Quinsam River Winter Wonderful

We had a dump of snow on Friday, and due to some cold, clear weather Friday night and Saturday the snow hasn’t melted. We took the opportunity of sunshine on Saturday and ventured out to our favourite stretch of river  – in search of beauty and fish. We found fishermen in the river with favourable reports, making Mr. Kate quite eager to brave the waters for cutthroat trout and steelhead salmon. We certainly found beauty all around. Winter has had its way with the trails, the trail is getting almost washed away in some areas, and there are some massive trees down across the trail in other spots. The work crews will have a big job to do in the spring.

 

The Quinsam River, very full and fast.

 

As you walked along the path, little chunks of snow would fall from the trees above. Sometimes a slight shower would fall in front of you, snow drifting down to the silent forest floor.

This was the largest tree down across the path. It was taller than me across the trunk and there was only a small amount of room to go behind it off the trail. I’m curious to see how they will cut this one up!

It was unusual to walk down there and see so much sunlight. The river has a lot of deciduous trees along its banks, and of course they are all bare at this time of year, letting lots of light through. We also noticed that a number of the trees have been snapped in the wind. As to the river, it will be interesting to see what permanent damage is done to the banks when the water levels go down in the late spring.

One other highlight of the walk was our first sighting of a local beaver. We saw it in the clear water near one of the bridges, and it was really quite wonderful watching it swim in the water with its flat tail behind it.

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