May 25, 2008
McLeese Lake Interlude
The first time I heard the call of loons was on a grade 6 class trip to Kenora, Ontario. Being the older kids in our elementary school we got to go on the 2 day canoe campout while the younger grade 4 and 5 kids had to stay in the cabins of the church camp our school had rented. It was magic for an urbanized 11 year old to hear the silence of the north woods for the first time. And then this wild laughter came out of the night and I was lost in the wonder of all. Since then I have experienced other defining wild moments - crossing a glacier crevasse, seeing a moose up close, and having the northern lights light my way - but the hair still rises on my arm and a shiver runs up and down my spine when I hear that call.
Gibraltar Mine, where I have been working for most of this month, is situated on Granite Mountain, deep in the heart of the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of central British Columbia. If I haven’t said it already here, the Cariboo is one of my favourite places on earth. It’s got mountains, lakes, cowboys, miners, and stories enough to share for years of campfires.
The mine property itself looks down on McLeese Lake and beyond it the mighty Fraser river. I can confirm this because I’ve stood on the rim of the original Gibraltar pit and looked down on the forests and lakes below to find the one where our hotel was located.
You can find McLeese lake relatively easily in Google Earth or your favourite mapping program. Just find Williams Lake, BC and then follow highway 97 north for about 40 minutes. You’ll know you’re getting close when see the big BC Rail train trestle on your left and then you pass Soda Creek just a few minutes later.
The lake itself used to be called Mud Lake, but it was renamed in honor of Robert McLeese who was the postmaster of nearby Soda Creek from 1863 until his death sometime in the 1880s - roughly the period of the Cariboo gold rush. The reason why Soda Creek keeps getting mentioned here is because way back then the Cariboo Wagon road didn’t go all the way to Quesnel and Soda Creek marked the start of navigable water on the Fraser north to the gold fields. Mr. McLeese owned a hotel there and part ownership in a stern-wheel riverboat. Apparently he was a significant enough citizen to also be voted as an MLA for the Cariboo region as well.
Anyhow, the wagon road eventually got pushed through and Soda Creek lost its importance. The good news is that McLeese Lake didn’t ever boom instead. While the highway still follows the shore of the lake, and there are now two resorts (the McLeese Lake Resort and the Oasis) as well as a number of private residences around the lake, it’s still relatively quiet.
I took the photo at the top a couple of weeks ago as I was standing on the deserted dock at McLeese Lake Resort. It was a lovely evening and there was not a mosquito (or tourist) in sight. Last Friday, which was my last day staying at the resort, I could not say the same thing.
Through the month of May, I left my patio door open at night. It was not warm, but neither was it too cold. It was just, fresh. I would look out at the rising moon, close my drapes, pull my blankets over my head and let the sound of the laughing loons lull me to sleep.
