Interlude

Snow beasties enjoying the afternoon sunshine:

Mother and youngsters?

Species unidentified.

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Animalitos de nieve en el sol de la tarde. Mamá e hijos, creo. ¿Qué piensas?

Winter shapes

Abstracts: snow, moss, rocks.

On the lake face of Strathcona Dam

With winter-red stems.

And is that Foghorn Leghorn, relaxing there among the stones?

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Arte abstracto: nieve, musgo, piedras en la fachada de la presa Strathcona.

Strathcona Dam under snow

In winter, the campsites below the Strathcona Dam are silent, except for the distant roar of rushing water. Snow muffles the rustle of soggy grasses; the whispering leaves have fallen and been buried; no dogs bark, no children shout. The land sleeps.

View of the BC Hydro workings and the campsites beyond, from the top of the dam.

Spillway, on the far end of the dam, to the right of the area in the photo above.

My trusty Toyota, atop the dam.

The dam is at the point of the red arrow.

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La presa Strathcona, bajo la nieve. En el invierno, el campamento al pie de la presa duerme en silencio, aparte del rugido distante del agua del aliviadero mas allá del bosque. La nieve calla el crujir de las hierbas del campo; el susurro de las hojas, ahora caídas y cubiertas de nieve, no se oirá hasta la primavera; no hay perros que ladran, ni las risas de niños en sus barquitos. La tierra duerme.

La primera foto es la vista desde encima de la presa; se ven las instalaciones de BCHydro, y el campamento abandonado más adelante. El canal aliviadero (segunda foto) que hace el ruido está trás los árboles al lado derecho de la foto.

Y allí arriba de la presa está mi fiel carrito.

Steller's Jay

I went to look at the Strathcona Dam and the campsite sleeping below it in the snow. The campsite was deserted, of course, but a Steller's Jay found me tramping about under the trees, and hung around, hoping I would have goodies, like the summer campers do. Sorry, little bird, I wasn't thinking ahead.

With the snow on the ground, and the white mid-afternoon sky, my eyes were dazzled. I couldn't see anything but his shape. Good thing the camera saw colour.

He moved to a higher branch to get a better look at me. And my hands were empty, except for the camera; no treats to share. When I left, he didn't follow me.

More dam and campsite photos tomorrow.

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Fuí a mirar la presa a media isla, y el campamento público situada justo a sus pies. Todo estaba en silencio, abandonado y cubierto de nieve, pero mientras exploraba los bosques, me halló una chara de Steller, y se quedó observándome, sin duda esperando para ver si traía alguna cosa de comer, como los visitantes en el verano. Lo siento —le dije —no vengo preparada.

Cuando por fin regresé al carro, no me siguió.

Con lo blanco tan brillante de la nieve y un cielo con nubes igualmente blancos, mis ojos estaban deslumbrados, y no pude ver más que la forma del pájaro, y nada de color. Por suerte, la cámara ve mejor que yo.

Habrá más fotos de la presa y campamento mañana.

Buttle Lake; a bit of history

Large areas of Vancouver Island have been historically untouched by humans. The terrain is too rugged; the rainforest too dense, the climate too inhospitable; even the inland waterways are forbidding. Most settlements have been along the coast, accessible by boat. (Dugout canoe, in the old days.)

For example:

What was described as a first class trail between Nanaimo and Comox had been completed in May 1863 ... When Brown explored up the island in August 1864, [15 months later] he found the trail blocked by windfalls and washouts, although he did find one bridge remaining at the Qualicum River. (Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition 1864)

An easy trail to follow through the bush. Google maps photo, Karst Creek trail.

Buttle Lake, running down the centre of the island, between steep mountains, was discovered first by Europeans in 1865. (If First Nations people had been there earlier, they have left no trace. That we have found.)  John Buttle, with the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, discovered the lake in 1865, probably following a chain of lakes and rivers upstream from the coast. Buttle Lake is the first of the lakes and rivers that feed into the Campbell River.

