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Decided to extend the May long weekend & took the
kids up to Natlahatch River (near Boston Bar) to camp.
Its a beautiful area if you can look past the clear
cuts. We made it up in great time only to find that
my backroads map book and 'Camp Free in BC' are woefully
outdated. We ended up on the wrong side of the river
but it worked out anyway because there was a small forestry
site there that wasn't half bad and only had two other
people camped there. Heard from the Forestry staff that
all the other camp sites were totally packed anyway.
The kids had fun playing war while we set up the camp
site. I recently gave up my high moral ground on the
guns issue. I'm tired and worn out from the fight. I
admit it. I'm weak. Anyway.... armed
with toy guns & sticks, they patroled the camp site
fighting off Iraqui's and other dangerous foes.
Once we were set up, the boys had a blast shooting
cans with the beebee guns. Too bad we didn't have
any beer. We're just wanna be red necks.
Hot dogs and smores for dinner and then we all went
for a short hike. On the way back, we heard a hell of
a racket in the forest (birds) so Michael and I went
to inspect. We ended up following two big owls through
the woods for a while as they hunted (I assume) baby
birds. The parents were dive bombing the owls and making
all the noise. Very cool experience. Michael thinks
I'm the coolest mom in the whole world now. Headed back
to camp as it was getting dark.
Bought the kids their own tent
so we had the condo
to ourselves. (Incidentally... the kids tent weighs
3.5lbs is 6'6" by 4'6" so plenty of room for
one adult and cost $30 at Canadian Tire which I thought
was pretty interesting given all my recent research
into solo tents. I'm gonig to seam seal it and put it
in the back yard with a sprinkler on and if it doesn't
leak I have my new solo tent!)
Next morning I had planned to drive up to the Natlahatch
Lookout where you can apparently hike along a ridge
after driving all the elevation gain. Got (BAD) directions
from the Forestry people. I couldn't find my (BAD) map
at the time so the directions weren't much good. Took
the wrong road and ended up half way to the Stein Valley.
It was still a beautiful drive. The road followed the
Fraser River which gave us plenty of gorgeous
views along the way. Being on the wrong road wasn't
the end of the world as I could see that we were going
to intersect with Kwoiek FSR where there were at least
two trails we could do. Hung a left on Kwoik FSR and
followed Kwoik Creek for a while (beautiful creek) until
we were stopped by some boulders in the middle of the
road. A CRV would have had no problem getting through.
A full sized Chevy Pick up... forget it. Hungry kids
were whining in the back seat so we stopped for lunch.
Headed back to camp after making a pit stop in Boston
Bar for gas, ice, and ice cream (BRIBE).
I was suffering from a severe case of river valley claustrophobia
at this point and decided to climb the nearest thing
I could find which happened to be a slope that had been
clear cut after a forest fire.
I could see what looked like an obvious route so off
I went. Left my long pants back at the camp site but
I knew if I went back to get them someone would need
something so I carried on. Bushwhacked up for about
an hour through the nastiest brush
I've ever seen. I can't even describe how horrible it
was and I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice. I
couldn't take pictures of the worst of it as I was balanced
precariously on very brittle branches. Anyway.... I
finally get through the worst of it when it starts to
rain. I reach down for the radio to call and tell them
to put stuff away and realize that the radio is gone.
So now I have to go back because if they're calling
me and I'm not answering they're going to worry. So
I attempt to retrace my steps which is virtually impossible
since it all looks the same all the way back down. I
made it down but didn't find the damn radio. Get back
to the camp and Mark says "What happened to your
legs?" Look down and I'm absolutely covered in
cuts and scratches. Very sexy. Just for a little additional
colour, my body decides that its allergic to most of
whatever was scratching me. I'm totally pissed about
the radio so I pull on my long pants and grab Monty
(who has had verbal diareaha all day) and tell him that
I have the PERFECT job for him. I drag him to the base
of the clear cut, give him the radio, and tell him to
make all the noise he likes and not to stop until I
find the other radio. Plunge back into the brush. Locate
the radio (thankfully) right at the start of the nastiest
part and head back down. The view from the top was not
appreciably different from the view I saw the night
before when we all hiked up a deactivated logging road.
Dinner was hot dogs again & chilli. Michael wanted
to go for another 'explore' so he and I set off. This
time we tracked what I think were damn big rabbits.
Michael says they were demons. Its really neat how alive
the forest is at night. We had plenty of deer hanging
out at our camp site too. Sat around the camp fire for
a while attempting to pop jiffy pop popcorn. They should
make cars out of that stuff. Tried following the instructions
to pop it but there was no way that stuff was going
to pop. After about 30 minutes in the hottest part of
the fire it finally caught fire.
We used it to roast marshmallows
on. I'm taking the picture in to Safeway and asking
for my money back.
Slept better the second night due to a mixtures of warmer
weather, exhaustion from not sleeping the night before,
and magic blue sleeping pills. I woke up once when I
felt what I thought was a foot step right outside the
tent. Heard a noise but that was it. Decided I'd been
dreaming and went back to sleep. Mark woke me up around
3:00 to tell me there was something in the camp. There
was. It didn't make a lot of noise although at the time
it sounded loud enough. Listened for a while then decided
to set a good example and went back to sleep. I don't
know what it was. I'll have to see what kind of nocturnal
critters there are around there. There were TONS of
deer in the area but I don't think they prowl around
at night do they? Cougar? Didn't seem to make enough
noise to be a bear and didn't make any mess so it couldn't
have been a raccoon.
Alarm went off at 4:15am. I had this great idea that
I was going to drive up the RIGHT road this time to
the Natlahatch Lookout to watch the sun rise and go
for a hike before breakfast. Monty wanted to come so
off we went. On the road by 4:30 brushing my teeth as
I drive and trying not to hit any of the deer that are
littered all over the road. at 5:15 (sunrise) we are
2/3 of the way up the mountain when we are thwarted
by an excavator parked in the middle of the road. I
guess that "Active Logging Do Not Enter" sign
a few kilometers back DID apply to me after all. No
great loss. There had been plenty of view points on
the way up so I can assure you that we missed the LEAST
spectacular sunrise Mother Nature could have summoned
up for us. On the way back down our efforts were rewarded.
About 5km from our camp site we found a black bear in
the middle of the road. It was pretty small. Looked
like maybe 2 years old. It looked at us for a while
then skipped into the woods where it waited for us to
leave. We were able to pull right up beside it and I
explained to Monty how you can differentiate a black
bear from a grizzly. We continued on. I was still rambling
on about bears (I'm a bit of an expert now... I read
a book about them last year) when we found ANOTHER bear.
This one was much bigger than the first and turned and
ran up the road. We followed at a respectful distance.
It was pretty cool to see a bear moving that fast. Eventually
he too headed for the cover of the trees. I told Monty
not to say anything until after everyone got up. I wanted
to go back to sleep and I knew that wasn't going to
happen if Mark knew there were at least 2 black bears
in the area.
Weather was cool and overcast so we packed up and decided
to head back & stop for a hike on the way home if
the weather cleared up. It never did so we just drove
on through. All in all it was a pretty good trip. The
kids had fun. You really can't go wrong with an endless
supply of marshmallows, sticks and dirt. Owls, deer,
rabbits, demons & bears are just bonus.
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