Exploring the Koots 0528

Last Saturday I took the opportunity to have a day off from building woodsheds, chopping wood, wiring, cutting big pieces of wood into little pieces of wood, etc. Catherine had a Library Board meeting in Nakusp (about 100 km away in the Arrow Lakes valley), so I invited myself along to go biking and exploring.

One of my objectives was to find Halfway Hot Springs. The West Kootenays have many hot springs and some of them are undeveloped, called "bush" hot springs. A drive of 25 km north of Nakusp and 11 km along a logging road got me there, but it was fairly busy for early on a Saturday morning and one of the pools was VERY hot, so I washed off the dust and wandered off in search of other attractions such as the falls along the road on the way back to town.

I found the old N&S (Nakusp/Slocan) Railway, which has been turned into a biking, hiking, horse trail, as have many in the BC Interior. Rode along it for awhile, but decided that I'd come back to do it from the other direction: downhill from Summit Lake rather than the other way 'round.

Biked around Nakusp and found the flower gardens along the lake promenade. Not bad for a small town on the Columbia River. This was probably the first time I've actually explored Nakusp and I actually found the town to be quite pleasant. The main drawback is the all-encompassing view of clearcuts across the lake.

On the way back to Kaslo, we stopped briefly in the cute little town of New Denver so Catherine could have a walk after being cooped up inside all day. I chose to lie in the car and read, having already had my exercise. I did, however, wander out for a picture of some flowers and trees in the very nice little garden they have there.

After that, it was the 45-minute hop over the pass back to Kaslo and home, one of the prettiest drives around, as you drop down from the pass and go along the Kaslo River.

All in all, a nice day and good to be away from house construction and yard development for a few hours and to spend some time exploring this wonderful part of the country.