We have been wanting to get our kayak out on the water since we got to Golden, British Columbia. We have watched as helmeted white water rafters finished their rides down the Class III and IV rapids of the Kicking Horse River. The calm section of the river right in front of our motor home is the cool-down after rafting the treacherous white water sections up-stream. We thought about kayaking this calmer section since we also saw these stand-up-paddlers on the Kicking Horse one day.
But we finally opted for a different kind of kayak trip on a different river. The Columbia River starts south of Golden, so we headed that direction to get a look at it. That took us to the town of Parsons--home of the largest paddle in the world. We'd like to see the size of the canoe that goes with this thing.
This area is called the Columbia Wetlands, and we found a map that helped us visualize what it looked like. The darker blue is the route of the Columbia River as it braids its way north toward Golden. The lighter blue are the wetlands, made up of lakes and ponds and streams along the river. The different parts of the wetlands may or may not be connected to the river. There are mountains on both sides that form the border of this wetland valley.
Just across from the world's largest paddle is the put-in spot for a little company called The Columbia Wetlands Outpost. A boardwalk helped get us across the entrance to the marshy wetlands and to the water.
A seriously sketchy suspension bridge also takes customers across the marsh to visit . . .
an even sketchier bathroom--with only two walls!
Denisa has taken pictures of outhouses built in particularly beautiful locations, and this one does have a nice mountain view. But that's the view from sitting on the toilet since there is no door!
We returned to our launch point via the swinging bridge that is swinging in frightening ways.
Then we're off on our wetland adventure through the reeds and narrow waterways close to our launch site.
We've been given the map below for our proposed route. This is a much smaller area than the previous map, and our assignment is to follow the white dashed line in a counter-clockwise pattern. That will keep us on the Columbia River channel, so we can float with the current part of the way. But we'll have to paddle against the current in other parts of the loop.
This is the same Columbia River that we saw roaring down the Columbia River Gorge and then emptying into the Pacific Ocean in Oregon. But when we see it now, close to its Canadian beginnings, it's a narrower and calmer river. As we start our paddle, we have the Rocky Mountains on our right, and the Purcell Range of the Columbia Mountains on our left.
We think the Rockies are prettier in this section, and they are lit up nicely in the afternoon sun.
The first part of the route lets us leisurely float towards the Purcell Mountains.
That's when Mark decided that we should go off the map and explore more of the wetlands. We found a grass-edged inlet with a current and paddled hard against it.
That suddenly opened up into a large expanse of water known as Infinity Lake according to our map. We have made it into one of the non-river sections of the wetlands!
It was a good decision, as we immediately found three trumpeter swans ahead of us.
Not used to paddlers that get off course like us, these huge birds didn't let us get very close before they took to the air.
We also spotted another timid animal that didn't let us get a good picture. This elk was barely visible in the tall wetlands grass when Mark spotted him.
We also spotted wildlife in the air. You might have to squint to see a tiny crescent in the blue sky high above the mountains in the picture below.
This wildlife is of the human persuasion. We actually saw two different paragliders that had just jumped off the bald top of one of the Rocky Mountains.
We watched as they caught thermals to rise and then floated down to land at the base of the mountain. Now that's wild-life!
We paddled the length of Infinity Lake, then up and down channels of water in the wetlands for a couple hours. Then we decided that we really should get back on course and follow the map. This would take some paddling against the current of the river now.
It was then that we heard the squawking of a young bird in peril. This wasn't a small bird--just an inexperienced one.
We followed the squawking to find this young bald eagle, calling for one of his parents to come rescue or feed him.
We watched as this parent surveyed the situation from the air, and then landed in a tree nearby.
Mark did some masterful rowing to steady our kayak so Denisa could take pictures . . .
from more than one angle. The youngster finally made an awkward flight into another tree and the squawking was silenced. It's always fun to get to witness some wildlife parenting in person.
By this time we had been on the water for hours, and the river had smoothed to glass, reflecting the mountains beside us.
As the clouds darkened, we realized that we needed to row a little faster towards our put-in spot. We could see the rain starting to fall on the mountains ahead of us.
We made it safely to our dock and carried out inflatable kayak back to the car quickly. Our quickness was inspired some by the approaching showers, but mostly from the hungry mosquitoes in the parking area. We hadn't been bothered by bugs at all on the water, but they were voracious on land. We normally dry and carefully fold up the boat, but we were throwing all the wet pieces in the car today. Whew! We just closed the car doors when the first rain drops began falling. We successfully made it through a great day on the water, exploring the wetlands of the Columbia River Valley without getting wet!
Because we get to wander in some of the most beautiful places in North America, it's hard to find something special to do for an anniversary. But this anniversary Mark pulled out all the stops and got Denisa the biggest bouquet ever. In fact, he got her a mountain-sized bunch of flowers to celebrate this 38th anniversary.
We spent the day at the seventh national park we've visited since coming to Canada. It's almost a two-hour drive to the west to get to Mount Revelstoke National Park, and we got there when the gates opened. It helped that we drove from Mountain Time zone into Pacific Time Zone, so the clock thought it was just a one hour drive. (That means it's going to be a three hour trip home since we will cross back over that time line again.) We were told that it was important to be early as the parking lot gets full at the end of the 26 kilometer drive to the top of Mount Revelstoke.
This drive is called "Meadows in the Sky Parkway," and we were the first car to the top this morning. After hiking to the top of many mountains in the last month, it is nice to drive it today. We started seeing more and more wildflowers as we got closer to the summit. The lupines seem to be at their peak right now.
Once we got our parking spot, the ranger had told us that a free park shuttle would take us the last kilometer to the summit. But that ranger didn't happen to mention that the shuttle doesn't start until 10 a.m. So after looking at Balsam Lake near the parking area, we shuttled ourselves using our hiking boots. 
