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.
02/03/20107:12 PM
The Olympics
The
Olympics are finally over, at least until the second leg.
Not that you would actually know it from watching television.
The BC news channels are still beating it to death determined
to draw the last succulent juices they can out of the
Olympics. I guess you can't blame them but it certainly
cuts my TV watching down. I'm all for watching athletes.
Not all for watching talking heads go over, and over,
and over the same thing. Canadian athletes have my full admiration. 14 gold
medals. Wow! That, apparently, is a record so
they did awesome. Only barely helped by the men's hockey
team. Geez. What was up with that?
The Canadian men were playing great until the last of
the third period when apparently they forgot to play hockey.
I mean, the US plowed a puck into the Canadians' empty
goal net the last time the two teams played and Canada
lost. So why in heaven's name could not the Canadians
have done the same when the US pulled their goalie in
the last couple of minutes of the third? But no. The Canadians
would flip the puck down the ice in hopes it would stay
there but no effort was actually made that I could see
to take it down the ice in person and actually put it
into the empty US net. So.... the doorknobs had
to go to overtime. Fortunately, someone must have
reminded them that they still had a hockey game to play
and they actually did a good job of it when they came
back out for the fourth period. Still, they just managed
to pull that gold out of their hat. Personally, I would
have laughed if the Canadian women's team had given them
a good drubbing again, but I'm sure it would have really
disappointed a lot of Canadian hockey fans including our
avid fans around here. I guess the problem I have with the men's team is
that they aren't amateurs. Most everyone else
competing in the Olympics would still fit under the 'amateur'
banner. But the Canadian men's team is made up of hand
picked, overpaid prima donnas. As is the US team. There's
nothing amateur about players that make millions of dollars
during their NHL seasons, so what are they doing on an
Olympic team? I realize that the amateur rules were pretty
much abandoned in the 1990's. But it seems a shame because
it belies the original spirit of the Olympic games and
puts many countries that can't field an NHL style team
at a distinct disadvantage.
Let me put my thoughts even more clearly. I didn't mind
Wayne Gretsky getting soaking wet taking the torch down
to the harbour at all. I figured every hockey team
loaded with NHL players should have been put out in that
rain and left there.
But aside from my personal feelings about the men's hockey
team, the Canadian competitors did a marvelous job. They
came in third in the medal standings at 26, and of course
broke the record for gold medals in any game at 14, five
more than the US and four more than Germany, which was
second place in overall medal standings. Maybe the IOC
announcement a week ago that the Canadians were not going
to 'Own the podium' was just a ploy to galvanize the Canadian
competitors? Nah.... most were really upset and disappointed
in what the IOC said, many viewing it as a slap in the
face. More likely they felt a little bit more relaxed
with less pressure put on them, went out there and decided,
"Game on!" In any case, I believe they
did a fine job of 'Owning the podium' by doing it Canadian
style. Quality beats out quantity any day.
Next.... the Paralympics. More talking heads, and smug
politicians. Yeesh. However, I do look forward to seeing
the Paralympics athletes compete. I don't think I've ever
watched them before so it might be interesting. Or if
this fine weather keeps up, it might be gardening outside
time and no time for television. Our weather is absolutely amazing. The temperature
has been ranging around 7 or 8C or 46F in the shade, and
much warmer in the sun, and some nights it hasn't gone
much below freezing. Our layer cake of snow inside our
log fence is finally settling to where you can actually
see the logs. We no longer have two feet of snow on the
ground since it's settled quite a bit. Not that you can't
still fill your boots with snow if you step off the track.
Yesterday we drove down to Bella Coola for the day and
at one point the truck thermometer registered 17C or 62F.
It was super warm! I saw with envy that there were little
bulbs up at the restaurant in Bella Coola, some perennials
blooming, and fat buds on a lilac bush. Of course, Vancouver
is even farther ahead with cherry blossoms out on the
trees. Last year they were so late that there were no
blossoms for the cherry blossom festival. There probably
won't be this year either because they will all have bloomed
already. This warm system seems to be pretty massive and
very stable, covering the whole province with
temperatures from central BC to the border nearly the
same from town to town. Even our temperatures are keeping
pace with Williams Lake's when we're usually so much colder,
especially this time of year. Suits me. We still have
lots of snow for snowmobiling and will for a while yet,
so the sledders should stay happy.
01/03/201012:38
PM
2010 Nimpo Lake Poker Run
Saturday
saw a pretty decent turnout for the snowmobile Poker Run,
although not as big as we had hoped. There were probably
a couple of reasons for that. First of all, a lot
of people probably wanted to stay home and watch the Olympics
since there were several events important to Canada being
played out. We normally get people from Tatla Lake but
since they were having their own poker run on Sunday,
that may have been why we saw no one from there. I'm not
sure how good their own turnout would have been with the
gold medal hockey game on. Most people were going to be
staying glued to their TV's for the afternoon. Sadly,
we only got one person from Anahim Lake this year when
we usually get lots. But again, I think that the Olympics
had a part in that.
In any case, everyone said that the smaller group
of 20 people was much easier to keep track of on the poker
run. The group left the public boat launch on
Nimpo Lake Saturday morning and made their way to Charlotte
Lake in time for lunch put on by Chris and Linda Mclean.
A wonderful feast from all accounts and apparently everyone
fueled up heavily on chili, hot-dogs and smokies. Which
is why it surprised me that anyone had room for burgers
and potato salad Saturday afternoon when they arrived
back to the location of the New Year's Ice Party on Nimpo
Lake. It was a good thing people still had appetites though.
Leah and I way misjudged the number of burgers to make
so there was lots left over. I made the same mistake with
the potato salad so everyone I can pawn it off on will
be eating potato salad for ages. At least the leftover
burgers that were uncooked are in the freezer now and
we'll use them for a clean up party being planned for
the area surrounding the community hall. We had a big bonfire on the lake. Thanks to Len
and John for getting that going and to John for cooking
the burgers. We had a nice crowd and we all got
to enjoy a breathtaking sunset from the ice. But surprisingly,
everyone was pretty much gone and clean up was done and
over with by seven. I guess everyone was tired from being
out on machines all day.
Chris Mclean won the poker hand with four queens which
was perfect. At least he and Linda were somewhat rewarded
for hosting the lunch at Charlotte Lake. Or would have
been had he not, as I understand, donated his winnings
back to the community association. Boy, we sure
have some great people in this, God's country!
The weather has been a little grim the last few days but
the temperature has been roaming between 5 and 7C during
the day and it hasn't been that cold at night. Saturday
actually turned out to be a pretty nice day with mixed
cloud and sun. It was a little warm for the mountain sleds
and one guy had a problem with his sled overheating. But
he was the only one that needed a tow home. All
in all, I think it turned out to be a terrific day for
everyone. There were certainly a lot of smiles on faces
that arrived back at the Nimpo Lake bonfire Saturday afternoon!
Thanks to Ted for sending me some great pictures and to
my own partner for patiently taking the camera along and
taking pictures for the blog when I can't be there.
This is the start of a new week so the articles for the
last week of February including about the Olympics and
Avatar can be found at February
Week Two.
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!
