Tag Archives: deadman valley

Vidette Lake

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On a late summer sunny day, I drove all the way up the Deadman Valley and paddled Vidette Lake.   It is a 56 km drive up the gravel road from the Trans Canada Highway.   Because it is a scenic route with many places to explore, I return most years, choosing different lakes and different hikes each time.   We have previously explored Deadman Falls, Deadman Lake, Snohoosh Lake, Mowich Lake, Castle Rock Hoodoos, Sherwood Creek Hoodoos, Split Rock, Pass Valley, Criss Creek, Hihium Lake and more.   For this trip it was Vidette Lake and an exploration of the Deadman River, finding an alternate route to the falls.

 

 

There is a small Recreation site on the lakeshore with a good boat launch.

 

 

Vidette Lake is long and narrow, close to the road, with steep hills on both sides.   At the end of the lake, the Deadman Road climbs into the hills.

 

 

Vidette Lake is not part of the Deadman River as the other lakes in the valley are.   It is on a tributary drainage of three creeks (Hamilton Creek, Yard Creek, and Coal Creek) and the outflow goes into the Deadman River 0.3 km south.    Each lake has a different ecology.   Many of the shallow bays of our lakes of the area have water lilies, smartweed, and aquatic weeds like millfoil, but Vidette Lake had arrowhead in the bays near the shoreline.   This plant grow from rhizomatous tubers which was historically harvested by First Nations people.   Muskrats and ducks eat it too.   Flowering was done for the year, but clusters of seeds were visible at the surface on the ends of stems.

 

 

Fallen trees become saturated logs and over time the wood  decays, but as it does this, vegetation may take root in the above-water part of the log.   Mosses usually start the process and then grasses and perennials grow on these small “islands”.

 

 

A the north end of the lake the Vidette Gold Mine can be seen.   This is now on the Vidette Resort property and a tour can be arranged with the resort owner.   I wrote a historical research report for Gold Country on the mine.    Here is a link to the story – Vidette Gold Mine.

 

 

At the south end of the lake is  a narrow channel, but it was jammed with logs which would require portaging the boat around or driving down the road and hauling the boat down a steep bank so I skipped that section.   The paddle around the rest of the lake, following the shoreline was 5 km.

 

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Hihium Lake

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Our route up to Hihium Lake was from the southwest, so we drove west on the Trans Canada Highway and then turned north onto the Deadman Valley Road.   The narrow and sometimes Hihium FSR climbs steeply out of the valley onto the upper plateau, which has been heavily logged and planted.   The road was reasonable and we noted signs for Sky High Lodge along the way to help make decisions at intersections.   Anyone who takes this road may want to be prepared for active logging or fallen trees.   From the Deadman Valley turnoff to Hihium Lake was about 20 km.   A short, rough road leads to the Hihium Lake South Recreation Site (watch for signs).

hihium 2The Hihium Site has 17 camping spots and a boat launch area.   We launched out and paddled the lake on a warm day.

IMG_0035rThe east-west oriented lake lies at 4491 feet (1369m).   The east end and west ends are marshy.   The outlet is at the west end where Hihium Creek runs down to Loon Creek.   This is a fishing lake so there are 3 fishing resorts on the lake and a few seasonal cabins on both sides of the lake.   About 80% of the shoreline is just high country forest.

IMG_1361rThere are a few isthmuses and points to help sheltered paddling if the winds come up.   We had only light breezes, but anyone who ventures up there to paddle should check the wind forecast first.

IMG_1369rSunny skies with fluffy clouds make for a great day of paddling.   The 12 km route should take about 2.5 hours of steady, rhythmic paddling in a kayak.

IMG_1362rWe chose to return by the main road into Hihium.   We drove on a good gravel road north to a junction, then turned west on a rougher road down to Loon Lake and down to Highway 97 (60 km) then back to Cache Creek and Kamloops.   The better road is to continue over to the Chasm Road, but this is a long route from Kamloops.   With such a long route an excellent choice would be to stay overnight at the Hihium Recreation Site for 2 days of paddling and exploring.

Deadman Falls and Deadman Lake

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The Deadman Valley runs north for over 50km from the Trans-Canada Highway, a scenic drive, but also a good route to explore lakes, falls, hoodoos, and backcountry routes.   Each time we make the whole-day trip, we pick new points of interest for more exploration.   Last year, it was Deadman Falls, Sherwood hoodoos, and Snohoosh Lake (Deadmans Tour).   This year it was Deadman Falls, Deadman Gorge, and Deadman Lake.   On our next trip, we will paddle Hihium Lake and hike up to Split Rock.

We drove up the length of the valley right to the trailhead to Deadman Falls and walked to the brink of the canyon.   The river was rushing down to the edge of the basalt lava cliffs where it plunged 200 feet to the bottom of the gorge.   The sources of the Deadman River are the lakes and uplands meadows of the 4000 foot Kukwaus Plateau to the northeast.   The viewpoint on the north side of the gorge is at the top of sheer cliffs, making it difficult to get the full falls into a photo.   It is a spot to show lots of caution.

We followed the rim downstream to a side valley, then scrambled down a very steep slope to the bottom of the gorge at edge of the river.   There was clearly no way to work our way up the gorge to the base of the falls.   It was just a series of cascades surrounded by cliffs on both sides.   We scrambled back up the way we came.

On our way back down the Deadman Valley we stopped at the Deadman Lake Recreation Site for lunch before launching our kayaks for a paddle around the lake.

This lake is surrounded by forest and a complete circuit is only 3.2 km.   A mother loon had a hatchling on her back on the north end of the lake.   There are a couple of summer homes on the lake, but there was no one around on a weekday in May.

Lava flow cliffs and sculpted erosion slopes can be viewed along the 50km length of the valley, all requiring further exploration, another reason to return to the Deadman River Valley.

 

Paddling Snohoosh Lake

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There is a chain of lakes in the upper Deadman’s Valley and Snohoosh Lake is the largest of them.   It is a long, narrow, and winding lake bordering the Deadman – Vidette Road.   From the Trans Canada Highway, we have to drive 38 km to the south end of the lake.   The backroad continues to wind around the shoreline of the lake for another 4.4 km.   At the north end of the lake is a Recreation site with a hand launch in a small bay.

The paddle down one shoreline to the end and back to the launch is 8.5 km.   At the south end of the lake is the outlet to Deadman’s River where the water pours over a small dam.

There are only a couple of cabins on the roadside of the lake; the rest of the lake has willow, red ossier dogwood, wild roses, alder, and birch next to the water and pine-fir forest above rising up the slopes on both sides.   In two hours on the lake, no vehicles could be heard and there were no other boats on the lake.   Loons, ducks, American dippers, and swallows were spotted on the lake.   Small schools of fish swam below the kayak in great numbers.   This is a peaceful spot.

Other lakes we can paddle (or fish) in this quiet back valley are Deadman’s Lake and Vidette Lake.   There are Forest Service Rec sites at all 3 lakes.