Author: lacdesroches

One of the Boultbee ladies who snow shoes on Sundays has brought her dog, Nazko, on several of the group’s treks.  Nazko, a Belgian Shepherd, runs circles – literally – around her fellow adventurers on the trail.  She never stops moving unless of course, she is on guard duty over the smokies as they roast by the fire.  Her owner, Sandra Neill, got the idea that she could see just how much further Nazco travelled than her with the aid of her two handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) units.  Sandra strapped one of her GPS units on Nazko and took her for a wilderness hike in the hills above Kamloops this winter.  Here are some of the entertaining statistics from that walk.

………………………………………                  Sandra                         Nazco

Distance (km)                                                  6.1                               16

Duration                                                          1h 21m                         1h 21m

Average moving speed (km/hr)                       5.0                               13.0

Max speed (km/hr)                                           9.0                               51.0 (really)!

 

A portion of the walk, Sandra in blue, Nazko in red

Heavy snow – and lots of it – has affected the lake ice quite differently this year.  While warm days throughout the winter exposed some holes at underwater springs around the lake, frequent cold snaps froze slushy sections up until the end of March.  The spring warming trend is quickly softening the top layer of icy snow and walkers, skiers and sledders are finding themselves in several inches of water and slush which is sitting on the top of the ice.  Spring of 2013 was an excellent time to enjoy nordic skiing.  The day’s thaw of the top sliver of ice would refreeze at night, producing a near-flawless sheet of ice over most of the lake for morning skating.  One would almost think that a Zamboni had spent the night removing flaws from the surface and filling in cracks.  We may be running out of time to enjoy that type of skating again this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warm weather has dislodged most of the snow and ice which can slide off structures.  Compared to last year, very little damage has been observed so far.  On Boultbee Road, two owners are dealing with fascia boards ripped off of eaves and a small roof structure pulled off a cabin by travelling ice.  Only one chimney has been crumpled by sliding snow although there are roof vents still under the watchful eyes of neighbours.  Melt water could still pose a problem to some known trouble spots around the lake but so far, the cool spring temperatures have kept melting and evaporating snow to a very slow pace.

Another benefit of living atop the interior plateau is the occurrence of beautiful sunsets.  As the sun drops over the horizon from the lake view, it has plenty of travel time below the clouds and to the lower, out-of-sight,horizon, to light up the sky with colours so vibrant and intense, they must be almost impossible to replicate on an artist’s palette.

Several Lac des Roches residents attended another “ladies only auction” on March 22 at nearby Lee Road. Twenty ladies from surrounding communities enjoyed an evening of laughter and bargain shopping. The idea of selling unwanted new and used items in not unique, especially with the availability of on-line methods but what better excuse for getting together with a whole bunch of ladies than for a fun evening of shopping from your seat? One active bidder claimed to be buying her 2014 Christmas gifts. What a great idea and what great deals she got!  Unsold items not taken back home by their owner are taken by the host and donated to the Cedar Crest Society Thrift Store in 100 Mile House.

Fresh sign of a badger digging out its den hole under several feet of snow along Boultbee Road is a welcome site to full-time residents.  In the past few years, several of these hungry critters have managed to practically eradicate the ground squirrels (gophers) that do so much damage to yards and gardens.  Thankfully there have been no reported aggressive encounters with people or pets so residents are still cautiously welcoming these critters to the neighbourhood for another busy spring and summer.

It is hard to believe that today, March 20, is the first official day of spring when there is still close to a meter of snow in yards and a doozy of a snow storm blanketed the entire area with fresh snow just yesterday.  If there is any doubt that spring is truly here, read the actual accounts recorded by residents over the last week or so.

March 11 – Hundreds of noisy common crows have appeared in the aspen and cottonwood groves around the lake, pairing up and searching out nesting sites.

March 13 – Two bald eagles were flying together around the west end of the big lake, scouting out last year’s nest on the peninsula between the two lakes.

March 15 – Pussy willows have appeared on the bushes at Access #7.

March 16 – A huge noisy flock of Canada Geese flew overhead, heading north.

March 17 – A single noisy red winged black bird is making a fuss in the trees near the McCarthy Road lake access.

March 18 – A survey down Boultbee Road indicates 95% of the snow has slid off the metal roofs – and with no apparent damage to any chimneys this year!

March 19 – Slush and wet spots are showing up on the lake at the usual places and frozen culverts are forcing melt water to overflow ditches.  It is time to replace winter boots with spring galoshes.

The once picturesque view of the lake, mountain and sky from the west end of Lac des Roches and little Lac des Roches has been changed forever by 2 weeks of clear cut beetle kill harvesting above the lake.  With disbelief, residents watched the logging crew work its way over the crest of the mountain and make a swath through the forest, down toward the lake, highly visible from Highway 24, McCarthy Road and Gerald Crescent. While west portions of the cut block seemed to have been designed to mitigate the visual impact from private and public locations east of McCarthy Road, the view from the highway, roads and residences to the west is extremely disappointing and described by one resident as “horrendous”.  One resident estimates that over 100 acres of trees were cut from the north face of the mountain which are headed to Interfor’s mill in Chase, B.C.  It is still unclear to residents whether the logging is in compliance with forest stewardship plans for the site.  Several residents have registered complaints but have been advised that although the cutting was complete at 4 a.m. March 13, inspection and determination of compliance will be done upon completion of all logging operations which includes the skidding, processing and loading which is still in progress.  Sadly too, after discussions with Ministry of Forest personnel, International Forest Products (Interfor) personnel and Member of Parliament, Donna Barnett, residents have learned that they missed their opportunity to provide input into the consultation process for designing this logging site plan when they did not respond to Interfor’s advertisements in the local paper last fall.  They learned that only registered users of the land directly affected by the logging operation such as grazing permit holders or trap-line licencees are contacted directly by the Interfor, or other logging companies, for input.  All other individuals or groups must either have previously advised a potential logger of their particular land interest or respond to public notices.  This oversight by area residents has proven to be a very sad and unsightly lesson to learn.  Members of the Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake will be sending notification letters on behalf of all lake residents asking to be recognized as official stakeholders for all forest stewardship plans in the Lac des Roches watershed for future forest harvesting and development.  The group is also committed to let other citizen groups know of this incident so that they may take similar actions for their communities.  There are plans to follow-up with the forest ministry on policies regarding notification and compliance.

 

 

 

 

 

The ladies of Lac des Roches are still enjoying Sunday excursions on their snowshoes.  A trek to the little lake on the side of the south hill (now referred to as Egg Lake) is a nasty excursion in the summer due to the many deadfall trees and devil’s club but most of these obstacles are well covered by up to 5 feet of snow thiswinter.  Five ladies enjoyed a 7.5 km trek and roasted smokies on a brilliantly sunny day on the little lake’s frozen shore.

 

 

 

 

Winter residents of Lac des Roches have been bombarded with the sound of nearby logging most of this winter.  Between the sound of heavy equipment working in the southwest hills and the constant stream of logging trucks hauling in both directions of Highway 24, there is no doubt that the surrounding forest is heading to a nearby mill.  It was still quite shocking for residents to realize that under the cover of low clouds and snow storms, the loggers had crested the mountain and worked their equipment down the north side of the mountain, changing the pristine view from the McDonald rest stop, and dozens of view properties, forever.  Evidently the preservation of viewscape to benefit both residents and the tourism industry

, which was painstakingly determined through extensive balloon testing and consultation with residents well over a decade ago, is off the table in order to support the troubled forest industry.  At the time of this post, the feller-buncher was still going strong!