Well, the next time the weather office predicts “temperatures souring into the high 30’s”, I guess I will believe them-and not spend the day driving in a mobile oven all over hill and dale.

I did start a bit later than expected, but it was actually all worth it. I headed up the Trout Lake road (north) and first stop was the Gerrard  Trout spawning channel where I couldnt find a piece of shade to work anywhere with a view of the river. But I did stand on the viewing platform, got some reference photos and a great idea for the finished painting. (stay tuned; when its done I will post it). 

Water, being everywhere in the Columbia Basin, is a huge influence on our culture here. The hydro electric dams on the Columbia River system were the cause of the formation of the Columbia Basin Trust (many years after the fact.) (The CBT website tells more about this).

Transportation, recreation, fish habitat, power generation, spiritual “power points”, fruit orchards, agriculture -  all these and more reflect on how we live here. So , there may be several images in the Art of Philately collection that relate to water as part of our culture. (The Gerrard Rainbow will certainly be one).

The drive north to Trout Lake city from Gerrard is spectacular, but it does follow a narrow winding dirt logging road; so dont try this in winter (!) unless you have a good four wheel drive vehicle and a healthy sense of adventure. But in summer; its beautiful. I putted along, not too fast, given the number of hairpin turns and blind corners, and was rewarded with one after another of many stunning views of the mountains across Trout lake. I was also quite often viewing clear cuts; either new or mostly grown in, which also reflect a large piece of Basin culture; forestry and the logging industry.

The town of Trout Lake contains an old hotelwhich is a recommended stop should you decide to check out the town or just head down to the lake for one of the (above mentioned) pasttimes dealing with water…

I finally turned south again, after stopping for a minute or two to chat with a lovely little black bear who was dining on grass at the side of the road.  He finally got tired of being stared at by the dumb tourist (you’d think Id never seen a bear before…) and loped off. I continued on my (melting) way towards Nakusp. Still not finding many spots in the shade to stop and sketch I kept going down to New Denver, and there by the cenetaph was finally able to pull out my new Pan pastels.  They are a delight to work with! The only annoying part was constantly unscrewing the little containers one from another, then putting them together again at the end.

But the pastel itself is very creamy and smooth and goes on very evenly. I recommend trying them; I still love Senneliers and Schminkes, but these new ones are certainly worthwhile.

And speaking of global warming…the glaciers around these parts sure arent what they used to be. If you plan on a visit to the Kootenays to climb one of the many glaciers, best think of doing it soon, while there is still glacier to climb up to…as magnificent as they are to see, they appear to be doing a vanishing act.

After New Denver, the shadows were becoming decent, and making the scenery more interesting to sketch. (High noon anywhere doesnt make for good light for en plein air work).

I headed back East towards Kaslo and finished my days sketches with a few preliminaries of the lovely Mt. Loki, which sits so nicely above the town.(see below). Having survived all that, I headed home as the day cooled down to a more reasonable temperature. Now if I could just spend every day doing things like this, (albeit in  slightly cooler conditions)  I think I could be quite content.!DB