WENTS/ENTS-
I’ve put together a slideshow of images, taken as I drove
from Yellowknife to the Cameron Falls trailhead, and then along the trail to
the falls. My first time using Photobucket, I can’t promise that I’ve done all
things correctly, but I hope so…it was a nice ride, hike and I hope you enjoy
it (at least you’re able to enjoy it in a mosquito-free environment! A
narrative follows the Photobucket link (where individual slide titling and
descriptions can be found):
http://s875.photobucket.com/albums/ab312/forestoration/?albumview=slideshow
The community of Yellowknife is adjacent to Great Slave
Lake, and many smaller waterbodies. The
terrain is that of the Canadian Shield, an ancient exposed bedrock that has
since the last ice age been partially covered with a Boreal Forest Ecosystem.
Numerous
bedrock exposures remain unforested. Where forested, stands tend to be either
pure stands or depending on variable soil constituents, mixed forest stands of
black spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, or white
birch.
As a sample of the
countryside, I chose the Ingraham Trail which is paved at first and later
graveled and a fine travelling surface.
Running east from the city of Yellowknife, the road eventually parallels
the Cameron River for some 20 kilometers, passing by many small to medium
lakes, some of which are populated with small summer homes, some not. All are
quite scenic and retain much of their wilderness character.
Within the first few kilometers, the Ingraham Trail crosses
the Yellowknife River with the appearance of being wide and deep, with a fast
current. Looking up river, the forest
runs down right to the river’s edge, broken here only by a summer cottage with
a small dock for small boat access.
Downriver, the Yellowknife runs into Great Slave Lake. The roadway continues
through the countryside
with roadside wildflowers brightening the otherwise green forested expanses.
Fireweed
and woodrose, familiar to Alaskans, grow along the roadway, with an occasional
columbine.
The focus of the afternoon’s activity was to be a hike out
to Cameron Falls, some 40 kilometers from town.
Parking at the trailhead, I met three hikers just coming out of the
forest into the parking area, somewhat abruptly. We smiled, we chatted briefly,
and off I went into the forest…it soon became clear why the hikers had been in
such a rush. Swarmed by mosquitos, black flies, and an incredibly aggressive
relative to what I’d call a deer fly (at least in California), I could hardly
get my pack off, get it open, get out the hat/headnetting I’d put there
thinking I might need it, and get it on…a
serious piece of equipment, it had thin bunji cords that you put your arms
through to keep it close and tight to your shirt. Blessed relief was had, after
a short killing spree of the few mosquitos that were caught inside. Wearing
long pants and long sleeve shirt, I had only to sink my hands deeply into my
pockets to attain fair protection from the flying beasts. Even then, the longer
snouted ones were able to penetrate my shirt, when I wasn’t in motion.
Ever walked over hill and dale, at a spirited pace, with
hands deep in your pockets? It took but
20 minutes to traverse a typically 30 minute hike. Was it worth it? It was a
great trail, with sections of board
walk through marshy areas, and steps to negotiate steep rocky sections. With
the crossing of each of two ridges, the sound of the falls grew noticeably
louder. Each of the ridges tended to
have less soil coverage, and were characteristically bedrock with depressions
pocketing sufficient soil to have “islands” of mosses, forbs, grasses,
wildflowers
and/or small jack pines, white birches, or quaking aspens. When I say
sufficient soil, I am describing shallow (perhaps several inches thick) and
small
(sometimes as little as a meter square) patches in small rock basins.
Sometimes it takes nothing more than a crack
in the bedrock for jack pines (Pinus
banksiana lamb.) or birches and aspen to take up residence. The forest
across much of the trail consisted of primarily white birch and black spruce of
small dimension due to the limited soil availability. These boreal species
range across much of the Canadian provinces. Jack pines, a close relative to
the lodgepole pine (they hybridize) share an interface that approximately
splits Canada east/west. Jack pines will range just a little bit higher before
giving way to a purer black spruce/white birch community. Like the lodgepole,
jack pines have
attenuated cones that expose their fire-adapted ecology, persisting through
many years, and opening primarily in response to the heat from wildfires. It
is said that indigenous natives have been
known to parboil male flower cluster to remove resins, to make them a desired
food item.
I was finally myself not considered as a food item for the
swarming hordes, when I at last arrived at the Cameron waterfall. There the air
was displaced by the cascading falls (some 15 meters in height) into enough
wind currents that the viewpoint was bug-free and the hat/headnet was
greatfully remove. And a gorgeous
waterfall it is. Loud, chaotic, braiding, it looks impassable by even the most
serious watercraft (which do ply upper and lower Cameron river waters).
After a satisfying respite, the netting went back on, hands
once again sought the depths of my pockets, and I returned in a fashion similar
to my initial entry. At the trailhead once again, I met a young couple in
tanktops and shorts, bade them good luck, and returned to my transport…another
brief battle ensued extinguishing the mosquitos attached to me, before driving
off. No better recommendation I can make than that made by the Boy Scouts…”be
prepared!”, and a good time can be had by all.
-Don
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