Water views, blue and green

Still playing catch up. These are all photos of water, from various points on the island.

Blue water:

View of Buttle Lake, stretching away south from Buttle Narrows, where the bridge separates Buttle from Upper Campbell Lake. The lake is more like a slow river, 30 km. long, 1.5 km wide. Through the car window.

Crofton ferry landing, looking towards Saltspring Island.

Islet at low tide, off Saltspring Island.

Green water:

Darkis Lake, near Buttle Lake. At 475 m. by 200 m.. almost too small to be called a lake.

Above Elk Falls, where the Campbell River runs peacefully, all unsuspecting that the bottom will fall away just down the line.

Puddle on the rocks above Elk Falls, reflecting the hillside opposite.

White water:

Skiff, Churchill Beach, Saltspring Island.

Waterfall; creek running down from Big Baldy Mountain, near Gold River.

Next, quirky landings.

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Sigo tratando de ponerme al corriente. Estas son escenas con agua, en diversos sitios de la isla.

1. El lago Buttle, mirando hacia el sur desde el puente que lo cruza al punto donde toca el lago Upper Campbell. Este es un lago largo y angosto, casi un rio lento, midiendo 30 kilómetros por apenas kilómetro y medio en su parte más ancha.
2. El desembarcadero del trasbordador que cruza hasta la isla Saltspring.
3. Islita (a marea baja; cuando sube la marea es una roca) cerca del desembarcadero en la isla Saltspring.
4. Agua verde.  El lago Barkis, un pocito tan pequeño que apenas merece el nombre de lago. 475 m. por 200 m. Cerca del lago Buttle.
5. Rio arriba de las cataratas Elk, donde el rio Campbell corre en paz, sin sospechar que en unos pocos metros se le va a desaparecer el fondo.
6. Un charquito en las rocas arriba de las cataratas, reflejando el verdor de la ladera opuesta.
7. Un esquife azul en la playa Churchill, en la isla Saltspring.
8. Cataratas cerca de Gold River; un riachuelo que baja desde la montaña Big Baldy (Calvo Grande).

Waterfall #2

It's still raining. But they're reporting that the water level on Sumas Prairie has dropped about 6 inches, in spite of the rain. A smidgen of good news.

Here's another unnamed waterfall; at least this one falls into Buttle Lake, a lonely lake, and it pours under the road, not over it, flooding no farmlands, no houses. A friendly waterfall.

Tumbling down the mountain, from far above.

There's always a small pool at the bottom.

I stood there on the road, listening to the water; the spray was fresh on my cheeks and smelled of green, of cedars and firs, of wet rock.

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Sigue lloviendo. Pero dicen que el agua ha bajado unos 15 cm. en el valle de Sumas. Un poco, un poquito de buenas noticias.

 Y aquí hay otra catarata sin nombre; pero esta cae hasta el lago Buttle, un lago solitario; y fluye por debajo de la carretera, en vez de por encima, y no inunda granjas ni casas.

Me detuve allí al pie de la catarata, escuchando la música del agua; el rocío se sentía fresco en mi cara, y olía a verdor, a cedros y abetos, a roca mojada.

Fotos:

La catarata cae desde muy arriba en la montaña, entre el bosque.

Y siempre hay un pocito en la base. 

Roadside waterfall

I went looking for roadside waterfalls alongside Buttle Lake, and found rainbows.

As first seen. All the rock faces, with or without waterfalls, were soaked and shiny.

Face on. Dropping down the rock in a series of small steps. With a faint double rainbow.

Young evergreen having a shower.

Up top. Later, from a distance, I could see the rocks above and behind this; the waterfall came down from far above.

With my back to the sun. The second rainbow is very faint.

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Después de varios dias de lluvia, fui a buscar cataratas al lado de la carretera, y encontré arcos iris.

1. Una catarata a primera vista. Aun donde no había cataratas, todas las rocas estaban bien mojadas, y brillaban.
2. De cara a esta catarata, con arco iris doble.
3. Un arbolito se toma una ducha.
4. La catarata cae desde lo más alto de las piedras. Más tarde, a una distancia, podía ver más del cerro, atrás y arriba de lo visto desde el pie de la catarata; el agua cae desde la cima.
5. Al pie de la catarata con espaldas al sol. El segundo arco iris apenas se puede descubrir.

