The Bushman Chronicles!

SAT April 21 - 2018 - Sunny, warm - "The Shadow Lake Interpretive Forest Tour, old trapper cabin, cougar tracking a deer and riverside cook out Tour"

FINALLY got out of the apt / and off the bed after almost three weeks of brutal lower back pain. Free of debilitating pain "just" enough to throw on the L.R.R.P.R. (Long Range Recreational Pacing Rig) load bearing gear and go explore a section of forest i have been wanting to explore for a long time.

Drove up the famous Sea To Sky Highway, passed Lions Bay, Squamish, Cheakamus/Rubble Creek, Whistler and carried on to just South of PEMBERTON BC.

Parked the rig, disabled the engine, fuel supply and battery, line locked the hydraulic brakes and set "unique" perimeter alarms. Was going to be gone all day so precautions were in order. I actually could have driven the rig INTO the forest and hidden it, but the BC PARKS crew would have crapped bricks and ticketed me....LOL....

donned the LB rig and headed out. First part of the Shadow Lake Interpretive Forest (Self Guiding) Tour was a short 20 minute woods wander thru a beautifully spaced/thinned forest.


I love the map in red..........I'm going to start drawing my own maps of areas i explore, in the leather-bound 2" thick heavy paper journal that @Reno Lewis made me.........





the first part of the self guided tour starts with a short 20 minute meander thru thinned and spaced trees.





a short 5 minute easy walk thru the 20" wide well packed trail, and there is a outhouse (or as the Parks crews call it, a Pit Toilet)



wandering further on......someone made a fire pit in the middle of the trail.....LOL



a fine fatwood stump



spring buds



animal digging for food...these tracks/diggings were all over the entire length of the trail. About a day old at most.



I carried on the trail loop, coming back out where the truck was. Crossed over the hwy in a fast run to avoid the vehicles. Dropped into the forest and headed down a little trail.





trail opened up and split off into two ways. One way led up to a couple of Scout Cabins, the other way further into the lake area





carried on, thru the meandering trail

 

Shadow Lake and marsh





rail line above the lake, and the trail going around the lake





cooking up some meth.......er no.......making chlorine with rock salt and electricity (MSR MIOX)



knives on fungi on tree.



rickety old bridge #1





beavers had made a dam.



cedar bark pounded into tinder with a rock



rickety old bridge #2



rocks above the bridge, and the rail line above that


massive 12'+ high x 20' wide base beaver home



huge cliffs looming behind the lake and Soo river

 

Carrying on,



the trail split into two sections, I chose to go left.

The reason i wanted to explore this lake, was to find this old trappers cabin. It was quite well hidden , even though it was just 50 feet off the path. I knew i was close when i started seeing old pots and dishes in the trees.




only about 6' tall x 8' wide x 10' deep.



door was seized halfway open. No stove left, just concrete pavers on the floor. Stovejack was in excellent shape, just needed a chimney. Usual garbage, no cool stuff. I plan to clean it up (BC Parks does not maintain it) haul out the garbage and haul in a tiny stove made from a old 20lb propane bottle and add a chimney. Clean up the inside, unstick the door and make it so someone can sleep over if they want. Lots of available firewood by the rail tracks). Entire cabin is made from cedar, its not going anywhere anytime soon this century. Cabin design was not made for living in, but rather for overnighting or for a few days while trapping. There is literally nothing inside except for a raised plywood platform to sleep on. Wouldn't take much to heat it up. There is a few drafty gaps but thats ok. Heck even a 5 gallon pail with a hole for adding wood and and a chimney would get this thing like 50 deg C in no time.



stove jack




moving on down the trail, found a brand new creosoted rail tie. Must have slid off the car. Would be good for the cabin in some way or another.



lots of nasty yet useful Devils Club around.



bone dry camping spot under this giant cedar



um.....

 

Emerging onto the river, this is fly fishing heaven.



I startled something across the way when i crunched thru the grass and sticks. probably a bear



train bridge with remnants of the old wood trestle in the water



skunk cabbage



this is why alders are the first tree to pop up on riversides, cut blocks etc......each length of pod contains about 1000 seeds. (you want to have fun with a crappy neighbour, collect a bucket of these and dry them out, rub all the seeds apart and fling onto his lawn. Instant forest in like a week...LOL)



rivers edge debris and waterfowl print. You can see hundreds of thousands of seeds here.



deer print in mud



looking downriver



beaver 7-11



another smaller beaver lodge



nuther deer track



fire practice. Tis grass smells soooooo sweeet when it burns. Its good gathered into a bundle and lit inside to freshen up the house or cabin.







