tubes

Shuswap sunset

Rosemary and Jerry above the Adams River in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park

The gorge section of the Adams River

Rome sniffed out these baby birds near the shore of the lake

An Osprey landing on it's nest on Copper Island

Rome and Sarah

Rome and Chris sharing an air mattress

Me on the Yamaha

Wakeboarding

Me attempting to clear the wake.  I removed the audio because the wind-noise in the camera sounded awful.

Marla and Sarah

Copper Island is the only island on Shuswap Lake

Christine water skiing

Rome crashed hard

Common Merganser and all of her chicks

Witchey Trail.  Quite possibly the creepiest trail ever!  It had all sorts of weird toys and trinkets scattered about.

Also along the trail were the remains of two cabins

The second cabin. Unfortunately I don't know the history behind these remains,

Me stand-up paddle boarding on the lake

Rome loving life

Rome and Me

Mountain Goats along Highway 93 South

The 2012 cabin in Windermere

Rome playing frisbee

The girls in the Jeep

Lake Enid

Quiet little lake hidden back in the mountains

Rosemary and Jerry at Lake Enid

Columbia Lake as viewed from the Hoodoo Trail

The Hoodoo Trail

Hoodoos

Enjoying the campfire

Jeff convincing Christine that she needs a fully-clothed swim!

Back in the Shuswap for 2013!  Christine on the Yamaha.

Pictographs located on Blake Point in Magna Bay on the Shuswap Lake

This one looks like a moose with two hunters

This one looks like a human with the sun above.  Possibly a sun dance?

You can read more about the pictograph sites I have visited by visiting my Western Canadian Rock Art section on the Bradshaw Foundation's webpage.

An Osprey and its nest on Copper Island

E. C. Brown Homestead.  E. C. Brown was a logging contractor and homesteaded this quarter section in 1908.

The farm was sold in 1940 and the log buildings you now see were built between 1941-1942

Bald Eagle sitting in a tree just above our dock

Another beautiful Shuswap sunset

Jeff on the Yamaha

I finally decided I had to hike the Copper Island Trail, so 2013 was the year!  It's a 2.8km trail around the island with 135m of elevation gain.  The 360° views you get are well worth the effort!  Copper Island is part of the Shuswap Lake Provincial Park.

The summit of Copper Island.  I think there was a plaque here at one point.

Blind Bay

Looking westward

Looking east up Shuswap Lake

This was also the year that I did a little SCUBA diving in the lake.  I went out with Copper Island Diving, who operate out of Salmon Arm.  If you're ever in the Shuswap area and want to do some diving I highly recommend them.  They treated me better than I could have hoped for.  It was my first time diving in fresh water and I didn't really know what to expect.  I did two dives on the day.  The first was the Copper Island Houseboat Wreck and the second was the Copper Island Wall Dive.  The first dive was really cool as there's a sunken houseboat sitting on a rocky shelf.  The boat was sunk on purpose as a dive site.  The second dive was against a steep wall that dropped all the way to the bottom.  I'm not certified to go all the way down, it's just too deep, but it gives you a really neat feeling because you can't see anything below you and you can't see anything past about 20 feet away from the wall.

The sunken house boat in Shuswap Lake

Another video of the house boat

Another great trip with great people!

To read about our latest Shuswap adventure please visit my post titled Shuswap 2015.