July 31 2012

     Well I ventured into town today for supplies. The lake level had gone down and there was no more driving in the water. There had been a storm in the upper Meager country which made the lake a little muddier looking than usual.
I was in the vegetable section in the grocery store when I heard the sirens leave town. Pemberton is more of a village and the cops, the ambulance, and the fire dept rescue all leaving town at the same time is quite an event.
   I guess an hour and a half later after I had gassed up and headed down the rough gravel lake road, there was no on coming traffic, but that is not unusual. I heard a little chatter on the radio about the medivac helicopter landing at a wide spot ahead I was familiar with and knew there was trouble ahead. I came around the corner where the junction is of the east road and bridge over to the west road. There was a gravel crushing plant set up there a few years back during some road work and the result is a dusty area just big enough to land a helicopter.

According to these sweaty rescue guys there had been a mva a little further down the road. It does not happen very often out here, but we have had our share, and never a good sign to see the BC Medical Sikorsky show up. I asked them if it was a 'tourist', or a 'local'. He said local so its going to be someone I know of at least.
The worst case was transported to this spot before being flown over the mountains to a medical facility.
 The area was cleared of all emergency vehicles and personnel. The co-pilot/engineer I assume it was got out and had a final walk around, checking all outside surfaces, wheels, gear etc. before the big machine began to wind up.

The powerful twin engine machine lifted out of the dust cloud vertically, retracted the landing gear and quickly accelerated out over the Lillooett River before taking a heading over the mountains to land on the roof of a hospital in Whistler or North Vancouver.

Yikes, an SUV rolled and piled into a tree upside down around the 32km mark, I recognise the vehicle as an outfit from down the road at the first nation village of Skatin'. I've been monitoring the hand held radio all evening, hoping for some information.

Dear Kind Stranger

 I arrived home last week after being away for a few days.
Sitting in front of the door is a box of beverages with an attached card.

 Said card read........

 I remembered the outfit. I had included their plight in a post I did about a month ago.

I appreciate the gesture, they had to buy a card too for their next trip out so it was a premeditated thank you. I'm glad that expensive repair and towing bill hasn't disuaded them from coming back.

July 20 2012 High Water

   We are experiencing the spring run off still. It doesn't do much here at the cabin other than back up and leave driftwood on the lower lawn.

Down at the hot spring campsite it erodes areas of the river bank.

There are some areas between here and town the road can get covered with water, although it is sure better than it use to be. There has been considerable work done to the road in recent years, and not too often these days you can't get to Pemberton for groceries.

This long stretch was formidable in the olden days, but now hardly even comes over the bumper.

This spot at the end of the lake usually turns unfamiliar traffic back. The road is underneath there but the last thing you want is to drown your vehicle, the level can change by the hour.

There are several bird baths along the lake you hardly need to slow down for.

Forestry campsite along Lillooett Lake.

July 13 2012

    Well the hot weather has arrived. There has been over a week of 30c+ weather, and it has been 37c over the mountain at Lytton. I know a lot of people around the world will read that and laugh, but that is about as hot as we can stand it up here in Canada.

There has been a smoke haze in the air for some time and has just now began to go away, from massive fires burning in Russia and Asia apparently. Hard to believe.

The hot weather has kept up the level of the river, still just normal type high water for this time of year.

Been pretty quiet down at the old hot spring.
Very slow during the week but visitors pick up naturally on weekends.

Deer tracks around the edge of the hot spring, attracted by the mineral licks.

The front yard is in full bloom.

On a hot afternoon I can always come up with a project close to the water. The 'pull' rope on the cable trolley across the river has had quite a bit a slack in it, making a harder pull across. Maybe a good time to tackle that.

I clamped this line puller on there and attached a winch line from the quad.

A couple pokes at the winch button and she was all snugged up and tied off again.

It is cooler up in the high country too, I can hop on my little pony and before you know it be up at 1000meters (3000'). Lower sections of the log road are washed out for the most part, there has not been anyone up since I rode the 4 wheeler up here on top of the frozen crust last December.

Panther Valley.

That's the Lillooett River way down there in spring run, and more of that Siberian smoke.
On the other side of yonder mountains lies the resort town of Whistler. A good place for it.

There was a nice prime fir tree that had to come down at the campsite, a 'danger' tree.
The river had undercut the roots and it was going to come down on its own. 

But nothing goes to waste around here, it is either saved for the sawmill, or in this case bucked into firewood.

That is a lot of wood there, and represents just a few feet of the tree. I bring home a load of it now and again so to avoid permanently injuring myself. I prefer firewood of the smaller variety if I can help it.
It certainly kept me warm loading it today. It will warm me when I split it all later in the year, and finally it will warm me in the stove over several winters. The entire tree is oozing with sap, prime firewood when dried.

I did a rough count of about 300 rings.
It would have been 150 years old during the gold rush, and stood quite close to the site of the old hot spring roadhouse.  I mentioned the river had undercut the roots, 150 years ago this tree would have been I would say 10 meters probably from the river, that much of the bank has eroded away over the years.