Cool water

It's too hot. We're starting an extreme heat wave over most of BC, with temperatures up to 10º above normal for this area for this week. That's Celsius, not Farenheit. I'm hunkering down, staying inside, keeping safe.

This looks cooling.

Unnamed waterfall, one of many such near Buttle Lake.

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Hace calor. Estamos entrando a una ola de calor que cubre la mayor parte de la provincia de Colombia Británica, con temperaturas que superan lo normal con hasta 10º C., y que durará más o menos una semana. Yo me estoy escondiendo en casa, frente al ventilador, cuidándome.

Esta catarata sin nombre, una de muchas cerca del Lago Buttle, imparte una sensación de frescura.

Rarin' to go

It has been a long winter. Or at least, it has seemed longer than usual without the customary Christmas parties, school events, family dinners, shopping expeditions, without the night on the pier with the whole town crowded together waiting for the New Year's Eve fireworks, without all the assorted birthday parties and weddings. One day after another, with quick weekly grocery runs, and solitary rambles on the shore; time blurs.

Yesterday's snowdrops pulled me out of the doldrums; spring is on its way! I started to plan spring outings, sorting through old March photos, remembering what I might be expecting to find in the next few weeks.

And yes, there will be new leaves:

Indian plum, Oemleria cerasiformis

New colours: 

Skunk cabbage

Red alder catkins,

Turning pale forests pink. Strathcona Dam

There will be low spring tides ...

Low tide, off Oyster Bay, with Mittlenatch Island and eagle.

Rocks and erratics off Shell Road Beach,

with all the myriad creatures to be discovered around the rocks.

But the freshwater creeks and rivers will be in full spate, and noisy.

Waterfall, near Gold Riiver.

Roadside creek, near Sayward.

The forests will be cool and green,

Disappearing snow, north highway.

... if a bit misty.

Trunk and moss, Miracle Beach

I'm packing the car already.

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Ha sido un invierno muy largo, o al menos así parece, faltando todos las distracciones usuales, las fiestas navideñas, los eventos escolares, cenas familiares, dias de compras, la noche en el muelle con todo el pueblo, esperando los fuegos artificiales de Año Nuevo, faltando las muchas celebraciones de bodas y cumpleaños. Un dia tras otro, marcado solamente por las vueltas semanales, de prisa, a la tienda en busca de alimentos, y por paseos solitarios en la playa. El calendario se torna gris.

Las fotos de las primeras flores que saqué ayer me reanimaron. ¡Viene la primavera, de veras! He empezado a planear las excursiones primaverales, revisando fotos viejas de los meses de marzo de años anteriores, trayendo a la memoria las cosas, las vistas que veré.

Habrá hojas nuevas, colores nuevos.

Habrá mareas primaverales, bajísimas, con todas las multitudes de animalitos que se podrán encontrar debajo de las rocas de la zona baja.

Pero en tierra, los ríos y riachuelos estarán en plena inundación.

Los bosques siguen verdes y frescos por esta temporada, pero con episodios de neblina.

Estoy lista. Más que lista. Ya tengo el coche empacado.

Myra Falls; third failed attempt

Highway 28 crosses the middle island, coast to coast, following the shores of the Upper Campbell lake, then the Gold River to the inlet at the end. Where it reaches the bottom of the Upper Campbell, it links to Westmin Road, which goes down one side of Buttle Lake, and dead ends at the Myra Falls mine. And just before the mine, there are two waterfalls that I wanted to see: the Upper and the Lower Myra Falls.

Google map view of the bottom of Buttle Lake, and Myra Creek.

But Buttle lake is a long, long lake, more like a wide river. 23 kilometres long, at most 1.5 wide. The road hugs the bank, along the edge of tall cliffs. Three times I've headed down that road, on my way to the falls; twice I gave up halfway, having "wasted" my time stopping to look at rock faces and their plants.

This past week, I finally made it to the end of the road.

Myra Falls is a roughly 200 foot tall series of plunges and punchbowl waterfalls found where Myra Creek empties into Buttle Lake in Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. The falls are separated into three main sections with large pools in between. The uppermost consists of two drops in narrow gorge, the middle is three drops where the creek encounters a wide set of steps and the final two drops occur where the creek crashes directly into Buttle Lake. (World Waterfall Database)

First step, I think.

