Exploring the Koots - 0524 - Gerrard

Highway 31 heads north-west after leaving the north end of Kootenay Lake and follows the Lardeau River to Trout Lake. After that, it becomes more like a logging road....but that's another story.

Monday, on a bit of an impulse, I decided to wander up to Trout Lake and camp for the night. There is an old BC Forest Service site at the east end of the lake, more or less where the old townsite of Gerrard used to be. Very few signs of the old townsite remain. I understand the town was named after a banker, but I decided I wouldn't let that bother me too much....

These days, it's a good place to go fish or to watch fish - there's even a fish-watching platform on the banks of the Lardeau River.

We've gone up there to watch Bald Eagles while they've been fishing and have counted literally dozens of the great birds feeding.

This trip there were no fish and no Bald Eagles, just a solitary Rufus hummingbird who came to check out the tail lights on the camper.

Last night it was about views of the lake and the sunset. I've heard a certain amount of whining about the poor sunsets here in the mountains: "...just not like a prairie sky...", which kind of figures, given where we live. However, the sun went down last night almost right up at the end of the Lake and I thought the evening sky was pretty good - for the mountains, that is ;-)