Capturing the Art of Nature
Sts’ailes
The West Harrison area has so many side roads that in all the years I have been driving the back country I have seen less than half of them. Today we planned to try a few new ones.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2013
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Today was to be our third attempt to reach the more northern portion of the road so when we arrived at the start of the FSR we planned to take very few stops until we got further up the road. The one feature of the area that we had forgotten about became apparent at the very start of the drive – dust. It had been dry for over a week and the road was now very dry and every vehicle traveling along it was kicking up huge dust clouds. When we started up the road we very quickly caught up to another driver who was following a second truck. Between them we couldn’t even see the road at times. This was a major concern for us as the dust was so thick we had to turn off the air-conditioner just to breathe.
As we continued up the road it became apparent that the driver was not going to let us pass and so we eventually got tired of following him and turned off on a short side spur to let the air clear. Here we found a few photo ops and took some time to enjoy the sunshine while the vehicles drove off and the dust cleared. Once refreshed we returned to the mainline to find the dust settled and now we could enjoy the drive. We soon came by the side road leading up the Walian Creek valley. This road was recently improved as logging was about to commence in the area. It made for a pleasant drive in and we got to a bridge over the creek but it wasn’t finished yet and so we could go no further. We drove a few of the side spurs and gathered some photos of Harrison Lake and the mountains along its east side. In the lower section we took a side road that led to a small lake. The road was very narrow and we were doing not too badly until a branch snagged the driver’s side mirror and ripped off the plastic covering! This was very annoying and we had to duct tape the piece back on as the plastic fasteners had been severed. Once calmed down, we decided we had to visit the small lake just below the road to make the loss worthwhile. The small lake was very scenic and would be a nice place to camp.
Once done with the Walian area we returned to the main line and continued north. As we drove north past the level of the small lake we noticed another side road leading in on the north side of the lake and we decided to drive in and see if we could reach the north–end of the lake. There we came by a pair of guys gathering some firewood but we spotted a side road leading south and we set off up it and soon came to a lovely Campsite over-looking the lake. Down on the shore of the lake was a small home built raft which was just too tempting for Geoff to ignore and he launched out into the lake for a short float. On our way out we noticed a couple foot bridges down below the raised road. They looked too tempting and so we decided to check them out. They followed a short trail to a small cabin! We looked over the cabin and saw that it would make a nice spot to rest in with a nice view from the end of the lake. So in the end this small lake was quite a nice treat and obviously thought well of by many others.
We seemed to be between most of the traffic now and we had little dust bothering us as we made our way north. Soon we came by the Mystery Creek fork. The area just before the fork has recently been logged and the slope is now bare, this is so different from previous trips that it took a moment to get our bearings. We could see a 4x4 group done the slope deciding their route, fortunately they decided to head up Mystery Creek and so our way along the mainline continued free of traffic. We zipped past the fork and were soon driving past the road to the 20 mile camp site. It was lunch time and I had suggested heading in there but Geoff wanted to do some target practice and the camp site wouldn’t accommodate that. So we continued north to doctor’s point.
A short distance before the point we came by a road leading down to the lake that looked quite drivable and we drove down it hoping for an area to eat lunch and do some shooting but when we got to lake level we found several groups already camping out enjoying the location. So we decided to head back up and continue north past the point and to the campsite we stop at the mouth of Bremner Creek. The road had gotten very rough and pot-holed by this point and it made the drive very irritating but we continued down to the campsite and when we arrived the best spot was taken by another group camping out! So once again we couldn’t do any shooting while we cooked lunch. But by now we were quite hungry and so we stayed and ate lunch after I gathered a few more photos.
Done with eating we decided to head back to the over-look at Doctor’s point which we had found on a previous trip. The access is a bit overgrown but we had no trouble getting to the nice flat area with a great view of the northern end of Harrison Lake. Here I gathered a number of lake photos along with some close-up flower photos. Meanwhile Geoff setup his target and started to shoot his new scoped rifle. He was doing quite well at a hundred yards. Once he had sighted in his scope a bit Geoff did some shooting with his other rifles while I used my binoculars on the far side of the lake. I was trying to figure out where they were planning to connect power to a run-of--the-river power project on the far side of the mountain ridge across the lake from me.
Once we were done with the site and we started for home. The pot-holes were even more annoying on the return as we were much more tired now but we eventually got past them and made our way south at a good pace. It seems that the other drivers were all off the main line as we encountered only one other driver and who was kind enough to let us pass him. So our return drive was mostly free of dust.