The Bushman Chronicles!

N

Noted

 

Little bird looks like a water ouzel or American dipper, very cool little birds, they actually dive under water to get aquatic insects.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_dipper

 

thanks for the ID.....thats EXACTLY what it was doing. It also surfed the small rapids......

 

They are definitely good lunch time entertainment on the trail!

 

Man Bushy, I’ve been going back in time through your posts and you have had some absolutely epic trips. Your content is excellent, as usual.

Love this stuff. Keep it comin brother!

 

April 7,2019, Sunny, Rain, Cool, "The Post Flu, Get The Hell Out Of The House, Scout Fishing Spots On The Mamquam River, Grill Some Chorizo, Bushwack Thru The Wet Forest Tour"

FINALLY! been down with the flu and too bagged from work to get out for Church Of The Woods.

Late start today, PipSqueak was being uber cuddly and crawled under the blanket and was all long cat along side of me. Couldn't pass up kitty snuggles (and warmth). Finally had to get up, hit the shower and made strong coffee.

into the truck with the L.R.R.P.R. Heavy Woods Recon (packed extra clothes and poncho, due to the weather systems)

ripped up the Sea To Sky, noting the other motorists flashing their hi beams.....RCMP had speed traps all up and down the Sky Hwy. . Kept the speed exactly at the limit and breezed thru the traps. Others were not so lucky.........

Turned off onto the Mamquam FSR main trunkline and kept driving up the road.

headed all the way up the trunkline until KM 20 where there was active logging and the road was closed.

log grapple, with extend-able arm (like 30' )


winter tree fall (snow loaded trees falling into the road) cleared by the 30 ton grader with chain flail. Imagine a spinning wheel with multiple 10' long x 1" thick Grade 100 chains, spinning at 2500 RPM.........

turned around, found a pullout by the river and stopped for a grill up of Chorizo for lunch. (it was already around 1500 hours)



Esee 6 and the Esee Advanced FireSteel with extension tube fired up the charcoal in the SIEGE STOVE
finally some proper Chorizo! smoky, spicy, lots of paprika


the venerable Esee 6, well patina'ed

Chorizo on the grill

the dripping fat flared up flames a lot....I should have brought some foil to make a drip tray to prevent this. Either way the chorizo was delicious. I made two chorizo , sharp cheddar and cheese bun sammiches and had extra chorizo to nom on (or as Brother @Se7eN says....SMASH!)

finished up lunch, paying very close attention for bears.....(in the heart of Squamish's black, brown and grizzly territory and i smell like meat.........)

headed out, the rain POURING down.

stopped at one of many kayak put ins. There is also a single campsite here.

Drove all the way back down the FSR to the lower section.

Chris Reeves Nyala on my neck.


reflective shot in the pouring rain,off the truck window

 

Part Two, "Try To Access The Cave By The River, By Bushwacking Thru The Woods"

I love caves.......I've been know to explore old mines solo just because i love caves and adits so much. A few weeks back I spotted this massive boulder forming an entrance to a very small cave. Had to check it out.



Parked the rig by the gate near the river and headed out. It was pissing rain so out came the cadpat poncho. Slogged up the access road, feeling the heat/humidity. Some jogger passed me and was like "WTF?" .


that time of year....everything is bursting with new growth


on the access bridge, looking up at the deep pools.

under the powerlines clearing

removing the poncho, I entered the lush wet forest. Found a fresh cougar scratching post tree





couldn't quite get to the boulder that made the cave.......the terrain was too steep and I felt not like slipping on wet moss and falling 30' and cracking my skull open. So i will just have to raft across the river from the other side soon.



Stopped to pay tribute to a young man who's life ended too soon.


thats it......felt good to ruck up with a heavy load out and go out in the pissing rain again.

 

Wicked!!! Keep it coming brother!

 

4 th picture from the bottom up... the kayak launch point... there be fish in that river!

 

OH YEAH BROTHER!

 

2nd'd. and. ... What happened to Daniel?

 

Your pictures are super clear! New camera?? Or is it a filter? The river shots kill me!

 

Yeah I’m sure bushy will explain. Likely a canoe or swimming accident

 

Iphone 7 and Google Photos post edit

 

not sure......might have been a suicide off the bridge, or a swimming accident from height.........todays the first time i came across that memorial on the bridge.

EDIT: found the info.......bunch of youth were jumping from the bridge into the canyon below and two died after getting into distress in the rapid currents

https://www.squamishchief.com/news/local-news/two-men-drown-in-separate-mishaps-1.1052395

Daniel Rezmer - bio

 

That’s kind of what

I figured it was something like that. Seems fun at the time until things go south...

 

Glad you got over the flu and good to see the Esee 6 and Fire steel. I just got a Fire Box stove and been playing with it.
Nice pictures!

