My next stop was going to be at another lake. It was a longer ride down gravel roads, but I was pretty confident of finding a decent spot as the area I was driving into had two rec sites on different lakes within a few kilometers of each other. But there were a lot of other surprises out there I did not expect. Join me as I head deeper into the woods in search of lake side camping.
I was going further west having just left from a pretty busy campground at Cobb Lake. While being around people there had not been too bad, I was hoping for something with no people or at least few people around, near water. This is a challenge – everyone wants to be near water when camping. I settled on checking out two recreation sites past Smithers close together, but both on their own lakes. I figured even with the longer drive in one of them would work for me. I wasn’t expecting to find no one in there, but I hoped being out on a Monday I’d at least get a good spot.
Why is the outhouse tilted? Dunno.
But first, I had to resupply. Burns Lake has a Save-On-Foods, which is better than a Walmart, if you only need food. The food store was another of those small malls with a grocery store anchor format you see in a lot of medium to large BC towns. I took a quick walk through the mall to confirm it was the usual struggling half empty mall. But this one was a little more lively than most at least. I always get turned around in the grocery stores at these places as the isles are oriented to the mall, rather than the street entrance. You come in the store in the corner and see the cashiers with the mall entrance and street entrance there. If you come in from the mall, everything is like a normal store with you going to the right to start working your way up and down the isles. If you come in from the street like most people do (because the mall is dead) you end up with all the isles off to your left with the cashiers to your right. The store is turned 90 degrees to your left from your perspective. You turn left to go down the first outside isle, ending up at the “back” of the store from your perspective of how you came in, but really you are on the “side” of the store with the cashiers back to left as you turn around to head back the way you came in. I’ve seen this setup all over BC – makes me wonder if there was one big developer who built most of these and just reused the same layout everywhere.
Typical modern faux Pub at the Office.
Another reason Burns Lake got my grocery business versus just waiting until I got to Smithers was the pub that was across the road. It was close to lunch time and by the time I was done with groceries, I was peckish. So I walked over to The Office Pub & Grill, a strangely named place in my mind. Can I work here remotely while having beerz??? The menu was a mix of pub food and some Indian dishes, with the place being run by real Indians, the curry spicy kind, not the come to my casino kind. So beer and curry was my choice, the curry vector being a butter chicken dish. Butter chicken is usually a safe bet, but this one was way too sweet. The spice was there, but overpowered with sugar. I made my observation known to the chef who happened to take my payment as I was leaving. I had the local (Prince George) Trench beer Pilsner, which was decent – it helped cut the sweetness of the curry. If they cut the sugar, the meal would have been excellent.
Rocky Ridge Horse setup
I continued on, having a ways to travel still with my stop for lunch. But the days were long at that time so I wasn’t worried about arriving closer to the dinner hour at my destination. I turned off Highway 16 a few klicks past Smithers. The road starts paved, then crossing the railroad tracks turns to an oiled road. You don’t see too many of these anymore, but here was one that went for several klicks until you pass the last house and ranch. The road turns to proper gravel after this, very well maintained. I found out later that there was logging going on down the road and some maintenance had been done for that.
Rocky Ridge Yard Dog
You come to a junction where the main gravel road continues straight. You can turn left down a cart path to Taltzen Lake Recreation Site, or go right down a lesser gravel road to Kitseguecla Lake Recreation Site. I decided to park and walk into Taltzen as the distance was short and the road looked rough. I found the road to be not too bad but full of water filled potholes. The lake had one camper with a set of dogs that would not shut up. The lake was small and tea colored. It had fish in it according to the campers, who eventually got their dogs to quiet enough to talk to me for a bit. There was one good spot with some sun opposite the dog campers. I decided I’d definitely check out Kitseguecla first as it was a bigger looking site more in the open judging by the aerials, and it had two docks!
Kitseguecla left
Off I went down the lesser gravel road. It was still in good condition, if only one lane with some steeper up and downs. I arrive at the turn off to Kitseguecla where I read the dire warning that access is “prohibitive” for large RV units. I had been warned by the campers at the first site that the road down was steep, so I walked down first. Yes, it was steep, but nothing my RV couldn’t handle. The road was good, no major potholes even. So down I went to find myself at a lake with a small boat launch, a dock at the launch, a floating dock out in the lake, and no one in sight.
Camped away from the boating area
I decide to setup one campsite away from the boat launch on the theory it would get me away from day users. I figured with a nice dock there would be someone out eventually. In the meanwhile, I was surprised there was no one here. I definitely was going to stay here at a better lake with no people. My spot still had a bit of a lake view and enough sun in the afternoon for solar. I even had a kayak landing so I didn’t have to go back to the dock to go boating.
