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Wilderness Adventures - December Week One
|
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.
You can search this site for a subject of interest to you
at the bottom of this page.
| 08/12/2005
7:36
PM |
Cross Country Skiing
|
You
can go pretty much anywhere here. Unlike many places
in Canada or the US where you might live in a
city or town and have to load up your ski equipment, boots,
etc. and drive down to the park or nearby forest just
to go skiing, here you strap on your boots and skis
at the front door or back door depending on which direction
you want to go. If I want to go down the road
or follow the trails near our place, I lace up at the
back door. If I want to drop onto the lake and ski in
one direction or other, I lace up my boots at the basement
door in front and away I go. It's certainly a lot more
convenient whether you're going out for exercise, taking
your dogs for a run, or just to enjoy the day and it emphasizes
the beauty of living or vacationing here.
Our determined ice fisherman was out on Nimpo Lake
again today, but in a different spot. He was out
for several hours so it's a good thing it was only a few
degrees below freezing. Every once in a while you'd see
one of the lake residents walk out on the ice to visit
with him for a while and see how he's making out.
Went for a ski on the lake today because it's got a few
inches of snow over the ice. Ideal for skiing actually,
but I followed the shore for a while toward where
the Dean River flows out of Nimpo Lake before
I ventured out toward the middle and the large island.
Started to get a little uneasy the closer I got to the
island and turned around to head for home. I had
to laugh when I opened up this page tonite to write this
article and realized why. The picture on your
right showing the Whiskey Jack at the bird feeder also
shows where for a week or so, the water pushed the ice
back in the bay from the big island so that it froze much
later than the rest of the bay. So my instincts were trying
to tell me the ice just got a whole lot thinner under
my feet once I crossed a certain point. Maybe I'll
wear a life jacket if I go out skiing tomorrow.
Grin.
The temperature has really gone up since this afternoon
and only sits a degree below freezing. The wind is out
of the southwest and as I undertood it, our weather was
supposed to be clear and cold. Right now it's warm and
trying to snow. I don't know how the weathermen
manage it. You would think they would have at
least a 50/50 chance of getting the weather right. But
instead, they're wrong about 80% of the time. It's amazing!
|
| 06/12/2005
11:35
PM |
It's Strange
|
Not
a sound from the lake tonite. Normally Nimpo Lake
sings like every instrument in an orchestra when
the ice is growing. Oh yes, it grows...from the bottom
up, and our temperatures are plenty low enough for that
to happen. But for some reason or other, the lake has
been exceptionally quiet this year. Last year at this
time that was all you could hear day in and out,
were the groans and mutters, whines and cracking explosions,
high pitched squeals and gutteral growls, just
showing how alive it could be. This is as quiet as I've
ever heard it and being inquisitive as I am, I have to
wonder just exactly what environmental differences are
there that would cause this? Sometimes I wish I were a
scientist versed in all areas so that I could at least
explain it to myself. Alas, that would mean I would have
to do repetitive, dry, boring tests to give a basis for
the theory only to finally suggest an answer in some dry
scientific digest that no one reads anyway in about ten
years time. I would much rather conjecture based
on mine and many other locals' experiences with the country
to come up with some colorful and possibly more accurate
reason for Lady Nature's doings. It's just a lot more
fun that way.
|
| 05/12/2005
6:55
PM |
Monday
|
I
half expected to hear a snowmobile start up somewhere
in the area today. We got about an inch of snow again
last night and with the lake frozen it would have been
nearly irresistable for some brave soul to give it a try.
Fortunately, they didn't because going too far out
could have been dangerous. Of course that didn't
stop one of our local pilots, Terry, from skiing by in
his plane. Sadly, I didn't get outside in time to get
a picture of him. His red and white Supercub stood out
like a pretty toy even against the snow on the lake and
dull, overcast day.
A couple of the neighbour's boys went through the
ice on Anahim Lake on their fourwheelers, but
fortunately it was in shallow water and although they
had a cold, soggy walk to a nearby residence for help
they were able to get their undamaged machines out of
the water eventually. That didn't prevent someone from
going by fourwheeler over the ice on the back bay to get
the mail today or our avid fisherman from being out on
the ice looking for a fat rainbow trout.
Apparently he's been doing well lately, catching his limit
one day and a few here and there on other days.
The sounds of power saws from cutting a winter's supply
of wood has even died down now so it's that slim period
between fall chores and winter fun that makes it so quiet
around here. Sounds carry a long ways over Nimpo
Lake so you can hear a saw from up to a couple
of miles away.
Residents of Charlotte Lake are eagerly awaiting the freeze
up of their lake but that will be weeks and months away.
Charlotte is a monsterous lake just over the hills
from us at the head of the Atnarko River valley that's
so large it can make it's own weather. Since it
experiences a lot of wind, the water is rarely calm or
cold enough to freeze as early as Nimpo or Anahim Lake.
