Ma Moose and Other Winter Critters

Winter Critters abound at Bowron! We will see either them or their tracks pretty near everyday during our outtings.

Regal Eagle, one of several that hunt along the river



Stellars Jays are always flocking around looking for handouts

Quick and Quark the Raven couple, have been showing up for their morning feedings every winter for the past 10 years

One of the Ravens (can't tell the difference between them) eating it's breakfast

Ma Moose #1 with her twins

Ma Moose #1 and her twins again

Grouse in a tree.... no that is not the name of a recipe!

Squirrel in a tree.... recipe of not, Charley would love to get ahold of this one!

 

Wolf track.... and that is all I care to see of him while out skiing alone!

Ma Moose #2 only has one calf...

...who is hiding behind the tree..... 'You can't see me!'

Ma #2 and little one making a break for it!

Two Weeks, Two Trips

First Trip by Rick A.: Feb 8 to 10, 2013

Rick left on a solo ski around the Bowron Lake Chain, 10am Friday February 8th, 2013 with the hopes of completing the full circuit in his allotted 7 days. He opted to travel counterclockwise starting on Bowron and ending with Kibbee. The weather that week hadn’t been very cold with the temps ranging between –10 C and 6 C during overnight and day recordings.

Rick headed out with snowshoes and skis, the latter being refitted downhill skis with sturdy Australian made Teflon bindings that fit any kind of boot. This was Rick’s second time on the Bowron with this very neat ski configuration. He reappeared on our doorstep two days later (Feb. 10) at 2pm. This is the report he left with me.

Bowron River had some snow bridges over it, but none looked very stable. He stayed to the far right following along the toe of Sugar Loaf Mt. to avoid a river crossing. As it was he had to cross it once or twice and got a bit wet. There was open water on the far side of the Bowron River were it joins with Swan Lake and if he were headed for the River Cabin he would have had to find good ice further along Swan, cross over and double back. As it was, he was headed for Pat Point. The overflow was worse on Swan Lake and his skis kept cutting thro into about 7 inches of water and slush, so he changed over to snowshoes and made Pat Point for the night.

Feb. 9th, Saturday morning saw him out before sunrise with the hopes of finding a firmer crust before the sun appeared, but it was still too warm and his skis cut thro the top crust as soon as he hit the lake. He headed towards the middle of the lake in search of better conditions but only found the same. Giving up about half way down Spectacle Lake he turned and headed back. The conditions were so wet that he was worried about what he might find at Lanezi / Cariboo River. At Pat Point he recorded the daytime temp of 5.9 C and nighttime temp at –6 C.

Feb. 10th, he left Pat Point at 9am and arrived in the parking lot of BRM at 2pm. Regardless of the conditions he had a great time. There was no indication of anyone else having been out there, except the tracks of 3 or 4 wolves that were following a moose, and a cougar that had passed by in the night. It was a clear night last night and he had no problem on skis the whole way back.

Second Trip By Tom M., Shannon M. and Jaclyn B. Feb. 18 to 23, 2013

On Monday February 18, 2013 this trio headed out on the West Side to enjoy their week off from studies. Their end destination was the Moxley Creek cabin on Isaac Lake. They planned for a 7-day trip though they had food for 10… just in case! This is a summary of their trip.

Day 1 - Leaving around 10:30am, they snow-shoed over the well-beaten portage to Kibbee Lake before switching to skis. With no issues on the ice they settled into the Kibbee Cabin for the night.

Day 2 (Feb. 19) found the skiing good though wet with the sticky snow continually balling up on their skis. They spent the 2nd night in the Indianpoint Cabin.

On day 3 (Feb. 20) they encountered a heavy overflow of water causing slushy ice near the end of Indianpoint Lake. This far easterly section of Indianpoint Lake is traditionally a ‘danger spot’ as there are several warm up-wellings of water, which can interfere with good ice formation. They explored a bit before heading back to the Indianpoint Lake cabin.

Day 4 (Feb. 21) saw them off to Isaac Lake again. After the portage they traveled along the lake, but Tom said this area worried him the most as they kept falling thro the top crust of snow and they couldn’t really determine what lay beneath... plus it was very, very wet, “lots of overflow on Isaac Lake, very slushy for the first 3-4 kms.” Over most of this wet snow they were forced to use their snowshoes. When I asked them to guess the percentage of snowshoe use to ski use, they figured 60% snowshoes to 40% skis overall for the whole trip. They again turned back to spend the night at Indianpoint.