It was a hot, hot day, unusually hot for this climate. This is important; it sort of explains why I wimped out. As soon as I stepped out of the car at the parking lot, I felt dizzy, but the trail led down into the shade.

The path was steep, and seemed to go on and on, always steeply down. My old knees felt shaky. I asked a woman on her way up how far down it went; she waved vaguely off to the left. "Take the trail to the upper lookout. Don't go to the lower one," she said. Okay.

A side trail led to the upper lookout, ending in a narrow platform looking down into a green pool.

Green pool below the first step.

I  started back. From the trail, I could see people on the rocks below me, below the lower lookout. It looked inviting, but I had been warned. And it was hot, even in the shade. The heat was sapping my energy, killing my curiosity. I'm a cold-country woman.

Not quite the bottom; there's still a drop to the lake.

I trudged on up the trail, stopping to rest in the shade a few times. I was surprised when I came to the last curve; there was the sign at the entrance, just ahead, and I had made it easily!

I should have taken the lower trail. Back home, looking at the trail website, I followed a contour graph; the steep part of the trail was the one I had taken. The rest would have been easy. Now I know.

The creek cuts down through steep, tall cliffs.

So: another failed attempt. I'll have to go back, and walk down, down, down to the rocks at the entrance to the lake. And that's just the Lower Myra Falls. Another trail leads up into the hills to reach the Upper Myra Falls. It's over an hour's hike; someday, I must try it.

Map: I was here.

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La carretera #28 cruza la isla por la mitad, desde Campbell River a Gold River. Sigue por la mayor parte, las orillas del lago Upper Campbell, y luego el rio hasta la costa. Pero al extremo del lago, un camino, el camino Westmin, sigue para el sur y el lago Buttle para terminar en la mina de Myra Creek. Y justo antes de esta mina, hay dos cataratas que quería visitar, la catarata superior Myra, y la inferior.

Pero el lago Buttle es un lago muy largo; casi parece más bien un río gordo. Tiene 23 kilómetros de largo, apenas 1.5 de ancho. Tres veces he atentado ir a las cataratas, y siempre me he detenido demasiado, mirando precipicios y rocas y las plantas que crecen en ese ambiente. Hasta la semana pasada, no había llegado ni al final del lago antes de tener que volver a casa.

La catarata inferior es una serie de 7 escalones, cayendo primero por un cañon angosto, luego extendiéndose y cayendo sobre rocas hasta llegar al lago 200 pies abajo del primer escalón.

Hacía calor. Mucho calor. Más de lo acostumbrado en este clima. Esto es importante para explicar lo que hice. En cuanto salí del coche en el estacionamiento, me sentí mareada. Pero el sendero se dirigía cuesta abajo, en sombra.

El sendero estaba muy inclinado y parecía seguir sin fin. Le pregunté a una mujer que venía subiendo, que cuanto faltaba para llegar. Apuntó vagamente hacia la izquierda, y me dijo que tomara el sendero para el puesto de observación superior. —No vayas hasta el puesto inferior— me dijo. Bueno.

El camino al puesto de observación me llevó a una plataforma pequeña que miraba hacia abajo a una charca verde. Este era el primer escalón de la catarata, creo.

En el camino de regreso, podía ver tras los árboles que había gente en las rocas abajo. Se veía atractivo, pero me habían advertido. no iba a intentar la bajada, especialmente porque hacía tanto calor. El calor me minaba la energía, me quitaba la curiosidad. Seguí cuesta arriba.

Y no era tanto como había creído; hubiera podido hacer toda la vuelta.  Me sorprendió cuando el sendero dió la última vuelta, y ahí en frente estaba el estacionamiento.

Bueno, ahora ya lo sé. Tendré que volver otra vez e ir hasta las rocas al pie de la última catarata.

Y todavía hay la otra catarata, la superior. Algún día seguiré ese sendero. Es un poco más largo, más difícil, pero valdrá la pena.

On the rocks

Water and rocks. A recent trip to Elk Falls:

The Campbell River leaves Lower Campbell Lake and winds down to the drop-off. At one time, all this rock was river bed, but the dam and hydroelectric project has diminished it considerably, leaving open rock suitable for exploring. Carefully.

Last pool before the cliff.

A sheer, single-drop fall. 27 metres.

View from the platform along the return trail.

