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Wilderness Adventures - August Week Four
|
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.
| 30/08/2005
2:02 PM
|
Otters
|
A
family of four otters went swimming past
yesterday. Unfortunately, I was on the phone and they
went by too fast for me to get a picture. The must be
quick and strong swimmers. If they came from where the
Dean River leaves Nimpo Lake as I suspect
and were going to where I see signs of otter when I cross
country ski in winter, then they had quite a ways to go.
No problem at the rate they were moving along. They seem
to be shy animals and you don't see them often, but there's
no doubt that they have a playful side to them. When the
lake was quite icy last year from a melt and then we got
a skiff of snow, I could see where they had been
sliding on their bellies on the ice on the other
side. From the looks of their tracks, they would hump
up for momentum and then off they would slide, for a good
12 to 14 feet. The tracks went for a good mile like that
so they must have been having great fun, much like we
would if we were skating.
Stories for the next week or so will probably be
intermittant. I have company coming from Saskatchewan
today and hope to spend as much time as possible with
them. I'm hoping and praying for good weather for their
stay. Normally this time of year is guaranteed to
be glorious, but this year we seem to be getting
a lot of unstable weather, with rain showers passing through
every few minutes. The jet stream just isn't where it
usually is so I suspect that's the cause. In any case,
I'll pick up daily after the Labour Day long weekend.
|
| 29/08/2005
9:22 PM
|
Katrina
|
Watched
her on the news quite a bit today. I just don't envy anyone
in her path and having never gone through a hurricane
before, really can't comprehend what it would be like.
Although some do say jokingly that Saskatchewan has one
365 days of the year. I've always been fortunate to live
in areas that just really don't see much in the way of
natural disasters. I do love storms, however,
and can imagine that besides being scary, it sure would
be exciting to go through a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude.
Crazy too, of course. Of all the newscasts I saw today,
all the devastation to highways, office buildings, homes,
trees and powerlines, I think that the most sickening
thing of all, was the looters. There is no excuse
for creatures like that to even be alive on earth.
If they were bugs, we would step on them. I listened to
the governor's speech that the police forces would be
ruthless toward looting, but I can understand that those
same forces would be stretched pretty thin trying to rescue
the fools that stayed behind and unable to enforce that
order. What do these culls do? Hide in their basements
until the storm goes over, knowing all along that as soon
as they can, they'll be able to rip off business owners
unable to defend their stores? Oh, poor things are just
too poor to get out of the storm's path and thats why
they were still there. Poor in a pig's eye. It's
really too bad all the bottom feeders didn't drown!
I don't believe it would have been a loss at all, but
instead a real benefit to all mankind. At least they wouldn't
be able to breed anymore and produce more of their kind.
Do I sound angry and bitter? Absolutely. I'm a business
owner. I've worked hard for what I have as have those
that are being ripped off by looters this very day. These
scum come along and take what the storm hasn't, and I'll
bet not one of them has ever contributed a single, solitary
thing to society. In the meanwhile, my insurance premiums
are going to go up already because of the hurricane; yes
even in Canada - and looters just add to that cost. That
is minor though, in the face of flagrant defiance
of the law. That just plain tees me off!
|
| 28/08/2005
10:28 PM
|
Bear Attacks
|
Two
different occurrences this weekend have resulted in one
death and one injury. A 68 year old man was mauled
and killed the day before yesterday just north
of Winnipeg, Manitoba by a black bear. He
had gone out to go picking plums and when he didn't return
in a reasonable time, his family became concerned and
called the police. A search was launched and resulted
in the man being found by police mauled to death. A police
officer on the scene caught the glimpse of something out
of the corner of his eye. A young black bear was
circling around the officer and the dead man.
He had time to pull out his service revolver and shoot
the bear twice, killing it. An autopsy is being done on
the bear to determine why it would have attacked the man.
However, locals in the area said that it had been a very
poor year for berries and natural food sources for the
bears was very scarce. There had been many reports
of bears in the area raiding bird feeders, fruit
trees and garbage cans.
A woman, hiking in Banff National Park was attacked
by a grizzly sow yesterday. Apparently while walking,
she suddenly found herself between the sow and two of
her cubs. The grizzly attacked, but fortunately, the mauling
was shortlived. As soon as the bears left, the woman was
able to walk out of the area she was in to get help, where
she was immediately taken to hospital and remains in serious
but stable condition at this time. Dramatic weather conditions
such as all the provinces have been experiencing has had
a real affect on all wildlife, especially bears. Some
of the provinces have been experiencing extreme drought
conditions, burning off berry buds, while others have
had a great deal of rain and not enough sun to develop
berries. This is one of the main food sources in places
such as Manitoba for bears in the fall when they are trying
so hard to achieve massive weight gains for winter hibernation.
