Capturing the Art of Nature
Anderson River North FSR
We did a quick survey of the valley in September so we had high expectations for today’s return visit
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2010
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The Anderson River area is divided into three main sections. A few weeks back Geoff and I did a quick peak into the north valley, then Ethan & I explored the southern one in detail. Today Geoff and I returned to Anderson North. At some future time we will do Anderson East which has a different entrance and is actually further north than the north branch! After our last trip I needed to make a few repairs to the truck and so today it was nice to have it handling better than it has for months! We quickly made our way to Hope and then up to Spuzzum where we turned off the highway for the hills. It being the end of a long week-end, the speed patrol was out in force tagging drivers not paying attention, we found if interesting listening to the comments by the truckers about all the speed traps and speeders.
Once on to the FSR we reconfigured ourselves for off-road travel and immediately started to see some lovely colours. The early section of road was past its prime and not as full as it was two weeks ago when Ethan and I were last here. But new trees were now changing so there was still much to enjoy. We soon were up to the southern viewpoint where we stopped but the colours were not the best this time so our stay was brief. We continued north through the steep rock-fall section where we spotted some interesting colours up slope which gave me a few rich contrast photos. In looking down slope I tossed a few rocks off the road and managed to hit a small maple that had already lost its leaves but was still holding its seeds. Just as the rock hit a gust of wind grabbed the thousands of seeds and carried the cloud of them up towards us and we were momentarily encased in maple seeds. It was amazing to see but happened too fast for me to get a photo! Such a shame.
We then continued into the Anderson valley proper and soon saw some lovely rich yellows bathed in sun across the valley. The colours mixed with the strong greens of the evergreens were already worth the trip! It was definitely prime time for colour changes in the north Anderson River valley! As we made our way to the bridge over the Anderson I enjoyed the glimpses of colour across the valley and we were able to stop at a few clear spots to gather some photos. At the bridge with the sun cooperating I had some great views of the Anderson River Mountain slopes ablaze with colour. We took the left branch just past the bridge and made our way into the North fork. The first section of the road made its way through some amazing colours which I hoped I would be able to capture from across the valley. Soon we came to a fork that crossed the North Anderson and paralleled our current road but on the south side of the valley. We took that fork and crossed over the river to a much less travelled road.
The South main was partially over-grown and allowed travel for only a couple kilometers before it was blocked by growth. The views into the valley were nice but not as exciting as I was hoping for. We decided to back-track and look for the spot the road continued east and into the next sub valley. We found the continuation but couldn’t get very far as the road was over-grown and covered in loose rock which we couldn’t see due to the falling leaves. After bouncing over one large rock we decided it would only damage the truck to continue so we returned to the clear road and the north side of the river.
We continued along the north side and soon passed the furthest point of our prior visit. Just past that spot the road forked again and we again chose the lower path that crossed the river. This time the road was in good shape and we made our way east for quite some distance. Geoff spotted a Grouse which he was almost able to bag but it nipped into the trees just before he got a shot off. They managed to elude him the whole trip! This section of road was quite drivable except for a few larger cross ditches that had some erosion issues. As we continued along we slowly gained elevation and made our way into a blind valley between Reh, Gemse and Serna Peaks As it was now 1:30 we stopped on a wide straight section of road to set up the antenna for our 2pm radio test.
The antenna went up quickly and soon we were on the air. We unfortunately didn’t make contact with anyone from home. Though I didn’t hear stations on our frequency, Carolyn at home reported later that the band was full of activity around the chosen frequency and she wasn’t able to get through to us or hear me over the other stations. These NVIS contacts do seem to be challenging. Once done with the trial we packed it away and continued along the road as it climbed the slope of Gemse Peak. The road had some challenging cross-ditches along this section. At the top we noticed a parked truck and just as we stopped next to it the owners appeared - coming down slope above us. They were just completing their climb of Gemse Peak. The one chap I talked to has climbed all the peaks in the area this summer and hoped to get in a couple more before the season closes. He said there was a skiff of snow on the road when they arrived this morning!
We gathered a few more photos and then started back down the road. As we made our way back to the main line we tried a few smaller forks but none went very far due to over-growth. The other sight that this section of road provided was a very varied selection of mushrooms. They were popping up all over the road in various types and groupings, the mushrooms offered some lovely macro photography opportunities and the light was strong enough to not need flash, which was good as I didn’t pack it. Once back on the north road we continued east and came to the one active logging section where we were able to take a branch that went steeply up slope and provided us with some great views of the mountains to the south. By now the weather was getting duller as the clouds had moved in to bring some rain. After exploring the slope a bit we returned to the main and continued east. The road was now deactivated and we had ditches to contend with again.
We were able to make our way to the end of the valley and were eventually stopped on the slopes of Llama Peak. Here we noticed the hoof prints of a mid-size moose in the loose road surface. It had crossed the road heading down and then returned back up again to hide in the upper section of the valley. While we checked out the hoof prints the weather started to spit freezing rain on us, so we started our return to the pavement. It was now 5:30 and the sun would set in an hour so it was indeed time to return home. I really wanted to be off the roads before dark and by now the light was too dull for decent photography.
The drive back to the highway went quite smoothly; we did make a couple of short detours along the way but nothing that took much time. As we made our way through the narrow valley that forms the entrance to this area we came upon a group in a pair of pickups that were gathering Christmas greenery. Part of the same group we met a few weeks before. We reached the start of the FSR with 7 minutes to spare before sun-down. The drive to Hope was in spotty rain but we made good time and picked up a coffee at the Blue Moose so that we would be in good shape for the final drive home. The truckers were reporting a few slow spots and accidents on the highway which allowed us to avoid them so our trip home went smoothly and quickly. A great visit and full of lovely colour – if only it could be year-round.