Buttle Lake from Auger Point, looking downstream.

The lakes were smaller back then: in 1958, the BC Power Commission dammed the Campbell Lake, raising the water level 30 metres, dividing the lake into Upper and Lower Campbell Lakes. The water backed up into Buttle Lake, raising it by 5 metres. These days, when the water is low, the stumps of the old drowned forest are still visible on the bare shores.

Near the north end of the lake. The water is low, although the rains have started.

Remains of a drowned forest.

Island, mid-lake.

There is an interesting set of photos on a UVic library page, Before Strathcona Dam. Two photos of the same area of Upper Campbell Lake, taken in 1950 and 1959, are layered, with a slider to show how the lake grew. Worth looking at.

A Skywatch post.

Hoppers and a jumper below the dam

Last week, I was travelling with my granddaughter. She's as crazy as I am, and more energetic. (I seem to be slowing down as the years mount up. Funny how that works!)

In a simple day trip to Gold River and back, we stopped along the way to clamber through the bush to look at the back of the beaver lodge, to take photos of spiders in the hardhack and shelf fungi on the trees, to look at birds at Strathcona Park Lodge, to chase grasshoppers at Strathcona Dam, to climb a rock face beside a waterfall, to look at flamingos in Two Boat Pond, to try out newly-carved animal seats, and to chase crows at the Gold River docks. It was raining as we headed home; otherwise, I'm sure we would have stopped a couple more times.

I have tons* of photos to sort and process. These are from the campsite below Strathcona Dam.

Dam sign.

Text of sign:

You are standing below the largest hydroelectric dam on Vancouver Island. Strathcona Dam is part of the Campbell River Hydroelectric System which includes the Ladore and John Hart developments and the Salmon River, Heber River, and Quinsam River diversions.
Strathcona was the last dam completed on the Campbell River Development project. This 53 meter high earth-filled dam created Upper Campbell Lake, a 48 kilometer long reservoir for water storage. The water that flows through this dam will drop over 200 meters, passing through three generating stations, Strathcona, Ladore, and John Hart, before it reaches the ocean. As you drive towards Campbell River, you will pass near two other reservoirs, Lower Campbell Lake created by Ladore Dam, and John Hart Reservoir created by John Hart dam. This major project was started in 1945 and took  over 13 years to complete.

The campground, with the dam looming over it, has 11 overnight free campsites and large areas for day parking. When we arrived, there was almost no space left to park; cars and trailers and RVs were everywhere; it was the long weekend. It seems that no-one worries about the mass of water ready to drop on you. Signs warn visitors to clear the water and river banks if a siren sounds; water will be rushing down the spillway. The backwaters were alive with kids in rubber boats; the geese I've seen on other visits were in hiding.

We wandered around the weedy area between parking lots. First find: a humongous jumping spider. Or so it seems.

About 25 meters long. As advertised on the campground map.

And then there was the grasshopper. We chased him and his family for quite some time.

It's hard to sneak up on a grasshopper on bare gravel.

But we tried. Pop can half tab included to show size. (I moved it on the photo; it was a couple of inches away.)

Trying to blend in on a mossy rock. And still aware of us; with the next leap, we lost him.

Lichen and moss on a rock. At least it stays put.

More lichen and moss.

Bladder campion, Silene vulgaris, going to seed.

Nearly one o'clock, and we were hungry. Next stop, Strathcona Park Lodge.

*tons. Of photos. Digital. So not really tons. But you know what I mean.

Slow spread

Lichen on the rocks at Strathcona Dam.

The rocks have been in place since 1995. Almost 25 years of growth; about 3 inches of lichen.

Large rocks line the roadways on the campground, spaced a few metres apart. They're all colonized by lichen and moss.

Strathcona Dam campground

Its just over 2 years since I discovered the Strathcona Dam. I've been back several times, but always stopped on top of the dam itself to look out over the lake. But there's more!