As always, this is a grim reminder that you should be
alert, and aware of your surroundings while in bear country,
carry bear spray and walk in groups of at least two or
more people if at all possible.
|
| 27/08/2005
8:39 PM
|
The English Military Maneuvers Gone Awry
|
Rescue.
I apologize for not writing yesterday, something came
up, hence the overlong suspense about this story. This
was not necessarily a rescue, but what might have happened
had a bush pilot not intervened is difficult to say. In
February of 1994 the English military chose to embark
on a military exercise from Bella Coola to Quesnel on
the Alexander Mackenzie Trail. Although a 480
km trail should not be an impossible task for trained
and fit military personnel, it becomes substantially more
difficult and dangerous in the dead of winter. One of
the fellows had hiked the trail one summer and had put
forward a proposal to his unit commander that not only
would this be a suitably rigorous training exercise, but
as the first people to cross-country ski the Mackenzie
Trail, it would be a new record and a feather
in their cap. They embarked on their quest for fame leaving
two of their unit to man ancient World War II radio equipment
while one poor soul carried the other end on his back.
It is fortunate that they chose to use Nimpo Lake
Resort as their base because Terry Brandt lived
nearby. Because they were unable to get their radio equipment
working, he insisted they take a handheld radio that used
local repeaters. He also warned them that not only were
they ill equipped for this venture, but pointed
out the dangers of pursuing this exercise at that time
of year. Regardless, off they went. So every day
Terry flew over them as they struggled further and further
out. And each day he noticed they seemed worse off than
the day before. They had judged that the trek would only
take a week. Each carried what seemed about 100 lbs on
their back of which about 90lbs were unnecessary with
heavy items such as ice crampons. The Mackenzie Trail
is a high ridge trail above the Blackwater River
and day after day the group struggled through three feet
of snow on the ridge. One lieutenant, a female, weighed
not much more than her pack and straggled in to camp totally
exhausted long after the rest as late as 10:00 every night.
They ran out of food after only a week and finally
ended up at Eliguk Lake. Terry landed the plane
on the ice and insisted they use a cabin there to warm
up and dry out their mummy bags that had gotten wet the
first day and had never dried out since. He also insisted
that he fly the exhausted lieutenant back to base then
began to bring food to the party. Every day he spoke to
the unit over the handheld to ask them what they needed,
and dropped in light food supplies high in protein such
as nuts, jerky and dried fruit for packing as well as
dried meals high in carbs that were light weight for carrying;
but filling. It became apparent to Terry that their
daily trudge through heavy snow on the ridge was becoming
more and more of a struggle. At his drop the next
day he landed on a nearby lake and pointed out to the
exhausted skiiers that they could easily ski the frozen
Blackwater River that lies just below the Mackenzie Trail
all the way to the end rather than fight the endless snow
and cold on the ridges. Out of desperation they finally
agreed to the route and arrived at their destination 21
days from the start of their trek, fully 14 days
past due. Had there been no kind and concerned
bush pilot with the skill to fly and land
anywhere and his partner to scrounge up and provide exactly
the meals the unit needed what would have happened? Had
they not used Mary's Nimpo Lake Resort as
a base, would anyone aside from those souls manning a
radio that wouldn't work, have ever known they were out
there much less taken it upon themselves to fly up and
look after them every day? A modern day bush pilot
requires all the guts, determination, and ability that
those that opened up the north country all those years
ago had. We're lucky they're still around!
|
| 25/08/2005
11:50 AM
|
Sharing with Planes
|
Everyone
here shares water space with the floatplanes. But it must
be quite a surprise for newcomers or vacationers
to the area that aren't familiar with something that size
going over their heads or landing on the water nearby.
The odd new local has been known to complain about the
noise of takeoffs, but since the floatplanes
were here first, I'm sure not going to. They don't take
off before 8:00 in the morning and this isn't like living
near an airport because it just isn't that busy on the
lake, but it's still quite funny to be talking to a neighbour
on the phone when one takes off and I have to tell them
to stop talking for a moment because I can't hear them,
then they in turn have to tell me to stop talking because
the plane is now near their place. The first time I was
talking to someone from Saskatchewan on the phone and
one of Stewart's DeHavilland Beavers took
off, I had to tell him to hang on for a moment. "What
the hell is that?" he asked, because all
he could hear over the phone was a roar. "That,
my friend, is a floatplane!" I replied with
pride. The same thing happened the other day when two
glass repair fellows were here admiring the view and two
planes went up in tandom. They just stood there
in awe as the planes flew by our peninsula and
I yelled at them. "Aren't they beautiful? It doesn't
get any better than this!" It's a real pleasure,
even after all this time, to watch a plane push to get
up onto the 'step' or touch down like a feather with lake
spray following their floats.
