Early July I went to town to meet another pair of volunteers. Same precautions – they have their own vehicle; once home they stay in their own cabin and I pass the food out of the door to them for two weeks.

Because of the rain, the roadside weed were lush.

The sticky geranium is a native of the grasslands. It doesn’t grow in the west Chilcotin.

Naturally, I started the volunteers off with the firewood.

Daniel proved to be a techie kind of guy so was soon making repairs – this time the trailer light. (Note the head net. The bugs have been terrible this year. Lots of dull windless weather, and lots of standing water. Fortunately for me, Daniel and Anja had spent 3 months hiding from the covid in Hay River, unable to work in the tourist business that had promised them a job, and had much experience with violent bugs. People in Hay River were saying it was the worst year they had known.)

Being German, they were disgusted (as I am) with the sticky gooey mess that goes under the name of bread in most grocery stores. So here they are maintaining a social distance from me, mixing up their recipe.

Shortly after they arrived I went to the Kleena Kleene waterfall again, this time with the volunteers. I rode my ATV, Daniel and Anja walked with Harry. The burned forest had a green carpet, and in some places new pines were growing up.

There were still a few clumps of Richardson’s penstemon in bloom.

But now the dominant flower was Ivey-leaved spiraia.

Nodding onion was in bloom

And then the lookout. The sort of drab day we had been having a lot of – made drabber by the burned trees.

Nearby tree skeletons.

The water was even higher than the last time I had visited. You can’t see the actual falls without going into the river, but the roar and great gobs of spray shooting down indicated its power.

Daniel is a professional photographer. His hiking progress was slow because he kept wanting to take Anja’s picture.

He also wanted to cross the side creek – the only way was via a log jam

As a contrast here are some pictures of a February 2014 trip. There was very little snow, but it had been around -20C for a long time.

A view along the trail. (Long before the fire!)

The Lookout.

The river by the falls was almost silent. The logjam Daniel crossed is in the middle of the picture.

Back home, the volunteers worked hard, and the woodshed was getting full.

In our logging area were two very showy strawberry bite plants. You can eat these clusters of miniscule berries, but they don’t taste of much. The plant is a spinach relative.

Baby birds were everywhere – mostly ducks on the pond, but I’ll write about those in another post. Both robins and white-crowned sparrows were hunting endlessly for morsels to feed their young.

And the garden was beginning to produce.