Skihist Provincial Park has Re-opened, and Looks Great!

Okay, it's the third week of May, it's pouring rain, the mountain highways have snow forecast, but Miki wants to do a camping, so I guess we're going to go. Yes, as Gordon said, we are heading out in the rain, and rain or shine, we've got to take the campervan out. So we are trying to see if we can camp at Ski His Provincial Park, it's one of our favorite parks, and it's up on Highway 1 in the Thompson Valley. We'll see how it goes, hopefully the weather will improve, so we hope you enjoy this video. Here we go, Ski His just finally opened after the fires. We're happy to see it open, not sure what it's going to look like, we'll see. Washrooms and the dumping station look like they're open. Yeah, not too much damage, although there's a lot of fire singed trees here. So it's actually looking a lot better than we expected it to. Lots of undergrowth, there's green grasses, branches, stuff that deer and bees will like. The campsites look pretty good. Bathrooms seem to be there, at least this one. Yeah, well not bad at all. Not a lot of people though, I don't think a lot of people realize that this park is now open. I think we have a lot of sites to choose from, that's for sure. We're in site 38. We actually have been in this site before, I think, the first time we came here. We really like it, it's very private. You can still hear the trains a little from up here. We looked at some of the sites when we first came in, there's a little more fire damage there, especially when you sort of look to the west, but it's actually, most of it looks pretty good, we're pleased. Yeah, look at all the leaves and the bushes and they weren't damaged too badly. It's pretty good. I had to guess, it's like 80% the way it was before. If we come up to this spot, we get a much nicer view. You can see our van down there, it's more private, nicer view. So not a big surprise, boil your water for one minute at least. You can see how this section here has got a little bit more in the way of burnt out trees. Spot 37 actually has an amazing view. If we backed in here, that would be our view. Can't sell Mickey on it though, she likes that. Our spot's just maybe a little quieter, not quite as open to the other area, but this is nice. There we go, after a little swearing and other choice words. We got it done and the picnic table actually fits underneath, which we weren't sure about. I wouldn't cook under this because it'll absorb the food smells. Light up too probably. We could actually have it turned around the other way and I think it would still fit. And this is actually supposed to be pretty good waterproofing and sun protection. Plus if it's really windy, we've got a giant kite. A little too close to the van, I think we'd set it up a little differently, maybe a little more on the left, but you can get an idea. We set it up, it'll allow us to sit under the picnic table if we want, or sit in our chairs outside so we can listen to the trains go by, by the sounds of it. Not bad, I think it'll work fine. Six foot seven in the middle, 13 feet long and about nine feet wide. So we're just having an easy dinner. We don't actually have to be under this canopy, it's just our maiden voyage to test it out. You can see we've got chairs so we could have it actually sort of half over the picnic table and still have room over here to sit. Just something handy. And I'm going to try a Rosa the Rebel Mexican lager. It's from our friend Stephen Darlene from a place called The Rusted Rake Brewing in the Neuse, BC. They have several different beers. They gave us on one of our camping trips a few weeks ago. Thank you very much. Yeah, thanks. And I've got my white wine from Fort Behrens, as usual. Cheers. All very nice. It's probably not the best for wind, but not bad. It's pretty windy right now. Gusty. Hopefully this isn't a video of this taking off and flying into the trees. But we've got it staked out and at least two of the guy lines on the other side out. So I made this vegan chocolate torte. I actually added some peanut butter to it as well. So it's like a chocolate peanut fudgy torte. Anyway, I got the recipe from Instagram, Ben's Vegan Kitchen. And it's really amazing. Added a dollop of coconut whip and some blueberries. And I think it's calorie free. It's probably healthier than some other desserts, but there's still a lot of sugar in it. Very good. It reminds me of like, it's kind of like eating frozen peanut butter. Frozen peanut butter. Yeah, that's good. Rained heavily last night and you can see the snow level dropped. We've got fresh snow probably at about maybe 3,000 feet. It's supposed to warm up a little this afternoon. Okay, we're just gonna go out for a little walk while it's not raining. Yeah, we were lucky last night. It had nice weather and then around midnight it rained heavily until this morning. And then basically when the sun came up at five, the rain stopped. Yeah, it was really coming down hard, the rain. Yeah, Vince doesn't like it when it's raining. It's loud in