If you’ve heard of the South Chilcotins, you probably know Spruce Lake. But if you’ve never been, here’s a story to educate and inspire you.

Spruce Lake is an eight hour ride from our ranch, one of our twenty-five wilderness camps, the pull of the mountains’ energy is strong here. Lea and I are guiding four guests, brother and sister Craig and Sam and their ten and eleven year old daughters, Jessica and Isla. Craig has always wanted to be a cowboy, the two girls love horses and Sam tells us she thinks Jessica and Isla are missing out on nature by living in the city. She and Craig grew up in the mountains and says Isla can’t imagine some of the stories she tells her about living in a small town.

So this trip will be a chance for everyone to connect to nature and each other. Jessica and Isla have already professed to falling in love with their horses, Scout and Tepee. Lea and I are both impressed to see the kids listen to their horses, they know what it means when the horses’ ears lay flat and how to handle them if they get pushy. Craig bonds with his horse Willy quickly too, by the time we arrive in camp, they’re a team. Sam hasn’t ridden a horse since she was Isla’s age. Zola seems to sense her slight nervousness and adjusts accordingly.

Spruce Lake is a great camp for this family as the Gun Creek Trail is well used and easy to ride. During the eight hour ride we see Isla and Jessica moving from just loving their horses to learning from them. Craig looks at ease in the saddle and we watch Sam’s nerves melt away. We meet a group of hikers on the trail and the girls are keen to tell them some quick facts about their horses, where we’re going, how long it will take and our route. They sure paid attention during the map orientation.

We roll into camp around 3pm. We tie up our horses in the corral while we take our gear off the pack horse, Pika. We give all the horses oats, which over the trip becomes Jessica and Isla’s responsibility. They are very diligent on this, measuring out the oats and taking them to each horse.

Now we are going to stake the horses in the meadow. We ride out to the meadow and teach our guests how to stake and hobble the horses. We walk back to camp and take some time to study a deer track on the trail.

The cabin has a propane stove and wood-burning stove, like most of our camps. It has an upstairs sleeping loft but its unique feature is a tap and running water, gravity fed from a nearby creek. As Craig, Sam, Lea and I start making dinner, Isla and Jessica hurry down to the lake with a fishing rod. Isla regularly goes fishing with her dad and she’s ready to teach Jessica how to cast. The cabin is right on the lake shore which means the kids can get in touch with nature by themselves, but their parents can still see they’re OK.

Spruce Lake is one of our biggest camps so once the campfire has burned down for the night, we head back to our tents in the middle of the campground. Our canvas wall tents with foamies and sleeping cots are the perfect end to the day. We can hear Isla and Jessica whispering stories about their horses and their experiences to each other. But they’re clearly wiped out from a big day and are soon asleep.

The next morning we are up early. Everyone is excited to get back on their horses and we all walk quickly up to the meadow. The horses are waiting for us. We saddle up. Isla and Jessica can almost do this by themselves already, they’re quick learners. They are both determined not to let their parents do it for them, they have embraced our philosophy of learning through having challenges and trying something new. Lea and I can see this is a new experience for Craig and Sam who clearly want to rush to their daughters’ aid as soon as they struggle to remember a knot or don’t quite have the saddle in the right place. Every time, Jessica and Isla work this out for themselves. The only time they ask for help is to lift the saddles onto the horse.

With two empowered guides-in-the-making we set off on the trail. Today we will ride to the Open Heart lookout then around Spruce Lake to Cowboy Camp. We’d stopped in Spruce Lake meadows on the way into camp yesterday to identify wildflowers – balsam root, lupine, wild potatoes, tiger lily, Indian paintbrush and many more. Now, all our guests can identify these plants as we rode through more meadows. At the lookout, we point out Castle Peak and Cardtable Mountain. We explain that, like Mount Sheba, the tallest mountain in the park that they’d seen yesterday, we use these two mountains for navigating. We ask our guests if they know which direction the ranch is in. They all point in the right direction. We know they’d been paying attention yesterday.

We ride around the west side of Spruce Lake. In an open meadow, we see a big grizzly. Isla and Jessica are amazed, they can’t speak, only point to make sure everyone knows about this amazing animal in front of us. I am riding at the back of the group and can see Craig and Sam’s shoulders tense. They are instantly alert to danger. We’d explained before we set out that the safest place to be was on top of your horse as a bear was unlikely to attack such a big animal. When the bear only watches us, Sam and Craig relax. Lea mimes taking a picture. Everyone gets their phones out and when they were done taking pictures, Lea shouts at the bear and it quickly moves away. As we ride past where the bear had been, we talk loudly to keep the bear away. This isn’t hard as all four of our guests are buzzing with excitement, wanting to share their experience of the encounter. Once we’re at a safe distance, we get out our wildlife sightings form and show our guests how to fill it in so that they get to contribute to conservation of the wilderness they are riding through.

We make it to Cowboy Camp. There is an old collapsed cabin and a corral here. Craig is as fascinated by these remains as he is by the mountain views. He is clearly envisioning cowboys spending the night here, cooking over the campfire and sharing stories.

Once we’d experienced this piece of history we ride back to camp but before we stake the horses, we want to show our guests an even older piece of history. In the staking meadows high above camp are 50 million year old fossils which were once on the ocean floor. We watch Isla and Jessica try to comprehend this number and that this place 6000ft above sea level was once the bottom of the ocean. We stake our horses for the night and hike back to camp. Today, Jessica and Isla want to learn how to make a fire. We explain the principle, help them set up the sticks then let them practice lighting it and getting it to burn. It takes a few tries but with some teamwork, they get a great fire burning. The effort it took them to get it started makes them very vigilant not to let the fire burn out.

Around the campfire, we reflect on the day. The girls still have lots of stories about their horses, but now they want to share their successes and reflections too. Isla is naturally the more confident of the two but soon Jessica is enthusiastically telling everyone how she remembered all the knots to saddle her horse and could list the names of all the wildflowers she’d learned.

The next morning, we packed up and as we ride back to the ranch, we test our guests to see if they remember the way. They pass with flying colours. They can’t stop talking about their experience. The mountains, the horses, the wildlife and everything they’ve learned has an impact on them. They all experienced a deeper nature connection, exactly what they’d wanted to get out of this trip.

Charlie