A Fantastic Bit of Weather in the West Chilcotin.

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.
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Check out the Picture of the Day.

15/09/2007 11:10 PM

All Good Things Come To An End

Today was the last of our magnificent weather. On my way to Anahim Lake this afternoon I could see a huge, black cloud bank to the north and west. By this evening it had reached Nimpo Lake pushing a cool breeze before it. Good things can't last forever I guess, but I sure was enjoying that nice weather. We all were!
Our high pressure system has been pushed onto the prairies by a low coming out of Alaska. Which is okay. My prairie friends probably wouldn't mind a last kick at summer before the snow flies. Rain is predicted for a good bit of British Columbia for the next few days, and then with any luck, another high pressure system will move in. One is hovering to the south out in the Pacific but it looks weak and it's hard to say where it will go.
I was talking to a lady in Anahim Lake today about BC Hydro workers coming out and cutting down the beetle kill on theirs and other properties the past little while. She'd noticed the same remarkable thing that I had. Some beetle killed trees endangering the power lines were not cut down because they didn't have the all important letter 'H' painted on them. (Two years ago a crew went around the country spray painting the letter on any tree that was in danger of falling on the power line.) But some of those trees hadn't turned red at the time of the painting. Now, however, they are red and dead, like one along our road leaning right over the power line. I'm not sure why the contractors felling the trees are refusing to remove non marked trees. Presumably it's because they only get paid for a set number of marked trees? But it's moronic for them to come through, cut down the majority of the trees, but not the odd one without a mark that is directly endangering the power line. BC Hydro will still, in near future, have to go to the extra expense of hiring someone to come back and finish the job. And if it's just one or two trees, that's a ludicrous expense. Or, maybe not.
The other thing we've all noticed is that only a few property owners are getting their trees cut down and they all seem to be those folks that signed a contract with BC Hydro two years ago. Maybe the outcry and signed petitions from many area citizens that signed that promise from BC Hydro has finally forced them to come in and honor that contract. But only that. We're still not seeing any sign whatsoever that trees along Highway 20 and side roads that are right alongside the power line are getting cut down. Power outages are just going to become more common here and it just doesn't look like our dearly beloved freaking provincial electrical power company particularly cares.
Well, that cloud cover out there right now seems to be keeping the temperature up tonight. Heavy frost the last few nights have definitely brought on a spate of fall color lately but it doesn't look like we'll be seeing any tonight. In fact, it's just started raining. I'll get this uploaded and if I can, I'll update you folks on the weather tomorrow but we've company coming for chow and since I'm chief chef and bottle washer around here, there's no guarantees.

13/09/2007 10:02 PM

Quick Late Summer Update

Yep. That's what I've decided today was. Our missing summer. Rather than getting cooler our temperatures were most definitely warmer than they have been for the last day or two. At one point the thermometer in the shade read 20.8C or around 65F but well over 30C in the sun. I don't know if it got any higher than that because I was wandering around outside a good bit of the day. I took a long walk in the woods today and rather than deking out on the road and coming back that way, I just stuck to the shaded trails because it was just too hot to be walking in the sun.
We were talking to the neighbour tonight and he said that it went to 5 degrees below freezing at the mill last night. That's midway between Nimpo and Anahim Lake so it's always a little colder there. Still, it froze here last night. I don't think we'll have cherry tomatoes much longer. Carrying them in and out of the house is definitely getting old but it's too cold to leave them out.
We've just come back from a wonderful supper over at the neighbour's and it hasn't left me a lot of time for the blog tonight so I'll keep it short.
Another gorgeous sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. And that's all I have to report folks!

12/09/2007 8:59 PM

Another Uniquely Fantabulous Fantastical Day In The Chilcotin

Yes, I know, most of those descriptions aren't actually words. But it's my story and I get to tell it any way I want to. Besides, I couldn't possibly come up with enough words to adequately describe the weather here this week. It's perfect!
Nimpo Lake was flat calm this evening with only the ripples from fishing boats and loons disturbing the water. And fish jumping. And man, are they jumping! It's just terrific to see how high some of them are coming out of the water and many are really big fish. This would have been a good year for feed and you can see it the size and thickness of the trout.
We had a clear, sunny day that was downright hot in the sun. A little cool in the shade though. The temperatures really didn't get much over 18C or 63 to 65 degrees today and it definitely froze last night. It was foggy on the lake this morning which is pretty normal for this time of year. I think we'll see a general cool down now because although this high pressure area is holding over us, there's some cold air being brought straight down from Alaska. The jet stream as depicted on the weather maps is just unbelievable. It's running straight north the entire length of British Columbia and the Yukon just off the coast right up into Alaska, and then straight south again all the way to the Washington border right down the center of our province. Really unusual to see it like that. Nice for us though to be inside that high pressure system. It looks like good weather for a few more days. Boy, I sure hope so. Everyone throughout the province seems downright giddy with the sunny weather and I assure you, the mood has improved a great deal around here!
It's just a real pleasure to get up and know you can work outside all day if you want without being driven back inside by rain squalls or bugs. The only downside with the hot spell for a few days is that we're finally seeing algae build up on Nimpo Lake but it's nothing like last year. And the cooler temperatures will slow that right down. Probably not much to worry about in the way of forest fires this late in the season because the nights are cold and humidity is high from the dew in the morning.
At least the weather is great for getting on with our outside projects. Andy is still working on the roof for the travel trailer. It now extends 29 feet which is quite a length for a single side. That's my fault. I figured if it was extended just a little more we could park the fourwheeler outside the wall but it would still be under cover. This thing has just gotten bigger and harder to build and no easy project, that's for sure. It's a good thing Andy's good at that stuff.
Me, I added another little project to my own list, which of course interrupts what Andy is doing when I need help. I've decided I want a raised bed for some vegetables next year and have started putting it together this year. Because you can't rely on not having a frost at any time in the summer, veggies aren't the easiest thing to grow in this country but I've decided to give it a go anyway. I've tucked the box into just about the hottest and most protected part of the yard and at only eight feet to each side, it shouldn't be that hard to cover at night early and late in the season. Surprisingly, although that doesn't seem that big an area, it's still going to take a fair amount of dirt to fill it. Since good dirt is at a premium I'll be fighting weed seeds for the first couple of years but as long as we don't go anywhere next summer, I can stay on top of it. Maybe I can teach some of these freeloading pets around here how to weed. Fat chance!
Andy's brother did a little work on my computer while he was here and my screen color is darker than it was before. I haven't been able to test the color of this site on any other computer but the laptop so I don't know how the photos look. If anyone has a problem with seeing them or they seem too dark, by all means, let me know. The other thing he added to my computer was some new spam software. Man, does it work well! It's kind of neat to see all this spam come into your mailbox and then blip! See it disappear moments later into a spam folder. The outfit is called CloudMark so check it out on the trial offer if you need a spam blocker. We're on satellite and unfortunately, they have zip for a spam blocker. You're kind of hung out to dry and since my business email is inundated with spam, this is a real godsend.
Oh, check out the floatplane up on the right. A beautiful little plane and perfectly reflected in the flat surface of Nimpo Lake.
I'm going to leave Logan's grizzly up on Picture of the Day for one more day, just because it's a beauty!

