This was just sent to me. A client called Faye Blondin hiked to the top of the North Ridge at the end of July. She is a yoga practitioner.
She is definitely the first person to do this at Nuk Tessli!
One More Pic of Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
Tag Archives: Nuk Tessli
Farewell Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
I have already mentioned some of the changes that have been happening at Nuk Tessli. The motor boat made moving canoes and other objects much easier.
Many years ago, a young German was writing his experiences in my guest book and he asked me if he could use the word “Queendom.” I thought it a wonderful word! (The final Nuk Tessli book, already half-written, will be called just that!) Doron is installing compost toilets for each cabin. So finally, just before I had to leave, I had a throne.
Doron also has started a shower block. What a different job carrying logs is with several people – I built the first 2 cabins at Nuk Tessli totally alone. I dragged and lifted the logs with a block and tackle and a come-along.
But to me, the most amazing thing at Nuk Tessli was the installation of a router so that we had Wi-Fi. I never really had a phone of any kind – now, every morning and evening, several people can call or text Israel at once.
I like this toy so much I think I will get one for Ginty Creek so my world wide volunteers can phone home.
And so the last day dawned. How many thousands of pictures of the sunrise have I taken at Nuk Tessli over the last 24 years?
I managed to persuade the Israelis to line up for a photo.
On the left (pulling faces) is Pish, then Amotz, Me and Doron, Doron’s wife, Suzan, Inbal and Oren.
I am handing over the keys to Nuk Tessli
Things got a little emotional after that so I never got around to taking any more photos until we were in the air.
Farewell Nuk Tessli (It is kind of smokey due to a forest fire about 200 miles south.) The cabins are near the islands on the extreme left of the lake.
A few days before I left, I celebrated my 65th birthday. So I guess I am now officially retired.
The Block, 9th August 2012
Categories: Nuk Tessli
There is a loop trail close to the cabin that I have always referred to as “The Block.” The day before I was due to fly out, I walked around it to say goodbye.
A lot of the hike is through the high-altitude, scrubby pine forest that surrounds Nuk Tessli.
A good part of it follows Otter Creek (named by me because of the otter tracks that always loop along it in winter.)
There is a small but amazingly colourful meadow.
Back through the forest to say goodbye to the rocks
through more meadows where the pyramid spaearia is blooming: it is one of the last plants to flower. (I know that is spelled wrong: I am too lazy to look it up!)
Curving towards the cabins again where the fireweed is blooming
And, in a shady part of the forest, is the only known patch in this area of Single Delight. (I always think that sounds like the name for an ice-cream cone.) It is a tiny flower that bows it’s head to the forest floor. I have never managed to take a decent photo of it before so I was quite pleased with this one.
Past the last of several ponds where the willows were eaten by some kind of beetle larvae.
A close-up made an interesting abstract.
The last pond was full of pond lilies. In this shot they are framed by sitka burnet.
I have never before seen so many flowering stalks on the sitka burnet.
Early local flowers at Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
This is typical of the high-altitude forest at Nuk Tessli – mostly whitebark pine.
A friend came to stay for a week. She is an ardent photographer so we went on several very slow hikes. The first took us over some bluffs with great views of the lake. You can just see the cabins half hidden by the island on the right. Mount Monarch is newly snowed up in the clouds behind.
But because Doreen and I are both keen photographers, we enjoyed the small things just as much:
A whitebark root
Chambers in a rotten tree made by carpenter ants – looks like a cave with stalactites!
Bark texture from another whitebark pine tree
And of course the flowers;
Bog Laurel
And again, with yellow heather
Yellow anemone
Variable willow
Marsh violets
Northern anemones
It was rainy quite a lot during Doreen’s stay. I tried to capture the drops on the reflections near the pond lily leaves.
Winter damage at Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
There are people who think that operating a resort means sitting by the lake all day in the sunshine. But there is always some winter damage. All cabins were invaded by mice, squirrels and packrats, and cleaning up after them, in time for my first visitors tomorrow, has been my main job so far.
The ice went off the lake a week ago, and the water is very cold and very high. There are still patches of snow in shady spots, and one enormous drift in a wind funnel – it was where I put my tent when I built the first cabin.
This winter was very windy and there are an enormous number of trees down. I took an hour off to hike around “The Block” yesterday and must have stepped over a dozen trees on the trail – most years there are none or one, occasionally two. There are also a lot of trees down right around the cabins. Only one did any damage.
It split the outhouse asunder!
The sitting part is still OK so once the tree is removed, it won’t take much to repair it. I did not bring a chainsaw with me this time – I am leaving that for Nuk Tessli’s new owner, who arrives in a week’s time.
Cabin two has lost many chimneys to sliding snow and I have tried to build structures to foil it. At least the chimney is still held by its restraining chain this time.
I used to fix all these things alone but I now find the ladders too heavy. The clients who arrive tomorrow are going to get a nice surprise when I ask them to help me put the chimney back!
There are compensations, of course.
And this morning’s almost solstice sunrise shining through the cabin door.
There are no leaves on the deciduous plants yet, but the first flowers are already blooming in the meadow. These are Mountain Marsh Marigolds.
