The BC Pictures

2006-06-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is a sample of the BC float plane trip.

Gordon and Chris and I flew Gordon's T206 up there on Monday. We camped at Turner lake (the one with the 1100 foot waterfall), and two of us froze our asses off that night. It was 33 degrees.

Next we flew on to Cow Lake, where, at night, we also froze our asses off. But both places were just unmatched beauty. No people (which I think is beautiful), no nothin'. Just loons and snoring bears. And mosquitoes beyond comprehension. Deet works.

We went on the next day to Tsacha Lake. Gordon had flown in there to the Mackenzie Trail Lodge four years ago, and had enjoyed cabins and rustic lodge living.

We flew over the lodge and found it was abandoned. No one. Ghost town. We landed and walked around the property. Totally overgrown. The doors were open, the kitchen was stocked with equipment and flatware, but the rodents were taking over.

We built a fire in the fireplace, then a local homesteader came down and told us the story. Lawyers and banks and widows, etc. But no one was going to visit us, that was for sure, so we stayed the night.

Then out to Chilko Lake Lodge for a night of proper care: hot showers and dinner with the staff. (They didn't open until the next day, so we had the place to ourselves.)

The last pictures are the flight out through the Hamathko glacier fields. Wow.

Enough writing.

In the beginning: Bliss Landing, Canada.

School of herring.
Turner Lake, and the Hunlen Falls.

32 degrees at night. Lots of bear and elk tracks, but the largest creatures I had to deal with was mice in my tent.

The abandoned lodge at Tsacha lake.

Does this really need a caption? (Eagle.)

Beaver pelt nailed to a barn. Why?

Cutthroat trout. 16" is the largest we saw. We heard the lakes are full of huge ones, but we didn't catch them.

Chris killing his limit of H2O.

Outflow from a glacier into a lake.

And this is us, back at Gordon's dock on Mercer Island.

The Flying Pages

The BC Pictures