Wilderness Adventures - January Week 3/2008
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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!
If
you would like to see pictures of wildlife, mountains, lakes,
exciting snowmobiling, events and more, and read stories like
'Lake Monsters' about the
Lakesounds
just
go into Archives on the lower left side of this page.
Rolling over an image will give you its description.
Check out the Picture
of the Day.
| 20/01/2009
6:51 PM
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Cold Nights, Warm Days
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We're
still in that weather cycle of cold, cold nights and warm
days but it looks like that's going to start breaking
down. It went down to -21C or -6F last night so it took
a while to warm up today. It was up to -2.6C when I went
for a walk on the back trails and I forgot to look at
the temperature when I got home but a little later on
Andy mentioned that it was barely below freezing.
That high pressure system that has been forcing the jet
stream way up to the north is finally moving to the east,
which will bring the jet stream back south again,
and that means colder weather for us. We did have
some wispy streamers in the sky today that looked like
they just might build up enough to block out the sun,
but then they disappeared and we were back to glorious
blue skies again. I expect we'll see a lot more cloud
some time in the next few days if that jet stream does
move south. Bummer.... I've really been enjoying this,
but I'm sure the Vancouverites figure it's about time
we stopped gloating. They're still stuck
in fog!
So, the Inauguration took place today and we now
have a new President of the United States. Boy,
did you see all those people? That was sure something!
Andy and I were sitting at the dining room table this
evening just in awe of the numbers, and not just standing
in the Mall, but celebrating from all over the US, Canada,
and the rest of the world. We both had this little niggling
feeling at the back of our minds that we had seen this
before, but where? Especially since it was stated
that there has never been anything like this before except
at JFK's inauguration, and that was close, but
nothing like this. Then Andy brought up something that
kind of shocked me, especially in view of the respect
and admiration I have for Obama, but after thinking about
it, he was right. It was like those old film clips you
see of Hitler speaking to thousands of people in a square
who almost seemed electrified by his speeches. It does
no honor to Barack Obama to compare him to Hitler, and
it's definitely an unfair comparison, but like Hitler,
he is a very charismatic speaker in a scary
kind of way, and I'm really glad he's on our side!
Obviously the Inauguration took up a lot of the programming
on television today and you could pick up some pretty
interesting tidbits. For one thing, it blew me away
that the helicopter that took Bush away from the Inauguration
cost 440 million dollars. Can you imagine??? Why
the heck would one little flying vehicle cost 440 million
dollars? Yes, I can see extra armor plating to withstand
ground to air attack, and beefed up horse power to lift
all the extra weight, but that much money? Holy cow!!!
Then there's the presidential car that Obama was riding
in down Pennsylvania Avenue today which is heavily armored
of course, with an estimated six inches of bullet proof
glass in the window frames. How would you see anything
out of them? And then the President gets out and walks
down the avenue with his wife on two separate occasions.
I'll bet his security personnel was extremely unhappy
and very freaked the whole time. I can just see
them at the end of the night rolling their eyes at each
other and fretting over how many years Obama is going
to take off of their lives through worry for his safety.
One last thing that was kind of interesting was that the
hosts on Daily Planet mentioned that there was a record
54% spike in Internet use throughout the world today during
Obama's speech, 60% in the US. Probably all of those people
that still had to go to work today and couldn't stay home
to watch TV were trying to download Podcasts or other
video of the Inauguration.
Just to let you know, I probably won't be posting a blog
tomorrow night or before starting a new week on Thursday.
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| 19/01/2009
7:01 PM
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The Skating Party
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The
neighbours pushed snow off of the ice and made a skating
rink last week using what we're now calling the
Chilcotin Zamboni, a tiny red tractor that's probably
at least 50 years old and not powerful enough to use for
anything else. In fact, it got stuck in the snow the first
time they took it down on the lake. Still, it does a marvelous
job for creating a rink. I guess the neighbours decided
to flood the new rink the other day using a fire pump
and it didn't work out too well. The water froze really
quickly on top, and too slowly underneath so they ended
up with lumpy ice. Last night at dinner everyone present
decided that they would try taking propane torches to
the rink this morning and if that worked, there would
be skating party. It must have worked because when I arrived
after my walk on the back trails, everyone was either
skating on the rink or roasting hot dogs over the bonfire.