BC Hydro created a recreational site on the far side, at the very foot of the dam: spacious campsites, outhouses, open fields, a boat launch. When I looked over the dam in the summer, it was full, every campsite occupied, day users parked in the fields. I didn't go down.

This week, it looked empty and I drove down to explore.

Water races out of the spillway, foaming and splashing, hurries down a narrow channel, turns a corner and settles down, forming a serene lagoon. Here, the water reaches that first corner.

And just around the bend, a quiet little lake.

All the way around the edge of the campsite, an alternate spillway. The dam end is rocky and dry at the moment; the water is still. In the distance, white ducks dive for their supper.

One of the two Canada geese.

Back along the active spillway, from the first campsite. Ghostly winter branches warmed by the light on rosy catkins.

Directly below the dam, the setting sun prisms across the top, tinting the water green, pink, cool blue.

Sign from the information area.

Text of sign: You are standing below the largest hydroelectric dam on Vancouver Island. Strathcona Dam is part of the Campbell River Hydroelectric System which includes the Ladore and John Hart developments and the Salmon River, Heber River, and Quinsam River diversions. 

Strathcona was the last dam completed on the Campbell River Development project. This 53 meter high earth-filled dam created Upper Campbell Lake, a 48 kilometer long reservoir for water storage. The water that flows through this dam will drop over 200 meters, passing through three generating stations, Strathcona, Ladore and John Hart, before it reaches the ocean. As you drive towards Campbell River, you will pass near two other reservoirs, Lower Campbell Lake created by Ladore Dam and John Hart Reservoir created by John Hart dam. This major project was started in 1945 and took over 13 years to complete.

Map of campground and spillway channels, from info centre. With shadows of overhead cables and towers.

Map of the three dams. Campsite shown just beneath the first dam. The road crosses the dam at the top, re-crosses at the base, between the spillway control building and the dam.

Here and there, spotted around the campsites and the recreation areas are signs: DANGER! KEEP OUT! SIRENS!. The danger, I understand, is only on the water and the shores of the spillway; at times, a large volume of water is released, and the current could be lethal. The sirens are to warn people who have ventured into the channels. The land is safe.

I would have trouble sleeping there, though. A daytime, very much alert, awake visit is enough for me.

Green water

Canada geese, Strathcona Dam

Reflections on the lagoon below the dam.

A bit of everything

The fall rains have started, so I took the highway west, looking for mushrooms, in the spots where I found them last fall. It's too soon; I found only one group, near Strathcona Dam.

Unidentified mushrooms, with slug nibbles.

The search was not without its risks:

Hungry predator overhead. (About 10 feet up. I couldn't see her web at all.)

Cross spider, Araneus diadematus, on the shore of Upper Campbell Lake.

I wonder: how is it that I walk down a trail unmolested, return immediately, and run face-first into a spider web across that same trail?

It was almost sunset by the time I'd found the mushrooms, so I went on ahead to the dam to watch the light fade.

Glow beyond the hills. Facing southeast, from the top of the dam.

Weeds on the rocks. Elk River Road bridge straight ahead.

Looking northwest. 7:22 PM.

So: few mushrooms, so I'll have an excuse to go that way again next month. A narrow escape from spider fangs. And a peaceful half hour on the dam; this trip had everything!

The arrow points to the dam.

A Skywatch post.

Dividing the waters. Strathcona Dam.

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.

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.

Through a gap in the trees. The distant mountain may be Victoria Peak, 2100 m.

Another view of that mountain.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Fuzzy cups and camera selfies

Between rain and rain, the sun made a feeble attempt to break through the clouds, without much success. I followed it east, to Strathcona Dam, hoping for mushrooms. And found these, on a rotting log:

Cup mushrooms, with selfie (camera and fingers). The largest is 6 mm. across the top, about the same in height.

In situ.

Everything; the log, the ground, the trees, and the mushrooms were wet. The sun doesn't reach to this hiding place very often.

Top view, with water droplets and wet moss.

More on the dam area, tomorrow.