The back side of bear country

[Okanagan]

We got fabulous Florida weather in the rain forest country for most of a week.  At the salt water inlet below, we fished for sea run cutthroats and also caught a bunch of black bass, rock cod and a couple of ling cod from shore.  Our stingy fishing partners took off with the 8 foot inflatable and bushwhacked it up a brushy creek to reach a lake and catch cutthroats.  They were supposed to fish awhile then bring us the boat to use in salt water.  We'd quit and gone back to camp long before they quit the cutts.  



Below is the view in another direction from the same place.



Close up of the distant peak in the pic above.



It had poured rain on us while we fished the evening before, and when it lifted after an hour, fresh snow was on all the peaks.  We drove over a pass about 2000 feet elevation to get to our sea level camp, and drove through heavy falling snow for five miles, piling up quickly and was 2 inches deep.  Below is a cutthroat lake barely above sea level with a bear flat shoreline and snow above.





Below are a couple of photos from a logging road bridge over a steelhead river.  First one is looking upstream, the second looking downstream.  

[FinsnFur]

My Gahd! The whole place is awesome.
Now that's a nice little slice of heaven right there

[iahntr]

Dang that's beautiful country !!     
Love the pics.   

[Okanagan]

My Gahd! The whole place is awesome.
Now that's a nice little slice of heaven right there

One of the bear hunters in our group said that if the weather was like that all the time, there would be a million people living there!

Much of the time you can't see the mountains, or much of anything in the endless sloppy rain.    On that coast it starts raining in late summer and rains till it turns to snow and snows till it turns to rain again and then the sun may come out once in awhile in July and early August and then it starts raining again.

But it sure is purty when the sun comes out enough to see it!

[KySongDog]

Great pictures!  Thanks!   Awesome scenery.   

How high is that peak?  Do climbers try it?   

[Dave]

Those are incredible pictures.  I can't imagine what it would be like to actually be there!
Thanks for sharing them.
-Dave

[vvarmitr]

Do climbers try it?  

HEY! I wanted to ask that question!  


Awesome pix! Again thanks so much for sharing!  

[Okanagan]

Great pictures!  Thanks!   Awesome scenery.  

How high is that peak?  Do climbers try it?  

Thank you for the compliment!  Glad you appreciate it.  A friend of mine made it. 

As to the peak, if I have the right one on a map it looks to me like it is between 4,500 and 5,000 feet high.  Of course, the base of it is virtually sea level, so it is all climb, not a bump on a ridge like Whitney or a peak on a high base like many in Colorado.  A fellow who lives in that region and I talked about climbing and he said there is extremely little climbing done in the area where this photo was taken.  The approach hikes are awful in the thick steep brush in almost constantly wet weather, the routes are extremely steep and difficult in the wet snow or rain and the peaks are not high enough to garner enough prestige to be worth the misery.  Having said that, I'd be surprised if there is any main peak in the area that hasn't been climbed.

[msmith]

WOW! Now that is some beautiful country! Thanks for the pics. Do you mind if I use one as my desktop?

[golfertrout]

very nice why didnt you call me, i like to fish to    lol

[Okanagan]

WOW! Now that is some beautiful country! Thanks for the pics. Do you mind if I use one as my desktop?

Msmith, Go for it!  It would be an honor to have somebody use one as a desktop.  I'm curious which one you'd pick first?  My wife likes these pics so I started taking them for her.

Golfertrout, you are welcome to come fish.  I need to learn your techniques on trout!  Lemme know when you want to go fishing there.  Ya gotta dodge a few oversize logging trucks, 16 feet wide and no limit to load length, but once you survive the first one the driver radios to the others to try not to run over the tourist/fisherman on the road. 

[coyote101]

Absolutely beautiful pictures. Thanks so much for sharing them.

Pat

[golfertrout]

lol   man i would love to spend some days up there fishing and freezin my butt off    and i would take my chance on the truckers

[GunDog]

Man that is some beautiful country there! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us ... now about them sixteen foot wide log trucks ... are they really that big? I'd hate to meet one on the roads around here ...  

[msmith]

I snagged the second one down. My wife even commented on how beautiful that is!

[Okanagan]

Man that is some beautiful country there! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us ... now about them sixteen foot wide log trucks ... are they really that big? I'd hate to meet one on the roads around here ...  

Gundog, here is a used "off highway" truck for sale with 16' bunks, which I understand means 16' wide between the uprights that hold the logs.   They are called "off highway" because they are not legal on public highways.
http://www.forestechequipmentltd.com/details.aspx?iid=455

And here is a youtube video  


Check out several of the youtube videos. The one called "Dropping the bunks" gives some scale as to size compared to a man.

Logging companies build special roads for them in some places where they haul astounding loads of timber with no weight or other restrictions.  I've seen full tree length logs dragging the ground way behind and sweeping clear across the road on curves.  On some of these roads the public is not allowed except at certain hours, usually at night.  On others, I'm not sure why but they let fishermen, hunters and lolly gaggers on the same roads  (though there are very few such vehicles, even in hunting season)   Depending on the road, the big trucks usually take up the whole road and you can only get past them at wider pull out spots bladed out for that purpose.   BC logging roads are marked each KM (approx each half mile) and every commercial vehicle on those roads gives its location and direction each km marker it passes.  If you have a radio, you pull off when you know you are near an approaching loaded truck and get out of its way.  The empty trucks really fly down those roads.  I don't have a radio...

If traffic is heavy it is smart to wait and follow a truck.

[Okanagan]

I snagged the second one down. My wife even commented on how beautiful that is!

Good choice!  That sure is a pretty place.  None of us could believe how good the weather was.  My wife would shoot me if I dragged her out on those long rough logging roads dodging trucks to take her there, and if she did go it would probably be raining too hard to see the island 100 yards offshore!

[Frogman]

Wow!  That's some beautiful country!

Jim

[shaddragger]

  What else can you say?

[GunDog]

Thanks for the education Okanagan. I've heard of logging operations like this in my life time but never really had an idea to what they really were until now. Thanks again for sharing with me