The Vince Files

On the weekend before Canada Day, we (me, Anna, Claire, and my cousin Liezl) went camping up at Tall Timbers Resort up at Watch Lake in BC’s South Cariboo region.

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The 5-hour drive took us along Hwy 1 (aka Trans-Canada) up along the Fraser Canyon, Boston Bar, Lytton, Cache Creek and eventually to 70 Mile House. Marivic and Jeffrey had reserved a tent site which was waiting for us. We paid our fee, chopped some firewood, set up our tents and we were all set.

The weekend was spent basically de-stressing and unplugging (i.e. no cellphones, Internet, and TV).  We didn’t really do much but we did spend a lot of time just sitting around the fire and our eating area.

Our campsite was a stone’s throw away from the lake and we got a chance to snap a few pics on the floating dock.

Watch Lake is stocked with around 50,000 Rainbow Trout annually. So we figured it might be easy to catch some fish here. But the fish weren’t biting. Jeffrey seems to think it’s probably due to the change in weather from cool to hot and some turbidity in the water. This made us more determined to catch fish. On Saturday, Jeffrey took me on his dad’s small dinghy to go trolling for trout using Luhr Jensen Ford Fenders. After a while a fish struck Jeffrey’s line. In a most unselfish gesture, he quickly handed me his fishing rod to give me the honours of reeling one of the few fish biting this weekend. As an added bonus, Anna brought along her special seasoning for that special fish.

Nearby Green Lake is a larger lake where faster boats are allowed. There are many private residences along the shore but there also many public access roads. We found a road and drove up to the water’s edge to set up our chairs.

On Monday, Jeffrey took us all on his dad’s bigger boat. You won’t see waterski boats on Watch Lake; there’s a speed limit of 8 km/hr in effect so the lake is always nice and calm. Marivic also managed to catch a fish.

This short trip was a nice getaway. I was pleasantly surprised by Tall Timbers Resort. We had running water at our campsite which was really close to the water. The common building had flushing toilets, showers, and laundry facilities. It was also very clean and well-maintained. Make sure to check out their website.

Special thanks go to Jeffrey and his family for their generosity. I can’t wait for the next time we go camping.