Helicopter Kayaking in British Columbia

This past weekend the hubby, some friends, and myself headed to Abbotsford, British Columbia for a heli kayaking adventure that was almost a year in the making.

In August of last year Brian and I were hanging out in Kirkwood with our friend Jeremy and his partner Randy when we saw a viral video that had been shared around on Facebook. It showed some people taking a helicopter to the back country of British Columbia and kayaking down glacier snow melt in beautiful, unreal blue water.  We called up Nick, the owner/operator of Compass Heli Tours, and chatted with him about all the details before ultimately deciding to book our trip for June of 2018. Why June? Because that’s when the water is the amazing bright blue color.

Fast forward to June and Nick was very accommodating when Randy was no longer able to go and we had to switch our reservation to include 2 more friends. Day of our trip  arrived and again Nick was on top of it. He emailed to let us all know that conditions were not perfect like the above video and that he would give us other options. We met up with him to discuss said options and talk with the previous group that had just gotten back. Their pictures looked amazing, so we decided to go and check it out for ourselves.

Nick took us out to the helicopter for a safety briefing and then we climbed in and took off for an amazing adventure. 

Now I haven’t been in a helicopter since I was airlifted to Stanford back in high school, so I had a few butterflies in my stomach when we took off. That wore off pretty fast though, especially once we were in the back country. It is so beautiful there!

After a 50 minute helicopter tour, we landed at our first destination. A lake that was beginning to melt and create that amazing blue water from the video!

We hiked down to the beach where Nick had the kayaks ready to go. One by one, we each took off and started kayaking the rim of the lake. It was a little slushy but not that bad. The temperature was perfect and the company was fantastic. How often do you get to say you took a helicopter to the back country and kayaked in snow melt!??

After kayaking for about an hour we had lunch on some very nice picnic tables and discussed our next destination. The lunch was from Lepp Farm Market, a local market that is organic and gets all of it’s ingredients from British Columbia. So tasty. Especially the dessert. I had a brownie that had a marshmallow middle and rice crispy top. OMG!

We loaded back into the helicopter and headed off for our next destination. A rainforest lake where Nick had been going since he was a kid. Back story on Nick; he’s been flying helicopters for 11 years, and comes from a family of pilots. He used to collect pine cones for seedlings and also helped fighting fires using helicopters. OMG this guy is awesome! He’s planning on building a lodge for helicopter glamping trips on Paradise Lake, which I think is fantastic.

He landed us on a sandy beach with not much room for error, but he’s a pro, so no big deal. The kayaks were hiding under some camouflage. We all got in and enjoyed a little piece of paradise. The water is very clear and you can see all the trees that are now submerged due to a rock fall that happened many years ago. When the snow melted, it created this breathtaking lake.

After another 25 minutes it was time to go back. 😦 We loaded back into the helicopter and this time, I got my turn at sitting in the co-pilot seat (not really a co-pilot, but up front!!)

The whole trip was 5 hours long and worth every penny. Nick is amazing and he offers multiple kinds of trips. Next ski season he’s offering heli skiing, so you know I’ll be back!

https://www.compasshelitours.com/glacier-kayaking/

Check him out above and tell him Team Adventure sent you. He’ll take VERY good care of you and you’ll have an experience of a lifetime!

The Maiden Voyage

For those of you who didn’t know, Brian and I purchased our very own shiny new RV about 2 weeks ago. It’s a Prism by Coachmen on a Mercedes Sprinter. It has one slider that makes it feel almost as big as a studio. Stove top/oven, microwave, and all the other basic life essentials. It sleeps six and is 25 feet long.

I have driven it once, and plan on driving it a lot more. It’s like driving a big boat, except it has cameras on the sides and in the back.

Onto the maiden voyage. We headed up to South Lake Tahoe early Saturday morning. It drove really well until the part outside of Sacramento (that first big hill)… that was rough. Peddle to the metal and managed about 55mph. Once were past that though it did surprisingly well. Highway 50’s curves and climbs were pretty much no problem. We arrived too early to check into our campground, so we stopped in the TJ Maxx parking lot and made some sandwiches. We also tested the TV antenna and discovered that we got a few channels!

1pm rolled around, so we headed to our campsite at Campground by the Lake. It’s in the trees right across the street from Lake Tahoe. I highly recommend staying there if you’re in the area. The only caveat being there is noise from highway 50. At least to me, it sounded like a constant waterfall so no big deal. Our site, B009 had 30 amp power, but shared water. In loop A, you get both water and electricity, but I booked way last minute, so I was happy with anything!

