Rupert, Stewart, George and other Highway 16 stops in between

En route to Stewart

Bear viewing in Hyder
 

Near Fraser Lake

Fishing on Dennis Lake near Smithers

Natives fishing

Note safety system

Bear viewing in Hyder

Roadworks rainbow!

En route to Salmon Glacier

Salmon Glacier and Dan!

Wide angle attempt

Leaving Stewart

I found the ocean! 

Scenic road bypassing Smithers

Parting Prince Rupert sunset

Photos lately

For all my world-class whinging, I truly have been fabulous places this summer.  Places that facilitated campfires early into the northern twilight, places that have yielded estimated 8-10 pound lake and bull trout, places more spooky than graveyards, places that unite and segregate simultaneously.  

It's a beguiling sensation to be places surrounded by people yet feel so isolated.  In such close physical proximity to one another with none of the intimacy or expected closeness.  

The woods truly are an unforgiving place for contemplating losses and longings.  

Munching moose

                                       
                                      Red Columbine                                                 Toilet bowl cleaner

 Usilika Lake

 Yup, I work here

 Oh, here too

 Even here

 Monkshood

Fireweedy

Boreal buddy

Williston's wilds

There's something spooky about Mackenzie.  Not the town proper, a purpose-built forestry community so much, but the now flooded valley that waxes and wanes under the guise of a reservoir throughout the year.

Created in 1968 by the impoundment of the Peace River in the Peace Canyon near Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia, for the purpose of hydroelectric generation, this fresh (fresh in the most generous of terms) water scar dominates the landscape.


An eeriness as prevalent as the oft low lying clouds lingers in the valley.  Flooded ghosts are everywhere and an unnerving sense of their presence is everywhere.  Combined with soured relations with the first nations, it's uncomfortable, but remarkably not unpleasant, working up there.

"Up there" was truly that this previous shift.  On the same latitude as Pink Mountain, but just over the range, more than 1000 liters of fuel, three flat tires and 1.5 days of driving hauling trailers eventually delivered us back to Chetwynd after a cruisy handful of days hanging ribbons for the manual brushers.

Highlights included seeing two lynxs on back-to-back days, marveling at the volume of water coming into the reservoir from various arms and savouring the numerous flowering plants.

                   

                                 Smilacina racemosa                                       Corallorhiza trifida

Strawberry fields forever

Shaun found beach access!

Looking down the valley on our last block

Pine making their babies

Moose dipping

Only 140 km to our campsite for the night on shitty, potholed roads

One of Williston's contributors

 Shaun: Let's hire this barge so we don't have to do that horrific drive again!

One of the reservoir's scenic spots

Delight in boreal rhythms

As the twilight lingers longer in northern B.C., my posts have been getting farther and farther apart.

I am settled into a daily routine both at work and in the house I share with three others. This house has been communal living at its best. We're all filthy-minded bush bunnies and rats that share an affinity for cold adult beverages, conversation, campfires and Creation - although they don't acknowledge it directly as Creation.

My current work partner has recently taken up photography with a keen interested in wildlife. I may not share his passion for capturing stunning photos of boreal beasts that I could feasibly fit inside should the will strike them, but I am pleased to stall and soak up the joy that he experiences from an area and industry I am deeply invested in.

Others return from the bush with tales of winching through a swollen creek, secret grow-ops far in the forest and gorgeous forked tamarack groves complete with an inner bark sample as well as bouquets of wildflowers.

The bouquets vary week to week, month to month.

Through the changing bouquets I follow and sink into the rhythms and cycles of the forest. Looking forward to perennial favourites and berry season further assures me that I am a little part of the things that I love.