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Wilderness Adventures - July Week Two
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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!
20/07/2005
1:08 PM
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Little of Everything
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Had
my chance to try Morel mushrooms this week.
Friends that I had spoken to at the BCFA
dinner on Saturday night brought some of the mushrooms
by for us to try on Sunday. I sautéed them lightly
in butter with just a few spices because I didn't want
to camouflage the flavor. It was a bit of a different
experience because they are completely hollow inside with
a crinkled, rough texture on the outside. They took a
little getting used to, but the flavor was actually quite
good. Just not as good as I had come to expect. As I said,
it was a little hard to get used to the texture. I think
I'm glad now that I was unable to purchase the ten pounds
I wanted from the mushroom buyers. Although I can understand
why they might be considered a unique delicacy at
gourmet restaurants.
I understand the Salmon fishing in Bella Coola
hasn't been as good as it usually is. Water has been so
high in the last two months from rainfall, that it's difficult
to get on the rivers. About the only spot is at the fisheries
pool on the Atnarko River in Tweedsmuir Park,
and of course all the fishermen have congregated there
because they can't get on anywhere else. So standing shoulder
to shoulder with a bunch of people fishing
isn't my idea of fun. I would guess that with the high
water, it isn't possible to walk down around the corner
from the pool and fish the middle of the river near the
confluence. That's my favorite spot, although you often
have to share it with grizzly bears. Speaking
of which, a grizzly sow and two cubs are living over near
Nimpo Lake Resort on the north arm of the
lake, and have been seen at the back end of the mill yard.
I guess two fellows were staying at Cherne's cabin below
their house last weekend. They left their host's house
at dusk after visiting and hearing about the grizzlies.
They were were walking in near dark when their host yelled
that the grizzly was behind them! When they
turned to look, all they saw was a huge shaggy brown shape
behind them in the woods. They bolted, screaming back
to the house while Harley the Llama (one of the pets at
Nimpo Lake Resort) looked on in puzzlement. Some of us
out here just have a wicked sense of humour.
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19/07/2005
12:26 PM
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The Flying Boat
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Only
one more picture of planes and on to other
stuff. Actually, I have lots more pictures and would like
to go on and on about the floatplane only
because of its incredible versatility as a bush
plane. It has had more to do with opening up remote
areas including the North, than any other single
thing. This next little jobby isn't very practical as
a bush plane, however. Or sure doesn't look like it to
me. It doesn't carry much of a payload, sits low in the
water so visibility would be limited and I think that
might be a real problem where there are log jams and other
obstructions in the water. Since it sits so low in the
water, it also looks like it would take longer to pick
up wind under you wings, but I could be wrong about that.
It's a cute little thing anyway. Although I'm not sure
the owner would characterize his flying boat
that way. By the way, a floatplane is anything with floats
under it, while a flying boat takes off and lands on water
on it's belly. As noticed in the previous story, it's
not impossible to damage or gash a float. I should think
it would be a lot more difficult to make the same kind
of repair when you've put the gash right in the belly
of the plane. How do you fly it then? Take a look at the
flying boat getting ready for takeoff on Nimpo Lake
on the right. His engine sits up on top of the
plane behind the pilot between the wings.
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18/07/2005
11:39 AM
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A Little Takeoff Problem
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Floatplanes
were 'flitting' all over the place yesterday morning.
Apparently the Tweedsmuir Park project started
at 8:am but it must have finished up by noon or early
afternoon as I was seeing a lot of planes going from one
place to another fueling up or visiting. You can see from
the top two pictures on the right, the difference between
a plane coasting out, and one heavily loaded with fuel
heading for home. He's the one dragging his tail in the
water. One of the floatplanes had a bit of a problem yesterday.
One of the members and ex-president of the association
likes to go over to Charlotte Lake for fishing
with friends every Sunday after the annual AGM and parks
project. I guess they were fishing for trout off
the floats when the wind came up and pushed the
plane onto the rocks. It resulted in a nasty gash in the
float and in a flurry of radio and phone calls around
the country looking for inner tubes to put in the floats
to push out the water. They finally found some inner tubes
at Les Zigler's machine shop and flew them
out to the owner of the plane. They got enough pumped
up innertubes into the floats to fly it back to Terry's
hangar and flew the friends back in a different plane
to keep the load as light as possible. You see, if you
have a substantial amount of water in the floats of a
plane, it makes it really heavy and it won't lift off
of the water so you pump your float lockers periodically
before flying because you always end up with a small amount
of water forced into the seams or overspray on landing
and takeoff. But when you have a gash in the bottom of
the float, there just isn't any way to pump the float
dry. It doesn't take much water to throw off the balance
of a plane, and a lot of water in one side makes it pretty
tough to take off or land or fly, for that matter. Anyway,
the gash in the metal was repaired and the floats pumped
enough for the plane owner to leave Nimpo Lake
for home this morning. Hopefully he made it ok. The weather
is calm and sunny, and quite beautiful so he should have
an uneventful trip.
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17/07/2005
12:11 PM
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The Floatplane AGM
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The
British Columbia Floatplane Association
AGM seems to have been a roaring success. They had their
meeting yesterday at Terry Brandt's hangar on the north
arm of Nimpo Lake. It was quite a good turnout
considering the weather was pretty ominous over the mountains.