11/09/2007 4:55 PM

Indian Summer 2007

We've either just gotten our summer or we've been blessed with an Indian Summer. I'm delighted whatever the case. Our temperatures yesterday hit a high of over 24C or around 75 degrees Fahrenheit and although they're not as high today they're still about 20C. We didn't even have to bring the pot of tomatoes in off the deck last night, covering them instead. That's a first in about a week. The last few days have been quite hot because there hasn't even been much of a breeze but today a nice little wind sprang up, making it quite pleasant outside, even in the sun.
We've got company right now with Andy's brother taking full advantage of the nice weather to ride up on his bike from the Okanagan and do some fishing. The guys were out fishing for most of the morning and brought in five nice rainbow trout. They lost a really good sized one. Andy said it was just tail dancing across the water when it spit out the fly. And they got enough hits throughout the morning to keep the day interesting. There are actually a lot more boats out on Nimpo Lake than I've seen all summer. No small wonder. Excellent fishing and no bugs!
The salmon fishing down on the Atnarko River has been excellent and one fellow from down at the other end of the lake joined friends fishing down in the Bella Coola Valley for a day. He has given his kind permission for me to reprint his email and some of the great pictures he took. He's also got a super picture of a grizzly taken around the top of the 'Hill' about a month ago that I'll be posting on the Picture of the Day. Unfortunately, left on this page it will get picked up by Google images and used by folks that don't have the rights to it.
Here goes Logan's Fish Story! :-)
"Hi all, This was one of the best fishin trips I've had. Bill & Joan got a new camper trailer so were giving it the checkout this weekend at the fisheries pool near Bella Coola. (That's the picture on the top right.) I went down to see 'em and give a try to coho fishin. Joan had a small one, but Bill said no other fish caught yet. Oh well, I'd try it for awhile before I went back up the hill.
The river was full of fish, (pinks/chum, I fergit) and it was cool to be fishing in the midst of hundreds of nice fish (they weren't feeding/biting tho) and waiting for that big COHO bite. Well, pretty soon I set the hook on a bite and thought I was snagged on a rock it was so solid. Then he took off, my rod bent over (80# braided line) and I thought... what will I do with this monster in the running water!! Unbelievable power in the current. Wildly exciting is an understatement. Pretty soon I saw him in the clear water and couldn't believe a fish that big could be in such a little river. Of course they're just starting up to spawn, but it looked odd.
Did I mention exciting? :)
Bill came running with the gaff, said no one had caught a coho yet. Lucky me!! Soon we had him on the beach, I stuffed my hand in the gills and thumb in the corner of his mouth (that was a mistake) and unhooked him. (single barbless hooks only) I was holding him up for Joan to get a pic, and he shook off my hand and fell back into the river!! I said a bad word. Joan didn't get the pic either, battery was deado. Big strong fish, Bill said it was 25#, noticeably the biggest one of the day. I was happy tho, just having experienced that, even if no fish to show for it. It took several more casts to settle down from that, and then it happened again!! I caught 5 of the damn things yesterday!! Only allowed to keep 2, so I came home with over 40# of coho. (Second from the top on the right with Logan's boot for size comparison.)
There is a treehouse thingie that the fisheries people sit in and count coho. (Third pic from the top on the right.) A few days ago the count was about 30/day, and yesterday there were "a couple thousand" he said. So I lucked out on the day I showed up there.
I went up to see it and yack w/em and we could see eight of 'em just hanging on a rocky bar, he said they'd been there awhile. Didn't have my cam w/me, (sorry) but I said "I'm gonna go for 'em", climbed down and made a few casts/drifts & hooked one, fought him right to the bank in front of me and he shook off. Just awesome. Fishery guy said it was a good show. By then I was tired and went for lunch and cleaned fish and came home.
Thus endeth another tale of Nimpo Lake life."
Pretty cool eh? Thanks Logan! Hope you guys enjoyed Logan's Tale. Better come fishing before he catches them all, though!
It's time again for the start of a new week. Last week's articles can be found at September Week One.

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!

Picture of floatplane, lake and mountains.

Three salmon next to a boot for size comparison.

The river flowing among fall colored leaves.

A boat cruises across the deep blue of Nimpo Lake.

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