I was born under a wanderin' star*.** I can't resist a poorly travelled side road, curving out of sight under the trees. The Strathcona Dam was down one of these, about 30 km. out of Campbell River.
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| View over Upper Campbell Lake, from the top of the dam. |
The dam is a wide earth-mound dam built by BC Hydro, dividing the Upper Campbell Lake from the smaller Campbell Lake. With two other local dams, they produce 11% of the electricity used on Vancouver Island. Below the dam, Hydro has provided a free campsite, open year-round. I didn't go down to it, and I don't think I could stay there; I watched a smaller dam disintegrate and take out a bridge that I'd just crossed when I was a teenager, and the memory sticks. I drove out onto the dam itself, took a few photos and went back to the safe road alongside the reservoir.
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| Through a gap in the trees. The distant mountain may be Victoria Peak, 2100 m. |
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| Another view of that mountain. |
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| Weak sunshine behind the clouds, reflected on the water. |
I drove slowly, checking the bush on either side of the road as I went. When I saw a deer on the shore, I stopped the car, hoping it would ignore me. But it ran out of sight, and as I sat there, watching, five deer dashed out of the forest ahead of me, leaped across the road, and sprang up the hillside into deeper cover. There's nothing more beautiful than a half-flying deer. Except, maybe, five of them.
A slight foot trail led down the hillside to the water. I got out, now that there were no deer to startle, and walked down. This was where I found
yesterday's cup mushrooms.
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| The area has been cleared. There's a fire pit down on the shore. And my car, hiding behind a tree up on the road. |
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| This was strange. About 4 feet above ground, a dense clump of something grew from the bottom of a branch, curving upward. The stalks are not like the branches around them; darker, more solid-looking, newer (no lichen). Does anyone know what this is? |
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| Water, water, everywhere. In the lakes, in pools, in ditches running along the roads. Dripping from the trees. And pouring down the hillsides around every curve. A zillion creeks with no name. |
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| On the way home, I stopped to watch common goldeneyes in one of the small, green pools beside the highway. (They swam out of sight before I turned on the camera.) |
The road was gravelled, muddy in spots, and pot-holed. Now I need more water. With soap.
*(
Lee Marvin, YouTube)
** I came by it honestly. Dad used to say he had "itchy feet." I inherited them.
