N.W.T. trip – 2005 – Deh Cho connection

This trip that we have set out on, is promoted as the Deh Cho Connection – a circle tour encompassing Dawson Creek B.C., Fort Nelson B.C., the N. W. T. and northern Alberta to Grande Prairie…IF you are planning on doing this trip – do your self a favour and begin your trip in Alberta, crossing the 60th parallel in Northern Alberta – don’t do it the other way round like we did – the reason being that all the guidebooks and maps expect you to start in Alberta and are laid out that way, so by doing the trip in reverse you are constantly going backwards to all the information…..it makes for a lot of scrabbling in the guide books…

Come morning, we, and every other RV in the place, hit the Alaska Highway….only two of us would turn off a short distance from this spot…

onto the Liard Highway….a fairly narrow but paved road..

This little lake was the site of a rest area….you can just see the top of one of our units in the first picture.

The first (and actually, only) nail biter part of the trip is this…

one lane, very wavy, with no sides, wooden bridge over the Nelson River.  It is, apparently, the longest Acrow (or Baily) bridge in the world.  We were already safely on the other side when this unit was coming across….another intrepid northern traveler, actually on their way to Alaska but had decided to run up this relatively short stretch of highway, into the territories, so they could mark that off as another place visited.

this was about as far onto the bridge as I could venture….that is the Nelson River down there, a pretty hefty sized river in it’s own right…and very much in flood.

This sign was at the turn out beside the river….note the bullet holes – we were still in B.C. (sadly)…you don’t see that sort of stuff when you get further north…I don’t know if they replace the signs frequently or people are just better behaved…..

back on the highway again, headed north….it is flat up there….

didn’t take long to spot the first Wood Bison or Buffalo at the side of the road.  There were actually several in this particular spot – quite a thrill to see these guys out in the wild….

another bridge….this one a little sturdier looking than the first one…this one is over the Petitot River bridge…the Milepost says this is a good birding area, it certainly had a good population of Cliff Swallows as there were nests lining the bridge from one end to the other.

this view, taken from a bit further back, shows the road and the river itself.  This bridge is only a kilometre or so from the 60th parallel that forms the border with B.C. and the N.W.T.

and here we are!  That is Ernie forming the border ‘cause there wasn’t much of anything else remarking it….(it’s different at the Alberta entrance as you’ll see when we are on the return trip).

There was, at least, a sign….you’ll note the dogs are a bit different then you’ve been seeing….April the Shih Tzu is the same, but this trip was before Shantz time….that little brown guy was my Brussels' Griffon “Willie” who passed a year and a bit after this trip….my little ‘shadow’ and dearly missed.

the road now changed from a ‘highway’ to a ‘trail’ and the pavement was left behind in B.C., it was now gravel, but very well maintained, smooth gravel…our destination now was Fort Liard and the Hay Lake Campground, only about 30 km from the border.

and here we are….this is a small, informal, but free campground on the shores of Hay Lake.  As you can see it was sunny and warm and bug free – well right then anyway….

We took the canoe out on the lake and discovered that we were definitely in the breeding area for Horned Grebes…

and Surf Scoters – I guess I knew these guys, that I associate with the ocean, bred on ‘interior lakes’, but reading something in a book and seeing it in person are two different things..

We were surprised to see Eastern Kingbirds here as well.

Eventually, even though it wasn’t any where nears dark, we headed to bed.  It was still very warm so left the windows of the trailer open (they were screened after all)….well at some point woke up and realized the trailer was full of mosquitoes!  They were everywhere!  Didn’t have one of those handy electronic bats in those days so spent a good while whacking them the old fashioned way until finally giving up, pulling the sheet right over our heads and waiting for morning….that is where we learned that N. W. T. Mosquitoes can squeeze right through window screens…from there on in…the windows were kept closed!  The mesh under the vents was finer and they couldn’t get through that, but they spent a lot of time bouncing off it in the attempt!

N. W. T. trip – 2005 – part two

After lunch we were back on the road again, heading northwards….

by now we were getting up into the northern end of the Rocky Mountains…

here’s the crew taking pictures of the scenery.  By the time we pulled into the town of Chetwynd it was getting late in the afternoon and had also started to rain.

this sign is at the visitor’s center.  From Chetwynd you can either head east to Dawson Creek and mile 0 of the Alaska Highway, or you can take the Hudson Hope loop.  We did neither at this point, but headed to Moberly Lake Provincial Park campground to spend the night….unfortunately the road was under construction and the rain was really coming down so the trip was a muddy mess.  Moberly Lake seemed to be a nice place, but the only memory I have of it are these

dripping wet ‘Tall Bluebells’.  I’d never seen them before, but now know they are one of the most common flowers in the north.

