Family Vacation to Pinantan Lake, BC - June 16 - 26th

One last shot of my vertical herb garden, and planters.

Planters

Ray saw this car at the liquor store the day before we left, 1955 Chev Nomad. 

Monday, June 16th we departed for our family 10 day vacation. This year, without the motorhome, we decided to stay in a cabin on a fishing lake. Pinantan Lake is 30 minutes outside Kamloops by Paul Lake Provincial Park. We met Jason, Kristi and Amelia at the ferry for the 7:45 am run from Duke Point to Tsawwassen. Our little armada, with Kristi and Jason's truck with boat loaded on top and us with our little utility trailer with our little Klinker to fish out of.

Good thing we have 2 vehicles as they stopped several more times than us with their 4 year old and a dog for pit stops and playtime. We arrived about an hour before them, after having a lunch break in Merritt and were able to get our stuff put away before they arrived with theirs.

Gas prices are considerably lower in the interior compared to Lake Cowichan and Vancouver.

Check in is 3 pm but we arrived at 2 and it was OK

The office

Our Lakefront Cabin #4

Love the screen porch where we all spent a lot of time.

Full Kitchen

Twin Bedroom

Living Room

Queen Bedroom (Ours)

A very cozy cabin with everything you need for the five of us for 10 days. They have lots of cupboards for storage. I spoke to another guest and he said the last time he came to this resort was 30 years ago and all they had at that time was little A-Frame cabins. Here is the original sign. Apparently the resort was originally established in the 1940's.

There is no cell service here, but they do have limited wifi if you go to this picnic area lol We all spent a bit of time there daily checking messages.

The current owners, the Hamill family, bought the property in 2022 and are renovating it, so it is all brand new now.

It's quite warm the day we arrived and the next day, before it became cooler with some rain showers in late afternoon or overnight. Didn't stop us from having fun though. The locals said it is the "greenest" they have seen it this time of year. They received a lot more rain this spring. The temps were around 15C most days so we hardly pulled out our summer clothes.

I think the total trout caught is over 60 fish between the five of us. It took a few days to find the "right recipe" after the boys talked to everyone about the fishing.

Ray getting his boat ready to fish.

Amelia helping pump it up.

Helping with the dishes.

Jason tying some flies. Amelia wanted a "pink" one. lol

Olaf finally tired out.

Morning coffee, Olaf begging for "Papa Cookies (Arrowroot)" lol.

Time to go fishing Daddy!

Kristi and Amelia getting ready to kayak.The lodge provides water toys at no charge.They also have a huge grass area with ping pong, two horseshoe pits and a volleyball net behind the stack of kayaks/paddle boards.

Even Olaf got to paddleboard.

Pinantan Lake has a General Store just a 5 minute walk from the resort or ride your bike. They have a variety of things, including food basics and liquor. The best part for Ray, Kristi and Amelia is hard ice cream!

Birdhouse anyone? Ray threatened to buy me the "Old Boot" at the top left 

Olaf doing tricks for hunks of beef lol

Such a beautiful lake with loons and eagles. We released all but 3 fish, the rest had to dive down quick or the eagle family would snatch for food.

While the guys were out fishing, Kristi, Amelia and I took the short drive to Paul Lake for a walk. This area is the dog area. The grass is covered in goose poop however, so a bit problematic keeping Olaf out of it.

It's cold!!!!!!

There are huge trout swimming under the dock, but no matter how hard we tried, we were unable to catch them lol

Amelia did catch a leech though.

Trying out the new bubble machine

Saturday was the community fishing derby so the boys entered for $15 each. It's free for kids under 5, so we entered Amelia. She got a small fish at the dock with Kristi's help to enter. Although it sprinkled rain in the morning, it quit by the time the event opened. Ray and Jason were out fishing at 5 am. Jason ended up with the 4th largest fish, just missed prize round.

 

Fish on!

Getting her fish weighed.

Putting her fish back into the lake to grow bigger.

We did pretty good on prizes. We spent probably $120 with registration, lunch and raffle tickets and won about $300 back! Amelia won top prize for her category ... the only one entered and received a 6 pack of water shooters, a carhart sweatshirt and 2 gift certificates for adventure mini golf and bowling. I got a $100 gift certificate for Save-On-Foods. Kristi got a box of locally tied flies and a $50 gift certificate for Canadian Tire.

This gentleman tied the flies.

Sunday, the whole bunch of us went into Kamloops to do some shopping and breakfast at the Amsterdam Restaurant. Delicious pannenkoeken (a mix between pancake and crepe), either sweet or savoury. We checked out a couple of fly shops and Canadian Tire before heading back to camp.

Amelia and I had a few cooking adventures making pancakes and cookies. 

Kristi and I got out fishing after dinner and I actually caught one after losing the first 5!

The boys entered 3 fish in the derby so I cooked them up for them.

Kristi contacted Olaf's breeder, who live just up the road from the resort, so we could go for a visit.

Back to camp for more activities and fishing. Olaf's first time in the boat. "Whatcha got mom?"

Ray got a couple of double headers the last day fishing in his little boat by himself.

Here's an eagle chasing their fish. The loons are aggressive too. lol

Another small adventure to visit Hayas Lake, 16 km up the road past Pinantan Resort. Unfortunately, not a great fishing spot and lots of bugs so we didn't stay very long. There's a fishing camp next door, but it's closed. We could see fish jump but just couldn't get out far enough to cast.

We also tried another road to another lake. I couldn't take our car, so we waited for Jason and Kristi to return as we took 2 vehicles. Wow, he said the road's very narrow and steep with tons of puddles. Glad we didn't attempt it.

Back to camp:

Jason, Kristi and Amelia went one afternoon into Kamloops and visited the Wildlife Park where the animals are all rescues and can't be released back into the wild. Amelia wanted to go on a train ride. She liked is so much, they went twice. lol

There is a school a few minutes away, so we took Amelia there after school was out to play, giving Kristi and Jason some "alone time". Amelia has been very clingy to mom, so this is the first time she didn't have a spaz attack going without her.

Ray broke the tip off one of his fly rods, so we went into Kamloops to Discount Herbies to see if we could get a replacement. We didn't mange to get one, but I did get this little outfit and unicorn for Amelia for $6.95 ... best deal. It's a hit.

Ray's biggest fish.

We all packed up Wednesday, boats loaded etc, so only clothes and kitchen stuff to load on departure day. I guess we're all anxious to get on the road ..... we left at 8 am!!! We fuelled up and then went for breakfast at Amsterdam Restaurant again. Other than stopping in Hope for fuel, we arrived at 1 pm in Tsawwassen. We ate lunch at Mary Brown's Chicken and then met up with the kids at Tswassen Commons mall.

Gorgeous scene in the big Bass Pro/Cabella's store.

We all wandered around for a couple of hours and at 3 made our way to the ferry. Unfortunately we were too early and they sent us back out of the terminal so we wouldn't lose our reservation. Just along the causeway is a big parking area where we stopped. Ray and the kids went for a walk along the spit to walk Olaf. I stayed in the car as it started to rain. This is where a ton of Blue Herron's nest. The trees are just loaded with them. They're pretty noisy too.

At 4:30 finally, we were able to get into the ferry line-up for our 5:45 pm sailing. We arrived at home at 9 pm. What a long day. We sure had a great vacation though, so much so we already booked for next year. :)