 

Great documentation of your outings as usual, Bushie. Seriously jealous of the lack of snow in your pics! It's still going to be quite a while before I'm hiking on dirt around here...

 

April 14/2019, overcast, rainy, sleet, cold, "The Mamquam & Raffuse Creek, Lucille Lake Fishing Tour"

Late start due to brutal rain locally this morning. Finally cleared up around noon. Gear into the truck, and then sit in hellish rush hour traffic (on a Sunday). This was due to one of two only bridges from Vancouver to the North Shore being closed for the annual Sun Run. Finally got past the traffic jam and got up to Squamish. Had to fill up the tank on the way.....$1.69 a liter. Only put $50 in because I knew it would cheaper outside of the TAX ZONE that is Metro Vancouver (often 10 - 20 cents cheaper outside the city limits).

Drove straight up to the first Raffuse Creek Recreational Campsite and hit the water.


HDR gear shot, L.R.R.P.R. Heavy Recon rig, Berkley ultralight spinning rig, classic Aussie Alvey tackle box. Rain poncho because it was going to piss rain even more up here.......


new buds
toasty warm and geared up./

only about 3 to 4 feet deep


nothing at the lower end, walked up to the next pool, about 4- 7 feet deep, lots of slow current pullouts for the fish. Nada bite...too damn cold here still

moved up to KM 20 or so at the Kayak put in site (see last report) Pissing rain now.


super deep here, with slow current areas on the sides. Cast flies and spoons and spinners for an hour. Nada bite, too damn cold .


quick hi energy snack before heading back out the FSR and up to the Cheakamus area of Whistler

sleet started pounding down, along with rain.

glad I had a well greased (Huberd's and Sno-Seal mix) leather hat

 

Headed up Chance Main FSR, to the basalt quarry main entrance. Pulled the truck off the road and parked it in a little pullout. There is an old road that heads down to the lake, my BushTracker 4x4 would make it with ease, but the local Police and CO's would shoot you on site for driving a motorized vehicle down there.....so I just walked it.

HDR / heavy colorized macro of an alder bud, glistening with rain.

the old road, its steeper than it looks

down on the flats.

there used to be a big Lodge and multiple cabins all around this lake and also nearby in the now extinct / non existent town of Garibaldi.

After the geotechnical assessment in the 1980's of The Barrier, the government evacuated , relocated and bought out the landowners (for pennies on the dollar to boot) and BC HYDRO soaked all the buildings with kerosene and burned them down to pure ash. The area is now "uninhabitable and use at own risk" due to the risk to life safety if The Barrier ever lets go (everything below The Barrier , all the way south past Squamish, will be washed out, including a tidal wave all the way to vancouver Island. . ).

QOUTE: “The lava barrier is an unstable dam for this big lake in the mountains above a town,” he said. “The potential energy at 1,400 metres elevation, of 1 trillion litres of water, is 200 times the energy released by the bomb on Hiroshima.”

QOUTE
“If the barrier were to explode or fall apart in an earthquake, the wave that would be produced by all that water flowing out of Garibaldi Lake down into Squamish would be 120 metres high,” he estimates.

“That’s what the DOS recognizes and doesn’t even talk about because we can’t do anything about it.”

Quane said the barrier is crumbling over time and there is rock continuously falling off the barrier. The reason for the decay could be because water escapes through the bottom of the barrier.

“Rubble Creek is actually draining from below the dam so one thing you could argue is that it is undermining the lava flow,” he said. “And that’s bad for the dam.”

more reading: https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/the-barrier-remains-a-concern/Content?oid=2168867

https://www.squamishchief.com/news/garibaldi-lake-a-ticking-time-bomb-1.1753732

http://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/courses/geob370/students/class12/lkuan/index.xhtml

http://myriverside.sd43.bc.ca/lizab2016/2017/10/14/garibaldi-lake-task/



wherever you see flat spots, there used to be cabins



getting the line into the water. Nada bite, still too damn cold


\
more old cabin sites, terraced area, there was 5 sites here.



time for a brew up. Decided to see if my brass peanut lighter still worked. Its been about 6 months since i used it. Nope, need to seal it with a piece of adhesive heat shrink tubing to keep the lighter fluid from evaporating.




more gear. Exotac match case, Esee FireSteel, Swiss Army Cadet, all stored in a small Magpul suppressor pouch


MKettle and SADF 2L canteen,MSR Titan Kettle mug, 200 ml Titanium bottle for methyl hydrate to fuel the MKettle



playing around with the Acebeam LC30 Gen 2 with green filter. Its DAMN bright



invisible flame, completely silent and no odor.


had a big mug of coffee, fished some more, nada bite, too damn cold still. Made some sourdough / spiced gouda / black pepper salami sammiches for the walk out to the truck.



thats it.