Stave Lake

We had an awesome day at Stave Lake today celebrating my stepdaughter’s birthday.

The link is for the video I have up on You Tube if you would like to watch it.
Stave Lake Video


For those of you that do not know what Stave Lake is I will explain.

Stave Lake is apart of BC Hydro's Stave River hydroelectric project. The Stave Lake reservoir is bounded by the Stave Lake Dam. Downstream is the Hayward Lake reservoir and the Ruskin Dam. Many recreational activities can be enjoyed in the area, from boating, fishing and swimming, to picnicking, hiking and mountain biking.

We go to the mud flats and they are about 13 or so kilometers up from the dam. Many 4x4ers and dirt bikers that like to go out and have some fun use the flats. When the water is down there are many deep mud holes to drive through and get muddy. The mud is like nothing I have seen or felt before, it is like industrial mud and it stains your clothing, that’s why you don’t wear your nice shoes or clothing to go there.

There are actually three areas of the mud flats but we mainly play on the second flats, or main beach, as that is where our friends are, and you always need a friend if you get stuck LOL

Some of the mud holes are three or four feet deep and when you get someone that doesn’t know where the deep holes are, they get stuck. That’s usually when you find out exactly who your friends are and who will be your new friend. For that reason, we only go to Stave to play when we know who is up there and if any of our friends are there.

In our group this time there was Dave and his huge truck, hubby and his truck, myself and my new truck, my stepdaughter and her truck and her hubby and his truck. Oops I almost forgot someone, Dan and his truck was there as well.

Dave and Jason were out playing in the mud before I even had chance to get out of my truck. They both got stuck, which is really part of the fun of going. Rikki-lee (my step daughter) took her truck through a few mud holes but nothing she couldn’t get out of. Dan did a few donuts but his truck is too low to go through anything major. I didn’t take my truck out in the mud holes because it needs new bushings in the front and I cannot afford to have it broken even more!

Manda, Nadine and Rikki-Lee were sitting in the back of Dave’s truck as he was driving though the mud puddles. The girls loved it and even though they got drenched in mud, they stayed in the back if the truck asking for more!

I did meet up with a guy I have known for about 15 years or so when we were up there. He is a tow truck driver and his wife and I used to flag for the RCMP at accident scenes, which is how I met them. I was shocked to find out that his wife had passed away due to cancer complications about five years ago. He couldn’t remember my last name and the RCMP wouldn’t give him any information even though they knew we worked together for the RCMP, damn confidentiality clauses! That’s why I was never told about it because he couldn’t remember my last name. Anyway, it was awesome hanging out with him and hubby and Dave now have a new friend to talk truck parts with! Or maybe that’s not a good thing… I don’t know right now!

At the end of the day, many stuck trucks later, Dave broke his drive shaft, Dan got stuck in a mud hole and got pulled out and needed a high jack because the idiot that pulled him out, pulled him onto a huge rock and his transmission was banging on the frame. That happened just before we left.

After we left, some guy in a truck was not paying attention in the dark and tried to go horizontally through a vertical four-foot mud pit, his truck did a nose dive into the mud hole.

Rikki-Lee decided to gout for a midnight mud puddle drive (they camped the night up there) and she ended up submerging her truck in the hole that NO ONE goes near because it has a steep drop off in the middle. Her hubby pulled her truck out but not before ripping the bumper off his truck.

Oh the good times at Stave Lake!

Even after all the walking around we did up at Stave Lake, I drove home, dropped off the kids and picked my mom up for our daily walk. The only thing was it was dark outside and the moon was huge! My mom is scared of the things that go bump in the night even though she is a Clairvoyant. I thought she was going to back out of our walk because it was dark and we were in a cemetery, she didn’t back down but she said we would only walk around the center part that you drive around! I was fine with that as I was tired. I don’t think I have seen my mom move so fast as she did when walking around there! She was spooked and I was amused as anything, I did get my bonus walk in though so that was good!

©2011 7Ladybugs
April 16th, 2011