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Selkirk Expedition


norseman

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Guest wildwoman

There is still lots of snow on Roman Nose so the trail up is impossible. Last weekend or the weekend before a hiker got lost in a snow squall coming from Chimney Rock. It was in today's paper. The moose are still down in the upper Pack River area bothering everyone trying to plant their gardens! Crazy weather <_<

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I always forget the milk but remember the steak and beer for some reason? huh.gif

That's because you are a male of your species.....

Your lack a mommy gene, and crave fresh red meat.

You're both right. I nearly laughed good gin through my nostrils. Thanks for the laugh.

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There is still lots of snow on Roman Nose so the trail up is impossible. Last weekend or the weekend before a hiker got lost in a snow squall coming from Chimney Rock. It was in today's paper. The moose are still down in the upper Pack River area bothering everyone trying to plant their gardens! Crazy weather <_<

We are definitely having another very wet, very cool summer.

And the Colville police dept just had to shoo another Moose out of town just last weekend.

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Guest wildwoman

And the Colville police dept just had to shoo another Moose out of town just last weekend.

I love the police blotter in the Daily Bee "reported moose on the loose, 4th and michigan" :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Grand Coulee dam is the mother of all dams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam

SNIP

So as you can see it's not an easy fix. Obviously the government thinks it's much easier to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in damages than to address the problem.

I was raised in Kettle Falls and the story I always hear is that it would be very tough for the fish to make it up around Grand Coulee with a fish ladder, but the real killer is getting the smolt back over the dam with out killing them. Either they are going to go over the very tall spillways or through the turbines. And they may get lost in the massive lake behind the dam as well, because they rely on current to flush them out.

When I was younger I was more understanding, I understood that the dam created electricity for many major urban centers in the west as well as irrigation water that made the Columbia basin spring to life, growing many many crops. But now that I'm older I guess I'm getting greedy, not only was one of the largest salmon runs in the WORLD killed off. But the falls itself, the mighty Kettle Falls that was such an important cultural center for all of the tribes in W. Montana, N. Idaho, SE BC and E. Washington is gone forever.

It would be akin to someone simply erasing Niagara falls of the map. I've seen the falls once in my life when the Army Corp of Engineers was working on the dam and brought the lake back down to it's original river. The experience was almost spiritual, I've never seen water so powerful in my life. It actually creates air currents that you can feel.

The Kettle Falls that I grew up in would have been a very different place if the dam had never been built.

Here is some more reading:

http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/KettleFalls.asp

http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/CeremonyOfTears.asp

kettle2.jpg

I've always felt the same way about the cost of that dam to the local native culture and way of life. I've only seen eddies from the falls when the water was running low. Have you ever gone to one of the salmon days get-togethers with the Colville Confederated Tribes? I don't know if they still do that. Years ago I was invited to go and they held it overlooking the old site of the falls during the time when all the regional tribes traditionally met up to fish and put up food for the rest of the year. That made a big impact on me, when I really got the impact the dam had on the NA people of our area. Even if there was a way of engineering ladders or something to allow the salmon to return, a lot has been lost simply from the disruption to a way of life that has spanned generations at this point. In the absence of the focus of one's culture, how does one manage to pass on the knowledge? Hindsight's 20/20 but I do think things could have been done differently if the cultural and environmental impact was at all a concern back then.

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  • 2 months later...

Also, I wasn't able to take a proper pack trip up there this year. And the photos are a compilation of two areas, the first area is Sullivan lake and the second is above Orient in the Kettle crest. All explored over a long weekend.

The track I believed was a grizzly bear at the time, the claw marks looked way out in front and there wasn't much of an arch to the toes. But now looking at the picture again I'm not so sure, but the track was large.

The one sliding track almost looks like a Squatch track. ^_^

And I took one picture of a "forest divot", nothing even remotely conclusive, but something had stepped off the bank onto the road and had left a deep strike in the mud. Probably a Moose.

A few of the pictures show just how massive of a forested area I live in, other than some ribbons of civilization down in the valleys there really isn't much inside the national forest for many miles.

Edited by norseman
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Norseman:

Cool pics!

Dang it I wish I lived in the PNW... :mad:

so help us out...

is this the pic you think is a bear?

post-395-068382200 1318009286_thumb.jpg

( I red circled what I thought looked like claw marks)

and is the is one you are not sure about?

post-395-000527000 1318009342_thumb.jpg

were they in close proximity to each other?

They both seem to have the "scuffing effect" to the rear of the track.

thanks for sharing!

Edited by slabdog
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Norseman:

Cool pics!

Dang it I wish I lived in the PNW... :mad:

so help us out...

is this the pic you think is a bear?

post-395-068382200 1318009286_thumb.jpg

( I red circled what I thought looked like claw marks)

I'm sure it's a bear, and remember this photo was taken in a Cedar swamp which was dark. I think the flash caught claw marks that would make this a black bear. I was pointing to marks that I thought were farther out which made me lean towards a griz. Regardless that track was around 5.5 inches wide if a remember correctly, definitely a bigger bear. My foot is a 12 D and I'm 6'2" and 260, and his paw is wider.

and is the is one you are not sure about?

post-395-000527000 1318009342_thumb.jpg

were they in close proximity to each other?

They both seem to have the "scuffing effect" to the rear of the track.

thanks for sharing!

I'm sure it's a bear as well, and yes it was also in the same track way. But it LOOKS good doesn't it? :) Sort of Squatchy......

And thanks!

Edited by norseman
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  • 4 months later...

Well I've been driving truck out in north dakota.......... and my time spent at home is very close to the house and family orientated. Has anybody else have anything to report out of the Selkirk/Kootenai region? Where are all of the Mugwamps at?

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BFF Patron

Hey norse hope things are subarctic by now up North. Can't help you with the Mugwumps out Selkirks way...... hope you can get a little R & R from time to time.

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Hey norse hope things are subarctic by now up North. Can't help you with the Mugwumps out Selkirks way...... hope you can get a little R & R from time to time.

Thanks bud, actually we are having a very warm winter both here and in N. Dakota. We have about a foot of snow in the valley here with normal snow pack in the mountains and N. Dakota as of last Monday had zero snow.......

They flooded last year and this year they may be in drought oddly enough.

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  • 3 years later...

some pics i took driving up to my hunting area on dry ridge. i was trying to catch some fall colors.

Enjoy.

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more today

if you come to the selkirks be prepared! this is what much of our NF roads look like!

Interesting bones.

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