Friday, September 25, 2015

Two peaks

In the Klinaklini River basin, taken from the car window:

Rolls of hay, winter fodder for cattle.

Stony mountain peak. I'm told it's called "The Finger".

Humans are rare on the Chilcotin Plateau. Driving the highway at the busiest part of the day, I have counted, repeatedly, an average of 4 minutes between cars. At night, I can drive for hours rarely seeing a light. I find the sense of space exhilarating; it's me and the stars and the empty land. I can breathe.

Coming past the town of Kleena Kleene (named after the river) in daylight, I see green fields, a few haystacks, a scattering of houses. About 20 people live here year round. A minute later, the road curves, and I'm alone again.

Kleena Kleene is one of the driest locations in British Columbia because of the rain shadow effect of Coast Mountains located directly to the west. The temperature is cooler than the other similarly dry locations in the province. (From Wikipedia)

In spite of the dryness, the bottom of the valley is green, because the river snakes along gently, winding and looping around the hayfields. The few houses, up on the slopes, sit on dry, baked dust.

2 comments:

  1. I have just caught up with your latest posts and I love seeing the photos from the Chilcotin! We have property and built a house on a lake in the West Branch (SW of Tatla Lake). I first went out there on my honeymoon in 1966.
    Seeing Finger Peak made me wonder if you have read any of Chris Czajkowski's books, or seen her blog "Wilderness Dweller"(http://wildernessdweller.ca/)? She lives just west of Kleena Kleene now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I have Chris' blog on my Feedly. Great photos of fall colour this week!

    ReplyDelete

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