An excuse to get off-pavement

Fifteen kilometers west of Revelstoke at Three Valley Lake on the Trans-Canada, a 110 kilometer route along the Mabel Lake Forest Service Road provides easy access to quiet and isolation; however, it’s probably safest to take this active logging corridor on weekends. Initially the backroad skirts lily-dotted marshes and Wap Creek. As you wind through the timber you’re high above Mabel Lake.  A forest road veering east off the main road provided an overnight camp spot although it wasn’t the choicest lot.

We awoke to the smell of smoke. The wildfire east of Mabel Lake albeit now under control is still smouldering. Only weeks ago, this was an active fire area and the road had been closed. Charred remains abut the road.

At the south end of Mabel Lake you’re back on pavement. The platform at the dam on Shuswap Falls provides a front row seat to view the roaring water below. 

As you near Lumby at the edge of the Monashee Mountains the bottomland is now rich with hay, corn and livestock.

We’re back in familiar territory. The image of a gentler Monashee mountain range we’ve known for years is forever changed given our trip up Highway 23. As we continue homeward we’ll skirt the Columbia River as it proceeds south through Arrow Lakes.