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Wilderness Adventures - August Week Three
|
This
is about a remote area in west central British Columbia, Canada
called the West Chilcotin. Surrounded by numerous glacial mountain
ranges, alpine lakes teeming with wild Rainbow Trout, and full
of wildlife. Living here goes from no running water or electricity
to spacious log homes with all the conveniences and without
the smog!
If
you would like to see pictures of wildlife, mountains, lakes,
exciting snowmobiling, events and more, and read stories like
'Lake Monsters' - just go into Archives on the lower left side
of this page.
| 21/08/2005
11:27 AM
|
Weather Patterns
|
Is
our weather moving north? After watching the news this
weekend I really have to speculate whether the entire
North American weather pattern has moved northward.
Even today we have a slow drizzle which is very unusual
for this country, especially this time of year. Other
than for the the hot, dry two weeks of weather this summer,
ours has been cool with mixed cloud and sun. More like
the weather that Vancouver and Victoria normally has.
Meanwhile, they've just been burning up with hot, dry
weather, as has Washington and Oregon, almost as though
they are getting the weather that the southwestern states
would get this time of year. The southwestern states have
been getting even hotter temps than usual and summer weather
that Mexico normally sees. In the east in Ontario,
they've had tornados touch down and do lots of
damage and unbelievable flooding with up to 7 inches of
rain in one day! That's weather you would
normally see in the midwest and southern states. Flooding
is not that common in Canada and tornadoes, much less
really destructive ones, are even rarer, yet we're seeing
lots of both this year. One blessing with our Anahim,
Nimpo Lake region is that we really don't get disasterous
weather. In fact, it's quite moderate. The Chilcotin
Plateau really doesn't suffer from flooding. We
obviously never see tornados or hurricanes and few thunderstorms.
The weather usually doesn't get extremely hot, and even
the winters are no longer extremely cold. We don't get
a lot of rain, or snow, and rarely get a hailstorm of
any note. Tsunami's or tidal waves are not a worry for
us because we have the entire Coastal Range between
us and the Pacific Ocean, we're not on any seismic
faults, and although we are located in the Anahim
Volcanic Ring, it is not an active one. So other
than forest fire danger, we're pretty much in a natural
disaster free zone. Gotta like that! If you would like
to know more about the area's weather, you can go to the
Weather
page.
|
| 20/08/2005
8:43 PM
|
Forestry Awareness Day
|
Successful
day. The event was held at the planermill reman plant
between Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake.
The food was excellent. Wonderful steaks with corn on
the cob, baked potatoes, salads, buns and bannock. There
were lots of steaks left over. Mine was done to perfection
which means it was still mooeing. There were horseshoes
and axe throwing. The axe throwing was a lot more
difficult than it looked. It was a short handed
double bitted axe and was still heavy enough that you
had to grasp the handle with both hands and throw. Any
that tried to throw one handed didn't go far. Most of
the time, the axe would just hit the log face and bounce
off because the point of the edge didn't bite into the
wood. And I suspect the target wood had been around for
awhile. That being the case, the wood would be so hard
it would be like iron. It was fun to watch in any case.
The speeches were short and sweet, which was nice. I got
to have a long conversation with an old teacher of mine
from nearly 30 years ago who is now our local MLA (Member
of the Legislative Assembly) and represents our area in
the British Columbia government. He was
a good teacher. Hopefully he'll be as good a politician.
One of the mill guides and someone else were on the catwalk
at my station when it broke and tore out all the wiring
underneath. So I have a different system to get used when
I go back to work tomorrow night. Lucky me, second shift
is ending after next week because the price of lumber
is so low. Might be down for a couple of months. Which
would be great because hunting season is coming
up in September and that is when I get a lot of
calendar orders with my graphics business. I want to fire
back to Saskatchewan this fall to check on my whitetail
deer and I really need to work some more on my web sites.
Wilderness
Rim's
really needs updating so it's
first on the list. I would like to expand this site as
well, so fall will be busy.
|
| 19/08/2005
1:40 PM
|
Short Friday
|
Little
of this, little of that. I went a little overboard on
a couple of these articles and my page is filling up fast!
So today I'll just cover some quick points. Weather is
overcast and a little breezy in Anahim Lake, Nimpo
Lake and Tatla Lake so I expect
we have another weather system coming in. The West
Chilcotin Forest Products Forest Awareness
Day is on today. They started with tours of the
bush and mills this morning and I hope their weather was
pleasant enough for that. One lady from the planer mill
is taking lots of photos today so that she can put together
a slide show for next year. I hope to scoop a few of her
photos for future use, including for redoing the WCFP
web site. It's a little outdated and needs a new look.
