Capturing the Art of Nature
Lost Creek
I return to the east Stave Lake area often as it is easy to reach and generally has quite a bit to explore and enjoy. Today we drove up a number of side roads as far as the snow allowed us.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2011
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The East Stave Lake area is a popular location as it is easy to access. I enjoy returning as there seems to always be something new to look over. Ethan and I set out to explore some of the side roads today so we arrived at the start of the road in good time and there I noticed that the logging road radio frequency had changed. It was new to me so I had to reprogram the radio before we could use it. That took a few moments during which time a silver pickup came by and passed us. Once set, we zipped along the first part of the main road. It was clear of snow and ice and in fact the day was quite mild, I would have preferred more sun but this was the day we got.
We continued in for some distance passing the Davis Lake area and rounding on the NW shoulder of Mt Weatherhead. Then we found a side road to zip up. We soon came by a few more forks but we took the most interesting each time and soon we were driving through a narrow over-grown area. To our right the slope drops down steeply to a narrow ravine. As we drove along I noticed that the ravine was littered with a pile of old tires, there appeared to be 50 to 70 of them scattered across the rocks. Not the most impressive of back-country scenes. Continuing on we came to an old bridge that had developed some sink holes. I got out to check over the strength of the bridge and felt that we were good to cross, so that we did and soon reached a further fork. The two branches were both being well encroached by trees along the sides and we felt that it was now more an ATV path than one for us. So we turned around and crossed back over the bridge.
Half way back along the narrow road we came face-to-face with that silver pickup. They seemed a bit at a loss on how to deal with the situation so I had Ethan backup a truck length to a wider spot and there we pulled off the road a bit to let them pass by. They made it around us with only a ‘bit’ of vegetation noises beating on their truck! Continuing on we came back to the earlier forks and tried them all but never getting too far as the roads ended before much distance. We then returned to the main Lost Creek road and drove along for the next side road.
Heading up the next we passed a few forks again taking the more major one each time. Soon we were climbing high enough to be driving through snow. Rounding a bend we came face-to-face with the same truck again. This time they pulled around us to make room. We chatted with them – two guys with a young child, they were enjoying the snow and planned to eat some hot dogs up here somewhere with a small campfire. Shortly after we passed them we came upon a frozen pond where I gathered a number of photos. We continued up the road past some viewpoints of the valley dropping to Stave Lake. As we continued up, the road started to narrow down again and we finally drove far enough that we slide sideways into a small sink hole at the edge of the road. Here we had to use the winch to get out of the hole. That took a few minutes but we were soon heading on up. We got a further kilometer before stopping due to narrowing road.
The return went quickly and soon we passed the silver truck once more. We explored a second branch of the road but it ended in a bridge washout but here we gathered a few nice snow photos. We continued back along the main road section where we came by a few clumps of frozen mushrooms which made for some lovely interest shots. A bit further we came by the two with their truck one last time! This time they had started a small campfire for cooking their lunch. After checking out one more branch we returned to the main Lost Creek FSR and made our way passed the ‘rifle range’. Here one chap was shooting what seemed to be an automatic rifle; his shots went off in rapid succession. They were aiming at a human outline in the distance.
Once passed the noise makers we continued along to Salsbury Lake where we stopped to enjoy the frozen lake and eat our lunch, it was a lot more peaceful here with the noise from the target shooters muted by the trees. I saw some interesting macro shots of the snow and ice on the trees that caught my eye, unfortunately my flash ran out of juice after only a few shots. In behind the open camping area I followed a trail that led to a huge rock and the shell of a teepee. It looked to be a lovely summer camping spot but in winter it was a bit barren.
We finished lunch and returned to the branch that at one point continued on down to Cypress point on Stave Lake. It was unfortunately still blocked by a washout. I noticed that ATV’s had created a path across the creek, it sure was tempting but even that trail was a bit more challenging than most ATV crossings. I doubt it would be passible in high run-off periods. We returned to the main Lost Creek road once again and continued along it to the next fork which we took but it unfortunately it didn’t go far due to another bridge washout.
As it was now getting later, I decided to head back. On reaching the branch to the twin lakes I couldn’t resist driving up to them. So we took the side road and started up it. This area had some active logging on it and so we followed that branch first but didn’t get passed the logging area. We returned to the twin lake road but were stopped by a steep cross ditch that the loggers had put in to protect their section of road. It made it impossible for our truck to continue to the lakes. That was very annoying. So after trying a couple of approaches we decided to give up and head home.
Coming through the rifle range again we noticed the human outline was now burning. I guess they needed a more interesting scenario to shoot at. I did notice that even with their automatic rifles and close distance to the target, it seemed rather devoid of holes! I guess number and speed of firing don’t make up for an accurate shot. We continued on out and were soon on to the pavement with the Lost Creek FSR falling far behind. It was a pleasant day a lot duller than I would have liked but it was still nice getting out in the fresh air.