Saturday to Thursday, September 2 to 7, 2017 (Tunkwa Provincial Park, Logan Lake, BC)

Well, this is our last week at Tunkwa...and a smokey one it was! The wildfires do not appear to be letting up with over 150 still burning (last I heard). If we're not getting smoked out from the BC wildfires, we're getting it from our neighbours to the south in Washington and Oregon with major fires burning there as well. Rain is needed...and lots of it!

This being a long weekend, the park was a little busier. Steve and I worked a split shift, cleaning all of the outhouses both in the morning and late afternoon. In between, we had a visit from Ray and Deb...they will be leaving Paska Lake Thursday and wanted to get one last visit in with us before they continue on with their fall/winter travel plans...

As usual, we had a lovely visit...and then after big hugs, they headed off and we got changed to go to work. Ray, Deb and Freya...

Sunday we woke to smoke along with a little ground fog. Last night the smoke rolled in rapidly...we had been watching TV with door and all of the windows open when all of a sudden we could smell smoke. We quickly closed everything up...so we weren't surprised to wake to all of the smoke. In fact one of the campers came into the compound last night wanting to know if there was a new fire nearby...

Around 9:00 we were off for our first round of outhouse cleaning....Steve took some picture along the way...

This is the busiest the park has been since the July long weekend due to the wildfires...

And we're done for the morning! Another round will be done again later in the afternoon.

Monday morning we both started work at about 10:00...but we went separate ways today. I cleaned all of the outhouses by myself while Steve cleaned sites at Tunkwa. I only had to do one round of cleaning today, so I was finished for the day shortly before 12:30. Steve was done at about 2:00.

Tuesday...another smokey day. Ray and Deb had left Freya's water bowl when they had visited us Saturday, and since we had to go into town to pick up a couple of groceries to make it through the next couple of days, we arranged to meet them at the Pick and Shovel Pub for lunch.

As we were approaching this herd of cattle, we could see dust being stirred up...well I guess a couple of the bulls were having a scuffle. By the time we got to them for a picture, they seemed to have calmed down a bit but were still butting heads...

 Lunch at the pub...

Ray surprised me with a new walking stick that he had made for me out of a Diamond Willow branch. He had been working on it the last couple of days trying to get it ready when he found out that we would be seeing each other again. It is really beautiful...thanks so much, Ray! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it...so stay tuned, I'll show it in another update.

Late Tuesday afternoon, everyone gathered at Hugh's site for the "end of the season party". Brian, co-owner of Brandywine Environmental, who has the contract to run Tunkwa, along with a number of other parks, came out from Kamloops with a cooler full of food and drinks. Neil, the area supervisor, also came out, as did another fellow who works for Brian...Rick. This is a shot of Hughes spot (#93) at Tunkwa Lake Campground...

It was a nice gathering...we munched on prawns, cheese and crackers before Brian got to work on barbecuing steaks. Left to right, Brian, Neil, Sue, Doug, Hugh, Rick, Brian (Barb returned to the coast this morning) and me...

 Brian grilling steaks...

The steaks were accompanied with potato salad and ceasar salad...delicious! Thank you for a lovely evening and a great meal!

Wednesday morning we did our final round of cleaning outhouses. The smoke was really bad and our breathing was difficult at times.
Yay...that's a wrap!





Once we were finished, Steve headed out on the lake for one final fish. Normally he wouldn't go out with so much smoke. Also in the last few days the lake has become a mess with a blue-green algae bloom. Unfortunately it has killed 3 cows and a dog. Warnings have gone out to everyone in the park to keep their kids and pets away from the water and the ranchers have been busy rounding up their cattle and stringing a temporary electric fence.

A few hours later Steve was back. He had taken our new Go Pro camera set to run a 5 minute video loop if he caught anything. Unfortunately the only fish he caught was the smallest to date and not picture worthy. Then it was time to pack up all of the fishing gear and load the boat back onto the truck.

Thursday was clean and pack up day...and it took all day. After sitting for so many months in a dusty compound Steve brushed the dust off of the slides and slide toppers, then lubed all the slide mechanisms. I also did one final load of laundry, ensuring all of our uniforms (shirts, jackets, vests and hats) were all clean and returned. By late afternoon we were pretty much done...so we took our chairs next door and had one final visit with Doug, Sue and Hugh. .

We plan on hitting the road around 9:30 tomorrow morning...putting an end to our summer at Tunkwa Provincial Park. We really enjoyed working at this park. It was unfortunate that with the wildfire situation it was a slow season leaving us with very little work at times and no ATVing with the closure to OHV's in the back country. Thanks for the opportunity Doug and Sue, it was great working with you, Hugh, Brian and Barb. Enjoy the rest of your season!