Swanson Bay, the town that vanished

While reviewing a project I came across the story of Swanson bay, a ghost town on the west coast of British Columbia. In 1901 the BC government passed an Act that allowed companies a interest in the land if the set up a mill. The Canadian Pacific Sulphite Pulp Co. Ltd. took up the challenge in 1906 and 1909 began to produce lumber. The town was serviced by the CPR and Union Steamship vessels. By 1919 the town had a population of 500 people producing 100,000 board feet a day , sulphite pulp and shingles.

In 1923 an earthquake hit Japan, their biggest customer (history repeats itself!) Sometime after 1925 the mill was closed and the town began to lose it's population. Soon the only persons there was a watchman. At some point around the 40's the town was completely abandoned. this is not an uncommon story on the coast, many towns were completely dependent on one company and mill/mine, when it would shut down the town would die. the mortal remain of the town exists but shrouded in the dense bush. If you have taken a cruise ship up the inside passage than you have passed the bones of this ghost town.

I have gleamed this information and pictures from 2 websites, please visits them, for more of the story and some excellent pictures.
  

Heli-logging in British Columbia with Rick Mercer

Very odd, thought I had posted this sometime ago. Anyways, I have been up in the area they filmed this and have had conversations with some of the people in the film. Heli-logging is quite the way to do things. It minimizes the impacts on the environment but can be quite expensive. For it to be profitable you must have the right trees in the right place and a very efficient crew. I have been told that a 2-3 minute turnaround time is the best to make it profitable, which means from the time from pick-up to drop to pick-up should be within 3 minutes. The helicopter in this clip is a Chinook, but the company Helifor also flies a Boeing Vertol 107, which the sharp eyed amongst you will recognize as the same type as the old Labrador SAR helicopters we used to have. I think the company bought the air frames off of the RCAF.

People are good

Got stuck along the Sea to sky highway yesterday for close to 3 hrs (with an 8 year old boy!) due to a serious motorcycle accident. What impressed me was the way people dealt with the situation. A couple with a trailer, flashed up their stove and cooked up hotdogs and juice for everyone around them, another couple let all the ladies use the bathroom in their camper and everyone just got along. Not to mention the people at the scene giving first aid to the injured.

About the only animosity I saw was for motorcyclists who pushed past people to get to the front of the line. The Highway is a magnet for motorcyclist and while most are careful, thee is a significant number of young guys on "crotch rockets" who use the highway as their playground. Ripping around traffic, popping wheelies and excessive speeding. Apparently the police used a helicopter last weekend and busted one guy for doing 260km and they impounded 6 motorcycles in 2 hrs. If you know someone who likes to speed on motorcycle, then I suggest you send them this link, warning it's very graphic!

why I am voting Yes

The HST referendum is upon us, I will vote Yes to extinguish the HST. I have heard arguments on both sides, some businesses do benefit from less paperwork with the HST, but many people shoulder a greater tax burden because of it and I see that extra tax every day.(Not to mention the recent carbon tax increase and the proposed Evergreen line levy)

Yet that is not the main reason I am voting to rid us of the tax. For me it was the way the tax was imposed on us after promises it would not and the way it was sold, which was downright dishonest. The Government need to punished for that breech of trust. A vote to extinguish the HST will be a clear message; "You govern on our sufferance". Governments by their nature quickly become arrogant and the government under Gordon Campbell was more arrogant than normal and much of that attitude and the players still remain.

If the referendum is successful we will return to the GST/PST tax which was far from perfect, however there will be nothing stopping government from improving it and even proposing a new HST. I am not against that, but do it properly, be open, debate, be prepared to go to the polls on it. Had they done the HST honestly we would not be doing this referendum right now. This is a lesson the government needs to learn, a vote to support the HST is a vote in support of dishonest government and will tell them there is is no consequence for lying to the public.
The government is feeling the pressure though, promising to lower the HST to 10% from 12%. Lets be real, if it was not for the referendum, the HST would remain at 12% and we would be stuck paying more in tax. So I ask, if the government can afford a 10% HST, why then did they original try to ram a 12% HST down our throats? Where do these tax numbers come from? political whim or true costs?

Doing Norrish Creek

Norrish Oct 11 2010 from FVWW on Vimeo.

This is helmet cam footage of a kayakers doing Norrish Creek posted on Fraservalleywhitewater.com in BC near Mission. This gives you an idea of what the more difficult white water (Class III-IV) looks like. You can also see how important having buddies around are, particular ones practiced in river rescue.

More on the creek at Liquidlore.com






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Free divers

Free diving is a sport where one dives with no equipment other than a bodysuit, monofin and determination. As a scuba diver, I have a fair amount of respect for these people and what they can achieve and have had a close friend involved for a number of years in the sport. I do have some serious concerns about the implications of the effects of competition will have on peoples judgment. To be fair to the sport organizers, they will disqualify people who show effects after a competitive dive, which helps to limit the long term damage that could be done.
I do think that any serious scuba diver can learn useful stuff from free divers and the sports can compliment each other. Here is a read on a local girl who is seriously into the sport.

This should prove to be interesting……

I'm hoping if the case against the Police and the Chief Firearms Officer is strong, that the Baders do not settle out of court. No doubt if the police think they are going to lose, they will scramble to offer a sweet deal with a non-disclosure clause. I admire anyone that wants to run a firearm business, because any misstep can have you and your family treated like a Mob hitman.

Gordon and Jane Bader were not in their South Surrey home when some Surrey RCMP officers and members of the Delta Police arrived with a search warrant and broke down the door.

The 68-year-old retired former Vancouver police officer and his 63-year-old wife were out having breakfast.

However, their son, 34-year-old Sylvan, a security guard, was home sleeping.

He was awakened and arrested at gunpoint.

