Field Trips

[hiflier]

Hello daveedoe,

 

It's tidal and while I know deer do swim to islands and all I was nonetheless quite surprised when they showed up. The campsite is on that saltwater inlet which actually empties out at the low end of the 20 foot+ tides. The photo shows the tide about three hours before high in which the small group of trees to the right (seen better from the "dinner" pic) will be all that will be exposed. It was the first time I'd seen deer anywhere around there and had to blink a couple of times LOL. They watched us for a short time and then made their move acoss to the left and up the bank.

Edited September 24, 2014 by hiflier

[Guest lightheart]

Beautiful setting Hiflier!!! I am so happy you got to get out in nature for a nice break....It seems very serene there.

[hiflier]

Hello lightheart,

It was. September is a nice time of year as the parks are pretty quiet. Other than one other couple in the vicinity there was no one between us and the ranger's station a mile away. Talk about isolated. About the third night after the Full Moon on 9/8 which would make it the waning gibbous the coyotes and Great Horned Owls started to get active at night. Probably a handy thing to know.

[ShadowBorn]

Hiflier

Those are some very nice photo's, I really enjoy nature and waking up to it. My favorite to be in the forest is when it is foggy or misty and you are walking through pines or through open fields. I truly hope that you have a encounter on a day that i describe so that you can see what a mystical creature they are.

[hiflier]

Hello Shadowborn,

Thank you for the well wishes and I hope it happens just as you say whether they're mystical or not. It would be a shame to be the last person on the Forum to see one . Hope you're doing well; and I WILL be keeping my senses piqued for the encounter should it occur.

[1980squatch]

Very cool BC and hiflier, making me jealous!  Keep them coming...

[Hammer102492]

Beautiful scenes and pictures!  All good gifts around us. 

 

Here's where I go Squatching, in my back yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hammer102492]

Thinking about those logged areas from the pictures.  They took everything in whole sections.  Didn't pick out certain trees, just took it all.  Wow.

[BC witness]

Hammer, a lot of the newer cuts, the last decade or so, are the result of Pine Beetle infestation, and they have to remove all of the infected area, in order to stop the spread of this forest plague. The Provincial Government has hugely increased annual allowable cuts, to accomodate this. If the standing dead trees are left to dry out , the resultant forest fires would be cataclysmic in size and ferocity. The downside of this effort to control the spread of the beetles to other Provinces and States, is that there is a huge glut of pine timber in our local market, causing prices to plummet. It will probably take decades more for the local forestry industry to become stable again.

 

BTW, that's a great back yard you have there, it's no wonder that you get occasional "visitors". ;-)

Edited September 30, 2014 by BC witness

[BC witness]

The 5 day outing was cut short by 1, by the need to take the carcass of a campsite habituated bear to a game cutter, and the hide to a freezer, until I can get it to a tannery. I had a near encounter with something while out at 3AM Thurs. for a call of nature (old radiation treatment damaged prostate/bladder ), which I thought at the time might have been a large porcupine I had seen about a km from camp earlier that day, but in hindsight was most likely the 3 year old cinnamon coloured bear that held the campground under seige for much of Friday evening, before dusk. My buddy on this trip spent 2 years on a Yukon trapline, and another 3 or 4 as a Park Ranger in Northern BC, about 45 years ago, and having seen this situation before, knew the bear was a potential threat to others coming to the site, thanks to thoughtless actions by past campers/fishermen in not keeping the camp area clean of garbage, food waste, and offal from cleaning fish caught in the lake.

 

Since I had a bear tag, I was the designated shooter, with his backup, and after a few adrenalin fueled minutes of tracking him through the willows along the lakeshore after the shot, the problem was looked after. Saturday morning was spent skinning the animal in preperation for delivery, and transporting it to the nearest town with a licenced game cutter.

 

Prior to that exitement we had spent Wed. afternoon, Thursday, and most of Friday exploring a high pine forested plateau, looking for signs of game animals, and of course Sasquatch. We did see a number of mule deer does, rabbits, and copious evidence of the half dozen herds of wild horses that roam the area. (watch where you step, Kemo Sabe!) No tracks of giant bipeds were seen, I wonder if they ride the wild horses to avoid detection?

 

Some shots of the area:

 

Murphy at Murphy Lake

Priclky Porky x 2

High country clearcut

Campfire drinkies

Home away from home, and alternate transport

Third Lake, a few yards from the camper.

