Kleena Kleene Waterfall Again

Early July I went to town to meet another pair of volunteers. Same precautions – they have their own vehicle; once home they stay in their own cabin and I pass the food out of the door to them for two weeks.

Because of the rain, the roadside weed were lush.

clover
roadside weeds
wild rose

The sticky geranium is a native of the grasslands. It doesn’t grow in the west Chilcotin.

sticky geranium

Naturally, I started the volunteers off with the firewood.

firewood

Daniel proved to be a techie kind of guy so was soon making repairs – this time the trailer light. (Note the head net. The bugs have been terrible this year. Lots of dull windless weather, and lots of standing water. Fortunately for me, Daniel and Anja had spent 3 months hiding from the covid in Hay River, unable to work in the tourist business that had promised them a job, and had much experience with violent bugs. People in Hay River were saying it was the worst year they had known.)

fixing trailer

Being German, they were disgusted (as I am) with the sticky gooey mess that goes under the name of bread in most grocery stores. So here they are maintaining a social distance from me, mixing up their recipe.

bread making

Shortly after they arrived I went to the Kleena Kleene waterfall again, this time with the volunteers. I rode my ATV, Daniel and Anja walked with Harry. The burned forest had a green carpet, and in some places new pines were growing up.

new pine trees

There were still a few clumps of Richardson’s penstemon in bloom.

richardson's penstemon

But now the dominant flower was Ivey-leaved spiraia.

spiraea

Nodding onion was in bloom

nodding onion

And then the lookout. The sort of drab day we had been having a lot of – made drabber by the burned trees.

lookout with roses

Nearby tree skeletons.

tree skeleton

The water was even higher than the last time I had visited. You can’t see the actual falls without going into the river, but the roar and great gobs of spray shooting down indicated its power.

Harry at the falls

Daniel is a professional photographer. His hiking progress was slow because he kept wanting to take Anja’s picture.

Daniel and Anja on a side creek

He also wanted to cross the side creek – the only way was via a log jam

logjam with Daniel

As a contrast here are some pictures of a February 2014 trip. There was very little snow, but it had been around -20C for a long time.

A view along the trail. (Long before the fire!)

trail to waterfall

The Lookout.

lookout near waterfall February

The river by the falls was almost silent. The logjam Daniel crossed is in the middle of the picture.

frozen river near waterfall
icicles near waterfall

Back home, the volunteers worked hard, and the woodshed was getting full.

filling the woodshed

In our logging area were two very showy strawberry bite plants. You can eat these clusters of miniscule berries, but they don’t taste of much. The plant is a spinach relative.

strawberry bite

Baby birds were everywhere – mostly ducks on the pond, but I’ll write about those in another post. Both robins and white-crowned sparrows were hunting endlessly for morsels to feed their young.

white crowned sparrow

And the garden was beginning to produce.

garden greens

2 thoughts on “Kleena Kleene Waterfall Again”

  1. Thank you once again, Chris, such amazing photographs. I enjoy all your photos and even though I am not a ‘plant person’ I love to view your Alpine plants along with their names. I am learning from you.
    Be safe, stay healthy, thank you, Anne

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