I managed to get out on the kayak the second day but it was pretty windy. I fished upwind towards where Rocky Ridge Resort is. I could see one building in the distance but that was it. At least at the end of the lake it was calm enough to sit without being blown about, but there were no fish to be had there. The next day was windy and a bit drizzly, so I decided a walk to the Resort would be better. It looks more like a little farm operation, but cabins are scattered about that you can stay at with some main venue space for things like weddings. As I was looking at the office/owners house, he came over. Ueli is an older Swiss fellow who was busy mowing in the fields. But he seemed not to mind taking a long break to chat with me. We spotted a bear in the distance in his field, which is a regular thing out here according to him. Yeah, I can see why people rave about this place in the reviews if you can see bears out your cabin.
There’s a bear out there
Big logging, tiny motorcycle
The wind continued to be strong so I took the motorcycle for a tour around the area, hoping for some boondocking at a nearby lake. Alas, the road never really accesses the lake and there isn’t anything to speak of for spaces to tuck in nearby. The road was really good having looked to be recently maintained. I could see from the maps that it is possible to loop back to Rocky Ridge Resort for a round trip, so I continued on to find the recent logging area with logging equipment still parked at the side of the road. Logging isn’t Paul Bunyan wielding a chainsaw these days. It’s all massive equipment that can cut a wide swath of trees with not much needed for roads. Logs are brought to roads from strips that extend quite far away. I see these all the time now, and looking at the equipment, I see why there is no road. Those tracks can go over some pretty tough terrain, and when you only have to go over it a few times to grab the logs, there isn’t much left in terms of scar on the ground. I looked at the long strip cut land extending away from where I was, which is where the logging trucks would have come to be loaded. You look at old logged out areas and there are roads spaced close together. You didn’t have the big equipment then and needed a basic road near all your cut trees. I notice these things because logging roads make good boondocking areas. New logging does not have as many boondocking opportunities as old spaces, at least where the spaces have not grown in.
Kitseguecla Campground from Lake
The weather turned decent again and I was able to get out for a bit more fishing. One fellow came by for a day trip and did catch some trolling a leech fly. I was not having any luck, but at least I did get a fish on once. It seems the fish here don’t like my lures or flies that I tried very much. Even though this lake doesn’t get a lot of fishing pressure, it didn’t seem like there were a lot of fish here. I saw no fish rising while I was here. Oh well, at least while on the lake you can see the “Nipple” mountain that is blocked by the trees at the campground.
There was a visitor of the furry kind while I was in my RV. I’m sitting in my dining area and my attention is immediately diverted outside when a black bear comes around the corner from the outhouse trail. I never saw him coming as there are trees blocking my view. The bear comes right up to my RV allowing me to get a nice close up picture in the safety of my rig. But the bear wants to continue on to my firepit. I knock on the glass to make my presence know, which just made the bear jump back a bit rather than run away. That is not a good sign. The bear contemplated my rig for a moment, then wandered around behind my camp a bit, eventually ambling off out of the campground. This was despite my having stepped out of my door to see what the bear would do. Believe me, I was ready to step back in my rig quickly. I fear this is a human habituated bear, likely to come to a bad end and some point in a human – bear conflict.
My solitude at Kitseguecla did eventually come to an end with a couple of ladies coming to kayak on Thursday, so I’d had three days to myself there – unheard of in the middle of summer. It was a mother – daughter pair out for a birthday kayak day. Mom was having some real balance issues and fell into the lake even though she’d gotten out of the kayak by then. I was a bit concerned but she seemed to recover eventually. I help them a bit loading their kayaks back up. In chatting, the daughter mentioned that I really should check out Jigsaw Lake, it’s supposed to be really nice. I noted it for a possible visit going up the Cassiar.
The weekend brought a camper taking over the spot next to the dock, as most of the other spots had filled up at that point. This level of busy was what I had been expecting; perhaps I’d just hit an unusual lull in the visitors here. I chatted with a Brandon who came in motorcycle camping. He’s going up to the Arctic Ocean, doing the grand adventure. I’m too old for touring that way, but good on him for doing it. I ended up chatting with the campers beside me too. Jay and Trina with their dog Olive were off on a similar adventure going north, documenting their adventures on their Instagram Pigfish Wanderers Channel. Brandon came over, having needed a spare part and we ended up gabbing for the evening. It is very unusual that I’m in any social group like this, but we were all of a similar adventurous mindset with stories to tell. I was the veteran traveller of the group, with the others being out on their first adventures. I don’t feel like a veteran, but I guess five years is a tour of duty. We parted ways with them thinking we’d cross paths again. I know that is unlikely even following the same route. The wilderness is vast and there are many choices to camp, with me mostly being where others are not.
Leaving Kitseguecla
I left the area heading further west. I had seen some recreation sites a long ways up a mainline forestry road north of Terrace. Both were on the Kitsumkalum River, with the lake of the same name being on the north and Red Sands Lake being the next one downstream south. I figured I’d repeat my week’s plan and go up there – one of those two should work out for some nice camping. Join me next time and find out where I ended up.