On the 5th morning (Feb. 22), an overnight windstorm laid the foundation for a nice wind-swept, hard-packed ski back to Kibbee, but little, sheltered Kibbee Lake did not get touched by the wind and again the wet snow kept sticking to their skis. It continued to snow for most of the night.

On their 6th and last day (Feb. 23), Kibbee Lake was wearing a new coat of soft, powdery snow providing a great ski back. But alas Tom, the heaviest of the trio broke thro some soft ice in the Kibbee Slough to receive his last bit of Bowron wetness. They said that the outer edges of the lakes seemed to be the heaviest with water overflow and presented the least favorable conditions.

Spider Holes and Wet Doggy Toes

Pictures from this mornings ski on Bowron Lake.... 

Dick and Charley inspecting a spider hole. This hole was allot bigger then we expected. It was the grey patch underneath Dicks ski that attracted our attention only to find that there was more 'hole' off to the side (which was invisible under the 2 cm of fresh snow). This hole went right through all the ice layers into the lake water.

A spider hole as seen while we first approach it . Notice the refrozen skiff of ice on top and the funnel shaped mouth below. The real dark spot just to the bottom left of the funnel mouth was Charleys warm nose on the ice.

Dick breaking through the top skim of ice, which is only about 2 cm thick... again this hole went right through all the layers of ice... and it was also big enough for a boot (with the attached leg ) to fall right through.... luckily I don't think the body would fit! 

This picture shows that our ski poles are still occasionally breaking through the top crust of snow into the water / slush layer underneath (which sits on top of the main ice layer). Our skis are not cutting through......

  

But Charleys feet are... and he is only a 60 pound dog.

Another, small spider hole. Even though the top of the funnel is large, the bottom opening is small. If your boot fell through, you would get wet but at least your leg wouldn't  go all the way through.

To find a spider hole, just look for round grayish spots on the surface of the lake. They are really quite fascinating. They are called spider holes because in the milder temperatures, when they are first formed, they can have rivulets of melt water draining from the ice surface down into the holes, forming wet tentacles around the hole, resembling a spider with outstretched legs. These holes are about one week old and are now well on their way to refreezing and the tentacles from a few days ago are covered with snow.

To show just how slushy the lake was, these snowmobile tracks are from last weekends visitors. Looks like the under-track threw up quite a rooster tail of slush and water as it cut through the soft layers of ice cover. Athough the top layer of the lake is slowly re-solidifying...  it still a bit slushy here and there.

Today the Skiing was Much Better!!

I may have given the wrong idea in my last blog. Maybe talking about the ice conditions and the dogs falling thro the ice in the same blog was not a good idea, but if reading carefully you will find that the dogs fell thro in mid December… a few months ago. When talking about ‘falling thro’ right now (late Jan, early Feb) I don’t mean falling thro the ice… sorry I tend to forget that you, the readers are not here looking out the window everyday so you don’t know the dynamics of the ice and its cycles. By by skis ‘falling thro’ I mean they are cutting thro the uppermost layer of snow into a slush and water layer underneath, which in turn lies on top of the main ice layer below. So getting your skies wet (and gaining 100 pounds of snow on them) is the main concern… not falling thro into the lake itself.

The ice on a lake does have cycles, which undulate and change, can be daily, sometimes hourly. Today the surface of the lake was very good…. especially in the windblown areas…. despite the +4 celcius we had yesterday afternoon. In the areas where the wind has not blown the ice clear, you can still find large hummocks of snow insulating the slush/water layer underneath. These hummocks may look smooth, white and inviting but the insulating qualities can present themselves sort of like large smooth, white snow ‘bridges’ spanning over slushy, watery puddles. Sometimes the skis can cut thro the ‘bridges’; or the ‘bridges’ fall out from beneath you (boy is that ever exciting!) but you only land in the slushy puddle that sits underneath – still on top of the main ice. As for skiing in these conditions…. it can be somewhat disconcerting, heart thumping and frustrating (you just get into a good kick and glide and then you cut thro).

Today….. as I said…. it was quite nice. Ours skies only cut thro the top layers of the snow hummocks a few times but they did not get wet. Our tracks filled in with water behind us but we were already gone. The dog fell thro more then our skis did … as did our ski poles, but for the most part the ice was good a solid. We have had a few days of moderate winds and it seems allot of the loose snow has been swept away leaving the ice exposed to get a good freezing. Only the hummocks where the loose wind-swept snow as settled presented the problem of hitting a slush layer. The 4 inch deep slush and water layer is about 6 inches underneath the crusted snow hummocks, but the hummock crusts are holding for the most part and under that is good solid ice.