Carrying on i headed for the Ox-Bow portion of the river.



the trail



rickety old bridge #3



marshlands

 

I saw this quite a bit in Banff on the trails. Right in the middle. Often followed by toilet paper on the side......

 

yea never understood why they dont just burn the paper in the fire.....

 

10" thick moss, kinda looks like a green bear cub climbing a tree?


time for some Briar



headed back out to the main trail/old road and headed further down the valley.



nasty




climbed and climbed thru the spaced forest and then started descending into the valley


old skidder road, decommissioned and planted


trail in the forest, this is an overgrown logging road along the river



woodpecker hole....he dug deep.


there was a deer that had come this way, his tracks were everywhere....until a certain point.......


patch of snow in the tick forest and melted out cougar track. The deer tracks stopped about ten feet after this.









lots of scuffed earth at that point, then nothing. Murder Mittens got dinner.





bling

 

dropped down to another old trail by the river

huge douglas fir nurse stump



downstream / upstream. Great fishing spot if you have waders.......no one ever comes here. You have to bushwack a fair ways off the highway to even get to the first trail.





left that area and began the LONG climb straight up the forest to the thinned section of the forest, then thru that to the truck.

i'm actually on a skidder trail here...lol



ran across the highway to the truck, and that caused a unmarked police truck to do an abrupt U turn and head my way. Something about camouflage clothes, LB gear, running across a highway in said gear ....he was a good sport,just curious as to why there was a camo'ed out guy running across the road.......we had a laugh and he was interested in the load bearing rig and how i had it set up. I started gleefully showing him my gear load out. The 1100 Lumen Nitecore and Fenix headlamp were a hit. Same with the Esee Advanced firetube. He gave me some history on the trappers cabin and then we parted ways.

I headed up the SOO Forest Service Road, intent on finding a place to build a fire and have a brew up.

dam is SUPER low (that will change soon) due to winter. Now would be the time to prospect the other side of the river



tons of snow plowed aside, no where to park safely to avoid the logging trucks



lake still partially slushed over



towering cliffs and knife edge ridges



now is the time to get down there and prospect....super low water levels.



headed back down, massive grader. those tires come up to the roof on my Tracker



Drove to another river nearby, there is a couple of camping spots and tons of alder for firewood/



getting ready for dinner





the risotto rice was edible but kinda gross. Fed it to the fishes after eating half. No white wine like a proper risotto calls for!



anyways thats it. Headed back to Van, stopped at Toby's in North van for cold beers.

 

Good stuff brother! Those thinned out forests are amazing. I've always wanted to wander around in one, the stuff we have here is so dense you normally can't even see your hand in front of your face.

Did you get any pics of the kill site? scuffed earth, etc? Find any exit tracks?

 

nope, i was relaying my GPS coordinates to you and moving away backwards. Smelled funky in the air and I was not about to go further up that way. Lots of bent branches, over turned leaves, disturbed moss, then it trailed off into the forest on the left. Least a few days old (the tracks). I figure it was a small cougar and a small deer.

I was making lots of noise on my egress....

 

Glad you got out of there safely, I've been near kill sites a handful of times before, usually while the fluffy perp is still nearby. Always gets my heart going.

And yeah, I agree with you on the age of the tracks, at least a few days. About right for a carcass to start smelling nice and funky...

 

Sunday May 6 2018 - warm, sunny - "The Whistler BC , Parkhurst Ghost Town Tour"

Been wanting to woods wander this area for some time now. Parkhurst , Whistler BC, used to be a busy rail side logging town. The Parkhurst Whistler Ghost Town is the site of the remnants of a booming 1930’s logging community. Today you’ll find today, a few derelict cabins where the workers and their families would have lived, old, rusted logging machinery, and relics of an old steam-operated mill.

Parkhurst Mill was a very successful business, shipping lumber as far away as Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. However, when the Great Depression hit, the price of lumber plummeted, making it impossible to cover the cost of transport; and, in 1930, the business went into receivership. Literally in a few days, the workers left to find work elsewhere.......hoping to secure other work at a time when jobs were extremely scarce. This is why the town has the appearance of being deserted over night. (Source: the lovely staff at Whistler Museum) <thank you!

I drove up the Sea to Sky Hwy, turned off at Wedgemont and drove up the FSR about 3 klicks. Parked the rig, did the usual 4x4 securing, donned the L.R.R.P.R. webbing and started walking.

crossed the dilapidated wood bridge over the Green River, found a great camp site with a picnic table by the river.





the road enters a massive open graveled space, railroad property.



looking back at the massive 6000' + mountains.



yours truly with the L.R.R.P.R. webbing and Esee vest





massive pile of decommissioned creosote rail ties



the Esee Avispa hard at work



carrying on, walking past the storage spur and looking back. It is very humbling to feel like an ant. The Earth is mind blowing.