Somehow this weekend has turned into a long weekend for
most of us on the lake even though it's not a holiday
weekend. There was the skating party today and a snowmobile
run yesterday. We had a nice easy day of it with the neighbours
that went with us to Hotnarko Falls last Sunday, our plowing
neighbour and his wife, and another couple from just down
the road. In fact, nearly everyone that lives on our road
in winter went. Some of the people aren't really experienced
at riding and two couples were doubled up so you couldn't
make it a really strenuous day or that would just take
the fun out of it for them.
We toured down to Charlotte Lake via the Hooch and
then Charlotte Lake road. The latter wasn't very
good because it had been plowed and there was only a few
inches of snow with gravel underneath, so we literally
'clattered' down the road wincing at the metal we were
probably taking off of our carbides. But we got off that
eventually and onto Charlotte Lake where we followed it
around to the other side where Rimarko is located. Just
before the ranch there is place where a retired couple
live and we visited with them for a while before they
accompanied us out onto the lake for a ways. He assured
us that Charlotte Lake froze over early this year and
it was plenty safe enough to cross in the middle, something
you can't always do safely at this time of year.
Like Nimpo Lake, there were snow drifts on the ice but
they were a lot higher and a lot harder! If you
didn't watch every bit of the way, you could hit a drift
and go flying because where it was soft on one
side, it dropped off abruptly on the other. More than
a few of us got jounced around and I felt really sorry
for those doubling up. We got back to the west side of
the lake and visited with folks that are a part of the
Charlotte Lake bunch and that we snowmobile with. Our
host there had been instrumental on getting a trail cleared
up from Charlotte Lake to Charlotte Main that several
of our friends worked on all summer.
This was my first trip up that trail and it's definitely
narrow! You've got to use some muscle to get steered through
the trees going up hill, then there's a small side hilling
section, then you're going back down hill to Charlotte
Main. It's a great trail but much longer than the trail
from 24 km that we cut down to Charlotte Lake years ago
but the difference is you can use this trail any time
of the year. In previous years, you had to run a few miles
down the lake on the ice and then go up what was a pretty
steep trail. But that only works when there's ice
on Charlotte and the rest of the year, the trail is rendered
useless.
Once we popped out onto Charlotte Main we ran it down
to the Hooch and then home on the Dot Island trail and
across Nimpo Lake. At 47 miles it wasn't a long ride,
or even a really strenuous one, but I think it was just
perfect for an easy day out without making it hard on
the double ups. We all got to enjoy a big pot of spaghetti
at the neigbhour's and a couple of beer, and that was
it. By the time supper was over most everyone looked like
they were going to fall asleep on the spot so I think
it was probably a good thing we hadn't snowmobiled any
farther than we had. It's amazing what a little fresh
air will do for you!
Yesterday was absolutely spectacular and today was
just the same. Our temperatures have really been
plummeting at night but by the warmest part of the day,
it's come up to at least a couple of degrees above freezing.
There hasn't been a cloud in the sky either day, only
that rich blue sky we get in winter, no wind at all, and
a sun that's packing a lot more heat in it than it was
a month ago.
When we stopped half way along the trail to Charlotte
Main for a few moments yesterday, we could look up and
see the pine boughs on trees moving in a breeze, but the
breeze felt warm. I figured the weather was changing but
when we got down to Nimpo Lake, there was next to nothing
for air movement. Andy figured that inversion layer that
has been stuck over the province was forcing warm air
from down off the mountains to where we were, creating
a wind along the way. I think he's right because it sure
looks like we're still losing a lot of snow at higher
elevations. I would be ever so happy if this weather
continued for about three more months!
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| 17/01/2009
3:46
PM |
Spring!!!
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Well,
not really, but it sure feels like it for the first time
in a long time!
Today is an absolutely glorious day. I don't think
you could make it better if you tried. Even though
it went down to -16.5 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit last night,
it warmed up to well above freezing today. When I came
home from my walk I was shocked to see that it was over
6C or 43F. I thought, "No way!" I figured that
the thermometer at the back must be in the sun but I checked
the other two thermometers and they actually read slightly
higher. I finally took the one at the back down and put
it where I knew no sun or warm air could
possibly reach it and the temperature held, so I guess
that's what it was. It's cooling off now of course because
it's only an hour to sundown but it's still above freezing.
