Not part of the interpretive trail, rather in contrast to it
I was on a nice little day hike that took me to Beaver Lake and an interpretive trail. Plus I had a great camping spot right by the little lake I had found on the aerial photos of the area. Where I was had two lakes to fish, one right by me and one within walking distance. On top of that, there were lots of logging roads around here to explore. So why would I bother to move camping spots? Well, let’s just say the weekend was coming…
The hike I was on to Beaver Lake had the Beaver Lake Forest trail right across the road from the lake. Since it was a nice day, I figured I’d hike the interpretive trail and see the forestry companies take on logging.
According to the one sign, the area was logged in 1971. So, we are talking over fifty years ago now, not exactly a recently clear cut area anymore. So, the interpretive signage is out of date in that a lot of the forest types talked about on the logged areas are now further along that what the signs talk about. Even for a forest, fifty years is a bit of time. But the educational value is still there as long as you take that into account. The old growth stuff is mostly the same, other than the one annoyance of people having removed all the shelf fungus that was discussed on the one sign. What can I say, a few stupid people ruin things for the rest of us. At any rate, the trail takes you through a “new forest” and some old forest, although nothing is like the really massive old growth forest the stump evokes.
Salal can be low like this, or over my head and impenetrable
I finally put a name to the shrub that grows so profusely around these parts, Salal. I have discussed it previously – but my delayed posting means I sometimes use recent knowledge to backfill posts I am working on from my adventures a month ago. I will remember that name – this shrub has kept me from getting to lakes, and driving down roads, growing in quickly after logging ends.
Salmon bearing stream
The trail winds through some different ecozones, like this marshy area with a creek going through it. The creek has salmon in it according to the sign. I would not have expected that for something so small and as far as you can get from the ocean in this part of the island.
You cross the creek on a nice bridge, although some of the trail is a bit muddy. A little maintenance would be nice for those tourists who will be stopping here and walking this in sandals and flip flops.
Big cedar, my hiking stick doesn’t show the scale that well
There are some massive trees in the area like this cedar. You also see hemlock in the forest, but they are not quite the monsters here the cedar are. Along the way you get different signs explaining forest succession and ecology a bit. It would be a good educational walk for any children from junior high to university really, there is a fair bit of detail given.
There is also an ‘education shelter’ as termed by the sign. The forestry company/government would be happy to tell you all about the economic and social benefits of logging, according to the sign in front of the shelter. While the tour is somewhat bias towards the forestry company, it still has some good educational value. It would be a good educational exercise to have students talk about the bits the signs leave out – like logging companies cutting too close to streams and lakes leaving them vulnerable to erosion and sedimentation. But hey, I’m just a BSc.(Ecology), what do I know?
On the way back, I encounter a couple of people trying to take a flat tire off of a new-old style Camaro. It seems the aluminum rim has welded itself onto the hub. That emergency mini spare is useless if you can’t get the wheel off! But in conversation with them and another fellow who came along to help, I found out the name for my lake I’m staying at – Kidney Lake! Funny thing is, if you look at it on the googles map, you’ll see Scott Lake is the name given. I queried several locals about this lake’s name, and they all agree on Kidney Lake. I’ll assume the locals know better than the googles on this one.
View from the Lectern
Returning to my rig at Kidney Lake, I am again taken aback by the Lectern, sitting in the corner of my camping spot. I keep thinking I’m going to encounter a priest giving a fire and brimstone lecture on the evils of full time boondocking. But having discussed it with a hunting friend, I can conclude this is really a sighting table for calibrating a rifle’s sight. The corner “candle holders” as I thought of them are where you would rest the gun, firing beyond my RV into a target. Of course the rest of the thing just makes a good utility table that I put to use a couple of times while I was there too.
Need a bridge to get to the dock
The following day is bright and sunny – a perfect day to spend some time fishing. But I want to get out on that dock that is mostly floating out there, just out of reach. It is rotting in places, so even stepping into the water on the submerged parts is iffy – could break through and into the deeper water. But there are tree limbs and bits of wood laying around – I can make a bridge to walk across and keep my feet dry on top of it!
I collect my lumber for the base. These are mostly some pine trees someone else cut down, I just used my axe to take the limbs off and make nice straight ‘beams’ for my bridge. There are some pallets at my camp that I’ll drag down later and use as my ‘bridge deck’. I even manage to find a few nails that I use to tie things down a bit – no floating away on me overnight while I sleep!
I have a well deserved lunch, contemplating my handy work. I’ll get a good afternoons fishing in out on the water. I’m still not sure there is anything in here for fish though. If I don’t catch fish, at least I will work on getting a bit of a tan – the sun and the reflection off the still water will get that started.
Bridge over Kidney Lake
I spent a lovely afternoon casting lures. For a while, I thought I might see fish rising, so I switched to float and fly. I had one ripple of something that might have been a fish come up to the fly just as I was pulling it up to the dock. But that was as close to fish as I got. I did finally see a definitive fish splash on the water – the previous ripples were so delicate I wasn’t sure if I was looking at fish, or bubbles rising from the lake bottom. There are fish here, just not for me today. But that is OK, the weather was the best it has been, it was even warm enough for me to sit on the dock and have a beer!
The great weather lasted all the way into sunset. The weather had been perfect all day. The night was calm, interrupted only by someone who scooted down partway to my camp, then backed out when they saw I was there. It seemed this was a popular spot to visit.
Dying embers of the last night at Kidney Lake
While I liked my spot, it had two big negatives. One, too many visitors coming into a dead end. Anyone coming in is going right by me, and can easily block me in. Two, the cell service here was non-existent. I tried with my booster, but no luck at all in camp in the trees. I could get service at the lake, if I stood at just the right spot, with the phone turned the right way – then wait a while and it would usually pick up. Yeah, I want my internet at night. While I didn’t mind unplugging for a few days, it is nice to be able to surf after dark at night. The weekend was coming. I expected people to come out for sure then, so my mind was made up: Friday I was packing and moving to the nice spot I had found earlier only ten minutes walk away. It would be the shortest hop I had made yet, no resupply – just move over to the spot and camp there. I would be able to walk to the lake to fish, plus I was pretty sure no one was coming into a dead end of a recently logged area when you had a lake you could go to only a couple of minutes down the road. Like MASH units, ‘M’ stands for mobile – I could move just far enough away to get away from the people and still be close enough to walk over for a bit of fishing.
But first I had to deal with the road to get to my spot. A little brush clearing was no big deal, but the tree over the road had me a bit concerned. A look at the growth on it told me that the tree had been leaning like that for quite some time – last year’s growth was all pointing up, rather than sideways had the tree leaned over recently. I had a little challenge getting up to chop off one of the lower branches, but once that was done there was lots of clearance for my RV.
My new spot has one more challenge: there is no turn around, the road just terminates with a ditch. There was a place I could turn around 250 metres back, so I got some good practice backing up a long ways down the road to my spot. At least the road was straight with no shrubs to deal with.
Biodegradable leveler
The spot was great, however I was not quite level. I really don’t want to take out the levelers, as I’m close to level. But I come up with a new invention: biodegradable levelers, locally sourced! I just grab some of the random bits of wood laying around the newly logged area and place it under my wheel. When I leave, I will just leave the levelers to rot in place. Larry the leveler would be not be impressed.
Join me in my next adventure, when I go explore a mysterious location seen on googles aerial. What thing could be out in the middle of nowhere here?
