Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Rachel loves scrapbooking and recently made a "100 Things I Love" page, partly using Photoshop. I carried on with Photoshop and made a pure digital version. Also included is a photoshop tutorial for the "text-masking" typographic technique.

Scrapbook Page via Photoshop

100 Things I Love: Rachel used Photoshop to make the text "one hundred" out of all 100 things that she loves. It's a blend of digital and hardcopy scrapbooking, which turned out nicely.

Rachel has been scrapbooking for a few years and she has improved her skills remarkably. Each 12-inch by 12-inch page she does now is a work of art. Most of her pages are vignettes of the moments of family life and - one day - I will photograph and put them in an online gallery - to share and inspire others with their own scrapbooking projects.

In contrast, I scrapbook online, with this blog. (I'm more about the words than the pictures ... but I try!)

Rachel's latest effort is shown here, a page dedicated to the "100 Things I Love". The page is a blend of digital scrapbooking and paper scrapbooking. It's Rachel's first foray into the digital scrapbooking realm.

I found an online Photoshop tutorial that explained how to make text from words, which Rachel then used to make her own "100". I think it turned out really well and thought others might like to learn about the technique. (Of course, because I'm the "computer dude" in the family, I took Rachel's final "100" and put my own spin on a purely digital page, which you can see by reading on) ...

Photoshop Scrapbooking Technique

Bowron Lakes Canoe Trip: Listed as one of the World's top 10 best wilderness canoe trips, we thought we'd give it a whirl. We dropped Alex off with grandparents in Vancouver and made the 9-hour drive to get to the renown park in central British Columbia. Follow along by reading the journal of our 6-day wilderness experience! (Pics, maps, video, a slide-show and resource section all - eventually - included).

A 6-Day Canoe Adventure in the wild Cariboo Mountains

The Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit: If you're looking to whet your appetite for adventure, follow along on our 6-day Bowron Lakes canoeing adventure. If you're looking for a beautiful coffee table book of this wonderful, pristine wilderness - click the picture for a glimpse at Chris Harris' book - "The Bowron Lakes".

The Bowron Lake Provincial Park, in central British Columbia, is a wilderness park that encompasses over three hundred thousand acres and contains a world-famous canoe circuit. The circuit includes six major lakes (Indianpoint, Isaac, Lanezi, Sandy, Spectacle and Bowron) and together with several other smaller lakes, streams, rivers and portages, makes up a unique, circular wilderness wetlands route. The circuit is 116 kilometers long (72 mi) and includes a total of 10 kilometers of portages. Most visitors take six or seven days to complete the circuit, though many linger - fishing, relaxing and enjoying the breathtaking beauty of this unique wilderness.

Bowron Lakes - one of the ten best wilderness canoe trips in the World.

- Outside Magazine

The area was classified as a game reserve in 1926, by the British Columbia government, thanks to efforts by Frank Kibbee and Thomas & Eleanor McCabe. In 1961, it was reclassified as a Provincial Park and named after John Bowron, a gold rush pioneer who later became the Commissioner at nearby Barkerville About Barkerville Barkerville is the largest historic site in British Columbia. Founded in 1862, Barkervilles was the "gold capital of BC". Burned down, it was rebuilt, but became a ghost town. It was restored in 1958 for the Provincial centennial and today, remains a town of discovery - a unique streetscape with over 125 heritage buildings, Royal Theater shows, exhibits, stage coach rides, street theater in the summer and unique shops, filled with Victorian-era merchandise. Open all year, the town springs to life in the summer months. Thousands of visitors come from all over the world to travel to this unique attraction. There are mining demonstrations, street interpreters, restaurants, gold panning and other displays. Click the green-shaded word to visit the Barkerville website (should open in a new window).  B.C.'s famous restored gold-rush town.

Both are located in the Cariboo Mountains in central British Columbia and accessed via Highway 26 from Quesnel, to Wells (90 km, or 55.8 mi, via a paved road). The Park can be reached by a secondary road (at this writing, a dirt road) that is another 30 kilometers (18.6 miles). Bowron Lake Provincial Park is - quite literally - at the end of the road.

Bowron Lakes Facility Map: This unique, circular canoe circuit starts at the registration center and heads in a clockwise direction. The camps where we stayed are highlighted.

