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Wilderness Adventures - February 2005
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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!
| 2/26/05
12:14 AM
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Global Warming a Problem?
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Sometimes it's the little things that point to how
much the weather has changed in this country. Tried to
go cross country skiing on the lake today. The surface
has melted so much that it's a deadly job making your
way across the ice. Going snowmobiling on Trumpeter Mountain
tomorrow. Normally we would all just ride across the lake
from our doorstep, hit the trail and ride up the mountain.
Tomorrow, we will probably trailer the sleds to the Hooch
intersect and ride up from there. There just isn't enough
snow on the lake to keep the tunnels cool or keep from
melting the sliders onto the rails. And this is only the
end of February! What's happened? I've ridden this area
right into April and like down hill skiing, spring and
early summer can be some of the best snowmobiling and
cross country skiing in existence. Not this year. Not
at the rate things are melting. Every winter seems to
get warmer and precip. is down. Check out the Weather
page on this site to see what's been happening here.
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| 2/25/05
1:34 AM
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Coyotes
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Must be a time for love. It's that time of year again.
There was a coyote howling tonite. Not a pack howling
at the moon, but rather a single lonely yodel. Probably
a young male calling for a mate. Ordinarily, the silence
here at night is deafening. But February is breeding season
for the owls, and there's been lots of night talk between
them lately. And I think this is the time of year for
the coyotes to start looking for love. Probably the neatest
time of year for them though, is after the pups are a
few months old and the parents are taking them out with
the pack. Listening to them trying to sing at a full moon
is hilarious because their little voices crack so easily,
much like a teenage boy who's voice is changing.
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| 2/24/05
10:54 PM
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Lake Monsters Are Out Tonite
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At least that's what I call it when the lake starts
grumbling and howling at night. Our temperatures at night
have been well below freezing, but with the Pineapple
Express, they've been well above freezing during the day.
As the surface ice of the lake starts to cool and more
closely match that of the ice underneath, you get some
of the most unearthly sounds you can imagine throughout
the night. In fact the lake has been pretty creepy this
year with sounds during the day as well. I don't know
how to describe them but I've oftened imagined that many
of the sound effects used in movies about prehistoric
dinasaurs have been recorded at a frozen lake in the north.
When Nimpo Lake starts to freeze in the fall, the sound
is akin to whale song or what a UFO believer might imagine
a saucer from another world to sound like. The sounds
are high pitched and eerie and can be heard at some distance.
But this deep into winter, it just sounds like monsters
in the deep. Muttering, and grumbling with the sound of
the ice splitting on the surface and the occasional burble
of water underneath. Walked over to a friend's place today
and there's lots of cracks in the ice. If this weather
keeps up, we won't be driving on it much longer. Probably
shouldn't anyway. One of the resort owners put his backhoe
into 10' of water while clearing snow off for Icecutting
two weekends ago. Took a couple of days and a lot
of equipment to pull it out!
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| 2/24/05
3:24 PM
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Breakup!
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It looks like breakup may be here, even
though it's way too early! For those of you that don't
know the term, 'Breakup' refers to spring breakup, and
generally means everything is going to be an unholy mess.
We've had way too many Pineapple Expresses hit the West
Chilcotin this winter that have really taken down our
snow levels. Black ground attracts the sun, heats up,
which in turn raises the air temperature and that melts
surrounding snowcover. When the frost starts coming out
of the ground, then you're really in trouble because the
roads start breaking up. We've been dealing with ice most
of the winter, now we'll be dealing with mud much sooner
than we should!
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| 2/24/05
1:36 AM
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The Three Stooges Cross the Lake
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There's nothing more hilarious than watching three
young moose cross the lake on the ice. I live on the shore
of Nimpo Lake, and look out over a vast expanse of ice,
two islands, the far shore and the incredible Coastal
Mountains rearing above that. Looking out the windows
not long ago, I spotted three young moose, probably yearlings,
tentatively stepping out onto the ice from the northern
shore. The largest was at the back while the runt at the
front was clearly the leader. As all three skated to the
middle island, the runt stopped occasionally to check
things out, and the man in the rear invariably bumped
unceremoniously into the nether regions of the fellow
in the middle. As they cautiously made their way from
the first island to the next, each stop by the leader
meant a bump on the nose by mister scaredy cat at the
back. Once he found himself going a few steps in the wrong
direction from the other two and he just about turned
inside out trying to get back in line! It was reminiscent
of a troop of errant children going somewhere mom had
told them not to go with dire consequences if they didn't
listen. Except in the case of these poor boys, (or girls)
they had probably been kicked out of the fold by their
mothers or run off by a mature bull during breeding season
this fall. They made across the open safely and into the
woods with none falling down anyway. Oh, and if you don't
know what a moose looks like? Check out the Wildlife
page. :)
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| 2/23/05
10:35 PM
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139 Children's Fundraiser
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The Children's 139 Fundraiser was held in Anahim Lake Saturday
night at the Anahim Lake Community Hall. We had planned
to go to the auction. After all, it is for the kids. Unfortunately,
that was the same day we were snowmobiling in the Rainbow
Mountains. Dawn and I were 'roadracing' down the trail
at the last part headed for the parking lot. We got there
ahead of everyone else prepared to load up the machines
when Wayne came down and waved that help was needed and
to go back up the trail. Andy had dropped into a creek
with his machine. It was an 8' deep ravine and took a
little while to get the snowmobile out. So we ended up
eating an excellent dinner at Chilcotin's
Gate in Nimpo Lake and we were probably
all in bed by 10:00 totally exhausted but happy. So much
for going out that night!
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| 2/21/05
12:40 AM
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Snowmobiling in the Rainbow Mountains
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Snowmobiling in the Rainbow Mountains this weekend
was a fine mix of exhaustion and exhilaration! There was
an excellent base of between 8 and 12 feet of snow, but
very solid. On top of that was the most wonderful powder
of about 12" you could ask for! Not deep enough for the
extreme riders, but since we had an RCMP officer with
us who had never driven a snowmobile before, it was just
as well. As it was, our leaders on the quest still took
us into a few places that were down right scary for a
rookie, and slightly intimidating for someone who hasn't
been able to get out and ride for a couple of years. The
sun was shining, the mountains stood out clear as a bell
and although it was quite a bit below freezing, you didn't
really notice much. The pictures on the upper right describe
it best.
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Please
be patient with this site. It's still under construction!
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 aim 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. Which is why it's taking so long to complete
the site! :)
Follow
the links, and see what the West Chilcotin is really like!
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