We're all up in Fort Ware, which is accessible only by air or a rough dirt road 450Km north of Mackenzie, BC. It's BC's most remote community of roughly 300 people.
Anne is up here providing women's health and other medical care for a health conference. This whole region is strikingly beautiful, especially this time of year with the cottonwood, birch, and poplar trees changing colour. But like many aboriginal communities, the Kwadacha Nation is healing from historical trauma (flooding of their traditional territory, relocation, residential schools, etc) and ongoing trauma resulting from abuse and addiction.
This post contains mostly photos from the first part of our visit, while the next will contain more philosophical thoughts and observations from our time here. Enjoy the photos!
Foraging for Food
Sarah took us on a bumpy ride (my head hit the ceiling of the truck cab twice) up an old cutblock to pick a variety of vaccinium (read blueberries). Anne turned a few pounds into the best freaking pie I have ever tasted.
The main course for that meal was a delicious cream of wild mushroom soup that we made. We picked several pounds of shaggy mane mushrooms. It tasted so mushroomy that I could have mistaken it for an MSG-type fake mushroom flavour. It was very good. Here is me and S washing the shrooms.
The Moose
A village member took a large moose and Sarah traded some baking for a ton of meat. I enjoyed boning out the leg and making some roasts. Moose meat is extremely dark, and has no fat marbling whatsoever. I will turn some of our portion into moose jerky.
Jack Lake
Jack Lake is about 60Km from the Kwadacha Village by road, or a 12Km bushwhack over Mt. Bennet. We spent a night there so I could help Jeff finish the roof on the log cabin he's building with a friend of his. This lake is beyond beautiful. It sits right in the trench between the Ominica Range to the west and the main Rocky Mountain Trench to the east.
Sarah making bannock over the coals at Jack Lake.
E enjoying Bannock in the sun. The cabin site is only accessible by boat or short hike.
The view from shore looking south.
Bringing the roof to the site (before the cracks in the boat sunk us!)
The newer cabin is on the left, and will become the "bath house". A simple wood stove/water heater will be welded on the top floor, providing hot water for the bathtub on the lower floor.
Me supervising Jeff's handiwork. "looking good, J!"
Don't tell WCB. Oh wait . . . we're not "working"
Getting ready to go back to the trucks so me and Jeff could shoot rifles and fall trees.
This is the Finlay River which runs south through Ft. Ware into Lake Williston, BC's largest lake (it was made when the river was dammed at Hudson's Hope for a massive Hydro project. Mount Bennet looms at 2100 metres in the background.
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