Spring Trip 2012 – Kentucky Allyene P. P. – Part 2

One of the nicest features about the campground on Kentucky Lake is the 4 km trail that circles the entire lake.

this lake is surrounded by quite thick forest, un like Allyene that is in more open range land.

The trail can be quite high in some spots, but dips down to lake shore in others….I didn’t do the entire walk this visit, but Ernie and Shantz did…

We did walk about half of it together, and found a number of wildflowers in bloom including these Calypso Orchids

the very earliest of the Heart-leaf Arnica…

Hooker’s Fairybells….

and Star-flowered Solomon’s Seal.

at one spot on the trail there were a number of Red-breasted Nuthatch….all busy working on nesting sites…

there was another one of them.  In the same location there were lots of Yellow-rump Warblers, Chipping Sparrows and Dark Eyed Junco.

back at the campsite….one of the Yellow Warblers…

and almost continually seen on the shore just down from the campsite, were these Spotted Sandpipers…

they were running around everywhere!  Pileated Woodpeckers could be heard, and we caught glimpses of them but never did manage a picture.  Just spent the one whole day here before heading to our ‘home away from home’ – Tunkwa Lake, but I shouldn’t go without showing the carpet of Calypso Orchids that was growing right in the campground…

Unfortunately when I went to take this picture, they were in dense shade….but you get the idea – these were just a little way away from the bridge with the welcoming committee in part 1.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 5

This would be the day when we finally made it into Yukon.  Until you’ve driven it, you really have no concept of how big this province is…especially when you have started from the very bottom corner!

Before we made it to the border…Ernie had to drive in and investigate French Creek Recreation Site (and no, not the French Creek on Vancouver Island!)…it was a nice enough spot…

Was pleased to see that the foliage of the High Bush Cranberries was starting to turn…I was still sure we were about 2 weeks too early…

Reached the Alaska Highway, there is a rustic RV park complete with dump station, restaurant and fuel at the junction of the Stewart Cassiar and Alaska Highway, so we made use of all but the restaurant and then headed west…this is just a scene from along the highway….our destination some where up ahead.

Stopped at Rancheria Falls to make some lunch and go for a walk….

This Rec. site, miles from any major center, has the most incredible board walk system through the boreal forest…that is Ernie and Shantz up ahead..

The falls themselves aren’t all that spectacular…

here is another section of the river…

what was spectacular were the fungi pushing up all over.  I think these are a type of ‘Bolete’ Mushroom…they were 4 or 5 inches across.  The habitat here, and all along this part of the highway, is boreal forest, with small, closely spaced trees but virtually no undergrowth…just lichen and plants such as Kinnikinnick and, at this time of the year, hundreds and hundreds of these mushrooms!

heading back to the parking lot…a family of Spruce Grouse were on the path (Ernie took this of me taking pictures of the birds)

there is one of the many pictures I took!

Pushing on, we reached the village of Teslin….everyone who drives this way takes this picture…there is a large viewpoint here…maybe one day I’ll actually get to take the picture with blue sky and sunshine!

and on to Teslin Lake Territorial Campsite…and no, this time not in the same spot – but only because the sites we consider ‘prime’ were already taken.  Note the yellow tinge to the Aspen – still worrying about that fall colour!

This is one of the reasons for a number of the campsites being taken.  The Banding Station operates from, I think, April and May and then again from August to the end of September.

went for a wander….this is the west part of Teslin Lake – it is a good size lake…there was weather in the distance…

the mist nets were rolled up as they are only let down when banding is actually being done…which happens in the morning…

I found a young Blackburnian Warbler…unfortunately not a clear picture, but since it is the only one I have of this species…it is a keeper, at least for now..

A very co-operative Red Squirrel – still the only ‘wildlife’ we’d seen!

not quite so co-operative Ruffed Grouse family…in fact was trying to get pictures of them when I spotted the Squirrel…

this was one of the marshy areas between the lake and the campsite – the campsite is actually up on a hill ….there was 1 Solitary Sandpiper here…

Lots of Juncos around…mainly of the slate variety and lots of young ones like this guy who seems to have mistaken a piece of bark for something that might be edible!

In the evening we went for a walk along the lakeshore…this is looking east, the village of Teslin would be tucked in way back in those hills…

There were several young Spotted Sandpiper on the shore…notice the bugs?  Mayflies I think.  The Sandpiper were actually leaping up and catching the bugs..

This one was either just taking off or just landing.  The parents were long gone, headed back south, but it looked like it would be a little while yet before these guys would be ready to follow…

and a last look of the evening sky in the western direction…the direction we would be heading in the morning.

Kane Valley photos

I had promised to post some pictures of the Kane Valley when it is not covered in snow.  I hadn’t thought it would take me quite this long to get to it but life seems to intervene with blogging sometimes.

This is the southern portion of Kane Lake.  That is Ernie and Shantz cooling off as this was taken in July on a warm sunny day.  There is a camping area on the south shore, favoured by those with horse trailers, and Harmon Lake, with it’s campground, is over there, behind those trees.

If you recall I mentioned in an earlier posting that there is a demonstration forest at Harmon lake, complete with walking trails….well this area is one of the spots those walking trails take you to.  These are wild Larkspur in flower.  I didn’t check the date, but probably in late May or June.

I had also mentioned that a couple of years ago we had spent a weekend camping  (the old fashioned way) at Upper Second Lake – the spot we stopped at for lunch on the 21st of February.  Well here is Ernie trying to figure out how to set up the new tent….

and here is what the lake looks like in early July…

there is camp – April had already discovered the sleeping bags on the air mattress so she was parked for the duration.

the lake was so inviting that we pumped up the kayak…

and I headed out. 

there were a lot of birds in the area that day, including lots of Cedar Waxwing…

a whole family of Yellow Warblers (this is daddy)….and

and the family of Spotted Sandpipers I mentioned in my previous post.

another one day trip was taken the middle of August in 2008 when we were in the middle of a heat wave….we stopped at this location (almost the same place as the picture in part one of Feb. 21, 2010) to take pictures of and report the forest fire in the distance.  The temperature was 39 degrees Celsius  – Thank Goodness for air conditioning!

now here are some wild flower shots taken that same July trip when we ‘roughed it’…

that pink stuff is ‘Sticky Geranium’ and these pictures were all taken in the vicinity of Kane Lake…

a closer look at the colourful wildflower field…

and a bit further along up on a hillside where everything was mauve….these are all later types of wildflowers…

and finally a look at the shallow lake area we stopped at on the 21st of Feb….

this is what it looks like in the summer.