September 2024

Leo and I hiked up the Shiny Badger trail one morning while it was still shady.

We took a break at the boardwalk.

We made it up to the picnic table with a view of a deep ravine.

The rabbit brush is in bloom.

Both Leo and Mark (second from left) have been having some challenges with injuries so they both are happy to be out running with their Sunday group.

At Scout Island

A few weekends ago we camped out at Horsefly Lake Provincial Park, just before it closed on September 15.  Too early!

It was fairly busy; we could not get a waterfront site. Fortunately our friends reserved us a site.

Mark and Patti came out for a visit.

First campfire this year (due to fire restrictions).

Mmm Shmores!

Tasha and the kids enjoyed the water.
 

We played a little bocce.  And we hiked up to the viewpoint.

Notice anything different about me?

Leo's Birthday Roadtrip

 

For Leo's birthday we decided to do one of our favorite activities:  disaster tourism. We headed down to Spences Bridge to travel on Highway 8 which follows the Nicola River to Merritt.  We hadn't been down this highway since it was washed away in the big floods of 2021.

The river valley is much wider now and the road has been relocated, sometimes on the other side of the river.

We stopped at our old favorite campground, N'Kwala recreation site.  The site is officially closed and part of the road has been washed out but the upper area is still accessible and the outhouses are still functional.  A couple of people were camping there, but we moved on. We ate supper at an Indian restaurant in Merritt and camped at 

Connie is not so sure about the giant squirrel with the creepy talons

Monck Provincial  Park on Nicola Lake.  Now for my usual rant about the BC Parks reservation system!  It was the Monday of the Labour Day weekend.  The park was half empty.  The gatehouse was closed but there was a sign saying that reservations were required to the end of September.  However, there were just 4 emergency sites for people travelling through for one night.  

We traveled light and slept in a tent!

Fortunately, we were able to get one of those sites but . . . there were empty lakefront sites we could have stayed in.  What if there were more than 4 parties that showed up?  We are rulebreakers and would have stayed in an empty site but what if a reserved camper arrived late?  It seems like these days BC Parks is all about maximizing revenue and not about encouraging BC citizens to get out and enjoy our parks.

Nevertheless wereally enjoyed our short stay.  We went for a swim and then checked out the trail that goes up the hillside with nice views of the lake.

Bit smoky from the Shetland Wildfire near Spences Bridge

We had to turn around before the end of the trail because it was getting dark.

The next morning I was thrilled to see a pygmy nuthatch, a first for me in BzC, we are more used to seeing these in Arizona.  This is a bird whose range just sneaks into southern BC though I suppose it's expanding its range northward like many other birds thanks to climate change.

No photo, but here is a vesper sparrow.

Just after we left the park we saw this bear run across the road.

Then we took Highway 5a to Kamloops. We didn't think we'd ever driven this road before. It was lovely! It skirts the south side of Nicola Lake past the historic Quilchena ranch and hotel and up a narrow valley to Knutsford.   Actually I would have driven this way with my family when I was a kid.

We saw pelicans in Stump Lake which surprised us since the only pelican colony in BC is in the Chilcotin on Stum Lake (and now Puntzi Lake possibly).  These ones perhaps came from the prairies and are migrating to the coast.

Lunch was at the Coconut in Kamloops and then we drove home. Happy 73rd Birthday Leo!

Camping at Dugan Lake

 Over the long weekend we camped at Dugan Lake.

Dugan Lake is more of a fishing than a swimming lake, but this year it was especially weedy.  The weeds were almost impenetrable so Leo and Mark launched the canoe to get past the weeds.

No they didn't go swimming in their jackets

Bird of the Day was the red-necked grebe family that swam by every day.

With the fires all over BC we saw some pretty nice sunsets.

What Were We up to in August?

¼

A million sunflower seeds had sprouted and taken over. Not expecting a big potato crop this year.  

We went to Scout Island one evening.

Not too many birds around but we did see two mule deer bucks.

