January 6

0C overcast

Hmm, didn't look like anyone got too excited about the subject of change! Only 5 visitors yesterday.
So - change it shall be  ie. change from change.
Anticipating the lack of reaction and recognizing that reading a story is much more popular I started preparing a new one. Here is what I managed to produce yesterday.

KIWA CREEK

There is a valley in the Rocky Mountain Trench on the south side of the Fraser River close to Tete Jaune Cache. The Valley is drained by a fairly large creek named Kiwa Creek. I have no idea where the name came from.

I started an association with this valley back in 1955. That connection for some reason has drawn me back to Kiwa Creek and it’s immediate area for many times over the ensuing years.

As I indicated above my first visit to the valley was in the winter of 1955/56.

I had been sent to McBride to catch up on a number of outstanding timber cruises, for some reason never made clear to me several of the more remote ones had been left and now there was some pressure to get them done. The one which created the association with Kiwa Creek was the first one I had to take on.

My compassman had recently been promoted to cruiser and I arrived in McBride with a young fellow who had just been hired and had no previous experience in this line of work.

When I met with the Ranger in charge he showed me the location on an office map. He conceded that it would be a long hike into the edge of the proposed timber sale area and because it was rather a large cruise he had sought and  received approval to hire a third man. I was advised that there was a trappers shack at the end of the road which coincided with the north eastern boundary of the sale.

At that time there was about two feet of snow on the ground in McBride which is situated at an elevation of 2400 feet. Our starting off point would be at a sawmill located at an old railroad stop called Shere where an operating sawmill was located. Shere is probably at an elevation of about 2600 feet.

The road that we would use for access was unplowed and we would be packing our supplies and snowshoeing the eight miles to the cabin. From the size of the area to be cruised and with a three man crew I figured it would take us about ten days to complete the job.