Floatplanes were lined up at Terry's dock,
as well as Nimpo Lake Resort's docks, and
at a neighbour's as well as up on the hangar apron. Three
tail draggers (wheeled planes) were lined up on the dirt
runway above the hangars and a few floatplanes were parked
at various resorts on Nimpo Lake including a flying
boat over at Vagabond RV Park and Resort. The
supper was a terrific success and there was music and
dancing afterwards provided by Cindy Nadeau from Chilcotin's
Gate. The silent auction had lots of goodies and
the donation bucket filled up pretty fast. Today, there
was a parks project for the pilots up at
Turner Lake. Every year on the Sunday following
the AGM, the members fly into whatever area Tweedsmuir
Park asks them to, and everyone works hard at
fixing trails, campgrounds, or in this case, tent pads,
for the day. Anyway, took lots of pictures but it's hard
to get a good one of all the planes lined up at the dock
because there are so many of them. So over the next few
days, I'll just keep adding pictures for those plane enthusiasts
out there. After all, Nimpo Lake is the "Floatplane
Capital of BC!"
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16/07/2005
12:18 PM
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Kingfishers and Floatplanes
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I
know, quite a combination for today. We've had a Kingfisher
sitting in one of two trees on the shore of Nimpo
Lake in front of our house for the last few days.
He must find it pretty good hunting right there. Grey
and white, and with a large crest making their head look
too big for their body, the Belted Kingfisher
is about 12" long. Aside from terns, kingfishers
are the only small bird that dive headlong from air into
water.
The British Columbia Floatplane Association
AGM has just wrapped up and now everyone will be wandering
around looking at each other's planes and enjoying a delicious
lunch provided by Mary Kirner of Nimpo Lake Resort,
Terry Brandt and Lois Bowman who are hosting the event
in Terry's aircraft hangars.
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15/07/2005
4:04 PM
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Windsurfers and Weird Plants
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A
weird mix of stuff for Friday. Our first windsurfer
that I know of was out on Nimpo Lake this
week. He was tacking up and down the main arm and near
the big island for a while when this picture was taken.
Then the wind died. Completely. As a result, he ended
up trapped out in the middle of the lake unable to go
anywhere. No one thought anything of it for a couple of
hours until it occurred to several people on the lake
at about the same time that none had seen his sail for
some period of time. But there he was, resting on his
board between the two islands trying to
ride the current in, which would have taken a few hours.
A boat from Stewart's Lodge reached him first and brought
him and his sail back in. Even with a wet suit on, the
poor fellow must have been half frozen because it was
really cool that evening. Not quite the same conditions
as the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River, Oregon where
we were on the July long weekend. The area is world famous
for windsurfing because of the wild winds
down the valley. There were countless windsurfers all
up and down the river that weekend. They looked like colorful
butterflies dancing on the water.
Remember the weird water plant in our swamp from last
week's blog? Well, we got an answer back from Garden's
West and here it is. - Your plant is a Persicaria
hydropiper common names include smartweed, water pepper
and water pepperwort. We will put your letter in talkback
because your story of how it came to be will of interest
to other readers and may encourage them to share their
stories about how climate changes are affecting their
neighbourhoods. This plant originated in Eurasia. We
have no idea how it came your area. That's a mystery.
Dorothy Horton Editor
Last but not least, the British Columbia Floatplane
Association AGM starts tomorrow at the north
arm of Nimpo Lake. Some planes should be arriving
tonite and I will be getting lots of pictures! |
14/07/2005
1:13
PM |
Morel Mushrooms
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The
abundance of Morels from last year's Lonesome
Lake fire seems finally to be winding down. There's
been quite a crop of the christmas tree shaped mushrooms
out there that has continued maturing for a couple of
months now, but is finally slowing down. Apparently the
cool, rainy weather has just kept those mushrooms popping
up and picking five, five gallon buckets in a day is not
hard to do if you happen on a good area. A good number
of people from the native community as well as locals
from Anahim Lake and Nimpo Lake
have been out picking, but word of Morels gets out fast.
Mushroom pickers from all over have converged
on the area over a period of time, some staying in local
accommodations, some in tents up near the fire where a
'tent city' and cook shack has risen out of the ashes,
so to speak. Apparently, the same thing happened last
summer down at Chilko after the huge forest
fire there the summer before. I guess Morels grow in abundance
anywhere a fire has swept over the soil the season before.
Since we've had a number of huge forest fires
in the area the last two summers, we've become the Morel
Mecca. I still haven't had an opportunity to try the mushroom
and keep begging my work compatriots to bring a couple
in for me after a day of picking, but they keep forgetting.
So perhaps I may have to break down and buy a pound from
the mushroom buyers. Right now the price is ranging from
4$ to 6$ a pound because there's some competition between
the buyers, yet I understand the Morel fetches a pretty
high price in gourmet restaurants. One work companion
was telling me last night that she's cooked them every
which way when camping, but her favorite is dipped, breaded
and fried so that they resemble veal cutlets in texture
and taste. My mouth is watering already!
I'm starting on a new week now, so the past week's entries
can be found at July
1 .
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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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