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Wilderness Adventures - January 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!
| 1/29/05
1:12
PM |
Wilderness Adventures - Continued Moose
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The last moose we saw on the way to town yesterday
was a beaut! Young, maybe one year old, maybe two, good
shape. Really pale colored face and mane and cream colored
legs. Still had his or her baby coat probably. Looked
liked he was pretty comfortable around humans and vehicles
which is a really, really bad thing. He won't last long
standing by the road before he'll be shot by subsistance
hunters, and this is their favorite time to hunt. When
the moose are down in the low country and they don't have
to go to much effort to get the meat. Just shoot from
the truck, take the choice cuts and leave the rest for
the ravens. Do I sound bitter? Of course, I'm a hunter
myself, but I have a lot of respect for the animals I
hunt, for meat...none wasted, and respect for the law.
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| 1/29/05
11:47
AM |
Wilderness Adventures - Going to Town
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| Well, yesterday was a big day...lol. Time to go to
town because we were running out of everything and hadn't
been in since long before Christmas. I should add that
the nearest 'town' is 200 miles away. Although we have
dry goods and grocery stores in our little communities
of Anahim and Nimpo Lakes, sometimes it's necessary to
go in for prescriptions, banking, and picking up hardware
and things you just can't find out here. Saw four moose
on the way in. A bull, cow and calf at Caribou Flats,
and a one or two year old at the Tatla rest stop. I've
seen a cow moose with a young one in the last couple of
years around there, I wonder if this is her calf that's
all grown up now and out on his own. He didn't run far
off the road. He was maybe 50 feet away and standing by
a bush when we tried to get a picture of him. I wanted
to post a picture on this blog. My digital is useless
though. Wish we'd had the 35 mm with the telephoto with
us. I need some good close ups of moose for my web sites.
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| 1/27/05
11:33
AM |
Wilderness Adventures - Some adventure
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Well, I've been working on this blogging thing for
days now trying to get files to go where I want them to
go. Still not resolved I don't think. Weather is beautiful
in the sunny West Chilcotin! Just sitting on freezing,
the sun is shining and the snow just might be crisp enough
for a ski across the lake. It's just that I have so much
work backed up over time lost on this blogging thing,
that I don't know if I should take the time. Although
for my health and back I should....I've been glued to
this computer for way too long!
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| 1/26/05
7:45
PM |
Wilderness Adventures - Still flooding
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Little Fort has a huge 4 mile long ice jam on the North
Thompson River, which is set to take out the ranches and
farms surrounding Barriere 16 miles to the south when
it breaks loose. Two years ago they were wiped out by
forest fires, now ice....what's that saying about fire
and ice? Hixon to the north also sits on a river, and
is still under evacuation notice. You see a lot of people
on the tv using pumps and hoses in their houses. So far,
we're lucky. The highway is finally clearing off. The
side roads are still deadly slippery and lots of people
can't get out to town, but the sand trucks are doing their
thing and eventually, everything should get sanded before
the next snow hits. Didn't hear anything about the Regional
District meeting last night. Will post when I do.
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| 1/25/05
11:41
AM |
Wilderness Adventures - Meeting tonite
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There will be a Regional District meeting tonite at
the Nimpo Lake Community Hall. One of the things on the
agenda will be the garbage dump. I know, not overly interesting,
but Environmental Policy demands that we share a dump
between the Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake Communities because
of the expense of a bear fence and that garbage can no
longer be burned, but must be buried. The cost of an excavator
alone will be exorbitant. Will post on the results of
that meeting tomorrow.
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| 1/24/05
10:10
PM |
Wilderness Adventures - Still melting snow
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It was still warm enough to melt snow here in the West
Chilcotin! You could even see that the surrounding mountains
are starting to lose their snow. Watched the news again
tonite. Clearwater, Barriere area are on evacuation alert
because the North Thompson River is flooding. A few other
communities are in the same boat. Our highway here is
finally fit to be called a highway again. You can actually
see the pavement under the compact snow and ice in some
places. Ski hills are shutting down all over the province.
I really feel for the tourists that have come a long way
for their winter vacation in British Columbia! A few of
the mountains are still open, but not many and probably
not for long. Unusually warm weather is supposed to continue
to the end of the week. Still no fish on the line we've
got in the lake. I think we'll try shrimp on the hook
next time. A nice tasty Rainbow Trout in the fry pan keeps
sticking in my mine. I'll be back tomorrow. For right
now, I have a web site to continue building, because I
really want to put a link on these posts so you folks
can see what this country is really like!!
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| 1/23/05
1:22
AM |
Wilderness Adventures this January
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A little over a week ago we were at 20F below zero,
or -35C if you prefer. Lots of people including ourselves
were running out of firewood and you'd see the odd bunch
out bundled up to the eyeballs cutting down beetle killed
trees to beat the band. At night we got to watch what
we call 'bumper cars' on the TV while people in Vancouver
got introduced to driving on ice. It would be funny if
they didn't raise car insurance rates for everyone in
British Columbia because they insist on wearing summer
tires. It's not like they don't get snow or ice at least
once every winter! But at least it puts a little humor
in our lives while lining the pockets of the auto body
shops in Vancouver and Kelowna. It got a little more serious
this past week when it warmed up. It alternately peed
down rain and then great big furry snowflakes for about
5 days. The snow has begun to melt and I think the avalanche
danger up on the mountains would be too high to go snowmobiling.
Not that a few die hards around here haven't been trying
anyway. There's so much water on top of the ice on the
lake now that you've got a pretty good rooster tail behind
your snowmobile when you venture out across the lake as
I did the other day. You sure didn't want to slow down!
All over the rest of British Columbia they're being flooded
out. Unfortunately, a few people have been killed in landslides
and avalanches. Most of the ski hills are closed down.
Quite a few of the major highways in BC have been closed
down. Our major East/West artery across Canada, Trans
Canada Hwy 1, was closed at Revelstoke for 3 days due
to avalanches. The only other major highway going East
was closed down at the same time for over a day. Hmm,
bread and milk might start getting a little scarce...
Our own Highway 20 had a major freezing rain advisory
on it for a few days and the Bella Coola Hill was closed
for a day. The sand trucks were skating around on the
ice, even with chains on all the wheels. Had a loaded
fuel truck with pup flop over in the ditch after losing
control on the ice down around Caribou Flats a few miles
south of Nimpo Lake. At least he wasn't hurt. But Shell
had to send another truck out right quick since that fuel
was intended for the generators. (Anahim and Nimpo Lake
depend on big diesel generators for electricity.) It looks
as though it's going to cool off a little now. Finally!
We went out front of the house to do a little ice fishing
today, and we were slopping around in 4" of water under
the snow on the lake. And no fish to boot! It doesn't
make for very good cross country skiing, trust me.
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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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