Hiking Pemberton

Laura and I stayed two idyllic nights at the Pemberton Valley Lodge. I had the idea that I'd wake at the break of dawn and head out black bear hunting. The bed was so comfortable that I slept in. Laura took Gilbert out for his constitutional.

When I finally got up it was only to do some heavy exercise about 5 length of the pool, not olympic size, but formidable first thing in the morning. I settled in for an executive work out in the hot tub whirl pool. After that I picked up a couple of Starbuck Lattes from the machine in the lobby and returned to the room.

Laura was basking in the hot sun on the deck. Blue sky and snow capped mountains with lots of evergreens beyond. Gilbert was throwing his toys off the balcony and thereby lost squeeky toy rooster. Squeaky toy squirrel rapidly replaced rooster but somehow it sounded different..

The Pemberton Valley Lodge is luxurious and it was just really hard to leave the room. Somewhere in the early afternoon I actually convinced Laura that we should visit the Spud Valley Sporting Goods store so I could buy some hiking boots.

With Laura and I both in Hi Tec hiking boots from Spud Valley we headed with Gilbert up to the mountains in my Ford Ranger 4x4 ing up an old logging road. I stopped for some target practice with the Norinco 223 and the Mossberg 30:30 until I was happy with my groupings. Gilbert slept between my feet while I enjoyed shooting then checking my shot with the Bushmill spotting scope. He;s only 9 weeks and well on his way to being a fine hunting dog.

After that we left the truck and began hiking up into the hills. It was a pristine day. Breathing the fresh mountain air was extreme. The sights were incredible. Gilbert's love of the outdoors and joy in prancing was infectious. We had a great day.

On the way down we saw a young black bear , maybe 3 years old. I suppose I could have shot it but instead I thought I'd rather wait for a bigger and older bear. It stared at me for a while and ran away up the hill. A ruffed grouse crossed the road shortly after and strutted like he knew that hunting season for grouse only opened in the fall. Coming up to Pemberton last night we'd seen a herd of deer and big black bear.

Now Laura has just cooked us a magnificent meal of prawn and scallops I caught with my wallet at the Fish Bus. The Pemberton Valley Supermarket provided all the rest of the meal. We're about to have Hagen Daz Ice Cream and watch a dvd in our room. Life doesn't get much better. Gilbert who must have run a hundred times more than we did with his little legs and frequent detours simply crashed when we got in the room. There's been squeaky toy silence for some time now.

http://www.pemberton-valley-lodge.com/?gclid=CPPd6bumxKECFRmjagodtHfAAg

http://spudvalley.com/

http://www.pembertonsupermarket.com/