About to turn off the rail property and enter the trail head. A rail line security truck slowly rolled towards me down the line. Around here they have trucks that precede the trains, making sure the rail tracks are clear and there is no issues. Technically i was trespassing on rail property , even though i was not on the tracks. I waved and the employee waved back and nodded at me. Yelled out the window that there was a train 15 minutes behind him. I thanked him and turned off the clearing into the trail.

old logging road, my kind of road.





all around me are familiar spaces, worn out places........wait.,...wrong song.....

the entire forest is open moss covered rocky grizzly/black/brown bear , cougar filled, steep/rugged terrain.





bear den by the base of the tree. That rocky cave is about the size of a compact car.



old 100lb+ fridge door



trail started climbing



and climbing



lots of hard pitch around, easy to smash into dust for fire accelerator.



this entire area is home to a LOT of grizzlies, mountain cats, black and brown bears, and even wolverines. The forest is open , lots of small berry brushes to feed on. My head was on a swivel for at last an hour from the truck to the ghost town. Bear spray safety was off too.

 

meandering smooth forest trails like these are my favorite,both for hiking and singletrack biking.



old main road thru the trees. If your good with patterns, you can find entire towns in the woods.



first sign of the old town, a huge carbon insulator



started to see more and and more remnants from the old town



fatwood everywhere. Shown with the Ontario Blackbird SK5 (the Esee Pr4 predecessor???? )



some animal was rooting up the earth near this tree, the dirt was freshly dug up, maybe 20 minutes tops...



I turned off the trail and headed down an old road thru the forest,



turned up another road 90 degree's (or so) to the first one



old fridge (matches the door 2 klicks back)



more and more remnants of the old town.



thats an old tin stove, made in Winnipeg Canada

some might see trash and get annoyed, i see history. It was not uncommon a century ago or younger to simply throw out tin cans and bottles down an embankment behind the house. I grew up in the Kootenays and the neighbour across the crik and up the slope had a gold mine of old rusted cans, tiny glass medicine bottles, glass booze bottles etc scattered 5' deep thru out the forest. Had i know the value of those little glass medicine bottles as a kid, i would be rich right now. Literally thousands of collectibles....this is why i get so excited about finding old towns, mines, etc.

this is a pile of cans behind a house (long gone and rotted away, but the flat earth still tells tales of where the home was). I had to laugh....smack dab in the middle of the old rusted cans was a pair of purple womens lacy thong......now how do lose that? hahahahaha. its definitely modern nylon.......someone had some fun up here lol....



found lots of small rectangular 4' x 2' pits like these.....guess what they are? old outhouse holes. They would simply move the outhouse a few feet over after a length of time.



old sink



old stove and bath tub



not sure what this was



tiny structure gone to earth



old water pipe or gas pipe lifted out of the ground by the trees. Its not going anywhere....

 

old ceramic plate



old mason jar with what looks like jam.....this is from the early 1900's. I was actually able to crack open the lid and take a sniff. Blackberry jam. This stuff lasts forever.



old SHELL oil company jug



view of Green Lake thru the trees



old cabin structure, taken over by nature



emerging from the forest road, the last remaining standing building in Parkhurst







another outhouse spot



transmission oil can, Shell brand



old truck grille



house next door



no house but remnants of the foundation imprints.



down a trail behind the standing house, tiny house. (chicken coop maybe? small barn? )

 

The highlight of my day, an old wood frame 1 ton truck. I thought my Tracker was narrow.,.....





a soak in diesel and that engine could easily be turned with a long wrench. These engine have loose machining tolerances and are brutally tough. This would be a fun restore

 

still smelled of engine oil. It was heaven.



look at those valves..... and that MASSIVE retention block. That plate is 3/4" thick



love the wood and steel frame....a massive 6" x 6" timber simply bolted with lag bolts to the 1/4" thick angle iron frame



moving on thru the forest, found an old outhouse.......of course tipped over. So i utilized the forest nearby.....lol



very intact chimney , should take it and the old tin stove over to the trappers cabin in Shadow Lake



found lots of these old single spring beds around in the forest



LOTS more loading

 

Cool pictures. Esee vest. where the heck did you get a Esee vest? I can't find it in the catalog .Man I am still saving up
for the Expat clever and you got a vest.

 

Traded with a forum member. These are no longer made , Eotach went out of business.

 

more pics on the edit desk and uploading. This will be something i return to when i have time to sort, edit and upload

 

reserved for Parkhurst trip