A Perfect Day Up The Mountain.

   Casey is a regular Hotspringlodge lurker and commenter and came up this week for his bi-annual camping trip to the hot spring, so I fueled up the quads and took him up the mountain behind for an afternoon adventure, I figured the conditions up top were going to be just right. 

The first part of the route up is usually in bad enough shape, but it was a little challenging after the Fall/Winter storms we've had, with wash-outs, steep rocky climbs and canyons eroded where run-off had charged down the road. 

I'm not sure if poor Casey had quite that much adventure in mind when I invited him out for 'a little scoot up the mountain', and he must have wondered where I was taking him and if I was trying to kill him off in the process.

 Before we hit the snow, we entered an inversion, and it was considerably warmer up there than it was down in the valley bottom, and jackets were rolled-up and strapped to the rack.

I figured on seeing wolf or cougar tracks up there for sure, but the only sign we crossed were a pair of week old elk tracks, or moose maybe, it was hard to tell, neither of which are numerous out in this country.

About a 1000 meters, looking towards Garibaldi Park boundry.

 We stood around up there for the longest time, just taking it all in. It was glorious. The window was just right, it was the perfect day. It was warm, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and the Hondas rode on top of the crust, my favorite riding conditions. We should have packed a lunch and had a fire. I should have packed a chain-saw too, as there were several wind-falls we had to prop up enough to get under.

I should have taken more pictures too, but I think I was having too much fun.

A Card From The Hot Springs 1865

   I was a little bored earlier today, hiding-out inside from the rain thinking I should probably do a post, and was digging around in a file cabinet out here in the shop for ideas and came across some files of items I've collected over the years relating to the historic hot spring. I love history.
One item caught my eye, a re-print, from the BC Archives, of an advertisement placed in 1865 by the then proprietor of the hot springs. 

The roadhouse business had been pretty lousy since they opened up the Fraser Canyon and all traffic to the gold-fields was taking that route. The then proprietor, an Irishman, placed this advertisement in the British Columbian June 29 1865 in the hopes of drumming up some paying customers.
I'll just type it out verbatim, and save trying to think something up.

So, penned 150 years ago, not far from where I sit and type this, the words of William Stein....

                                         

                                                          St. Agnes Well

                                              A Card From The Hot Springs

   In response to many inquiries from rheumatic invalids and for the information of persons in delicate health, I would state the Hot Spring water is pronounced by Voyageurs to be similar to those of Aix de Chappelle in Germany, so noted for the cure of rheumatism, and the resort of invalids in general.

I can positively state that this water will cure the most obstinate case of Rheumatism in six weeks. The temperature of the water is 128 degrees, and it's ingredients are salt, sulphur, magnesia and a little iron. 

Our accommodations, though not first class, will be found clean and comfortable, and we promise you our table shall be supplied with the best our market affords.

   To the ladies whose health may necessiate a trip to the Springs, my wife will use every effort to make them as comfortable as possible.

Fare per Stages, or Dietz and Nelson Express, From Douglas to the Springs is $5.00

BOARD and LODGING at the Springs , $15 per week.

                                                                                        W.E. Stein, Proprietor

                                                                                        Hot Springs, Douglas Portage,
                                                                                        June 4, 1865

   He didn't receive much of a response, and ran the advertisement again July and August. 

You probably had to be in pretty good shape to survive the trip here back in those days, which probably didn't help in attracting anyone considered 'invalid'. But I have to agree with him on the healing qualities of the hot spring water, and the local In-SHUCK-ch folks out here have known that for centuries. 

I've written about the original Hotspring House before on here somewhere, about Stein and some hot spring tourists, back in the early whiteman days, it was called Hotspring House 1859-1866

Here's the link to the story if you haven't seen it....

http://hotspringlodge.blogspot.ca/2013/02/hot-spring-house-1859-1866.html 

                                        

The Year Sofar In Pictorial.

    

Up at the intake-pond, the screens stayed free of ice during the cold weather and had no power issues.

Everything was going along just fine until the middle of the month, then it began to rain like hell.

It came down on the snow pack and turned the intake-pond into a nightmare.

You know the old story...

Only spent about five days on the back-up generator, which wasn't so bad for the Winter, so far.

In between power outages I bounced into town one Friday where Josh and I played to a packed Legion Hall, opening for Dakota Pearl and kicking-off the Pemberton Winterfest and I think it was the probably the most fun I've had all year.

Spring on the way...

The snow washed away by the beginning of February, and I figured an early Spring was here and began to dream up all kinds of projects for this year.

Then it snowed again, it didn't last long, more heavy rains washed it all away once more.

Second time lucky maybe.

I think we got the nasty part of Winter over with now, and looking forward to getting busy out there.