We hooked up and immediately went to work making it home for the next 2 days. First things first, put the slide out out. Yeah, that was a little scary as it didn’t come out evenly and then almost got stuck. I want to say it was because the RV wasn’t level. After re-evaluating, Brian used the levels we bought to make it level before attempting to slide out again. This time it worked fine. By this point, it was starting to drizzle so we decided to go for a short walk around camp and do a run to Safeway.

Once we got back it starting raining, so we stayed inside and tested out everything. I even climbed up into the bed above the cab. It’s pretty comfortable, but seriously not really for adults. I smacked my head into the ceiling.

I made my first dinner. Chicken Pad Thai on the stovetop. It went fairly well, but it’s crazy how steamy things get in a hurry. Especially when you don’t have the windows open. It’s a learning experience for sure. I had the fan on, but you also need airflow. After dinner, we worked as a team to clean up the dishes/stove area, then we settled in for an evening in.

The temperature dropped to 45 outside by 10pm so we decided to try the heater, which, by the way, is pretty darn loud. It turns on the internal fan for the AC to push the warm air around. It’s fairly quick, but after 9pm, there are quiet hours, so we turned it off after it got up to 64. By then, it was time for bed. Another note to self: the bed cover that the RV comes with is NOT actually warm, nor is it actually a blanket of any kind. Luckily I was smart enough to have brought an extra blanket. Still, not super warm at first. Brian closed the drapes to the kitchen which isolates the bedroom/bathroom area and we headed for dreamland. Another note: one person has to climb over the other to get out and use the bathroom…. probably not wise if you’re not as mobile as we are.

When we got up in the morning, the temperature in the RV had dropped to 50. I knew I should have brought my slippers! We turned the heater back on and waited for a little bit before getting up and starting our day.

Unfortunately we had forgotten the kayak, so we decided to walk to the lake and see what we might want to do. We walked along a path and ended up in the marsh land near the Tahoe Keys. It ended up being too muddy to go much further, so we watched the birds and enjoyed the view for awhile instead.

We headed back to our RV for a quick lunch and then back out towards Stateline to see if we could find the beer Brian likes at Raley’s. It was about a two mile walk and in the places where the wind wasn’t blowing, it was pretty darn warm. There was lots of traffic on highway 50, and at times, we were walking faster than the cars. Sadly we discovered that Raley’s did not have Track 7’s Nukin’ Futz, so we ended up with Belching Beaver instead.

Once back at camp, I decided it was time to use the oven! I had read that you need to put a pizza stone on the bottom rack in order to have more even temperature so Brian cut my stone down so it would fit. We lit the pilot light and turned it on to 350. I prepped the frozen cookie balls and waited. The other thing we forgot was an oven thermometer. Whoops. There is no light, so you have to open the door, which, of course, then lets all the heat out. After a few minutes, I decided it seemed warm enough, so I put the cookies in and set a timer for 9 minutes.

6 minutes later there was a very loud pop. This was my pizza stone breaking in two. Yay. Another 2 minutes went by and then the smoke alarm started going off. The bottom of the cookies were burned, but the tops were still raw. 😦 Apparently I need to re-think the oven by moving the rack around. I’ll be trying again next weekend.

Later we tried making a fire with wood we purchased from the check in area. Sadly it was very wet, so we really couldn’t get it started. Brian went to take a time lapse of the sunset, and I continued my attempts at making the fire. Our friendly neighbors saw I was having a hard time and one of them, Brittany, came to help. In the end, she invited me to come join them as they had a raging fire. They even offered a beer! Super nice people from Chico. When Brian came back, he joined all of us and we chatted for a few hours until bedtime.

Another cold night, and another morning turning on the heater. We had a quick breakfast, packed up everything, and headed off after hitting the dump station. Yay, the dump station! First time dumping my dump. Lol. Not too bad actually. Just remember everything goes down. Gravity is your friend.

We stopped to get gas and when we started the RV back up, the friendly check engine light was on. Yay so much fun. It still drove fine, so we headed towards Sacramento in hopes of catching my friend Ellen at the Track 7 Brewery. I made an appointment online to bring the Mercedes in on Thursday. Thank goodness for the internets.

After stopping at a parking lot to have lunch, we made it to Track 7. It’s in a warehouse and it’s awesome! We got a Nutkin’ Futz to share and said hi to Ellen.

We stopped in Stockton to say hi to Brian’s sister and show her our awesome new house. Then we headed home through wonderful bay area traffic. I ended up taking a nice nap on the bed with the window open and a nice breeze.

In the end, it was a fun weekend, but I still have a lot of testing to do with that oven. I hope to figure it out this weekend at Big Basin!

The check engine light was on because some critter chewed through one of the hoses. Mercedes in San Jose was fantastic and fixed it for free. Rodent control people. Ideas? Next up: Big Basin!