The next morning we were back on the road in slightly better conditions…

The back of the trailer sort of gives an indication of what we had traveled through…I don’t know why but I think we must have doubled back to Chetwynd and then headed to Dawson Creek (it would have been shorter to travel north to Hudson’s Hope but perhaps we wanted the ‘official’ start….regardless, we are now on the Alaska Highway as this is approaching the town of Taylor, B.C.

 

We’re now in Peace River Country.  These overview pictures are taken from a large rest stop at the top of a very long, steep hill that winds down to the Peace River Bridge.

Just before you reach the bridge, there is a large park and campground, called Peace River Park….and since it was lunchtime, we pulled in there for a bit of a break.  That is Ernie’s brother stretched out on a picnic table, catching a few ‘rays’.

In keeping with what I said in my initial post on this trip, it had been a very wet spring….and the Peace River was in full flood….this is just one little tributary of it…and a Canada Goose family at the edge.

here is another flooded section….you couldn’t get anywhere near the massive river itself….

This park was a very ‘birdy’ place and it was obviously encouraged as I’ve never seen so many bird houses of so many different designs!  This one was certainly unique…

this one more conventional….there were bigger versions of this one as well – for owls I think….

on the way out I spotted this bird that was, at the time, new to me…an Eastern Phoebe…we were to see more of them on this trip and I’ve since seen them in northern Alberta as well.

the rest of that day was uneventful with us ending up at the Rotary RV. Park in Fort St. John, the same one we stayed at on our way home this past June.  This is a view of part of the Duck’s Unlimited property between the RV Park and Charlie Lake.

Next morning we were back on the Alaska Highway heading to Fort Nelson.  It is a run of about 300 km from Fort St. John to Fort Nelson and since you are still pretty much in the Peace Country, the road is pretty straight and reasonably flat…

this would have been looking back the way we’d come,

this just a general view of the country side…

and this looking at the road ahead from the rest area.

We stopped for lunch at Buckinghorse River, Wayside Park…

Where Ernie and his brother tried some fishing – to no avail….the mosquitoes here must not have been as bad as when Ernie and I stopped there on our way home last June….we didn’t even get out of the truck!

there is a look of the Buckinghorse River…wouldn’t you love to know where that name came from?

We arrived in Fort Nelson fairly early in the afternoon.  The turn off from the Alaska Highway to Fort Laird in the N. W.T. is not too far past Fort Nelson so we wanted to start up it fresh, in the morning, so settled into the private RV Park there and watched it fill up with travelers as the afternoon progressed.  I remember they had cable internet connections so my sister in law and I packed our lap tops over to the laundry to plug them into the cable….but the mosquitoes in the room were so thick we gave up!

N. W. T. trip - 2005

Well here it is, the first official day of winter, and since there isn’t much of anything happening around here, I’ve decided to go back and blog about the trip we took to the North West Territories, back in June of 2005.

After copying the pictures I had stored on 2 CD’s into this computer, the first thing that came to light was how much digital cameras have advanced in the intervening 4 1/2 years!  For this particular trip, I purchased what would have been my second digital camera, so new and so top of the line in a ‘compact’ camera that I had to wait for it to actually be available in Canada.  Now I look at those pictures, most of which aren’t even a megabit in size, and think…oh my!  However, I’ve doctored them up as best I can….

The second thing that comes to light is that we had pretty lousy weather…..that must have been a really wet year….or at least the spring, and the third thing is that we didn’t spend nearly enough time in the territories and really need to go back.

Like all of our trips, we set out right after work, heading up the Fraser Canyon, spending the first night at Skihist Campground just past Lytton on highway 1.

This trip was taken back before Ernie had the arrangement at work where he can take extra time off, so I think we only had 3 weeks, possibly 4…I should check that by the dates the pictures were taken, but I guess it doesn’t really matter….

We were on the road early the next morning as we had a long run to Ten Mile Provincial Park just north of Quesnel….remember we stayed there on our Yukon Trip this year….back in 2005, we had arranged to meet Ernie’s brother and his wife there as they would be accompanying us to the territories.  It is a rather long, somewhat boring drive, alleviated by a stop

at the visitor’s center in 100 Mile House where there is a Duck’s Unlimited marsh, great for bird viewing.  This male Yellow headed Blackbird was in the reeds there.  These are one of my favourite birds….100 Mile House is about as far north in B.C. as you’ll find them.

We had made good time and arrived at Ten Mile with plenty of time for wandering around.  This is the picnic area….this was early June…still surprising that it was pretty much deserted.