It was about 8:30 a.m. on May 16, 2008.

When the parents returned around 9:30 a.m. they were arrested, too.

Around 11 a.m. the Baders' 25-year-old son Jared, a college student, arrived at the home and was arrested.

About the same time, the Baders' other son Travis, 32, a Ladner resident, was being arrested at the offices of Silvercore Advanced Training Systems, the weapons training facility operated by the Bader family since 1988 at 7198 Vantage Way in Delta.

Travis took over as president and CEO of Silvercore from his father, the founder of the company, in 1996.

After their arrests, all five Baders were taken to the Surrey RCMP main detachment, where they were kept in separate holding cells for three days.
The next month, the Baders were charged with multiple charges of possessing restricted firearms and ammunition, making or using explosives and other weapons-related offences.

The case never went to trial.

The charges were stayed by the Crown prosecutor's office.
Details of the raid and arrests are outlined in court documents filed in the Vancouver B.C. Supreme Court registry on behalf of the Baders by lawyer Cameron Ward.

The Baders are suing two of the Surrey Mounties and one Delta police officer involved in the raid, the provincial Solicitor General's office and the municipality of Delta, saying their rights were violated.

Unspecified compensation is being sought for alleged wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, trespass, assault and battery, negligence and malicious prosecution as well as loss of income, humiliation and distress.

Their lawsuit also names a Surrey firearms officer employed by the Canadian Firearms centre gun registry and licencing authority, saying he supplied false information to the police.
In response, lawyers for the firearms centre officer, the Delta Police, RCMP, solicitor-general and the municipality have applied to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing the various officers involved were acting in good faith and their actions were legal and without malice.

No date for a court hearing has been set.

The rest here

Judge and Jury

Picture courtesy of Vancouver Sun


Hmm seems the old adage “Be careful of what you wish for, because you may get it” still has meaning today. The Police Union here in BC has declared that the new tough laws on drinking and driving are causing their members to spend to much time dealing with people that have had only 1 or 2 drinks and not dealing with chronic offenders. Seems the police are not enjoying being the judge and jury and taking the flak for their decisions.
This is what happens when you have laws driven by special interests groups using emotions as a guiding force.
For a law to be effective and focused, you need facts, hardcore facts with unbiased research to back them up. This takes time and politicians hate taking time to get all of the facts. Harder yet with a sobbing mothers telling you that you are a heartless beast for not enacting this law right away. But to have good law it must be well thought out, with a clear and achievable objective, able to withstand the hard cold light of logic and reviewed without emotion. Another aspect is the law of diminishing returns. At some point the cost of enforcement and suppression of civil rights outweighs the gain to society brought by the law. The reality here is no amount of law is going to completely stop people from driving drunk and people getting killed. We can reduce it, but never stop it. Humans just have to many variables for such absolutes.
The politicians have themselves, the police and ourselves in a pickle. Any attempt to reduce the law will cause a backlash with the special interest groups, while the media will enjoy splashing sensational headlines on front pages, which are great for selling papers but not great for solving our issues. As a firearm owners we have been warning about these types of laws and law making, now that it is beginning to effect the rest of the population all we can say is “We told you so”.

Dam Beavers!

Beavering away at a tree!


Had to fly up to Fort St John this week to look at a worksite. The rep from the company told me they weren’t the only ones working at the site. Here is a fairly unique beaver dam started with a foundation of rocks with the beginnings of the traditional dam of sticks and mud on top of it. All the construction you see here took place over a month and half. Pretty impressive stuff these beavers do. For even more impressive check out this link to the worlds largest beaver dam! For a good laugh check out the "Beaver dam letter"




From the air



Travelling in style!

Ocean Falls in pictures

An absolutely stunning collection of hundreds of photographs of both the old and present Ocean Falls. The viewing album on the link is well done and easy to use, grab a coffee and spend an hour looking at this piece of BC History and hopefully a place of future opportunities. The dam still provides power for the locals and for Bella Bella many miles away.

Approximately 480 km north of Vancouver, 170 km northeast of Port Hardy and 88 km west of Bella Coola. Ocean Falls is perched beside the deep waters of Cousins Inlet, 24 km from the open Pacific.

Our community of 35 fulltime residents and 100 addtional seasonal residents is divided into two neighbourhoods. Ocean Falls Townsite is on the right and Martin Valley is on the left. The road between them is approximately 1.5 km. You can just see a bit of water above the townsite, this is Link Lake which is 19km long and has great fresh water fishing. There is a hydroelectric dam and waterfall just above the townsite.

Pictures at this link

It's a tough life

It's a tough life, go spend a week in a place people spend thousands to see. We saw about 12 Humpback whales, about 200 pacific Whiteside’s porpoises, lots of salmon jumping and one elephant seal. Caught a nice 30lb halibut which is very tasty! Was with a good crew who could all cook and we had good food, good wine, good company and fantastic scenery. Nothing like relaxing at the end of the day with a glass of merlot, watching Humpback whales feeding.

It's nice to be back though with two loving daughters, a great wife and not to mention a purring cat!

Off to Rivers Inlet

Off to Bella Coola and then Bella Bella today for work. Flying into Bella Coola for which the approach is quite impressive zig zagging through the mountains.


Then jumping into a boat for the trip to Bella Bella, stay there for the night and then down by boat to Rivers Inlet for work, including running a videoray ROV. It’s a tough gig but I will survive ;-) The boat



There is no internet where I will be so I apologize for no posts till around Saturday.

Pemberton Slide photo's

This slide is being compared to the Hope slide as the second largest in BC, , I am thankfully the naturally created dam broke apart slowly as it removed the flood risk to the people living in the valley. I used to party at the Meager Creek hotsprings back in the 80’s I hope they are still useable after this.

More stunning pictures here