Edited September 30, 2014 by BC witness

[Guest]

Thanks Hammer & BC - ditto on the great back yard, Hammer!  BC,....the views of the lakes makes me ask if you do any fishing there.....good fishing? 

 

Thanks again, guys.......much appreciated!

[Hammer102492]

Interesting about the pine bug.

So many Sasquatchers are outdoor enthusiasts. Not surprised to see all these beautiful pictures.

[BC witness]

Sasquatch Sushi !!

 

Magniaesir, Jason C, and I went to a spawning stream that's very close to the site of a well documented sighting, from several years back, that included more than 1 witness, and tracks found. Jason was thinking that fish could have a bearing on their lifestyle, as that reported sighting also involved fish.

We arrived at the site at about 10AM on the only reasonably clear day we've had in the last few weeks ( lots of rain in the fall here). The main road in follows a popular fishing river, and every possible spot along it had cars and trucks parked, with fishermen almost shoulder to shoulder along the banks and out in the water in waders. The feeder creek and side channel that was our target is closed to fishing, as it is a spawning area, so the side road up the creek was almost deserted, with just one occupied campsite, which seemed mostly involved in enjoying load music and beer. We parked Jason's truck at the point where you can follow a footpath up one side of the creek, and cross further upstream to come back down the logging road.

It was only a few yards from the truck to the stream, and as soon as we could see the water, the salmon swimming upstream were visible, as well as some dead fish that had finished spawning. Most of the fish were 2 to 3 feet long, and 10 to 15+ lbs. The smell of dead fish was quite strong in some areas, so anything with a nose more sensitive than ours would probably pick it up from anywhere in that valley. We crossed the creek on a footbridge, and followed the trail upstream for about a mile, seeing fish holding in the pools just below each obstacle in the creek, then jumping the riffle to the next pool, sometimes 2 or 3 at a time. We were seeing bones and parts of bodies along the trail, and on the banks, but the heavy cover of wet newly fallen leaves on the trail made it impossible to locate tracks of any sort. At about the halfway point of the trail, I spotted a movement through the brush across the creek. Given the density of the brush there, and the height of the patch of fur that I briefly saw, it was probably a black bear (no known Grizzly presence in this valley).

We continued on the trail to the point where it crosses the creek back the logging road, via a man made flow control structure that forms a retention lake to supply the spawning area when water levels get too low. Here we turned back towards the truck, now following the stream on the opposite bank. We hadn't gone very far before we came upon fresh bear tracks, on top of the tire track of a truck that had gone down the road only 10 min. or so earlier. Another 10 min. down the road, Magniaesir spotted a movement along the bank, again hidden by heavy undergrowth, and likely another black bear, or maybe the same one I'd seen earlier from across the creek on our way up. We found more fish parts scattered along the roadway, and in the ditch on the side, and when we were back to within 50 yards of the truck, a whole sockeye laying in the middle of the road, with the top of the head bitten off (bear candy!), and claw marks where the skin had peeled back on the body. We had apparently spooked another bear, right in the middle of his lunch! There was a very obvious trail from the road into the creek, back up onto the road, and across the ditch on the other side, into the second growth forest.

Our 2 hour trek along the creek has clearly shown that there is, at this time of the year, a huge supply of rich protien to supply the needs of multiple large omnivores. We saw literally tons of dead spawned out fish, and many more tons swimming up to the same fate. The habitat also contained large amounts of ferns, skunk cabbage, devils club, and many varieties of mushrooms, a veritable feast of goodies for those creatures that know how to use them. An apex predator could also avail itself of the bears and coast blacktail deer that are abundant here.

The point of the exercise was to determine if there was sufficient food for Sasquatch in this area, and the answer is a resounding YES. We didn't see any Sasquatch, unless our 2 quick glimpses of critter movement count, right , but the location is certainly capable of sustaining a few, which makes the earlier sighting I mentioned above seem plausible, so we left there for a hearty lunch (Thanks, Jason) to discuss the days findings, and plan more outings.

[daveedoe]

thanks for the report BC. Great photo's. Looks like plenty of protein available for sure. Not sure how far you are from the salt, but just think of all the fish available from the salt to the headwaters. There are probably hundreds of spawning streams in BC, where to begin?

[BC witness]

daveedoe, more like thousands of spawning streams. My pictures were taken about 50 miles from tidewater, but the major river this area feeds, the Fraser, is 1375 km (854 miles) long, and has tributaries by the hundreds, and it's only one of many rivers on our extensive coast line. We're talking annual runs in the tens of millions of fish, so hundreds of millions of pounds of protein for the taking.