There were a lot of wildflowers along the numerous hiking trails in this campground, including this ‘Heart-leaf Arnica’,

and these ‘Queen’s Cup’ or ‘Blue Bead’

 

 

and of course, the Red Columbine

 

 

 

but the most impressive, only because this was only the second time I’d ever seen them……were these

Mountain Lady slippers

Next morning we were on the road, again, bright and early, with another long run ahead of us…through the city of Prince George, up highway 97

took a break to stretch our legs at a rest area beside the Crooked River where there was a large flock of Common Merganser ducks….next stop was for lunch at

Bijoux Falls Provincial Park…this shows the general type of landscape in the area, that is highway 97…

 

 

 

Here are the actual falls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is the parking area….that is our brother in laws truck and fifth wheel, and our truck and travel trailer in the rear, which was our RV set up until this spring when they both got traded in on the newer truck and camper.

I got a kick out of this sign, talking about the Steller’s Jay.  Where I live we see Steller’s Jay on a daily basis, but I guess most people don’t as this species is only found here in the northwest.

We didn’t have to be ‘patient’ to get a picture…we had to fend them off as they would have packed off our entire lunch if we’d let them!

I think, at this point, I’ll post this entry and start on the next….it takes a long time to get from the south-western most tip of British Columbia to anywhere in the north of the province!

Just Eagle Pictures……

It is such a horrible wet day today that I thought I’d go through some of the pictures I took earlier this month when the weather was sunny and clear and cold.

There were some pretty good Bald Eagle pictures among them, so thought I might as well share…..

This guy is just moulting into his adult plumage so would be somewhere around 4 or 5 years of age.

a number of times there were eagles on the shoreline closest to the walking path….this day there were these two who co-operated quite nicely for photographs…you have to remember I’m walking past them, not that far away, with a Siberian Husky dog at my side, so they keep an eye on the situation but have learned we aren’t a threat.

this particular morning I could see there was a lot of activity happening in this spot.  That is Morris Valley Road in the background, which is the main, in fact ‘only’ road that runs past the estuary.

There was obviously something good to eat on this ‘eagle dining table’

every time another one arrived on the scene there would be a great carry on with much flapping of wings and screeching…

This regal fellow was perched on this little stump one sunny afternoon, very close to our walking path, but again, he realized we weren’t a threat and stayed put while we walked past.  My dog has been taught since I got her at 7 weeks of age, that when mom stops with her camera out, dog sits patiently and watch's…which is why I am able to get photos like this.

of course a lot of  getting great bird or wildlife pictures is simply luck, being in the right place at the right time, like this action shot…..

This evil looking fellow was guarding his own private rotten salmon…..

That was either one very brave, or very stupid Gull that thought it might move in for a share of the meal….

hope you’ve enjoyed this sampling of Bald Eagle pictures, all taken at the Chehalis Estuary in Harrison Mills, B.C.  By the way, I must say I do love the cropping tool in my Windows live Writer!

Bald Eagle Country – and yet more winter…..

Monday morning we woke to a winter wonderland….

neither Shantz nor I could resist the chance to go for a walk in fresh snow….so we set off

the log bay was very picturesque…..

there is Mt. Woodside across the estuary…

on the return trip, the bay by the viewing platform was occupied by this Great Blue Heron and a lot of ducks – usually when that happens, they all fly off – no matter how carefully you try to walk past them, but this morning they all stayed put, busy feeding away…

the heron seemed to be finding something to eat in there….

mid-day, we made the trek again….the Killdeer that have been hanging out at the log bay for the last little while were still there.

and a few eagles, including this guy on one of the pilings

the snowy scene – I have to tell you that there was a bit of a wind chill happening and it was pretty darn cold – by this time my hands were numb!

another eagle….this was the day the official Christmas Bird Count was being done in our area…I don’t imagine they saw much to count as it sure was quiet with the cold and the wind.

a bunch of Mallard and some Green Wing Teal huddled in close to the shore…

a few more Mallard and 3 female Hooded Mergansers….

another look at the snowy bay…and we headed for home – time to thaw out!

Bald Eagle Country – Winter continues……

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter in these here parts!

Sunday morning we headed over to Chilliwack to put the grandchildren’s Christmas Gifts on the bus.  Snow was in the forecast and the first few flakes were falling as we left home.  Two police cruisers and an ambulance roaring past us enroute also explained why our power had just gone out – again!

Going through Agassiz we noticed a few swans in this corn field….

along with the swans were hundreds and hundreds of Mallards….unfortunately difficult to get a picture of…those dark specks are some of them.

Got to Chilliwack, put the parcel on the bus, and by then it was starting to snow seriously, so decided it was best to head for home.

