Lightning Lake campground and hike
From British Columbia Provincial Parks & The Okanagan in Hope, Canada on Aug 23 '06
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Neither of us had a good sleep but again didn't surface until around 9am. Grabbed a bagal for breakfast and then began clearing our site away and left the Coldspring campsite at 10.25am. We drove the short way down highway no 3 past Manning Park Resort and followed the signs to Lightning Lake campground. Even though the sign said full, when we asked they had 1 space for 1 night which was exactly what we wanted. We put up the 2 man tent at pitch no 78 and were over the moon to learn that the site had hot running showers - luxury! We both ran to the shower block and spent ages washing. We decided to go no a hike of the lake which is very large and beautiful. Quite a few people were canoeing and fishing in the clear water and the surrounding mountains reflected off the lake. We began walking at 12.40pm and followed the trail along the side of the lake and as we'd seen a notice stating a bear had been seen in the area we kept a sharp look out and kept making noise (Andy laughed when his shouts of bobbies echoed all arounf the mountains!) We both jumped when a female moose appeared from out of the bushes but it ran away beofre we could get a picture. As usual we took the wrong path and for a section of the lake we found ourselves right on the waters edge climbing steep banks. Got back onto the main path and walked to the end of one side of the lake so we decided to carry on and walk around the nearby Flash Lake. As we got round to the other side of Flash Lake the terrain became more wild and scary looking and so our pace quickened and we shouted alot more. When we got back along side Lightning Lake we decided to cut across Rainbow Bridge as Meg's knee was hurting from yesturday's mamoth hike and got back to camp at around 5.15pm. It soon started raining which continued for about an hour so we sat in the tent. When it had stopped we realised that the water had leaked in to the tent so we put up the 6 man tent so we had somewhere dry to sleep. It started to rain again as we cooked dinner so we had to eat standing up in the porch of the tent. Later on the rain stopped so we drove to the far end of Lightning Lake where we got out for a while and Meg even drove the truck in the empty car park. When we got back to the campsite the temperature had dropped quite a bit and everything was damp so we ended up emptying the back of the truck and slept in there as it was much warmer and dryer.
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