For 2½ days, I sat here in the campground at D’Arcy, B.C. on the shore of Anderson Lake, waiting for a break in the solid overcast and rain.  Typical west coast weather, and ya just gotta be patient.  While waiting, I put on my rain gear and walked up the creek a ways,  just wandering.  I soon saw that the Sockeye Salmon were just starting to run, with the males already in their bright spawning colors………..

Just above this was the entrance to the hatchery, and they were guided in for processing.  After spawning, the Salmon die and float back down to the lake and Bears gather to scavenge them.  That led to lots of fun for the Lar later in the trip.

This morning, Monday, Aug. 11, it dawned mostly clear, so, after a leisurely breakfast (don’t want to get carried away with these things, ya know) I dumped the Dustbuster into the water and headed down lake.  Beautiful.  Nice, fresh morning, about 65º that warmed later to about 75º, and the clouds that were up there slowly dissipated.  The moderate breeze wasn’t strong enuf to cause problems.  Before we start, here’s a map of the area.  D’Arcy is almost dead center and I ran about 25 miles NE to Seton Portage.  In a few days, I’ll try coming up Seton Lake from Lillooet to the other end of the portage.  I’ve been told that the road from Lillooet to Terzaghi Dam and Carpenter Lake is pretty good, so might try for that, too.  Keep in mind that the height of these mountains is deceptive.  2,800 meters is over 9,000 ft, and there’s lots of them like that.  I tried the road from Pemberton Meadows to Bralorne again the other day, and it’s just too rough.  It’s silly to abuse the camper, boat and trailer like that for no good reason………………

Starting out, I looked back at the campground for a visual check and to set both GPS’s.  The little Garmin eTrex that I love to hate carried the day again.  The big Lowrance i600C needs a more secure power hookup to be dependable.  S’OK, it’s a long, narrow lake, and even the Lar would have trouble getting lost here.  :-)……………

Some of the peaks were still wrapped in clouds, so the trip downlake went fairly quickly.  Dustbuster isn’t a hot rod……. it’s very heavy for it’s size, rides deep in the water and cruising speed with the 50 hp Tohatsu engine is right at 22 mph at 5,000 rpm, but it gets the job done very nicely and very economically.  Speeding along, I’d forgotten about a waterfall showing on the local hand-out map, so couldn’t figure at 1st what I was looking at here……………

McGillivray Falls.  There’s a dock there and a fair number of homes, so I zoomed on over and tied up.  Walked ashore to find a big “No Trespassing” sign in front of me.  What a pack of bums ! ! !  Burning, but not wanting to cause problems, I left.  All the way down the lake, on both sides, there are scattered cabins, some areas amounting to small communities, and others, like these, very obviously valuing their privacy…………..

Around the point to the right, these folks have built a very, very nice picnic area at the mouth of a large creek.  Looks good, sounds better, with the water flowing over the stones……………..

Continuing on down lake, Seton Portage is showing in the distance.  The farthest mountains are on the shore of Seton Lake near the huge power generating station at Shalalth.  Local people tell me it’s pronounced “See-ton” Lake………………

Soon, I carefully beached the boat at Seton Portage.  There’s a road all the way along both lakes on the north side, but locals told me it was very bad - worse than the Bralorne Road.  CN (Canadian National) train tracks also go along just above the shoreline on the north side.  This is a really beautiful spot, and the site of a small community that’s been here a long time - over a century.  The water is gin clear.  There was a group of people tubing behind their boat here, and I’d seen them launching at D’Arcy….why’d they come all the way down here to play ??  Then I looked at the temperature read-out on the fishfinder.  At the campground the lake water temp had been 53º.  Down here, it was 62º.  Reason enuf, eh ??  (yes, the boat is tied to a tree on the shore)……………

There’s a concrete railway bridge crossing the river joining the 2 lakes, and I walked out onto it for a look back……..after looking and listening very carefully.  Also looked for migrating salmon in this crystal clear water, with no joy………………

Heading back, some of the mountains were far more visible, and very scenic.  These are giants - 10,000 ft high.  This is magnificent country and it goes for 100’s of miles.  I never tire of it.

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Is this enuf of a cliff for you ??  It went way deep, too.  Water just off-shore was well over 200 ft deep, and I metered many areas over 700 ft deep on my trip………………

This one had me going, and I had trouble getting photos of it because of the angle of the sun.  It looks like a whole chunk of the mountainside just broke loose - all the way to the top - and disintegrated on the way down.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The fan of debris goes way out underwater, too……………..

I had spoken to the waterskiers at Seton Portage and told them about the No Trespassing at McGillivray Falls, and they laughed.  Said, “don’t worry about it, go ahead and take a look.”  OK, I did that, and tied back up to the little dock with my back bristling……………

This is a surprisingly large community, with probably 20 houses, give or take, and they obviously take great pride in it.  In my whole time here, and walking right thru the middle, I saw open windows, sprinklers on in gardens, etc., etc., and not a single person the whole time…………..

It got spooky, and I got my pictures and scrammed, starting to feel like I was in “Deliverance” country……………

Shortly afterward, there were my familiar landmark mountains.  D’Arcy is about ¼ of the way in from the right side, and the campground is about in the middle, just out of sight behind that big point……………

This all made for a very pleasant, laid back day, and I was “home” early.  Now, hoping the weather holds, I have reservations for soaring in a glider, over the peaks and glaciers around Pemberton tomorrow at 10:00 AM.  It’s only an hour from here, so I’ll spend the night, then mosey on down.  ‘Bout time to button up the camper, I guess.  Cool breeze is blowing thru the windows, and it’s starting to get dark.  Time to turn in.  Yesterday was 4 weeks that I’ve been on the road, and I’m slowly learning to relax and take my time.  It’s nice.  Ahhhhhhh………………                       Lar.

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Larry Bourne
Santa Fe, NM
www.gogittum.com
www.gogittum.com/blog

Posted: June 17th, 2009 under 08 Vacation, 08-8-11 Anderson Lake.
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