The first time I ever saw what I call an ice mountain
was when I was snowmobiling on Charlotte years ago. We
came by this massive upheaval of ice blocks as big as
houses and the most piercingly beautiful blue you will
ever see. I don't know if the line of ice blocks was a
pressure ridge caused by too much overflow on the ice,
which will sink the ice closest to shore and push it up
in the middle of the lake, or if they had been caused
by part of the lake freezing and wind pushing broken ice
up from water that hadn't yet frozen. In any case, it
was one heck of an impressive sight. I've seen minor ridges
on the lake since when snowmobiling, but nothing like
that.
It reminds me of a couple of years ago when a group
of us was snowmobiling up on Trumpeter. Goat Pass
is a cliff of rock rearing straight up above Goat Lake.
That year there were massive blocks of ice at the base
of the cliff that had been thrown around like they were
a child's toys. It looked like an avalanche of boulders,
snow and ice had broken away from the top of the cliff
and landed on the lake ice with the impact of a meteor.
In fact, it looked so much like that's what had happened
that we all speculated on the possibility. There again
the ice was an unearthly blue, far purer than you could
ever hope to concoct on an artist's palette. You
just can't beat Mother Nature for pretty. Or mean for
that matter.
|
| 04/12/2005
6:38
PM |
Yep, It's Winter
|
The
cold spell continues with snow in the forecast. The
snow missed us today but nailed other areas of British
Columbia pretty good. Prince George saw about
4" today and the coast down around Vancouver really
got it. Looked like the ski hills were doing a booming
business today. There's large system sliding up the coast
for the next two days to the north. It's supposed to bring
warmer temperatures and snow to us tomorrow. I'm really
hoping the snow will hold off and let the ice on
Nimpo Lake develop a little more. The neighbour
drilled the bay in front of our respective houses as well
as the back bay with an ice auger today. There's about
9" of ice already which is quite amazing for this
time of year. However, these bays have been frozen over
for some weeks now and the temperatures have been pretty
cool.
One of our local pilots flew over the lake today and said
that the only open water left appears to be off the Point
where there quite often is no ice. Hopefully that
means the main arm of Nimpo will be freezing at a great
rate now. I can't wait to get on skiis!
We had all hoped that if we were going to get a cold spell
this fall it would be sudden, extreme, and last a good
while, to knock out some of the pine beetles. They can
withstand short term temperatures to -60F below in mid
winter, but even -30F in early fall will kill a lot of
them because they haven't built up a resistance to the
cold yet. Apparently, they develop some type of 'antifreeze'
that helps them to tolerate very cold temps and the only
thing that will kill them after they have developed this
fluid, is -40F to -60F temperatures for prolonged periods
of time. Unfortunately, although we did get this cold
snap, it was neither sudden enough or cold enough to have
any effect because we had already had fairly cool temps
all fall.
Everyone is putting up Christmas lights now and
the shoreline around Nimpo Lake is starting to look quite
festive. We lit up our living Christmas tree on
the point today that's festooned in bright red lights.
It tends to be a valuable landmark in winter for those
snowmobiling on the lake at night. It can be very easy
to lose your sense of direction on a black night with
no focal point, especially in fog. There are no residences
on the south side of the lake and not that many lit up
in winter on the north shore of the main arm either. Many
of us go to dinner on our snowmobiles to the other residences
on the lake or up to the restaurant in Nimpo and rely
on some sort of 'lighthouse' to bring us back to our house.
I've had more than one person tell me that our flag lights
and red tree has helped them find their way home so it
will probably stay lit up from now until March.
|
| 03/12/2005
3:34
PM |
A Winter Weekend in the Chilcotin
|
Cold
Temperatures are bringing in winter. It dropped
to -23C or 10 below F yesterday evening, although
it warmed up by 4 degrees by the time I went to bed last
night. Cloud had moved in warming things up a bit and
stuck around for part of the day. By this afternoon the
sun had made an appearance and one of our local
flyboys had already installed skiis on his plane and was
out flying around. He made a couple of passes
but by the time I got outside with a camera you could
barely see him flying into the sun.
All of Nimpo Lake is now frozen, especially
after those temperatures of last night, but it would still
be dangerous if you had to make an emergency landing on
the main arm. Chances are there is only about an inch
of ice out there and even as light as a small plane is
it would probably still go through. Another night of cold
temps will tighten the ice up quite a bit, but we are
supposed to get quite a bit of snow tomorrow so as I mentioned
in previous articles, that may weaken the existing ice
and cause overflow.
The phenomenal sounds caused by building ice have
started again. They're particularly loud when
you have sun during the day warming the ice, and cold,
cold temperatures at night suddenly cooling it. I'm still
trying to figure out a way to record these eerie sounds
so that I can put some examples on this site. They range
from high pitched 'UFO saucer' sounds like those of old
space movies to rumbling growls you used hear on old monster
movies. Then there's the chuckles and burbles and bubbling
from water moving under the ice. Some years like last
year, it will go on for days on end while this year has
been relatively quiet so far.
I would like to see a good snow base building soon for
those winter enthusiasts that are starting to plan
their vacations in the Nimpo and Anahim Lake area.