Flying in to Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
Just as well I did not fly in yesterday as originally planned for it was wet and windy. Today, the weather has been chilly, but gorgeous.
I arrived at the float plane base about 7.30 am. It took at least half an hour to load all the freight (there is still a big pile stored in my van and in the hanger.) So it must have been a little after 8.00am when we hopped off the water at Nimpo Lake.
It was a very calm morning; the air was dead flat over the lakes but had a small turbulence over the forest where the sun and shadow created differences in the air movement. Halfway to Nuk Tessli we crossed Charlotte Lake. The forest is grey in the picture as a result of the 2004 Lonesome Lake Fire. Down the Atnarko River, the fire was so fierce it burned the country to the bone.
Now we are heading up one of the branches of Whitton Creek.
The mountain on the right is called Avalanch Lake Lookout – you can see the avalanche channels on its flanks. Nuk Tessli is just over the ridge at the far end.
As we got closer, we could see more of Mt Monarch.
And over the ridge we see Nuk Tessli Lake at last. It is on the left and the two lakes in the foreground are what I call upper and lower Otter Lakes.
Now we are coming in to land. The cabins are on the point surrounded by the islands.
Here are the three cabins from the air. Unfortunately there is a shadow of the prop in the picture.
The lake is very high so the dock was half underwater. The plane is leaving me a huge pile of freight to carry up the steep trail to the cabin.
It usually takes about a week to clean all three cabins properly, but clients and a friend are arriving in three days so I will have to hussle. Doron, the new owner, will not be here for another 10 days.
But as I lift my head from the chores, I have the pleasure of looking southeast to Louise O’Murphy….
… And southwest up the lake to Mt Monarch.
Nuk Tessli is SOLD.
Categories: Nuk Tessli
Finally, the official announcement!
This is going to be a scrappy post as I have been incredibly busy and all the information is on the Nuk Tessli site anyway. Please check it out for details.
One thing is for sure, although I will obviously say goodbye to Nuk Tessli with mixed feelings, I for sure will LOVE not having to organize all the shopping and food and flights and people and stuff I need to do on the phone (there is no phone at Nuk Tessli) at this time of year, everything made vastly more complicated by my living so far from stores – and I still have a boghole to contend with, so only my truck can get home – my van has to stay parked near Highway 20. Next year I can look forward to ENJOYING spring at Ginty Creek.
Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
The next day was a total contrast. Nuk Tessli means West Wind in the Carrier language and it was certainly flexing its muscles.
And with the wind came the rain… (this is where the mountains should be.)
The rain quit early and the wind strengthened…
I was quite concerned because I was due to fly to Nimpo Lake on the following day, and I don’t like flying, particularly when it is bumpy.
Octopus Lake Bridge
Categories: Nuk Tessli
When I first came to Nuk Tessli I used to hike out every month for mail. It was necessary to wade a river, which was sometimes chest deep in high water and very difficult to cross. Finally I found a place at the outlet of Octopus Lake for a footlog bridge.
The lake is over an hour’s hike from the cabins. I took a comalong, chainsaw, smaller tools, and an overnight camp up there, and spent 2 and half days up to my chest in water to build the bridge. Part of the problem was that the high altitude prevented the trees from growing long enough to span the river and I had to drag or float the logs for a very long way.
After about 4 years a big spring flood washed the bridge completely away. Two wwoofers and I built another, and tried to place it much higher. But last fall’s flood took that away, too. Fortunately, it got snagged around the rope handrail so the logs were still there.
My spring wwoofers tried to fix it but the water was too high when they were here.
A few days ago 5 men flew in to the lake above mine, to camp for a few days, and they came to Nuk Tessli to get information on hiking routes and borrow a couple of canoes. I figured their “rent” would be to help me fix the bridge.
I no longer had the comalong so we had to rely on small hand tools and lots of rope and muscle power. The bridge was still half floating and was very wobbly to cross.
First the men pulled the near end up onto the pile of rocks.
They did better when they used a small tree for a lever.
Next they tackled the other end
It had to be moved onto the cross log on the right of the picture.
(What good fortune to have such a hot, sunny day!)
The smaller log had to be propped with rocks to make it level.
And here is the finished bridge. It took all afternoon to get it in place but it is once more a good solid bridge.
The five men met in business school in Texas. They get together every year for a wilderness vacation. Instead I asked them to work hard! They certainly earned their canoes. Thankyou, guys.
Bus tour at Nuk Tessli
Categories: Nuk Tessli
No, the bus cannot drive to Nuk Tessli. Instead, participants are flown in by a fleet of float planes. (Nice handbag, Ian.)
The party is divided into three groups. Each group visits for between two and three hours. The rest of their day is taken up with a flight-seeing tour over the glaciers and a hike to Hunlen Falls. This part of the tour is orchestrated by Tweedsmuir Air. Most of the bus tours that come to me are run by Wells Gray Tours.
I take them for a walk around the property….
…and invite them in for a piece of stone-oven bread and a cup of tea.
Most of the participants have read my books and know more about me than I do!