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Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21) (Read 32585 times)
Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #10 - Jan 12th, 2013 at 9:07am
 
These PODS were selected from all the photos I took based on (ahem) artistic merit, and are mostly in chronological order. So taken by themselves, they're not very good from a photojournalistic standpoint: telling an accurate and complete story.

Today's POD is pretty typical of Bowron scenery. Here's an outtake from early in the trip, showing a marshy area near the inlet to Isaac Lake.
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Continuing from yesterday on "the Bowron experience". The campsites are generally small, up to three tent pads each. There are also a few larger "group" sites. Canoe landings are almost always gravel beaches. All sites have a privy and all have a bear locker for food. (If you haven't seen one, a bear locker looks like a standup wardrobe, but a bit shorter and deeper, and made of heavy gauge sheet metal.).

The sites I visited were all spotless. At times I wondered if I was in some kind of Japanese garden, where the staff comes in after the campers leave, cleans up any loose trash and rakes the gravel so it looks like a new site which no one had yet visited.

One of the issues you run into when an area gets as heavily used as Bowron is firewood. If things were left to themselves, it wouldn't take long for campers to collect and burn every scrap of deadfall and ground litter for tens of metres around every campsite. I'm sure we've all visited sites in Quetico where the ground has been stripped bare over a huge area - it's nice to have a big site, but not if it means damaging far more wilderness than necessary.

The way they do things in Bowron is to forbid all collection and use of deadfall. There are a half dozen or so "woodlot" sites provided, and if you want to build a campfire, you must go to one of these woodlots and collect your firewood there. The wood is precut and split, but it's a good idea to take along an axe to get it down to kindling size. The upside is that campsite sprawl is prevented, but the downside is that you occasionally might  have your "quiet journey" interrupted by the gentle purring of a chainsaw in the distance.

Here's another outtake, showing a typical campsite beach;
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This was taken from the east shore of Isaac Lake (looking west, away from the mountains.)
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #11 - Jan 15th, 2013 at 8:12am
 
Today's POD is from Isaac Lake, looking east.

Bowron Lakes are mostly fed by glacial meltwater, and streams like this have mostly been reduced to a trickle by late September. The park's elevation isn't very high (lakes levels are at around 3000 ft, peaks at 6500 ft) so by September, the water was warm and wetfoot canoe entries in sandals were not a problem.

Isaac Lake is on a big geological fault. The mountains to the east are mostly early Cambrian limestone, with some (Ordovician?) phyllite higher up and quartzite near the mountain peaks.

Here is an anticline in the Cunningham limestone in this area:
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Phoenix
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #12 - Jan 15th, 2013 at 12:39pm
 
Judging by your photos so far, is it the case that this area has not been affected by the pine beetle infestation that has devastated forests in the B.C. interior?
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #13 - Jan 15th, 2013 at 3:00pm
 
Phoenix wrote on Jan 15th, 2013 at 12:39pm:
... is it the case that this area has not been affected by the pine beetle infestation that has devastated forests in the B.C. interior?

Unfortunately not. The eastern part of the park was ok, but they did have some problems in the west, and some timber management was required. IMO, the most scenic areas were  left untouched, so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

More aesthetically jarring was the (normal commercial) clearcutting taking place outside the park, but visible at two points on the route through gaps in the mountains. An unwelcome reminder of how small your protected bubble really is in Bowron.
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #14 - Jan 20th, 2013 at 5:32pm
 
... still on Isaac Lake heading south ...
  
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Phoenix
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #15 - Jan 20th, 2013 at 8:32pm
 
Wow! Impressive scene...and shot!
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #16 - Jan 23rd, 2013 at 9:39am
 
Things are a bit out of chronological order here: there are still a couple more photos from Isaac Lake before you get to the point bar mud flats environment of today's POD. We'll come back to the last two Isaac Lake shots later.

At the south end of Isaac Lake is a short section of optional Class I whitewater called "The Chute". It is a chute and looked like this when I passed through:

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You enter from the right side of the pic.

I know it looks pretty tame, but remember this was very late in the season and there had been no rain for a while. I'm sure there's more to it when flow rates are higher in early summer or after a good dump of precipitation. Even still, I took a few litres of water over the bow when I went through.

After The Chute, there is supposed to be a standing wave train called "The Roller Coaster". You can either paddle through this or around it. I saw nothing but a few ripples (no photo). Since there was no excitement to be had at these river conditions, I took the easy route to minimize bottom-scraping potential.

You then follow the Isaac and Cariboo Rivers downstream for a few km's. The Bowron literature warns of sweepers on these two rivers, but there were none when I passed though. I think park staff comes through occasionally to remove any dangerous obstacles.

The Isaac River flows out of Isaac Lake, and the water is the same clear emerald:
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The Cariboo is more silt-laden, and watching for deadheads is more of a challenge.
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #17 - Jan 24th, 2013 at 7:55am
 
Today's POD is at the west end of Lanezi Lake, in the southwest corner of the park.

As you turn the corner and enter the fourth side of the parallelogram, you leave the interior rainforest and the mountains, and enter a much flatter, drier zone.
  
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Spartan2
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #18 - Jan 29th, 2013 at 11:31am
 
Beautiful series of photos!  I especially liked the sunset one on Sunday--gorgeous!  Thanks! Thumbs Upup
  
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Mk631
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Re: Picture of the day - POD (cont. 21)
Reply #19 - Jan 29th, 2013 at 2:34pm
 
Wow - beautiful shot!  I've enjoyed these a lot.

Hey, how was the fishing in Sept 2012 (& what part of Sept?).  I've always expected it to be great then, but fished another part of Ontario last Sept (~12th-16th) and got all but skunked.

Back to POD's, the Bowron set was cool too -- I'm not used to seeing mountains in canoe areas!
Thanks.
-Tom
  
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