the van. It's restless. Okay, off for a walk. So quiet this morning. Very few campers. Nobody in this section. The only problem with some of these lower sites is they're a little closer to the road. But they're quite nice, many of them. Almost looks like a small golf course and a water slide. But it's just above the railway tracks. So you do have the option to self-register after 6 p.m. Cash only and don't forget the seniors rate during the off-season. But the camp host does come around to collect money as well and sell you firewood. I hit my 8,000 step daily goal. Yeah, the table is starting to dry out a little bit. Oh, Mr. Finch, you having a nice nap? Thank you. Cuddle time? Is it cuddle time? He's kissing the camera. Oh, big stretch. Okay, for dinner tonight, I got a risotto mix from, I think the brand is Risotto Guy from Langley, B.C. It's like a mushroom risotto. And on the side is some shrimp. I caught in the Thompson River earlier today, so they're very fresh. Lemon garlic shrimp. And of course, they were frozen, obviously. And I've got some cut-up hot dogs on the side for myself. So we're just relaxing after dinner. And I just have to say, it's so peaceful here. It's so nice and quiet. Yes, we hear the road a little bit. We hear the trains when they come by. But, you know, you hear the birds, the trees are beautiful here, the mountain scenery. Just gorgeous. Since Gordon bought a huge bag of firewood from the camp operator, I think we're going to have a campfire tonight. And if you guys remember, we had an old picnic table cover that had a big duct tape patch on it. And we thought it might be time for that to retire. So we got this new one. And we love it. It's got these little pull ties so that you can tighten them around the picnic table. Fits well on the B.C. Parks picnic table. And the other favorite part for me is the outdoors theme. So you've got tents and campfires and canoes and backpacks and stuff like that. So yeah, I really like it. So we really enjoyed our stay here at Ski Hills Provincial Park. Yeah, it's as nice as it's ever been. We were here previously. We'll put a link to the video. It was just great. Yeah, in one word, I would say it's peaceful. Yeah, it's very nice. The campsites are great. Generally a lot of space. We're in the upper tier level. So it's probably the quietest area. This morning, we just got up and listened to birds. It was just beautiful. Very nice. So we really enjoyed the trip here. We've had decent weather. The weather here in, I guess, the Thompson Valley, the whole area that goes up. It's just a lot drier and warmer than the West Coast. So it's really nice. We were just talking to the park operator. His name is Wayne. He's encouraging a lot of people to come up because they've made sure the campsites are all nice. And, you know, any sort of fire damage has been removed. Frankly, it's not really noticeable except some of the fringe points. So it's actually pretty much the same as it's been for years. Yeah, it's the same. So yeah, you should all come out. We've really enjoyed it. We've done a lot of walking up and down. Walked down to the highway area where the public day space is. And then back up here. And there is some hiking trails, which I think is about eight kilometers. They're not contiguous, but we've hiked them before. So we didn't bother this time. But I noticed when I checked my watch every day, I was getting somewhere around 13,000 to 15,000 steps. So doing a lot of walking. Yeah, yeah. There's a little bit of hills, too. So it's good exercise. Downhill one way, uphill the other. And speaking of exercise, Gordon did do his little workout this morning. I did. I had the mat out here. And because there's virtually no one around, I didn't have anybody, you know, paying attention. So it was nice to just do a quick short workout. And yeah, it's just beautiful here. Oh, yeah. And in terms of services, they do have flush toilets and running sink. No showers. And they have garbage facilities and they have little bins for recycling as well. Yeah, so very basic, but nice. And for those of you that are BC seniors, if you're here before June 15th, campsite prices are 50%. I think it's June 15th to after the Labor Day weekend that you pay full price. But otherwise, you get a 50% discount. Yeah, we've just had a... I mean, you can listen to all the birds chirping and we just... That's kind of been our stay here. Yeah, and Finch has been very relaxed as well. He was pretty happy here. Except the night it rained. It rained the first night we were here and it really rained. And so when you're in a kind of a tin can and it's raining, it's pretty loud. Finch didn't like that at all. But we had a great time. Oh, and I would say, too, if you do buy firewood from the park operator, probably the best firewood I've ever purchased from a park operator. It was a wonderful fire we had last night. So if you enjoyed this video, please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already. And we will see you next time for more adventures. See you next time.