Amazing!
We're not the only ones with astonishing weather.
Both the Peace and Whitehorse regions have been in the
deep freeze for months now, but today their temperatures
were going to range from plus 8 to 11C which will be quite
a shock for them. I expect more than a few will be out
sunning themselves. Although it might screw up the snow
for the Yukon Quest which starts in February. While the
north is enjoying their balmy weather, places in the Lower
Mainland still stuck under the weight of heavy fog aren't
expecting to see temps much above freezing. Talk
about everything being backwards!
We finally got rid of some of the cloud that kept rolling
back in and out for the last few days leaving us with
only a few high wispy streamers. Just enough to make the
sky interesting. This is yet another straight day without
any breeze at all, which is really, really nice. It makes
it seem even warmer out.
We had three coyotes cross the lake out by the islands
this morning. They might have hung around longer but once
we went out on the deck they decided to head for shore.
That's at least 600 yards from here and yet the
animals still heard or saw us. It just shows you
how keen some predators' senses are.
Our neighbour finally came home a couple of days ago and
started putting in an ice road today. We now have a properly
plowed ice road over to the boat ramp and last I heard,
he was headed down the Main Arm to the other end of Nimpo
Lake to open up a road for folks down there. We sure have
some awesome people to call neighbours around here! Thanks
Rob!
It's amazing what warmer temperatures will do for everyone's
mood. Lots of smiles and people out doing things on the
lake now. I see Bernice has been hard at work creating
her ice art since she came up from the States a few days
ago. There are loads of pieces of colored ice decorating
a cement base up at Nimpo across from the store.
You can't help but smile when you see them. It's a good
trade off when it makes her happy to make her creations,
and us happy to see them. It's like bringing a bright
touch of color to a world that doesn't have much at this
time of year. Except for the sunsets, of course. We had
another pretty one yesterday evening, although not quite
as spectacular as the evening I took the pictures on the
right.
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| 15/01/2009
7:02
PM |
The Temperature Inversion
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The
inversion layer I've been talking about is definitely
effecting the whole province in a big way. Our neighbour
was telling us about the incredible disparity yesterday
because he too noticed the icy shine on the mountains
from a major melt. Then on the news tonight they were
showing how heavy the fog has been on the Lower Mainland
and in the city all day, all because of the tremendous
temperature inversion. I guess the temperature in the
city was 1C, while at 4400 feet, the temperature
was 10C or 50F, and at 7800 feet the temperature was a
whopping 15C or 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And even
at 13,000 feet, it was still only at the freezing level.
Small wonder that our mountains looked like they had lost
huge amounts of snow!
At least we're pretty lucky here. We've had fog in the
mornings but it burns off fairly quickly, but in Vancouver,
they've been blanketed by a pea soup layer of fog that
they estimate to be between four and five hundred feet
thick, and they're not the only ones! Numerous towns and
cities throughout British Columbia are situated in valleys,
usually because they started as little communities located
on lakes or along rivers. Throw in an inversion layer
that traps cold air in the valley bottoms along with water
from whatever waterway is in the area, and you've got
fog and cool temperatures that's going to last for days.
Apparently that's the case from Vancouver to the Okanagan,
all through the central Cariboo and points north. Even
poor Osoyoos is going to have fog. How bad is that? BC's
desert and it's going to be foggy.
They showed some images on the News tonight of Vancouver
as seen from the top of some of the ski hills, which were
in bright sunshine. There was no city of Vancouver. Only
this incredible layer of fluffy white pillows blanketed
the valley with the mountains looking like islands floating
in it. It was pretty cool looking. That must be why I
always liked living on a mountain or in high places. You
have more sunshine.
Our temperature went down to -14C or 7F last night, but
a neighbour just down the lake said they went down to
-16C last night and the cashier at a store in Anahim
Lake said they went down to -22C or -8F last night,
so we're seeing quite a variation in temperatures right
now and the fog could have something to do with it. I
don't mind it dropping at night at all, as long as it
comes up during the day, and it certainly has been.