Actually it's a lot outdated but it was the first web
site I built before I even went to school for this business
and I am waiting for new photos and text before starting
on a spiffier design. I really wanted to title today's
article with "The Bugs are Dead! The Bugs are
Dead!" but didn't know what kind of reaction
I would get from the search engines. Kind of sounds a
little like "The witch is dead!" in Wizard of
Oz, doesn't it? At the base of all our mountain
pine beetle infested trees is a pile of sawdust
and in the sawdust is a lot of dead beetles. These were
all trees that were injected as mentioned in previous
articles. The same has happened on the neighbour's property
and he's literally dancing with delight. And trust me,
he doesn't dance! Sap seems to be healing some of the
holes created by the beetles which shows the trees are
still alive, and producing sap in an effort to defend
themselves. That's a good sign. However, until we can
take a walk out into the woods and check at the base of
trees that have not been injected with the insecticide,
there's really no way of knowing whether dying after a
period of time is a natural phenomenon for these critters,
or whether we really are successfully battling them. We'll
see. If so, a proactive approach seems to work.
Because heretofore, all we've seen is negativity on the
part of Forestry and experts in the field, and hopelessness
on the part of everyone else. I'll let you know if they
have reason to feel that way.
|
| 18/08/2005
1:26 PM
|
Enthusiasm Truly is a Gift
|
And
contagious! I had the pleasure of a long phone conversation
with Cora Blackwell about her business - True North
Expediting. She offers a shuttle service
from the Anahim Lake Airport, as well as to and
from other locations in the area. She has a fourteen passenger
van that she will charter for you to your destination
of choice and she handles freight pickup. But what's really
exciting is her vision for the future. She sees
the demographics of tourism changing from the traditional
family or male fishing groups to a more varied one. Many
people now like to come to this region for mountain
biking, canoeing, kayaking, river rafting, hiking, bird
watching and wildlife watching in summer and heli
skiing, downhill and cross country skiing, snowshoeing
and snowmobiling in winter. There is a real need
for interpretive guides and charters for the area. We
do have the flight charter service that offers endless
opportunity for sightseeing, but with the rising cost
of fuel, some young families may find it takes a fair
chunk of their vacation budget. But there are many, many
fascinating and beautiful areas within driving distance.
It's just that quite a few of the visitors to the region
don't know where to go or would like a guide and transport
to these spots. Bella Coola is less than
two hours from Anahim Lake. On the way is
the old Tote Road. From there you can hike into Hunlen
Falls, a breathtaking 1000 foot freefalling waterfall
and the third highest in Canada. In Tweedsmuir Park,
there are several hiking trails, both long
and short, as well as the opportunity to fish on the Atnarko
and Bella Coola Rivers and the chance to see lots of wildlife,
including Grizzly Bear. Klemtu offers
bear watching, ocean kayaking, canoeing and
has a native intrepretive centre where there is drumming
and dancing. There are the ancient petryglyphs and the
Bella Coola marina. From there you can charter a fishing
boat or you can catch the ferry back down the coast. There
is the hiking trail before the 'Hill' into the Rainbow
Mountains where you can walk for a few hours,
or take a tent and hike in for days. There are numerous
lakes in the area where you might like to
go for the day, and certainly this shuttle bus could accommodate
you in that regard. Recently Cora picked up two people
from the airport with their mountain bikes in boxes and
drove them to Tatla Lake where they assembled
their bikes and went on their way hoping to find the trail
to Whistler over an 8000 foot pass. Quite an adventure
to say the least, and a long trek. As Cora proceeds with
her vision, she may be able to help vacationers
like the bikers understand the kind of country they are
getting into, where to go, and how to cope with the unforseen.
I think there's a strong need for people like Cora and
what she can offer to our visitors in the future. If you
are interested in chartering with True North Expediting,
you can reach Cora at 1-250-742-3508.
|
| 17/08/2005
1:49 PM
|
Four Wheeling
|
There
is an initiative being put forth right now regarding Off
Road Vehicle Licensing & Registration. This initiative
is intended to promote responsible use of off road vehicles
which includes fourwheelers, motorcycles and snowmobiles.
ORV's can cause a negative impact on such sensitive ecosystems
such as grasslands, wetlands and alpine areas; disturb
wildlife or livestock; aid in dispersal
of invasive plants; or disrupt other public or commercial
recreation users. Certainly this is an important consideration.
But I am concerned about some of the points mentioned
in the initiative such as:
Establishment of a Trust Fund for ORV Recreation: to include
funds for Education, Safety, Trail Development & Maintenance,
Enforcement and Conservation and Stewardship.
* Safety and operator requirements
* Designating trails and recognizing a trail pass system
* Securing opportunities for motorized and non-motorized
recreation use, and resolving conflicts
* Highway crossings for trail use
* Liability insurance
* Use restrictions to protect sensitive wildlife, ecosystems
and habitats
* Compliance and enforcement
* Implementation, including phasing-in aspects of a stewardship
strategy
Most of which sounds quite benign. However, start looking
a little closer. Right now we have to pay our money and
take a course just to operate a small boat on the
lake. Is the same going to be required of ORV's
when they talk of safety and operator requirements? Am
I to be required to pass a test to operate a snowmobile?
That, is ridiculous. By designating trails, are we then
required to stay on trails? This means that we can't go
off the trails without penalty? There isn't much point
in snowmobiling or four wheeling is there? We are already
insuranced to death and costs just keep rising. I have
liability insurance on my off road machines under a rider
on the home insurance. But a separate insurance seems
like just another money grab. The scariest part is the
use restrictions to 'protect sensitive wildlife, ecosystems
and habitat'. We have committees and clubs that
battle the environmentalists and Parks constantly
just to maintain the right to use traditional ORV areas.
