The third leg

When breaking camp, we’ve always packed up neatly - stowing things like camp stove and barbecue and picnic shelter in their proper places before moving off. By now we were getting good at packing up quickly and throwing things into the trailer ready to drag out again at the other end. This traveling day marked the midpoint of our trip, saying goodbye to Penticton and heading north to Shuswap lake.

Ali and I stayed at a campground on Shuswap years ago, and we chose this spot as a good base to explore the region further. We weren’t able to get into the same campground again, but were just around the corner ... weren’t we? OK, the map really doesn’t do justice to how big some of these lakes are. From the turnoff to that old campground, it was another hour’s drive along the highway and then on a narrow twisty lakeside road before we reached our destination for our third stay.

6 nights at Magna Bay resort, Shuswap Lake

If first impressions of Penticton were bad, first impressions of Magna Bay were awesome. So good, in fact, that I wondered what the downside was going to be. There had to be a downside, didn’t there? Well, really there wasn’t.

The campground is very new and spacious. They are geared up to selling the pitches to permanent buyers and there was already a growing community of “regulars” there. Megan and Matthew soon made friends with other teens on the campground, and hung out a lot on the beach and the on-site games room.

Being so out-of-the-way, we were pleased to find a very well-provisioned store a few minutes’ walk away. We also didn’t do as much traveling off site as we’d intended. We took one day trip (3 hours’ drive each way) to Roger’s Pass to show the kids some real mountains. This was one of our must-do activities, revisiting the scenery we remembered from years ago.

The kids were excited to see up-close some of the mile-long freight trains that accompany the highway across the province.

Apart from that, we made the most of facilities on the lake and nearby...

After scorching temperatures the previous week, it was actually a blessing to get some rain this week. We had one torrential downpour one night...

...and sporadic showers breaking the sunshine on other days, but it brought the temperature down to tolerable levels and eased some fears about the many wildfires breaking out across the province this summer.