| Accommodations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Attractions
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Business Directory
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Regions |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
Other |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wilderness Adventures - September 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.
| 09/09/2005
7:47 PM
|
Ducks Unlimited
|
I'll
be keeping it short today with a new week tomorrow. Should
have started a new page today but got tangled up in playing
catch-up after my company left. I let a lot of things
slide, including all the newsletters I read to try to
keep up on the latest and greatest in Internet marketing.
I did want to mention though that the Ducks Unlimited
Banquet and Auction hosted by Wilderness Rim Resort on
Nimpo Lake this past Sunday was a real success.
They were having a live auction as well as a silent auction
and raffles. There were lots of limited prints, sculptures,
cast bronze images, and some pretty handy items like outdoor
fireplaces and stools, among other things. Tabby
Reid of Wilderness Rim put on a dinner of fresh halibut
caught just out of Bella Coola, with wild rice
and other goodies. Local resorts and businesses
from both Anahim Lake and Nimpo Lake donated cash
to go toward framing the prints, as well as some pretty
nice gifts for raffle. Those attending were pretty generous
with their pocket books. Only about 60 people attended
but the day long affair raised $20,000 for Ducks Unlimited.
We were supposed to go to the event but that was the day
we went to Bella Coola and you can blame those grizzly
bears for us being too late getting back to Nimpo Lake
to attend. Much as I might have liked to go to the banquet,
I honestly don't think I would have missed seeing
those grizzly bears on the Atnarko River for anything.
Neither would our company from Saskatchewan. They will
probably never see anything like that again. The best
gifts in the world are Nature's.
|
| 08/09/2005
7:22 PM
|
The Bella Coola Fall Fair
|
Small
in numbers but lots of color. While down in Bella Coola
on Sunday, we stopped in at the Bella Coola Fall
Fair. It wasn't a huge affair, but it looked fun
and well organized. There was a train ride for kids, game
booths, lots of balloons and games for young adults and
up. There was log cutting, axe throw for both men
and women and the pillow fight. That was kind
of interesting looking. They would sit a couple of women
or teen aged girls up on a log facing each other armed
with gunny sacks full of who knows what. Foam
or cotton maybe. And then they would have a pillow fight.
Not a simple thing to do when you are balancing on a log
and someone across from you is doing everything they can
to knock you off. There were a couple of guys standing
there to catch anyone that fell off or got knocked off
and a good thing too. I watched a few girls take headers
that might have resulted in serious injury otherwise.
The displays were interesting. Some great vegetable, flower
and canning entries in the fair. Also things like quilts,
crochet, knitting and crafts. What really caught my eye
was some of the artwork. One piece in particular
was really something special. It was a large watercolor
of a brown or chocolate lab waiting just inside the kitchen
door next to a pair of waders with the sun reflecting
through the windows behind him onto the tile floor. Called
"Going Fishing" it was just an
awesome painting! I really wish I had taken better note
of the artist because I sure would be interested in purchasing
a painting like that.
|
| 07/09/2005
2:22 PM
|
The Merits of Always Carrying a Camera
|
It
always amazes me what pictures I miss when I don't have
a camera. Sometimes I think I should just tie my camera
around my neck and leave it there. Yesterday we drove
to Williams Lake on business. On the way a coyote
crossed the road very slowly and would have offered a
great picture. Better yet was a beautiful Mule Deer
buck with a glorious set of antlers waiting patiently
by the highway for traffic to go by so he could cross.
