Lasse was getting a ride to Williams Lake and I had to take him early to Tatla Lake; by a quirk of fate, none of the 3 remaining volunteers had ever driven a car so I have had to take them everywhere. As we were already 40 minutes en route, I decided we could all go to Tatlayoko, which is an hour south of Tatla Lake. On the way we were graced by these four sandhill cranes.

A public campground has been made out of the old mill site beside the lake.  Fred is in the canoe, Ben and Jean on the shore.  The Niuts are in the background.  Then Ben and Jean had a turn.  Looking up to the Coast Range.

I left the other three beside the lake and drove south another 30 or 40 minutes.  I was hoping to find some flowers on a meadow I had seen years before, on Potato Mountain (on the left.)

The road got narrower and narrower ; it would soon end at  Bracewell’s Wilderness Lodge.

I managed to find a cow trail heading up the mountains. The first treat was an umbellifor I am too lazy to look up properly.

The next was a stone crop I often see at Nuk Tessli 

I was hoping to find the balsam root daisy, and it was in the forest in abundance.

I climbed higher and soon began to reach patches of meadow.

At first they seemed rather ordinary, but as I got higher still, I started finding harsh paintbrush (a different species than the one growing at home.)

The meadows were now a lot more colourful.  (The white is the poisonous death cammas.) Apart from the blue, small-flowered penstemon, none of these species grow at Nuk Tessli.  The underlying sandstone /limestone mix of Potato Mountain produces a very different soil.

It was now getting quite steep.

Here is a nice mix.

I could have wallowed among the flowers for hours, but the mosquitos were terrible!  Much worse than at home.  But the butterflies were also out in full force.