Capturing the Art of Nature
Florence Lake FSR & Stave Lake
There is a lovely viewpoint where one can see both Alouette and Stave Lakes. I hadn’t been there in a few years and hoped to reach it today.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2011
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A few years back I found a lovely viewpoint nestled in a loop of a logging road where one could see Alouette and Stave Lakes together. The spot was far up the ridge of land that separates the two lakes and the only way in is by the Florence Lake FSR which starts at the Stave Lake Dam. I wasn’t sure of the condition of the road so we set off with high hopes but no certainty of reaching our goal.
Geoff arrived at the house a bit before 8:30 with his son Liam who would be spending the day with my wife. After getting a few things packed I loaded in my new computer. Our previous unit has gotten very flakey and I was concerned that it would die at any moment, so I had been looking for a good reasonably priced replacement. Last month Asus starting shipping their new tablet called the Eee Slate. Though no threat to an iPad, it runs windows 7 has a solid state hard drive and runs my mapping software without a pause. So it looked very promising and after waiting for a few weeks for it to be back in stock I bought it.
Soon we were on the road heading for Cloverdale to grab a coffee and some lunch supplies. In planning the trip we determined that the shortest and quickest route to the start of the FSR was to take the new toll bridge across the Fraser. So we zipped up 176th to the new causeway and were soon in Maple Ridge- that new bridge sure makes travel time to that area fast. Then it was a short hop along Dewdney Trunk to Stave Lake – 50km from home and our fastest start to a driving trip.
The initial section of the road is very heavily travelled by foresters, hydro and recreational users and as such was in the midst of some major construction upgrading. The road was very rough with many patches of harsh potholes which slowed even Geoff down to a crawl! Now it has to be bad for that to happen. As we made our way in we checked out a few side roads but they were all gated which was leaving me with a growing concern about our chances at being able to travel the ridge line.
Soon we came to the major fork where the bulk of the recreational driving turn right to follow Stave Lake but we went left to climb the ridge. The first point of interest was Sayres Lake. We didn’t have great views of the lake from the road so we kept climbing the ridge. As we gained elevation and being on the north slope of Mt Crickmer, we were soon encountering snow. That was a growing concern as snow this time of year is very dense and once it gets higher than the undercarriage we would be stopped. So finding it this early was not a good sign. But I noticed that the road was actually plowed clear of the snow and then I realized that this was likely to provide access to the hydro water pipes linking the two lakes. That meant that the road would likely be quite drivable at least to the point the pump road splits off from the FSR.
Feeling a bit relieved, we continued along soon passing Morgan Lake and Florence Lake. We stopped at the far end of Florence Lake to capture a few shots looking down on the lake. We continued on to the fork and sure enough the way down to the hydro facility was snow free whereas the FSR was covered in snow but with two ruts heading up slope. Geoff set the wheels into the ruts and pushed our way up the road. This continued past some lovely viewpoints of Stave Lake and then Alouette but soon the truck was struggling with the depth so we put on a pair of chains on the front tires and continued along for a bit further. But all to soon that was not enough so we parked the truck and thought about our options.
At the point we were stopped the viewpoint we were aiming for was only a half kilometer further up the road and since we had our snow shoes we decided to give it a go. Geoff and I quickly prepped the truck and got ourselves into hiking mode and set off up the road. The hike went smoothly as the heavier snow made hiking it easier than when we were trudging through the deep powder back in February. As we rounded a final curve we spotted the viewpoint and made our way up on to it. The whole time we were able to follow a previous track in the snow. Well we made it to the spot but we were quickly distressed with what we found.
The intervening years had not been kind to the view, the young trees planted all throughout the area had grown quite a bit and now the view was blocked by trees! This was not what I was expecting and it was very disappointing. Not to be defeated, Geoff looked around and saw that the slope behind the viewpoint could be easily hiked and we walked up to a large group of rocks that were around 20 feet higher. There we had a better view. But continuing on further we found an even better spot with the view we had come for. It truly is amazing and breath-taking. Geoff was wondering how one could buy the land here and build a house to enjoy the view. After some time of enjoying the sights we reluctantly started back down the slope and road to the truck. It was lunch time and so we rested and enjoyed our subway foot-long.
After eating we started back whilst trying each side road as we passed them. At one road we discovered a huge number of criss-crossing bear tracks – it looked like a highway! Fortunately the bear was not to be seen. A bit further we stopped to chat with a group who were enjoying some target practice. Two of the chaps studied my new tablet and GPS setup and were quite impressed with it. The computer was working like a dream and had none of the troubles the old one was having – problem solved and before any data loss!
Once we were back down to the crowded area we took the right fork to explore the mud flats along Stave Lake. There we found some nice places to capture a few photos. At one spot we found an SUV that was stuck in the mud, a larger ATV was helping to pull it out. They managed to get the SUV back to firmer ground. So we drove on to other points but soon decided to head on out. But then we found a major new problem. As we drove out we came to a spot where the road was blocked by numerous groups standing on the road gawking at a truck that was precariously hanging off the road. Two trucks were hooked on to it trying to keep it from sliding down the side into a small stream where it likely would have flipped. They held it fast but couldn’t pull it back up. We offered to help and so we hooked the winch line to the truck and slowly pulled it back to the road. No problem for us. That winch certainly has the power!
After the winch work we drove on out of the area and stopped for a relaxing coffee in Haney before the final jaunt across the Golden Ears Bridge and the short distance home. A great day, not as sunny as I would have liked but we had a good variety of adventures and a good shakedown of the new computer. I guess I am ready for the next trip but it won’t be next week as my granddaughter has her first birthday next Saturday.