Late Season Rambles

November 5, 2025

Despite coming down with a nasty bug that kept me indoors for a week or so, I have managed to get out for a few late season hikes and walks, enjoying the warm light and rich colours of autumn.

In mid-October I explored a new area for me: a sub-basin of Springer Creek near Slocan, where I was rewarded with some panoramic vistas of the Valhallas.

Sunrise on the Valhallas: left to right - Wolf's Ears, Mt. Dag, Mt. Gladsheim

View of Mulvey basin from a ridge in the Springer Creek watershed, framed by Dag and Gladsheim

I kept coming across these bear tracks in the fresh snow as I hiked up an old mining road to access the ridge but I never saw the bear itself. I'm wondering if it was heading for its winter den site.

The Slocan Valley Rail Trail and the Selkirk College trails can always be relied on to offer up a visual feast, or at least a snack or two. Even though I’ve hiked these routes for decades, there’s always something new to catch my eye.

The Slocan River with Frog Peak in the background

Mountain ash leaves along the Selkirk College trails

The Kootenay-Columbia confluence, with Zuckerberg's Island and the Lion's Head in the background

Many of the birds have flown south, but Townsend's solitaires will overwinter in our area. This was near the Columbia River along the Selkirk trails.

Another of my favorite fall haunts is the path that wanders along a series of beaver ponds on a side channel of the Kootenay River near South Slocan. What’s cool about the beaver dams here is that they are constructed mainly of rocks that the clever engineers have maneuvered in some way (carried? rolled?) to block the small channel, creating wide, shallow ponds.

I think this is the only place I've seen beaver dams built out of rocks - a lesson in adaptation and using what's at hand. Unfortunately, it looks like the invasive yellow flag iris has become established on this dam.

A quiet forest pool

Finally, the other day I made one of my not-so-frequent visits to Pass Creek Park and the Waldie Island trail, hoping to capture some of the fall splendour of the deciduous woodlands there.

The leaves of moisture-loving red-osier dogwood turn to brilliant shades of red in the fall.

The rich gold of streamside cottonwoods reflected in the quiet pools of Pass Creek, just upstream from its confluence with the Columbia River.

Mallards in flight

There was quite a congregation of goldeneyes, buffleheads and mallards in the Castlegar sewage treatment lagoon, situated near the beginning of the Waldie Island trail.

The Waldie Island trail passes through a lovely stand of cottonwood trees.

The view south along the Columbia from the Waldie Island trail

Looking across Waldie Island with the CPR bridge over the Columbia in the background

The transition from fall to winter is well underway, and I'm thankful that I've been able to get outside to enjoy a few of the last mild and sunny days before the colours fade to brown and grey and the snow start to fall, but still hopeful there will be a few more lovely fall days before winter settles in for good.

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