Passing any law giving them more right to close us out
could have dire consequences on tourism. So much of this
country is inaccessible by any but plane, horseback
or off road vehicles. If the environmentalists
and biologists had their way, we would all only be allowed
on the highways. And I don't see where out of province
or country recreationists have been addressed. Will there
be a temporary licensing structure for them? How will
it be established? I agree that our environment is very
important, but I think that there is room for both without
it being structured and government controlled as so much
of our lives are now. |
| 16/08/2005
12:46 PM
|
Weather and Bears
|
Mix
and Match Tuesday means a little of everything. We've
had smoke making the mountains a little hazy for the last
few days. Yesterday it rolled in a lot lower. I called
my sister at the Cariboo Fire Centre in
Williams Lake yesterday to see if we had a forest fire
nearby. She'd been sent to the Kootenays where they've
had a huge fire burning out of control near Castlegar,
but I talked to another dispatcher that said there were
actually no fires to speak of in the Cariboo Fire District
which was quite a surprise considering the dry weather.
What we were getting was probably smoke from the Pemberton
fire a few hundred miles away. The situation may
have changed after yesterday, however. We got a lot of
lightning last night, with only spotty rain showers in
the region. It rained heavily in Nimpo Lake
last night, but not at all where I was working at the
mill half way between Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake.
On the way home last night I could see a blood red glow
on the horizon to the east but haven't seen or heard anything
since. Heavy overcast today and cool temperatures which
may put a damper on any fire that may have been started
by lightning.
There seems to be more grizzly bears around this
year. A grizzly sow and two cubs have been spotted
several times around Nimpo Lake Resort. A sow with one
cub has been seen several times in broad daylight poking
around Two Mile Gas Bar just outside of Anahim Lake, and
there's a grizzly sow with two cubs up on the BeefTrail.
The cooler, rainier weather we enjoyed earlier this summer
may have been why they weren't driven up into the higher
alpine they prefer. A few ranchers found calves dead this
spring and I know a fellow up at Morrison Meadows has
had problems with grizzlies for years. For the most part
though, they are a shy animal and tend to mind their own
business. The Bella Coola valley offers lots of
opportunity to see and photograph grizzly bears
since it has one of the highest grizzly populations in
western Canada. The Bella Coola and Atnarko river salmon
runs draw the bears much they way it does in Alaska. Although
I've seen quite a few grizzly, I never carried a camera
so I have no personal photos of them. I've taken to packing
a camera everywhere with me now and hope to get a picture
to post. In the meanwhile, I've got pictures courtesy
of Ken Stranaghan of Bella Coola. For more on the wildlife
in the area, check out the Wildlife
page or the Wildlife
Gallery .
|
| 15/08/2005
1:02
PM |
British Columbia Forest Industry
|
Some
quick facts and figures relating to the mountain pine
beetle. According to COFI, The mountain pine beetle
epidemic in British Columbia is
the largest forest insect infestation in Canada’s history.
As of fall, 2004, they are estimated to have affected
283.5 million m³ of timber, spread over an area
larger than the size of Sweden. The start of the
current mountain pine beetle infestation in B.C.'s central
Interior can be traced back to 1993. and the mountain
pine beetle outbreaks develop regardless of property lines.
They can appear in mountain subdivisions, backyards and
municipal parks the same as in wilderness areas. The mountain
pine beetle in B.C. is as far-ranging as Fort St. James
to the north; Cranbrook to the east; Houston to the west;
and Manning Park, located between Hope and Princeton,
to the south. The direction and spread rate of a beetle
infestation is impossible to predict exactly. In addition
to B.C. and Alberta, the mountain pine beetle can be found
in 12 western American states, and even Mexico. The
beetle infestation will have economic implications in
the future for 30 communities around the province and
25,000 families in British Columbia are having
their livelihoods impacted by the beetle infestation.
I don't think studies have even begun to realize the import
of the impact on both lumber and tourism in the region.
More importantly, I think that you are going to see some
long term effects environmentally. Although the area affected
is not as huge as the rain forest in South America, I
think that the loss of this many oxygenating trees in
such a short period could easily have the impact that
burning of the rain forest has. Locally, on a provincial
level, I think that you will see some climate changes.
There will definitely be more wind from the Pacific without
the pine buffer zone. That in turn will knock down unprotected
trees. It will be interesting to see how it all plays
out in the next 10 years.
Just
to let you know, this is the start of a new week, so stories
from last week can be found at August2.
|
The purpose of this web site is to draw attention to a
remote area of west central British Columbia. It is a
beautiful area that relies heavily on tourism. The search
engines don't know much about the West Chilcotin, Anahim
Lake, Nimpo Lake or any of the other small communities
in the region and I hope to change that! Even as large
as this site will eventually be, there just isn't enough
room or time in the day to fully describe this incredible
country but I am going to try scraping away at the tip
of the iceberg, so join me!
Follow
the links, and see what the West Chilcotin is really like!
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