Picking up where we left off yesterday, we continued on towards the main lake….
That being Harmon. This is only a very small arm of it that is visible from the road. Harmon is the largest and deepest lake in the area and is not only the site of the Forestry campground (on the north shore) but also has a demonstration forest, complete with signage and walking paths on the east side of the lake.
While Harmon sits on the right side of the road in the direction we were headed, there is a series of shallow lakes and wetlands on the west side of the road….
on this day activity was spotted on the far side….at first thought to be cross country skiers, as this area is known for it’s cross country ski trails….
on closer inspection the ‘skiers’ turned out to be coyotes. There were in fact at least 3 of them but I didn’t manage to get a picture of all 3 together…
if you look closely at this cropped picture you will see one looking remarkably like Shantz – (actually it is Shantz who tends to do a very good coyote imitation when it comes to hunting and dealing with little critters that might be under the snow!)
The turn off to the camping area at Harmon looked a little dicey so considering we had yet to see another vehicle, we elected to not make the attempt but continued on past Kane Lakes which I somehow managed to miss getting pictures of – at this point we were looking for a spot to pull over and have lunch – and we also finally passed a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.
Our next stop was to be at Upper Second Lake…
this is the last lake along the road and another fabulous birding spot. On this day the little side road down to the lake was pretty icy but in July of ‘08 we spent a weekend camped here after loading up the Suzuki with tent, sleeping bags, camping supplies and even one of our inflatable kayaks (I’ll post pictures in another post). There are a number of areas along the route we have just taken where you simply can pull over and camp if you so desire. This spot even comes with a pit toilet across the street.
Here I had made my way along the icy track far enough to take a shot looking back at the road which is running along the right side of the picture.
While here I’m on the road looking out at the little spit that extends out into the lake. Depending on water level sometimes you can walk out to that little cluster of trees and other times they are a bit of an island.
at this spot, close to the road, I had found a family of very young Spotted Sandpipers during that weekend camping trip I mentioned.
Lunch eaten and all newly refreshed, we continued on,
passing through another ranch, this one with horses out in the field and on past the main site for the cross country ski trails were there were actually 2 cars parked, then on to the junction with the Coquilla Connector…
here we are just approaching the junction…
this is looking eastward from the same spot, that is the Coquilla connecter there, heading eastward towards the Okanagan. We had stopped to re-set ‘Tizzy Lizzy’ before she threw another fit! We would now turn right onto the connector until we came to the junction with Highway 5A….and I think that can be another posting.
I will say that in the next few days, as time permits, I will go back into my pictures and post some of this area we have just driven through, so you can see what it looks like in spring and summer.
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