All of the pilots are very concientious and cognizent
of where any boats are on the lake and there are
probably no better pilots in the world than bush pilots.
In the past century, they've opened up a lot of inaccessible
country including the Northwest Territories, Yukon and
Alaska. In years past, many have saved countless towns
by flying in vaccines for disease outbreaks as well as
medivacced out individuals hurt or lost in the wilderness.
In the early nineties there was a similiar story here.
But I'll tell you about that tomorrow!
|
| 24/08/2005
2:45 PM
|
The Loons
|
Today
is an absolutely gorgeous day on Nimpo Lake.
I wasn't going to write today because I was busy with
updating another web page, but in the end, couldn't resist.
Not a cloud in the sky today and as I watched a
boat head out to go fishing, he must have been
going too fast to suit the loons because they set up a
vociferous complaint. In other words, they were yodelling
to each other. The loon call has to be the prettiest
sound in existence. You don't realize how many
are on the lake, even with the bald eagles bothering them,
until you look around and count a pair here, another there
and yet another over there. They're funny to watch because
when a floatplane goes over, they duck into the
water and then up they pop after it passes, calling
at it as it goes by. The young are doing fly bys now strengthening
their wings for the long flight to winter grounds. They're
a really heavy bodied bird and look surprisingly ungainly
in flight for such a beautiful, graceful bird in the water.
They're extremely strong though. I haven't seen much in
the way of hummigbirds lately and expect most are gone.
There'll be fresh snow on the mountains soon
because even though the days are quite warm, you can see
your breath late at night and it's cool! There were northern
lights to the north last night. This is the absolutely
best time of year in the West Chilcotin
where cool nights have knocked the bugs back to nothing
and the sky turns that dark autumn blue.
|
| 23/08/2005
11:26 AM
|
Little Black Fox
|
Sometimes
they can be pretty cheeky. The other morning we had a
fox just off the drive into our property.
He shied away from the vehicle then slowly crept back
to within a few feet of it to retrieve something he had
dropped. Keeping a close eye on the truck he picked up
his breakfast, finished eating it then scampered away.
He had a black back, golden red underbelly and white tuft
on the end of his tail. Like one that I saw at the mill
a couple of months ago, he was the funniest looking
thing. That one was of the same coloration and
the white at the end of his tail looked like a flag. He
was bouncing around out above the parking area in broad
daylight. I couldn't tell if he was hunting, looking for
scraps of food or just hanging around. One of my work
mates said that someone at the mill had been feeding him
and that's why he wasn't so afraid of humans. Normally,
they're a shy animal, and it's hard to get a picture of
them. I've come to a screeching halt a few times
on the way to the highway to get a picture of a fox only
to have it fade into the bush long before I can get the
camera ready. Apparently, however, they can be
tamed somewhat if you start feeding them. That never seems
a good idea to me. I hate to have an animal start to rely
on humans for food then have to learn to fend for themselves
again once that easy food supply stops. I like to feed
birds in winter when temperatures are cold and they have
a hard time finding food sources under the snow. But I
usually slow, then stop the seed supply once spring has
arrived so that they and their young don't become
too reliant on any but food they can forage for themselves.
|
| 22/08/2005
1:07
PM |
Nimpo Lake Properties
|
| Finally
got some pictures for two more properties for sale. One
of the properties is 2.6 acres with lake access.
Located on Nimpo Creek Road, it overlooks the lake and
has a really unusual view different from anyone else's
on the lake. It looks out over the foothill trees at Kappan
and Trumpeter mountains. I don't have a
view picture but will drop down that way soon and take
one to post. It is a private, treed setting on a bench
with a nice little year round cabin. A new R40 metal roof
was put on the cabin in 2000 and it has power, phone,
drilled well, a tool shed and comes furnished with appliances.
If you own a plane, there is a 1900' dirt airstrip across
the road and you'll have lots of aviators for company.
The price is $85,000 Canadian. The other property
is 3.17 acres with 187' of waterfront located
on Nimpo Lake North Road It too sits on a bench above
Nimpo Lake on the 'main arm' with a southern
exposure and a spectacular view of the Coastal Mountain
range. There are two small single room log cabins
with power and phone at the property line. It would be
a beautiful place to build a new log house. Your neighbour
has a 10,000 square foot summer 'cabin' on the property
next to you. Great fishing for Rainbow trout
right below your house. Price is $120,000 Canadian dollars.
Pictures for both properties are on the right and you
can get more information and contact information under
listings on the Properties
for Sale page. As you can see, the pictures
for the property on Nimpo North Road were taken in winter,
so we'll see if we can update that. Just to let you know,
this is the start of a new week, so stories from last
week can be found at August3.
|
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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