Zeballos River Falls

A short way out of Zeballos, I stopped at the Zeballos River to look at a waterfall.

Waterfall in two steps. A small one, as BC falls go.

Look at those rocks.

The Zeballos river is a small stream by mid-summer. In the spring, with the snow melt, it probably comes up near the top of the light-coloured rocks. But look at those rocks again: the darker top section, where mosses and small plants grow, is rounded, smoothed down by centuries of weather, lichens, and burrowing roots. But the lower section is all sharp edges, looking as if it had been chipped off by a rock hammer. As if the river hasn't been working at it very long, in rock years.

(The small, sharp rocks at the bottom of the photo are leftovers from road work.)

I looked up the world database of waterfalls, under BC, Canada. It lists 2465 waterfalls for BC. Of course, it misses most: just along this 42 km. road, I saw dozens of tall waterfalls, pouring down the mountainsides. The database map shows only 3 of them, all unnamed, a distinction shared with 1159 other BC falls.

The database includes the height of some of the falls, going from 840 metres to 1 metre; one of these, the 15th down from the top, is also unnamed. And many named falls have no height registered.

Our local (Campbell River) waterfall, Elk Falls, appears 98th on the list, sorted by height, at 145 metres.

Giving up on the falls

Elk Falls is a roaring, foaming waterfall, at the bottom of the Campbell River canyon. Not a high fall, as falls go; the free-falling, plunge section of the falls is only 89 feet (27 metres), but still, it's an impressive sight and sound from a platform on the opposite side of the river.

Top end of the falls. The gorge is too narrow, the platform too close to get a photo of the whole falls.

The view from this lower platform, going backwards, up-river:

Bare rock, once washed by the much wider river; now a major part of the flow has been re-directed to the turbines, to provide electrical power to a large part of Vancouver Island.

And moving the gaze up-river again:

Still waters, barely seeming to move.

From the suspension bridge above, the bottom of the falls is visible, although through high (over my head,) daunting chain-link fencing. I took photos of the fence, instead:

Shy jumping spider and top of fence.

First huckleberry of the year. I ate it afterwards; it was sweet, but not too sweet.

On the way back up, near the top of the canyon, the fence is less forbidding. With snooty robin, who disapproved of my presence on his trail.

And at the top, beside the parking lot, the fence is temporary. And protects a young deer from traffic.

Ferns on a rock face

Throughout this long, hot, dry summer, mists from the falls keep the opposite rock wall moist and, wherever there is a toe-hold for roots, green.

Even on the sheer face to the left, constantly spray-blasted, two or three ferns have found a safe shelter.

Elk Falls hike

Sooner or later, every Campbell River resident ends up at Elk Falls and the suspension bridge. It took me over a year, but I finally made it.

From the new parking lot at the project interpretive centre, the trail leads down, down, down, and down again, (the ravine is deep) to the bridge, hanging high above the falls.

View from a lower spot on the trail. Still above the falls. Note viewpoint at right.

View from the viewpoint. (Photo from my old pocket Sony, now defunct.)

I wanted a view from the side, so I went on down, down, down. (Hard on the knees)

The suspension bridge from slightly above.

And down some more, on a switchback trail along the side of the canyon, through dark green, old-growth forest.

"Old Mossback"

Just about level with the falls now. The river drops 75 feet into Trout Pool below.

View from another turn in the trail. Note viewpoint at the left. I didn't stop there, though.

And down some more. I wanted to reach the rocks at the top of the falls; I had seen them from the suspension bridge, and there were people on them. I knew the trail would get me there sooner or later. If my knees held out.

Made it! The river flows along, then falls into a hole.

Looking upstream.

Campbell River leaves Lower Campbell Lake, drops over Ladore Falls (22 feet) to Irene Pool, then pours down the ravine and over Bear Falls, Moose Falls, Deer Falls. Elk Falls is the final drop before Trout Pool. From Irene to Trout, in about 5 miles, the river falls 320 feet. From here, it still continues downhill, but not very steeply, until it opens into the flat Campbell River mouth.

The worst about a long hike downhill is that you have to scramble back up again. I took a wrong turn and climbed to the top of the ravine where there was no access to the parking lot, grumbled my way back down, and plodded back up. I caught up to some tourists from Italy on the way, got talking all along the rest of the trail, and completely forgot my sore calves.

I'm tougher than I thought.