East of Kelowna on Highway 33, Big White Road will take you to Big White Ski Resort but for real outdoor recreation you need to head North East on the 201 Forest Service Road just a few km up the Big White Road. Graystokes protected area and official snowmobile trails can be accessed from the 201 the area is also known as the West Kettle. The West Kettle encompasses many streams and two lakes, Derickson Lake and Two Johns Lake. My friend Ray Derickson is the registered owner of the age old trapline that is on the West Kettle and this track is one of several that document some of the country on the trapline. You can follow the track and find numerous crown land camping locations for some free camping. For an awesome camping experience plan for a backcountry stay and be prepared to fend of grizzlies, elk, moose, cougar and squirrels.
The track above ends just before we got to Two Johns Lake because I lost a satellite connection for my BlackBerry. Interesting to note that when I was at the lake and took the picture of the cabin, the latitude and longitude were noted and uploaded though! That is cool as the location of the cabin picture on the track is exactly where it is. The cabin wouldn´t give much shelter but in a pinch, one could use the supplies there to “hole up” if he/she was hurt or lost.When we hiked to Two Johns lake, we stayed on the high side as the lower section had a lot of water. Typical though, we went a little too high and had to double back through brush. Nice hike none the less. Coming back, you can see in satellite view that we took the cut block back – found the beginning of the block and stayed to the bottom of it until we were back at the parking lot.
Wow - the matches still work!
- Two John Lake
The side road we took was Derickson Logging Road. As I look on the map, I see that if we parked and stayed to the high ground, with a gps waypoint of Derickson Lake, we could have a little hike right to Derickson Lake.
Also, on the drive to Two Johns, there was a road that went to the south east – I am thinking that road will take us near Big White, we will try to explore that area next time. A look on this map in satellite view will help determine the way for the next exploration trip to Big White and Derickson Lake.
View Two John Lake on the West Kettle in a larger map