We snuck into the closed river valley trail to check out the recent fire.  It burned hot.

We also drove out to Farwell Canyon to check out the giant landslide that cut off the flow of the Chilcotin River but they had blocked the road.

Trying to look down to the Chilcotin River from the roadblock

One day we rode the ebikes down the creek valley to the Fraser River.

We made it!  From our house and back we rode over 25 km.

Lastly, we came home one evening at 6:30 pm to find this on our front lawn.

Our neighbour has since seen a bear twice in her backyard.  We picked all 12 of our apples after that and I found and cleaned up a ripped up bag of garbage at the top of our trail to the dairy fields.  We are now keeping our garbage inside till the morning of garbage pickup and haven't encountered the bear since.

Driving back Home

Marsh Lake with its iconic Yukon blue highways  bridge

A day of steady driving back toward Whitehorse. Saw a Porcupine just out of Dawson and Rick saw a lynx.  Another highlight:

Giant cinnamon buns from Braeburn Lodge!  They also had a wood stove made out of an oil barrel.  Also at Stewart Crossing they were charging $12 for a slice of black forest cake!

After a full day of driving back, we planned to boondock in the  Whitehorse Super Store parking lot, but despite our intel there were No Overnight parking signs everywhere.  Next we tried the Canada Games Recreation Centre but they had the parking lot roped off.

In the end we drove 30 minutes south to a rest stop at the outlet of Marsh Lake.  There were no overnight signs here too but we stayed anyway and noone seemed to mind.  There was lots of space and we didn't get in the way of the people launching their boats.

A black bear popped off behind the outhouses but he soon moved on.  Leo, Jax and I went for a walk anyway and didn't run into the bear.

We saw mergansers, black-capped chickadees and cliff swallows.

The next day it rained  pretty much all day.  At the turnoff for the Stewart-Cassier Highway we said goodbye to Cathy and Rick. We tried to talk them into driving south with us and then turning off for Jasper National Park from Prince George but they wanted to head back home via the Alaska Highway.  Just as well as the next day Jasper went up in flames and the highway was closed.

We headed south and arrived at Boya Lake Provincial Park at 4:30 pm.  We snagged a lakefront site (probably because of the weather).  Boya Lake is known for its emerald green colour.

Not so much today. It stopped raining long enough for a short walk around the campground but we soon retreated into the trailer.

It stopped raining by morning but all day the mountains were in the clouds. Just steady driving all day with sightings of a small black bear, a fox, and two motorcyclists from Argentina on their way back south from Alaska.

We camped at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park. Though we didn't get a lakeside  site like yesterday we did get a lake view. Our neighbours were kayakers from Prince George; we'd been leapfrogging them from rest stop to gas station all day.

The next day we drove to Fraser Lake. As soon as we got cell and radio reception we found out that Jasper was burning and that there was a fire in the creek valley that was threatening Williams Lake.

 

We had an enjoyable afternoon and evening at Beaumont Provincial Park.  We used to camp here when I was a kid but I had forgotten that this was the site of the original Fort Fraser established by Simon Fraser in 1806.  All that remains is this historic barn.

And a portion of the traditional trail used by first nations, explorers and fur traders.

There was a flock of immature redstarts just out of the nest flying about the campground.

Bird of the Day

And the next day we were home, our trip over and Williams Lake did not burn down although it was a close call and our local hiking area in the creek valley is closed once again.

Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site

 

Also up Bonanza Creek where we went panning was the Dredge No. 4 National Historic  Site.  For me this was the highlight of our time in Dawson City.

When the gold rush was over, big corporations moved in to rework the ground.  They built the dredges which were like a big floating factory.  Dredge No. 4 was the largest Ddredge ever built and operated from 1919 to 1959. It could process a dumptruck load of gravel in one minute.  It only required 5 men to operate but it employed a camp of 100 people to maintain it.

To get inside the dredge you have to take the tour. We'll worth it.

The last dredge in the Klondike shut down in 1966.

The bank swallows love Dredge No. 4 too