The Office

June 22, 2012

Ok, so I finished my 2^nd week of work.  We were in Streelow Ck, Lost Man Ck and Godwood Ck.  We took about 12 hrs for the first two creeks from meet up at 7am until the last bit of data entry at 7pm and later. Today we finally finished the day in 10 hrs.  It rained on us all day.  We got to our site quickly.  The other two days were a little helacious when it came to getting to the site.  Awful bushwacking to Streelow ck and steep plunges from the road to the flood plain of Lost Man.  I almost thought my right knee cap was gonna crack in two when we were climbing out of that creek.  I made it knees intact. 

I must say it was SO incredibly beautiful.  Each creek had its own distinct personality.  Streelow…poor little Streelow.  Evidence of the Old Growth that once was abounded everywhere you looked.  Huge stumps with the platform notches still visible were bases for numerous plants.  Jackstraws everywhere Sword fern up to Josh’s head and decaying logs tricking you into feeling confident you were on solid ground.  Then “fwoop” down you went in between intertwining roots right through the solid looking duff. But since it was all decayed you didn’t get any bruises from it.  Bruises come from solid things.  The forest there was so thick. You could see through the needles and branches that the sun was out it was probably a damn fine day.  But down on Streelow it was cold and dark and decaying.  That may sound unpleasant, but it kept the creek cool.  Believe it or not there were juvenile Coho and Rainbow and Cuttys in that creek.  You know what that means…It’s possible it was all resident trout, BUT since we found Coho that means those suckers are spawning up to atleast where we found the juveniles.  I almost want to camp out there during spawning season to witness this first hand…almost.

If we could dig down through the silt and muck and decaying matter what would we find?  Would current day Streelow be different or similar to Streelow in the past?

Lost Man creek is so open and beautiful.  So close and yet so far.  Enormous maples and tons of Alders grace its banks.  Back from the banks stood huge redwoods and a few spruce. The flood plain towards the road was a good 30 meters. I didn’t explore or have to bushwack through the opposite bank. It has Rainbows, Cutty’s and Coho.  It has tons of Sculpin sp, Pacific Giant Salamanders, some sticklebacks and lamprey. We even got a tailed frog tadpole in the bucket.  But we also saw evidence of the New Zealand mud snail.  It’s a huge creek confined to such a small mouth into Prairie Creek.  Or is it a huge flood plain that has allowed it’s waters to spread out lazily as it flows toward Prairie creek?  And if there’s ever a huge snow up top that melts suddenly or sudden torrential rain I guess it’s got that covered. And then some.

Godwood creek is hidden among some amazing old growth.  We were in a section right by the trail yet we could not see the trail. It rained constantly all day.  The rain got heavier as the day progressed.  It was fitting that we were rained on on the third day of summer in Godwood creek.  A very twisty curvy pretty little creek.  There was flagging from a previous fish crew marking where there were redds in the creek.  We caught rainbows, cuttys and coho and lots of pacific giant salamanders.  Neotenic.  They all had gills.  Some were adult size.  Lots of solid sediment layers.  I really don’t know how the banks keep the creek within.  It just seems like the creek would erode away the layers of decayed duff .  But even though I can’t see it I think the layers are reinforced by huge down and decaying redwoods (and a few spruce maybe).  What would we see if we dug down? …..

I am tired. My writing is probably full of errors.  I’ll look it over later to get my facts straight.