Runnin' On Jumper Cables, In Bear Feet.

   Bit of a cold-snap going on right now, this last day of 2015, but I was all prepared for sub-zero temperatures.  Loosing the power in the cold is a big worry, and I try and cover all my bases as best I can to avoid or limit the possibility. I've fixed more broken pipes and stuff around here than I can remember, and climbed the mountain enough times to chip ice from the notorious screens in the intake-pond, or weld up a broken penstock to last a life-time. I always strive to just enjoy the cold weather inside with my feet up in front of the fire, but for some perverse reason, no matter how ready you are, some goddamn gremlin throws a monkey-wrench into things. 

  I snuggled into my cozy bed last night, with a two cat foot-warmer, and drifted off to a wonderful sleep. For about an hour, when I jerked up in bed realizing the power had just gone off. I can't just lay there, I got to go do something. So I get enough clothes on to go outside and my parka on and a flashlight and off I head once again, for the generator shed. It was a beautiful clear night, the stars and moon were really something. Regardless, I'd a just a soon been back in bed, and this fact was brought home when I stepped onto the road out behind and got that cold north wind square in the face, and all the time I'm half expecting to get jumped on by the cougar or chased down by a wolf-pack or something.
   The pelton-wheel had shut it's self down, but there is plenty of water flowing so the problem wasn't with the screens up the mountain, not this time, but electrical. I thought, oh sh*t, the coldest night of the year and more on the way, a fried electrical part or otherwise buggered little doo-dad could shut me down for some time,  and being New-Years eve before the week-end, it will be another 4 days before any suppliers open up again. I was sure hoping it was something that I was going to be able to fix, and quick. I'll save you the whole story, but the problem turned out to be a 'link', or a connection of one of the main power cables in the generator, which developed a crack from vibration and had broken. Why it picked the coldest night of the year to this, I'll never know, and at this hour of the night my language was just atrocious as you can imagine, and catching my boot on a stick and doing that face-plant into the snow didn't goddamn help any.
I needed to get the electricity going before things froze up, get the shop lit up and power-tools working and have a closer look at this after a nice warm sleep. I stared at it for the longest time...then ran back over to the house (remember the stick/faceplant episode??) and getting the jumper-cables out of my pickup and clipping them between and completing the generator 240 volt connection.
It was kind of haywire I admit, but it got me going again, so I headed back over to the Lodge.

   It was after three in the morning by then, it was bloody cold, and I was looking forward to tucking my feet down between them cats at the end of my bed once again, and do some more figuring on this whole turn of events in the morning after a nice breakfast. Back at the the house I checked on things around and find the hot-tub is not working. There must have been some voltage issue or whatever who the hell knows, and has blown one of its many fuses. Again, I can't just leave it, I have to do some goddamn thing, fix it, or drain it, or its going to be froze by morning. My trying to fix-it attempt with a volt-meter was short lived, and climbing under there draining the tub, pump, lines and removing the filter I could have done without. 

   Finally, I get back in my bed. Until just about when it started to get light, my slumber broken when the bedside radio goes off, a sure sign of electrical system unhappiness. Sure as hell, the power meter on the relay panel is swinging wildly. So I run over there again to find that the jumper-cable temporary fix is working fine, but the other hi-voltage line from the generator has burnt it's connection off. Holy sh*t..., so I thought I was hard done by out here with one buggered connection, now I have two to deal with. I hooked the other jumper-cable across the connection and turned on the water and fired it up. So now the whole Lodge here, including the shop, guest cabin, and the hot spring caretaker's cabin were all being run by a set of Canadian Tire automotive jumper-cables.
(For readers outside of Canada, Canadian Tire is a retail chain popular with us Canadians.) 

I headed back over to the generator shed after breakfast to see what I could do about my predicament.

My jumper-cable repair from the night before, but it was working.

I got to work out in the shop and fabricated some new hi-voltage links. I found a piece of aluminium around and cut some strips out, drilling them, bending them, tapping threaded holes, and they might be better than what was originally in there.

Back out at the generator, my custom, in-the-bush made connections worked great.
Its good to be handy at sh*t if you want to live off the grid.

Now I had some time on my hands, and before the sun went behind the mountain I took one last trip this year down to the hot spring campsite to see what was going on.

I was surprised there was only a couple outfits camped. It was mid-day, so I'm sure there will be more on the way this afternoon for New Years Eve at the hot spring.

Brrr, time to head back and enjoy the electricity, especially the baseboard heaters.

Despite the gremlins, I did finally get a little quiet time in, lighting a fire, opening a book, and kicking back in front of the stove in my bear feet.
Happy New Year from the staff and cats at Hotspringlodge.