Join us on our 6-day adventure. The journal is rich in detail and includes many photographs and a short video of a moose grazing. If you're planning your own trip, the slideshow will whet your appetite and the journal will provide some insight about what to expect. We've also included a useful "Resources" section at the end, which may aid in your planning. It includes a detailed contour map, which you can download and use.

For us, the Bowron Lake Canoe adventure is our first canoeing trip, though hardly our first adventure trip. It is also our only adventure trip of the year, without our four-year-old daughter - thanks Gran & Grandpa, for hosting Alex! - and we had an excellent time! Wildlife, scenery, people, paddling and the weather were all outstanding.

Enough preamble ... on with the adventure.

A trip to California with the Oop, a new hot-tub project and the normal run of web work ... things have been pretty thin at Randsco for a while. We recently took a family boat trip to the floating cabin . Read about the adventurous ordeal in this floating cabin log entry.

First Solo Trip to the Floating Cabin

Blurry Bear: At dusk, a black bear and her cub came out of the woods near the cabin, to eat mussels off a log that had been lifted onto the beach at high tide. Using a zoom lens through misty rain, Scott added this image to our growing collection of "blurry wildlife" photos.

Our first solo trip to the floating cabin was very memorable. Some of the memories will actually be GOOD ONES!

A flat tire, a bloody nose, getting hung up on the dock while launching, a rough-as-cobb trip (during which, we almost turned the boat around and headed for home), a four-hour boat ride, locked out of the cabin and running out of gas ... are some of the not-so-good ones.

We're new to the floating cabin and also to our boat. As a bunch of newbies, we're learned a BUNCH of valuable lessons during our ill-fated trip! HA!

There were some positive events. Despite pouring rain all Friday night and Saturday morning, it did - eventually - clear up and we had a rain-free (and sometimes sunny) Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. We spotted a couple of sea otters (a baby one on the back deck, which we watched from about five feet away). We also saw loads of bald eagles and a few bear (one of which we watched all morning, as it meandered along the beach, flipping rocks and eating various sea creatures). We met a few of our cabin neighbors. We also learned where we can get gas, along the way to the cabin.

To read the cabin log entry from our first solo trip to the floating cabin ...

Read full story...

My hurried post about our Halloween festivities. Dad and the Oop carve pumpkins

Pumpkins 2007: Here are the two pumpkins that the Oop & Dad carved, the night before Halloween. Alex was really into the pumpkin carving, saving the seeds so that we can roast them in the oven. Yummy!

Alex is four years old and this will be her second year trick-or-treating on Vancouver Island. This year, Alex will be going door-to-door dressed as a unicorn. It's interesting to note that in Canada, the full-length costumes are a big hit (as they keep the young ones warm) on typically frigid Halloween nights. When Scott was a kid, in California, you just tossed a sheet over your head and BOOM! ... you were a ghost!

To finish the ghoulish tale ... you'll need to punch "read full story".

Read full story...

Scott & Rachel took their 3 1/2 year-old daughter on her 3rd self-supported bicycle touring adventure. They cycled from Yellow Point to Seattle and back (350 miles or so). Read about their 10-day journey. (Completed through Day 4)

338 Miles, 5 Ferries & 10 Days of Sunshine

Carry & Ferry Tour: We cycled from Nanaimo, to Victoria, ferried to Port Angeles, cycled and ferried to Seattle and then back via Redmond, Bellingham and the Tswwassen ferry. Whew! 338 miles towing the Oop!

Early this month, we enjoyed a 10-day bicycle loop adventure. We started from our home in Yellow Point, just south of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island and rode to Seattle Washington (via Victoria) and then back, along the Washington coast. Along the way, we took a few ferry boats, which helped break up the riding for our 3-and-a-half year-old daughter.

It was Alex's third cycle-tour! (For a 3 year-old, that's pretty good!)

We experienced 10 days of glorious Indian Summer weather, we camped out, we visited with friends in Victoria, West Seattle, Redmond and Bellingham, we had an unlikely encounter with an old PCT friend, and we even managed to cycle a fair distance.

Join us for the tour! See photos, maps and read the daily log. Learn which routes made for good cycling, where we'd visit again, why Washington State is bicycle-friendly and more about the logistics of cycling with a kid, riding ferries and cycling western Washington, Vancouver Island and the Vancouver lower-mainland.