It would have made a great picture, but alas, I forgot
to take my camera with me. Today, an Osprey flew
off of Nimpo Lake and right over my head with a rainbow
trout in his claws. Not often you can hope to
get a picture like that, but I didn't have my camera outside
with me because I was doing chores. A great disappointment
to me because I would like to be able to post images like
that with these articles just to show readers and vacationers
how blessed we are with birds and wildlife in this
region. I am going to post a picture of one of
the rivers in Bella Coola, however, in the hopes that
you can spot the salmon in the river. It
just shows how crystal clear the water is here. I am also
putting in an image of a huge glacier in the mountains
that guard the Bella Coola Valley. Enjoy.
|
| 06/09/2005
9:27 PM
|
Bears and Bald Eagles
|
A
super day continued. Aside from seeing little lady
black bear and her cub twice...both going and
returning from Bella Coola, and the grizzly bears,
it was a great trip in other ways as well. We were actually
looking to fish for, or purchase a salmon
for our Saskatchewan friends. We stopped at the Fisheries
Pool on the Atnarko River and on
a bridge on the Saloompt River Road where we watched Pink
Salmon struggling upstream on both rivers. I think
they are pretty near the end of their run and looking
pretty rough and ragged as most salmon do that late in
the season. It was my hope that the Coho had just started
and since I had a license, could fish for them. But although
we did see one tired and lonely Chum in the crystal clear
water, I didn't see any Coho Salmon. So
we went to a place that supposedly sells fresh seafood.
Wouldn't you know it? A closed sign for the Labour Day
weekend. On we go to Bella Coola to the
marina. The tide was obviously in and the salt flats were
covered in a combination of ocean water and green glacial
water from the high running rivers. A lone Bald
Eagle perched on a stump in the tidal water surveying
his kingdom. On the way back from the Marina and
just around a corner before the Bella Coola townsite,
our friend pointed out a waterfall in the bushes. So we
backed up the truck and sure enough, you could just catch
a glimpse of a curtain of water deep in the dark through
the leaves of trees and bushes. What a find that was!
This hidden waterfall right along the highway was absolutely
spectacular! Like some serene and secret grotto with only
a faint path to it through the green. Anywhere else, a
touristy resort would somehow have incorporated it into
a hotel, or someone would be selling tickets to see it,
but here in the Bella Coola Valley, waterfalls
are so common that there isn't even an arrow or
sign pointing to it. What a magical place!
|
| 05/09/2005
11:36 AM
|
Grizzly Bears
|
A
trip to Bella Coola yesterday yielded some great pictures!
We have friends out from Saskatchewan that really wanted
to see Tweedsmuir Park and Bella Coola.
Both also wanted to see a bear. We got a real bonus because
first thing in the morning we saw a small black
bear and her cub eating berries on the side of
the highway and she wasn't bothered in the least by us.
But the really exciting part of the day was on the way
home going by the Atnarko River just before
you head up the hill, one of our friends yelled that he
saw a grizzly bear on a rock in the river.
We weren't sure he was seeing right, but on backing up
the truck, sure enough, it turned out he had great eyes.
We watched and took pictures for awhile, then backed up
a little further to see if we could get a better view
of the bear, and lo and behold, there were two large
grizzly cubs sunning themselves on a rock nearby
the adult. More pictures. We weren't all that close, but
although they watched us, none of the bears seemed that
uncomfortable about our presence. Then we watched as the
mother grizzly jumped into the river, caught a salmon,
then back onto the other bank to eat it. Unfortunately,
she moved so fast, none of us got a decent picture of
the event. Then back in she went fishing some more, and
eventually back out on her rock. Even though she was a
really big animal, you could tell from the way she
was being pushed around that the current in the river
was pretty strong. My biggest regret is that we
didn't carry the 35mm camera with the telephoto lens with
us, or even a camcorder. This was just an incredible event,
but all any of us had were digital cameras and in the
case of mine, it focused on the leaves of the trees in
front of the bears rather than the bears so most of my
pictures were pretty disappointing when they should have
been spectacular. Unfortunately, we don't go down into
the valley very often so we witnessed a pretty rare event
and it might be a long, long time before we get that lucky
again. But I'll post the pictures that did turn out somewhat
so you can see for yourself. Because I have had company,
I haven't written any articles for the last few days but
last week's articles can be found at August4
|
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!
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
![[Valid RSS]](rssimages/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