Lake ice can also develop what we locally call ‘spider holes’, I don’t know if this is their scientific name and I don’t know how they form, or why, but they seem to appear during temperate weather, which we have had quite a span of. They are usually funnel shaped holes in the ice, with the wide end of the funnel at the surface of the ice and the narrow end of the funnel towards the lake bottom (but not always)…. but sometimes they are straight sided all the way down. They can go thro the top layer of ice to solid ice beneath or they might go thro all ice layers to actual lake water. They are really quite fascinating.

 We have had quite a crop of funnel shaped spider holes over the last few weeks, some with the tops big enough for a man to fall in, but bottoms only big enough for a boot. Regardless, you would not want to fall into one. Four days ago they were all liquid (some thro and thro, some only the top ice layers) this morning most are refrozen and safe (we could not break thro them) though we did find one still liquid thro and thro and a few with watery tops. Usually their surfaces will refreeze first, and they’ll continue freezing downward until the whole thing heals up. So during the early stages of refreezing they may not be safe to approach as a quarter inch of ice can still crack under body weight, and they can be especially dangerous if fresh snow falls on top hiding their distinctive black/gray, meandering, spider leg signatures from unsuspecting trekers… but so far, no fresh snow to cover them.

Sooooo ice conditions as of this morning… very nice, watch out for open spider holes, keep moving if you cut thro a snow hummock. We really enjoyed ourselves this morning, tho Charley’s spindly feet kept falling thro (the top layers), but he was pretty quick to figure out that he needed to stick to the windswept patches… and fun was had by all!

No Sking on the Lakes Yet AND Swim Anyone?

What to say? Three weeks ago the ice was too thin and unpredictable and people were falling thro. Two weeks ago the ice seemed good.... as good as one can tell when it isn't actually visible under a big load of nice, fresh, white snow.... but there was also slush and water under that big load of nice, fresh, white snow and what fun that was! The instant our skis broke thro into the water and slush they gained 1000 pounds and we weren't going anywhere. Last week we had one good day skiing on the ice where our skis did not break thro the top snow layer.... today it is raining, the snow is again slush, the lake is coming down with grey pox (big grey patches are showing all over it... patches that could be unpredictable, unsafe and prudent to stay away from). So, so far the lakes have not been too good for skiers.

There has been quite a few people out on the ground trails tho. The trail to Kibbee Lake is fairly well broke and someone has been out on the Osprey Nature Trail. A short trail around the Government Campground is used daily for those who want to go out for an hour or so, but unless you really know what you are doing I would suggest staying off of the lakes.

I talk from a 'bit' of experience. You see a few weeks ago, in mid Dec. I was one of those lucky people who went into the lake. No... I did not fall in.... I said.... I went in.... to save the two sorry souls who did fall in!! Usually Charley is good around ice but I think he was just too excited to find his winter romping grounds back that he lost his brains for a bit. He ran out in his boisterous four legged way and promptly fell in.... about 75 yards from shore. I coaxed an cheered from shore but there was just no way he could gain his footing. I puzzled it out for a minute.... do I try to gingerly walk on top of the ice (and fall with an unexpected jolt half way there and break my knee like last winter?)... do I get down on all fours and creep out (and drown face down when the ice gives out?) Only sensible thing seemed to be to walk out into the water and git him, breaking the ice as I go to prevent any unexpected surprises!! I got about a half dozen steps from shore and G decided that he wasn't going to be left behind.... Wait for me... I'm coming tooooo!!!!

When G gets something in his mind, no amount of shouting will stop him. He got about 50 feet from shore... not bad for being 40 pounds heavier then Charley. I kept walking, busting up the ice in front of me. I walked right past G... he was not impressed....but Charley had been in longer and he's allot smaller then G... not so much body to fat to insulate him.... and drug Charley out onto good ice. On the way back I took a short detour to the right to drag G out. Back on dry land, both dogs happily romped and played, shaking and rolling, barking and jumping while I slowly sloshed my way back. Funny I thought the water would be colder .... or maybe frozen legs are a good thing when one is forced to play in ice water. One things for sure.... dragging ice-water logged gumboots and snow pants thro two feet of soft snow all the way back home is not recommended as a fun outing!!