I was late getting home from a meeting today but it was
only -1.9C when I went for a walk this afternoon. It had
cooled considerably by the time I got home but that wasn't
long before sunset and it's still only sitting around
-5C or 23F so maybe our long overdue warm up is coming.
Or not. As I mentioned before, that jet stream is way
up in the Alaskan Panhandle before it drops back to the
south again on the Alberta border, so we should be a lot
warmer but cold air left over from that last high must
still be trapped here and there.
Looking at the temperature map for Canada and the
US, it's pretty blue right now clear down to Texas.
Right now about the only thing that shows yellow on the
North American map is California and a couple of desert
States. Even Florida isn't terribly warm. I know the East
and Midwest is suffering under the cold but many parts
of Canada are not faring much better. There were actually
three large areas in Canada that were in the red on the
map today and listed under an extreme wind-chill warning.
Not just wind-chill warning but an extreme
one. That means any area under that warning are
experiencing temperatures of -50C or colder. That's
58 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and in a humid place
like Toronto, I'm sure it's just plain miserable. Right
now about half of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
are under one massive block of red on the maps, so I kind
of feel for them. Not much to stop the wind in those provinces
and it'll be hard on the cattle. In Quebec, the
utility companies are warning people that they need to
cut back on their electricity consumption because
records are already being broken for consumption of that
resource, and I think the power companies are afraid of
brown outs. Somehow I think their imploring message is
going to fall on deaf ears.
You can sure tell we've warmed up here. There are lots
more people out doing things, although it's still a lot
quieter than in years past. Still, the odd snowmachine
is out and about, people walking on the lake, and our
neighbours went zipping by on cross country skis in front
of our place this morning. At -11C I would have thought
it a bit too chilly to be out but they said they warmed
up pretty fast with the activity.
I came home from my meeting this afternoon to a note from
Andy saying he was over at our neighbours' skating. Sure
enough, after bundling up and dragging the dogs along
on my way for a walk, there was several of our neighbours,
a big, beautiful skating rink, picnic table and bonfire
down on the ice. A little distance away was parked the
'zamboni', a tiny little tractor not much bigger than
a present day lawn tractor but really, really old. It
was probably considered a serious little machine in its
day because the only thing that would have predated it
would have been a Clydesdale, but it's sure small. Did
a great job on that skating rink though, and it beats
being on the wrong end of a shovel!
Andy had asked how the meeting went and I said I thought
I had convinced the tourism association to look into marketing
to Europe and to work on bringing out a media fan tour
prior to the 2010 Olympics to bring attention to our area.
Then our one neighbour suggested working on inviting members
of a team that will be competing in the Olympics, such
as cross country skiers or biathlon athletes, to train
here. It's actually an awesome idea! We
have snow conditions very similar to Whistler's Olympic
Park in the Callaghan Valley with our elevation being
about 700 feet higher, which would actually be better
for training, and I figure we can get together to do the
grooming for the trails. In contrast, the lake would probably
work well for skate skiing training. It was an off the
cuff idea, but I think it's a great one! We've enough
places here to comfortably offer free accommodation and
meals so for those countries that don't have a lot of
money in the kitty for their athletes, I think it would
benefit both sides. My only problem is I have
no idea how to go about contacting who
to find out if any team would even be interested. But
I figure if Pemberton can host the Jamaican bobsled team
for training, and they have no training facilities, we
should be able to do the same for those teams that can
utilize what we have to offer in the way of snow sports
in this area. So the reason why I'm bringing it up on
the blog here is that I'm looking for any ideas or feedback
about this, as well as any ideas at all about who to contact.
Any and all suggestions are welcome so I've set up an
email address to save everyone having to go through the
contact page here at ideas@resortsbc.com
which means it will probably start to accumulate spam
eventually but I can discontinue it by the time that happens.
The idea might be completely off the wall but you never
know, we might be able to make it happen for us. Write
with your ideas please!
On a final note, we had another spectacular sunset the
other evening and I wanted to post the series of pictures
here but I had to wait until I had the room. You
will never believe that all of these pictures were taken
within a half hour span, but the sky was lit up
nearly 360 degrees, so there were lots of different colors
to choose from.
I'm actually on time for a change and am starting a new
week when I'm supposed to, so you'll find last week's
articles at January
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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