Take Life Adagio

TAKE LIFE ADAGIO AT THE LAKE

Summer is the time to slow down, disconnect, decompress and savour the moment, particularly if at that moment in time you are somewhere where you want to be. Like Christina Lake, and you’re on a bike, hike, kayak or paddle board going slow, silent and simple.

Summer releases for some of us the urge to ‘rev up our motors’ and take to the trail with our ATVS, the roads with our motorcycles and the lake with our jet-skis and wake boats. While Christina Lake and the Boundary/Kootenay region of the province are large and wild enough spaces to accommodate mechanized exploration, choosing to traverse the area on your own steam buys you time to loiter in arguably one of the most beautiful areas of B.C.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT CHRISTINA LAKE?

Where else have you got a landscape that straddles two distinct biomes – grassland and temperate forest – and within that a spectrum of

ecosystems that feature copses of cottonwoods, pondorosa pines and  first-growth cedars? Where two rivers lazily loop their way past farmland, nurseries, historic Doukhobor homesteads and sunbleached

river rocks and sandflats? Where a decommissioned railway gently – with never an incline of more than 2% – winds its way down mountain passes on either side of a ‘sunshine valley’, passing over no less than four magnificent old trestle bridges and one canyon gorge? Where a lake on a major

highway has escaped the scourge of overdevelopment because half of it extends into protected provincial park terrain? And whose water – clear and sun-warmed – gives it an enviable status as a family favourite for swimming and boating? These are the waterways, footpaths and historic byways close by the lake that let us experience life at a tempo it was designed. To be inhaled, heard and connected to one deliberate footstep, pedal and paddle at a time.

HOW TO EXPLORE THE OUTDOORS AT THE LAKE

If you need more encouragement to get ‘unplugged’ and offroad this summer, you’ll find the support you need through a number of local and online resources:

1. Christina Lake Welcome Centre; a goldmine of information and assistance for all things lake-oriented. Check out their new trail map

   

   which clearly marks, describes and gives directions to trailheads for 27 hiking and mountain biking trails, the canoe & kayak access points on the lake and all marine park campgrounds.

2. Four websites: cltrails.info, trailforks.com, kettlerivermba.com, trailsbc.ca for information regarding hike/bike trails in the

   

   Boundary, mountain biking in the Kettle River basin, and the section of the Trans Canada trail

   

   between Grand Forks and Christina Lake.

3. Local rental services. New owners at Wildways Adventure Sports – the Strzelec family – are happy to accommodate all your adventure sports needs. See them for kayak, paddle board and bike rentals, and just general help with your tires, your derailleur, your route, and the shuttles available. Kayaks, canoes and paddle boards can also be rented at the Christina Lake Marina and kayaks at Lakeview Motel.

Take life adagio (a musical term which means ‘at a slow tempo’) this summer, and truly tune into the

harmony of our glorious outdoors!