There's already been early and substantial snow fall on
the Coastal Range right from Whistler near Vancouver to
the north coast. Down hill skiing has been at a
premium south of us, now we just need to get our snowmobiling
season jump started. Although it is a little early
in the season to get that revved up about winter recreational
sports
you can't help doing so if you're an enthusiast yourself!
|
| 02/12/2005
10:53
AM |
Wow, Winter Might Be Here
|
And
the birds think so too! This will probably be a short
article since I've got a bunch of stuff to do today and
finally the time and freedom to do it, but it feels great
to be back in the saddle again. Looks like our temperatures
are going to continue plummeting. Supposed to
go to -18C or 5 below F tonite with continuing chilly
until Sunday when it's supposed to snow. The main arm
on Nimpo Lake is frozen over a little more today but there
is still a little open water. I see the ice fishing
fellow is out again this morning, creeping further and
further out in the bay. He looks pretty serious
about his sport but I haven't watched him long enough
to see if he's getting anything.
The Chickadees are back in force since we remounted the
bird feeder on the deck. In this cold weather they get
especially wild about the seed and visit constantly.
I took pictures the other day of Whiskey Jacks that came
to visit. They landed on the deck railing, looked through
the window as if to say "Is this going to be a chow
stop, or not?" I put some chunks of cheese out for
them and it didn't take them any time at all to clean
up on them. I'm hoping the fact that they haven't returned
isn't a bad sign. I can't imagine what would happen
if you had constipated Whiskey Jacks. Grin...
Have a good day all, and hopefully I can get back on track
enough to start the storytelling again. I look forward
to it.
|
| 01/12/2005
7:17
PM |
We're Baaack!
|
Hi
everyone. The Wilderness Adventure article is finally
back. Boy, it's been so long I almost forget how
to put this thing together. Since I don't use an automatic
'blog' template, I have to go several steps to get it
written with a date and uploaded for rss feeds. In any
case, my deepest apologies. This has been a very long
absence from writing the articles about the West
Chilctoin and I know that some of you have been very patiently
waiting. I thank you for that.
I finally finished putting together the
last of my calendars last night and mailed them today.
I still have a few more orders, but not due until spring,
so I can finally concentrate on other things like this
blog and some web sites that I need to work on...oh, and
Christmas is coming isn't it?
Canada countrywide is experiencing some lower than normal
winter temperatures, as are we. I had hopes there for
a while for lots of early snow, but we've only gotten
a bit. Nimpo Lake has been frozen everywhere
except on the middle of the main arm for over a week now
and that water is cold! We draw our drinking water from
the lake and this time of year when you turn on
the cold water tap, you just about get icecubes with your
drink. Temperatures have been hanging aroung -10
to -12C or about 18F for the last few days, but it was
-15C this morning and looks like it might be a lot colder
tonite.
Surprisingly, the main arm must still have enough wind
moving the water to keep it from freezing. There's no
doubt that we've been getting some wind, increasing the
cold from wind chill and with that lake still being open,
the air is a lot damper than it normally would be in winter.
Apparently Williams Lake, 200 miles to the east of us,
got between 6" and 8" inches of snow and the
roads aren't great. Vancouver has been getting snow
off and on for the last few days, so of course there's
a gadzillion fender benders as a result. There
goes our insurance rates again. The provincial government
raised the 'sand' size allowance so that we no longer
get gravel put on our roads and highways but rocks. Everyone's
been taking some pretty bad hits on their windshields
from passing vehicles so I imagine glass claims throughout
the province will be quite high this year as well.
I just about brought out the cross country skiis
the other day, but lack of time and cold weather
put the kabosh on that idea. As soon as the weather warms
up though...
Alas, we weren't the last people fishing on Nimpo
Lake this year. Part time neighbours of ours from
Washington came up last week and had the audacity to put
their boat in the water a couple of days. I could have
cried. Here we were, icelocked, and because their place
and dock is on the main arm, they could get out there
on a beautiful, sunny, late fall morning, and fish. I
could see their lines flashing in the sun. I admit, even
though the air temperature was below freezing, I envied
them.
There's been a fellow out ice fishing on Nimpo Lake
this past week. He's fishing in the back bay which
is admittedly quite a ways from the open water, still,
I don't know that the ice is quite that thick yet. He
must be doing well because he's been out there for long
stretches of time.
The month of November turned out to be our prettiest month
just about all year. Which is unusual, because it's usually
the worst. However, there wasn't much competition and
I'm really hoping we get back to our usual sunny weather
next year. There has been a huge benefit to all the rain
this year. We really needed our water table to be replenished
and a lot of trees and plants that have been a little
stressed from the last few overly dry summers have really
poured on the growth this summer. A nice, thick
Christmas tree is going to be easy to find this year!
One other thing, I've noticed that there are some
issues with this site using the Firefox browser.
I'm not sure what has caused the problem because it all
seemed fine before. Those of you using Firefox instead
of Explorer, please have patience. I'll be trying to figure
out the problem as soon as I get a moment.
You can find November's articles at November
Week Two.
|
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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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