We had also been told that several short hikes at the summit were nice, and that sounded like a good restful anniversary plan. But it was on that one-kilometer hike from the parking area that two women told us how beautiful the longer hike to the upper mountain lakes was. They were planning to repeat the hike to Lake Eva today, because the first time was so beautiful that "it will change your life." All-righty, I guess we're hiking to the lakes.
We took so many pictures of the wildflowers along this trail that we're going to keep putting them in the blog, while we continue to describe our anniversary day. Mark has really out-done himself with all the flower bouquets he's giving Denisa today!
To go with the lovely flowers, Mark thought to throw in a nice waterfall or two along the way. Denisa is giving Mark credit for planning a nice anniversary, but she knows that we have really wandered into another of God's wonders.
The only problem with this "life changing" hike is that it's a long ways to Lake Eva. Soon enough, we went from the flowery-meadows to the rocky portion of the trail.
But it was in this rocky section that we had the best wildlife sighting of the day. We've met lots of friendly marmots since we got to Canada, but this was special today to see a mother and her baby.
After properly greeting us, the baby needed a snack and climbed under its mother to nurse. We had never seen that before!
After hours on the trail, we finally got our first glimpse of Eva Lake. We wouldn't say that it was "life changing" for us, but it was very nice.
We have hiked to lots of beautiful mountain lakes, but they have all been harder hikes because we first had to walk up all the elevation from the base of a mountain. But by driving up Mount Revelstoke, this is a more attainable mountain lake than most. So for people that don't hike as much, this could truly be life changing.
A trail of rocks and fallen logs makes a haphazard trail out to the little island on one end of the lake. Of course Mark made the walk over that moving trail.
The water is so clear that we could see the lake trout perfectly.
We had our lunch at Eva Lake, then started the long hike back towards the car. But we just had to take the spur trail that could add another mountain lake to our anniversary day. Why stop with one lake, when you can hike to two? Welcome to Miller Lake. The two ladies giving us hiking advice thought this was a distant second place lake. But we liked it just as much as Eva Lake.
Just like Eva, Miller Lake had its own island. Just like at Eva, Mark made the rock-jumping hike to get there. We took a few pictures, and then we really had to head back to the car.
It seemed further on the way back, and the rocky section seemed longer. Among those rocks we found a showy wildflower that we're not familiar with.
We were glad to once again get back to the meadows because that meant we were almost finished. This little hike to the lakes had taken us 9.6 miles!
The shuttle was running this afternoon, and there was no doubt that we would prefer to take it instead of making the additional one kilometer hike back to our parking lot. It was fun to talk to the driver, who said this was the best wildflower season in the past five years. The last two years of smoke had really stunted the flowers and the views, so we had great timing for our first trip to Revelstoke Mountain National Park.
On the drive back down the mountain, we made an interesting stop. A local skier named Nels Nelson started ski jumping off this mountain as a boy. Eventually a ski jump was built, and competitions were held here during the early 1900's. Nels Nelson broke the world record two different times on this mountain. The ski jump is gone now, but the view is still available for us. In fact, a pair of metal skis and ski pants is available to try on for size.
They were a good fit for Mark, who could stretch into the angle just like a ski jumper!
When you lean into the metal ski pants, you can experience the same view of the valley that Nels saw when he broke the world record for the last time in 1925. Actually, his view would have included this valley blanketed in snow, but this is as close as we could get in August.
While we were walking back to the car after our ski jump, we got a FaceTime request from our son and granddaughter. They wanted to wish us a happy anniversary! So we drove quickly into the town of Revelstoke and found good free wifi at the visitor center. We even got to sit in some of our favorite red chairs out front to FaceTime.
Our extended hike to Lake Eva AND Lake Miller took up a big chunk of our anniversary. We still had four other stops to make that the national park ranger had suggested. So on the drive home we stopped at all four. First up was the "Skunk Cabbage Trail." Not a very appetizing name, we learned that these large green plants are skunk cabbage, and they grow to extra large size in this unusual mountain wetland.
The entire hike is on a boardwalk, but we were first welcomed by another set of those red national park chairs.
We were here to see the over-sized plants, but we got our best view of a beautiful Canadian bird. This is a stellar jay, whose blue feathers were easy to spot among all the green on this trail.
Just a few kilometers down the highway is stop #2--the Giant Cedars Trail. This group of trees is over 500 years old, and they were protected from the logging that cut down most of their peers many years ago.
Too big to wrap your arms around, they also have impressive height that is impossible to capture in a picture.
We have learned that all our lives we have incorrectly been calling junipers trees "cedars." These real cedars have a flat evergreen "leaf."
It is just a short drive on the Trans Canadian Highway between Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park. Our stop #3 is in Glacier, at the Hemlock Grove. Just like the cedars, old growth hemlock trees have been protected here for us to enjoy. Mark is enjoying them from our last set of red national park chairs. It's a good day when you get to sit in three different red chairs!
The sun is about to set as we make our final stop of the day at the "Rock Garden." This would be a great stop for families making long drives down the Trans Canadian highway. The big mossy boulders in the rock garden make a good place for children to run off some energy.
After our long hike and full day, we didn't have much energy left at this point. But we still appreciated the scrambling path through the rocks.
We had a very full and fun anniversary! With the additional hikes on the way home, we tallied up 14 miles on the trails for this romantic holiday. Even though we wouldn't call our hike to the lakes "life changing," they were beautiful, and they got us out in the wildflower meadows that we enjoyed. What is life changing is the day that we got married 38 years ago. We have been wandering together ever since. On the long hike to Eva Lake Mark said, "I'm not sure I want to go on this "life changing" hike. I like my life just the way it is." That's the best compliment a man could give to his wife on their anniversary!
