Kidney Lake
I was parked in my new secluded spot, close enough to the lake to walk over and fish, but not so close that I’d get visitors in my spot. I had another nice day of weather coming up. I figured I’d go check out something I saw on the googles aerial and see what it was from the ground.
The radiating paths would have been the guy wires for the antenna
Actually, I already suspected what this thing was, a former LORAN broadcast station that had been removed somewhere around 2015, at least I could still see the building on the 2014 image of the area. For those that don’t know, LORAN-C is a version of an older system that allows you to get your location, like GPS. It relied on large broadcast stations, with very tall antennas, but not that many were needed to cover a pretty large area. North Vancouver Island had one, and my research confirmed that this spot way out in the middle of nowhere was where it had been. Presumably the local topography was favorable for an antenna that would be sending out signal several thousand kilometers, to be received by equipment that could take that signal, combined with signal from other broadcast locations and figure out where they were, within a quarter kilometer. While not the accuracy we are used to with GPS, LORAN certainly provided enough accuracy to navigate the oceans, or even for flying to destinations over land.
So you can see I’m coming into the site from the southwest corner. The way the roads are here, I came from the southeast. I ended up walking north, west, then south to get to the entrance of this site.
Left onto Rupert 600b, right to some boondocking
My first turn left to head west had a branch road that leads to some promising boondocking areas. I made note to go for a walk that direction later. The road continued west, in very good condition. Any RV would be able to travel along here as long as you take it easy. There was a branch road I did a quick detour down – nothing too exciting but there was a spot to boondock there too. You get the idea by now that there is a lot of boondocking in this area if you drive off the main road and explore a bit.
Note the quotes around the text. Comment on the utility of the warning?
I was straight north from the site when I encountered this sign. I could just read it was a coast guard sign. That added to my suspicion I was heading for a LORAN site since they would have been the ones looking after the site. But why warn of “Hazard- Falling Objects”? There would have been guy wires running out from the towers, possibly birds sitting on them pooping down on you. It certainly was a “hazard” to be warned about, way out in the bush!
I arrive at my next turn left, heading south now towards the entrance. This is a four-way junction – the other two directions also lead to areas with some potential boondocking, and many roads to explore, from what I see on the aerial. There is even a back way to highway 19, that would come out further north of where I turned off.
But I was going south. That road is the Rupert 580, which goes south all the way to the Rupert Main I used to travel to Rupert Inlet. I could go back that way, but it would be a much longer hike, plus a bunch of travel down a main road that is going to be muddy with traffic too. Much better to re-trace my steps going down these quiet back roads.
I arrive at the road leading into the site. It is a bit over grown, but there are signs that vehicles have been down this way, you can see the recent tracks here. I’m not sure if I’m going to encounter a fence blocking this off, or some no trespassing signs.
The entrance to the site has little left – the only clue are the concrete barriers now pushed aside to allow you to squeeze an RV down this way. The road continues a way down, through what was once cleared, but now is well on it’s way to being reclaimed by nature. I turn left heading north towards the clearing I knew was ahead.
Former North Vancouver LORAN station site
This field is massive. I certainly understand why vehicles are coming in here. This is a perfect elk/deer grazing area, as confirmed by the droppings I find along the edges. The hunters would be coming in here in season to try for an animal here for sure. You can see in the centre a couple of bare spots where the building’s foundation was – but that is about it. The remediation has been pretty thorough, leaving only a few bits of detritus sticking out of the ground here and there. It is a massive space. Many people could camp here – the land is no longer marked federal or private on the BC lands map. It would make a wonderful boondocking spot, other than the road is over grown and the cell signal is next to nothing. So it wasn’t the most exciting discovery of mine, but it still was a pleasant walk with a few peculiarities along the way.
A research plot of some sort Hw = Western Hemlock
I encountered another oddity on the way back, a sign in the middle of the trees. Now, having worked many years in agricultural plot research, I could see that this was some sort of trial for trees. I can tell we are looking at species planted, density, cultivation, and fertilization as factors they are looking at. That’s a lot to bite off in one trial, I’d expect there to be a lot of plots, but I only see this one here so far.
White post in the forest
The only other thing I encounter in the forest is this white post, a marker of some sort.
I was thinking that would be all I’d find out about this area, but I had not yet met the tree shooters. You read that right, tree shooters. I’ll jump ahead in my trip to tell this whole story at once. A couple of days later I had been hearing shots in the woods during the day, many of them. It seemed strange to me, this is the middle of the week, and hunters generally don’t shoot thirty plus rounds in the woods. I was walking back from a little fishing visit to Kidney Lake when a truck comes up from further down the road.
Meeting the tree shooters on another day
We exchange greetings. It turns out these fellows are doing some tree sampling in the area. The noise I was hearing was them shooting tree limbs off so they can take back a sample from high up the tree. Shooting off the branch is actually easier than climbing up the tree and cutting it off!
First thing they ask is if I’m hearing them shooting. It seems they’re a bit concerned about getting curious visitors, or cops coming in perhaps. I know I’d be making a visit to the local detachment just to let them know what’s going on to avoid such a visit. But the encounter allowed me to ask about the tree signs. I can confirm that there are many plots out here with different treatments to see how they affect tree growth. The white posts mark the border of the plots.
I even ran into the tree shooters on another day, just as they were finishing up their day at the side of the road. They admitted that sometimes it takes many shots to get a branch down. They are using a 12 gauge shotgun, some branches are high enough that the shot doesn’t just blow the limb clean off on the first shot. Sometimes, six or more shots are required. That certainly explained the pattern of a group of shots, then silence for a while, then another group, or sometimes only one shot. I’m certainly feeling more relaxed being in the area now – I know what the shooting is about, but anyone else coming in is going to be going WTF?
Read on about my next adventure where I finally break the curse I have been on since I started this adventure. Plus, I go off on further explorations. See you then!
