The bear went over the mountain...

Looking at it... if you enlarge the picture, and look directly above all of the people standing on the raft in the middle of the lake, you will see a large square object sitting on the top of the mountain...

That object is a large (40'x60') microwave reflector tower.  After watching a group pass our campsite and appear next to it 2 hours later, J and I decided we would give it a try.  After a 1/2 hour false start, 2 hours later to the minute, we were standing near (or in J's case, "on") the tower.  The climb was quite the experience, considering the 30C temperatures we were enjoying!

However, the risk of heatstroke (and let's be honest, a plain old stroke for yours truly!), turned out to be worth it for the world-class views we found when we got to the top.  That is our little Gallagher Lake in the photo above, and the beach from the first photo in this post is at the top right corner of the lake... not bad, huh? 

And looking "up" from the picture above, you had this view to the north of the entire Okanagan Valley... Vaseux Lake is above J's head, and you can see part of Skaha Lake and the south end of Okanagan Lake among the hills at the top of the photo.

It was a heck of a climb up, and a harder "climb" down, as we made our own trail.  I will say that I am pretty sure I was in the early stages of heat prostration upon our return, but large quantities of cool water and a big dip in the lake brought my back from the brink!  As for J, well his only comment was "You're a wimp, Dad!".