Capturing the Art of Nature
A Day on the East Harrison
Even short trips into the hills can be refreshing
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2020
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I
t has become a fairly regular thing for me to head out into the back-country during the Christmas break after the festivities but before one restarts the grind. This year the Monday following Christmas looked to be the best for weather and so I talked with Geoff and we set up plans to visit the Harrison area come Monday the 28th. The morning of saw a bit of fog but the skies were clearing and it looked to be a decent day as was forecast. Geoff arrived with the boys a bit past 8:30 and this time I had the truck ready and we loaded into it for the drive.
Our first two stops were the normal coffee and fuel adventures and then we drove by Davis meats but it was unfortunately closed, so no quality food for us today. We still needed some items for lunch but felt it could wait until we reached Agassiz where we would drop into the local market. We made good time along the highway though the speedometer started acting up like my earlier trip. As before, once we got on gravel is turned back on. It will need to be looked at.
Once we arrived at the start of the forestry road, we switched to 4x4 mode and started up the initial climb. The road was plowed of the snow so travel was easy and we made good time over the first few kilometers, we stopped at one point to check a view and confirm the hub locks at which point two atv’s zipped past us. They were the only vehicles we saw on the way in, it was a quiet day out here. We hadn’t decided on a final spot to go to but the cliff area above Cooks Cove was of interest so we passed by some other options in favour of that one. A bit past the fork to the Cascade Peninsula and Cooks cove we pulled off the mainline into a small elevated camp spot. Here we had a view of Harrison Lake. It was a bit dreary here so we decided to forego this location and take the side road we had just passed to climb the slope of Lookout Peak. We made our way up a short rise and started crossing the swampy area just south of a small lake, but here we ran into trouble.
In front of us was a trench, it was deep enough and built up such that even atv’s would not be able to cross. That was very annoying as this closed off the entire west slope of the mountain. There may still be one access road in to the area from the south which we passed earlier but that route was not the main one. I really get tired of all these blocked roads that keep being added to the back-country. Well, we weren’t going in any further here but we had passed a newer road branching off this old one just a short way back. So, we turned around and made for that road and then drove up it. It started with a brief 30m gain in elevation before starting back down and it followed along the west side of the swamp and small lake but soon it came to an end. The road end wasn’t a nice spot to spend the day but the elevated area we passed on the way in looked promising, so we back-tracked to that location and parked the truck. Here we had a nice view of the lake, full exposure to the sun and a number of small hills for the boys to explore. Though there was no snow at this elevation, the area was still interesting.
Once parked, I immediately scouted the area and gathered a few photos. The boys were also running around exploring the area, they climbed to the top of the small hill we were parked on and then wandered along the road. Liam started down the slope to the swampy area but I called him back pointing out that that area would only result in soaked shoes. Meanwhile Geoff started getting things organized for shooting targets and then cooking lunch. Geoff got the water started on the stove for a pasta lunch and then joined us in exploring the immediate area. Once boiling, he loaded in the pasta noodles and finished cutting some sausage for the meal. It was a fairly normal choice for us in the hills but still, it tasted good out here, providing some warmth and decent flavour. After eating we restarted the stove for tea but now it was acting up a bit with some build up and though it worked well for cooking lunch it was very smokey and sooty when we tried to boil water for tea. Eventually it settled down and we were able to get the tea made.
The site offered a good back-drop for a bit of target practice. Geoff had set up some target for the boys and he got the .22 rifle ready for the boys to shoot. They had a lot of fun with that this trip and went through a good number of rounds. Liam was getting fairly decent placement as he continued shooting. I was enjoying the warmth of the sun and the endlessly changing play between the clouds and sun as they changed the views of the summits, I gathered a good number of photos of the mountains and clouds as the day progressed. By 2pm we were ready to move on and so we started packing up and getting ready to head back down. Once on the mainline we returned to the first spot we had checked out and quickly realized that this spot was actually much cooler than where we had been. Our choice of places for the day ended up being the best spot. While we were up there one pair of Atv’s had come by but they were the only ones we saw all day. So, what would have been crowded in summer was empty today, a very nice bit of solitude to enjoy nature in.
Once done with the lower pull-out we returned to the mainline and started for home. It had been a short trip into the hills but we quite enjoyed the time there and the fresh air. The view of the mountains was well worth the effort getting out there. We encountered a couple of cars driving in as we left but over-all there were very few people out there, much the way it used to be years back when we first started coming out this way.