Week ending May 28, 2015 George Lake

 Thursday was moving day.   We arrived at George Lake early in the day, as it was less than an hours drive from Spirit River. We set up in a beautiful site, with the back window of our trailer looking out onto the lake; in fact 5 steps and we would be standing in water. 

John was able to get a satellite signal through the trees, so we are happy. After lunch we walked around the campground, which is small and we are the only people here at the moment.  There is a short walk here to a wildlife viewing area, which we will complete later in our stay. Summer truly is here, it is beautifully hot during the day, and warm at night and the butterflies and mosquitoes are both out in abundance. As the sun was setting we noticed a beaver swimming along the shoreline, one of the advantages of looking out over the lake.

Friday morning, we noticed some large moths on the wall of the wash building.  

 

Later in the morning, we finally blew up our little inflatable boat for the first time in 2 years. We headed to the dock and off we went. As we were leaving the dock some fellows doing some maintenance came by and repositioned the dock. When we came back in we had to use the boat launch and then walk back to the trailer carrying the boat because they had not yet completed the job.  Of course 1/2 hour later the dock was back in operation. This is an interesting campground, electric only at the sites and nice bathrooms with showers. It was developed and is being maintained by "friends of Lake George" on a volunteer basis. They do a nice job. A few other campers arrived and three motorboats arrived on the lake. We were under the impression this was a motor free lake, but we were wrong, so our little boat will remain off the lake until the weekend is over.

Saturday we watched our neighbourhood beaver swim across the lake, He must have decided to beat the boaters.  We then went for a drive to check out the neighbourhood.  Our first point of  interest was Figure Eight Provincial Recreation Area.  The Lake is small, well stocked with trout, so lots of fishermen. No motorboats, so fishermen in dinghies or casting off the pier. The campground was almost full, which we find perplexing, 27.00 a night, no services, pit toilets.  George Lake were we are is 20.00 a night, larger sites, 30 amp power and nice bathrooms with showers and flush toilets. We are quite happy that all these campers prefer to pay a premium for nothing, save the good places for us. We then checked at Brownvale North Peace Agri Museum, not yet open for the season, but the bull rider was guarding the gate. 

Brownvale Bull Rider

Our next stop was Elk Island Park on the Peace River. It has the same facilities as Figure Eight Lake but it is free. We discovered that the road down to the park has some 24% grade on it and this may cause us some difficulty pulling the trailer out.  As the road was dirt, if it rained we may be in the river valley for some time.  On the road into the park we came across three deer, having mid-morning snack; they stopped eating to pose for us and then wandered into the bush. Our final stop was Fairview to pick up some groceries at Freson Bros.  We arrived back to the campground in time to watch a party boat leave the dock on George Lake.

Sunday was car race day, Indy 500 and the Charlotte 600.  Between the 2 races we walked the interpretive loop. It was longer than we anticipated, but a nice walk. We discovered where our beaver lives.

 

Monday morning a lot of the boats are still here, We decided we should go golfing. The Hines Creek golf club is only a few kms away. It opens at 11:00 A.M., so we golfed and paid at the end of our game. We knew the seniors rate was 12.00 a round, but to our surprise Mon thru Friday before 2:00 the rate is 1.00 a hole. After our golf we had lunch at the golf club. We then went back to the trailer to watch the boats race around the lake. About mid-afternoon a storm blew in. We had a viscous wind, white caps on our calm little lake and a bit of rain. The storm lasted less than an hour. Once the storm blew over the boats came back out.

Tuesday morning the lake was very calm. As the motor boat people never get mobile much before 3:00 P.M., so we decided it was safe to take our little boat out. Our little trip took about 2 hours. Mid afternoon one of the young fellows in a trailer a few sites over came by with his older brother wondering if we had booster cables. Why do teenagers need booster cables? Well as any parent knows, kids tend to sit in the car and listen to music and forget to turn it off when they are done. Once again our booster cables have saved the day.

Wednesday the weather forecast was for afternoon showers, so we headed to the golf course mid morning. Surprise the weatherman was not accurate.  We only completed 7 rounds before it started to rain. We then went into Fairview, had a quick lunch before stopping at the library to update our computers and look up a few things. We got a few groceries for groceries and back to the trailer. By now it is a sunny warm afternoon.  Guess we should have golfed in the afternoon.


Thursday we went into Hines Creek to take care of some business at the Registry office. After that we checked Home Hardware for some new paddles for our little boat. We then headed out to Carter's Camp, a campground on the Peace River about 28 kms Hines Creek. As with all the other campgrounds we have investigated on the Peace River, the road in is rough, and very steep, 18 to 20% grade in some places.

 

On our way back to Hines Creek we wanted to see if the hamlet of Peace Grove still existed. As in the case of may small towns, it has disappeared. The campground host had told us that there was a trailer dump station in Hines Creek which the lady at the Town office confirmed, explaining it was right next to the building we were in.  Sure enough there it was.  Some people have trouble reading signs!!!! Today is a cool day, not conducive to paddling on the lake, so we will wait for warmer weather.