Tag: Kootenays

Creating a Year-Round Haven: Our RV Lot Transformation Began in 2017

Our Trailer in 2017

We showed you a blank canvas when we last talked about our RV lot.  https://joebeans2002.com/2024/07/19/creating-our-year-round-haven-leasing-and-developing-in-bc/

We had this unit near Balfour, BC, on Kootenay Lake. The sight was perfect in every aspect except one. It wasn’t open all year. It also didn’t have running water, power, or sewage. The new location had more and more, including shower and laundry facilities and much larger lots.

What We Needed

This was the 2nd part of our quest. We were looking for a location that offered us affordability, convenience, and proximity to the necessities of life. These necessities we determined before our search and included:

Access to an airport, in this case Canadian Rockies International Airport, just north of Cranbrook, BC.

Access to a hospital, also in Cranbrook.

Access shopping and groceries, again this box was checked.

Access to a variety of restaurants, check.

And finally, a range of outdoor and indoor activities within a fairly large radius from our location. There is skiing, hiking, hot springs, national parks, kayaking, biking, cross country skiing, waterfalls, golf etc. etc., all within a 3hour driving range.

Now What

Now the hard part begins, making this lot a workable living space. We will be presenting our efforts from time to time, and we are still working on it.

To sum up with some helpful advice, we spent many suppers discussing how we were going to deal with retirement. We talked this over more than a few bottles of wine. Our goal was to handle retirement in a responsible and economical manner. We settled on this path based on cost. We wanted to live comfortably and still maximize our available funds to help in funding our travel bug.

Something To Pass On

If we had something to pass along, it would simply be, talk. Put your hopes on the table and figure out a way to get the most out of them. It also very important to not put this off to the “future”. The future is now! It has taken us 20 years to get to this point and we still have things to work out.

Creating Our Year-Round Haven: Leasing and Developing in BC

So far so, so good, 2 days in a row. Let us reach into the vault and see what we have.

Let’s go with this from 2017. A blank canvas, otherwise known as the lot we lease in BC. I’ll drop a new one chronologically from time to time. We has an extensive search throughout the Kootenays, trying to find a place that would serve us year round, with power, sewage and water. As you can see, power was not an issue. Conveniently neither was water or sewage. Resort is open year round as well. The vacant lot backed onto the Moyie River and we could see lots of potential. We settled on this location and have been working on it ever since.

Scenes From A Hike – September 4, 2021

Went for a nice hike on a forestry road that led us to the shore of Monroe Lake in the East Kootenays of British Columbia. The trek was 3.21 miles or 5.2 km. A screenshot of the route is below, in and out via the same route.

The scene below is indicative of the scenery along the road.

Once we reached the lake, there was a footbridge and an old dam, now in various stages of deterioration.

It is also the mouth of a creek, pretty much dried up as we are at the end of the season. Most creeks and rivers out here are snow and rain-fed, meaning they tend to dry up, or they are spring-fed, which this one is not. We have seen this creek higher up in the mountain in the past, but it was late October and there was runoff.

We continued to the right on the map and discovered some well-worn elk trails that we will explore later. We turned back and took the left spur to some amazing scenery. We have done this path before this and knew what we were in for. We have also kayaked through the meadow, a post I will put up once I finish playing with the video.

We also know about how to relax. A conveniently placed bench to look at the landscape.

And of course, it is not all about the scenery, let’s not forget the foliage and critters. In this case an interesting mushroom and some pretty butterflies.

Sailing Kootenay Lake

Not much wind, not much to do.  Had a full cockpit so didn’t raise the jib, likely should have.  Love the views.  Our SV is a 25 foot O’day from 1979.  Loving it.  Sorry it is on an iPhone so a pretty narrow shot.

Wandering Wednesday – Thursday Edition – Osoyoos, BC

Got busy, missed Wednesday, such is life.  This will be a quick post to show off the beauty of the Rockies and the Kootenays along the Highway 3 in British Columbia, ending with a stop in Osoyoos, BC, the southern gateway to the Okanagan Valley.

The drive is beautiful.  You come around and bend and you run into this.

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You go around another bend and then you see this.

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Then you hit the top of a hill, go around a curve, and there is the town of Osoyoos, so close, but still far.

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We made it to town, booked into our hotel and headed for the beach.  37 above will do that to you.  Very hot, very dry.  The area is an official desert with next to no rainfall throughout the year.  But there is a lake, a lake with great views in every direction.

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We spent a great day on the beach and, as evening came, I got this shot.  A perfect evening.

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In the morning we headed towards the Okanagan Valley to visit with some friends and spotted our first of many wineries in the area.  We were running a bit low, so,we decided to stock up.

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This should last us a few days.