Dutch Lake Resort and RV, Clearwater, BC

We really enjoyed staying at the Dutch Lake Resort and RV right in Clearwater, BC at the turn off before the bridge right beside the RCMP Station. I never ate at the Painted Turtle Restaurant at the the Resort but Laura did with her cousin Catherine and said it was lovely. Tour buses stopped there daily for the famed cuisine.
The lake has rainbow and kokanee. Despite my efforts with lures and worms it still has rainbow and kokanee. I saw another fisherman catching them and Laura said she saw the actual fish by the dock in the morning.
I loved the location for hunting and fishing. It was only 5 minutes from the incredible network of logging roads where we hunted moose, bear, deer, hare and ruffed grouse. We got ruffed grouse, sometimes 5 or more a day, often seeing coveys of 4 or more. Gilbert was a specialist at raising them and finding the birds we shot. Luke got a rabbit. The moose, deer and bear are still there. We saw them but we weren't able to shoot them, not for lack of trying either.
The town of Clearwater has the most incredible food mart with everything you could find in a major downtown supermarket. There were several restaurants and we loved the friendly folk at the gas station.
It was really quiet in the RV Park and the views were incredible. We barbecued and Luke made great fires. Laura stayed at the trailer during the day while Tom, Luke, Gilbert and I went off hunting. She says she mostly lay in the sun reading fashion magazines but occasionally walked about the park.
Her cousin, Catherine, came down with her kayak from Salmon Arm and rented one of the resort cabins. Laura and she loved it. It was right on the water and had the most elegant tasteful decor.
Catherine and Laura then chatted up a storm while the guys were in the woods hunting. Catherine's one son was a Canadian Air Force who served in Afghanistan, her other son a business manager, her daughter a dental assistant is the same age as Laura's son. But mostly they talked about their sisters as the four of them all played together summers on the beach growing up.
Dutch Lake Resort turned out to be this place that served both the girls and the guys. At night when we all got back together Gilbert however got the most attention.

























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Grizzly Lake Cabin, Clearwater, BC

The volunteers of Wells Gray wilderness community maintain some cabins for hunters and winter recreational users. It's a first come first serve basis. The Gizzly Lake cabin is terrific with an obviously superb stove for folks who must enter the area on ski doo in winter. It gave me a good feeling to see that despite people carving their names and such on walls, clearly people had made an effort over the decades of this cabins existence to keep it in good condition. There was a guest log going back to the early 90's.
Seeing the set up I remembered other hunting and trapping cabins I'd stayed in while hunting and winter cross country skiing. There was an alpine lodge too I used down hill skiing one year. These are amazing shelters that keep one alive in the cold of winter.
I'd done my time as a young doctor learning how to make Quincies and staying in Igloos in Churchill Manitoba, While they were terrific solutions to cold weather I personally still prefer a good old cast iron wood stove and lots of room to dress, cook and have coffee.
Luke who was hunting with Tom and I this fall had stayed in this one one year when the temperature was 20 below. They'd been enjoying a balmy day hunting only to have the evening temperature drop through the floor. He said they really had enjoyed the stove then.
We had lunch there and the camp friend, the Whiskey Jack, flew down and took food out of Luke's hand. He would have been even more daring but Gilbert kept barking at the begging competition.
There was no need for a stove on this day. We had incredibly high temperatures for late September with everyone going in shirt sleeves in the afternoon.




















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