Here is the same area as we headed home – the corn field is on the left hand side of this picture…a little ‘whiter’ than it had been!

As we got safely to within about a kilometre of our place, husband decided to head off up the forestry road that say’s ‘Closed, road deactivated, no phone service etc. etc.’  Thought he’d go see what Elbow Lake looked like.  Fortunately, Elbow Lake is only about 5 kilometres up the road….

So here we are, parked at the side of the forestry road, the only set of tire tracks in the snow….but at least he was now turned around and facing home.

Here are some views of this little lake which is nestled in the mountains up above where we live…..

the only problem with that is that if we ever experience the ‘big one’ like they keep talking about, this lake could well end up in our back yard!

One last look at Elbow Lake before heading for home – where the power was still off!

So after arriving home and turning on the propane fireplace to start warming the place up – we headed out for a walk.  Here is the scene over at the log bay in Eagle Point Park.

There were a few Gulls and ducks poking around in the snowstorm….

a few eagles on the far shore – barely visible

and one guy in quite close, working away on his frozen fish dinner.

There is a river and some mountains out there somewhere – this is what you would call ‘limited visibility’!

there were a few Killdeer running around…

and just before putting my camera away, spotted this Snipe poking about along the shoreline.

At this point headed for home and a hot cup of coffee.  Thank goodness for Propane stoves and fire places as the power remained off until after 8 pm, making it another 10 hour power outage – at least this one had a cause – a MVA that took out a power pole, although not sure why it took 10 hours to get everything up and working again!

Bald Eagle Country – it’s winter!

I don’t know why but I’ve been having a terrible time finding the time to make postings to this blog lately.  It must be the time of year!  Either that or the fact that for the past week or so the temperature hasn’t climbed above freezing – that’s OK – winter should feel like winter (and yes, I know it isn’t ‘officially’ winter yet) but the problem is that our furnace decided to quit about the same time the cold weather arrived.  That isn’t a major problem since we live in a very small space (park model trailer – 444 sq. ft.) and we have a propane fireplace that works very well, but the warm air doesn’t quite make it around the corner in the bedroom where my computer sits, so it gets a bit frigid on the fingers……

Anyway, today we had to head into Mission, B.C. to buy groceries so took the camera along and thought I’d post some pictures….you’ll note I’m being really lazy and not even taking the time to change the ‘fonts’.

We did the usual ‘circuit’ route on Nicomen Island, there was nothing in the slough for the simple reason it was completely frozen over…and looking a little whiter than just ice would provide, as for the past two days it has been snowing…very, very lightly, with tiny little snow pellets….not enough to really do anything but it does tend to ‘brighten’ where it is already frozen.

This view of the road shows the extent of the snow we’ve rec’d.

On the way home we decided to do another side trip…this time along the main slough that separates the island from the mainland.

Looking the other way, there were a total of 19 Great Blue Herons in this field which is adjacent to the Fire Hall (that ‘barn’ building).  Couldn’t get a picture that would show all of the Herons but this gives an idea.

Looking back the other way, here is another look at the slough…you can just make out some of the Trumpeter Swans, in fact I’d ‘guesstimate’ there were at least 300 Swans on Nicomen today.

Further along we come to Harrison Bay which is pretty much completely frozen over…

and on the opposite side of the highway that travels along the edge of the bay, we have icicles….lots and lots of icicles.

Arrived home and after putting the groceries away decided to take Shantz for a walk and headed down to the estuary….the last couple of days I’ve been working on my part of a school project my oldest Granddaughter is doing (Grade 3)….and I needed a picture of Grandpa and Grandma – well Grandpa isn’t a problem, but Grandma is because I’m always behind the lens, and besides, I hate having my picture taken….

So now I’ve got them I might as well post them – here’s ‘Grandpa’

and here is ‘Grandma’ – amazing what you’ll do for your grandchildren!

After this picture taking session we walked over to Eagle Point Park….and my regret now was that I only had my little old camera with me that was being temperamental again……

We could hear lots of eagle activity as we approached what I call the ‘log bay’….there were a number perched in the trees around as well…

Including this fellow.

approaching the shoreline you can see a number of eagles…

Here are some closer views of them…

This guy was off to one side where he had his own ‘frozen fish dinner’

Speaking of ‘frozen’ – here is ‘Eagle on Ice’

and here a pair of them…

This is about the best one I got – like I said, wish I’d had my other camera with me!

Just as we were leaving to head home I heard a Belted Kingfisher arrive….I find these guys one of the most frustrating birds to get pictures of – they just won’t let you get close…today I didn’t really try, it was getting late and the light was fading…

So I’ll leave you with this last look of the Kingfisher on the near piling and a Bald Eagle on the far….