reclamation project

Mount Sabine Lookout, near Canal Flats BC. 

May 14, 2022 

Mount Sabine Lookout Trail is 18 km from our front door. We have walked this path many times and have never seen a soul. Maybe because the first bit runs through a partially logged forest. Maybe because it's a bit out of the way. Maybe because the end bit is very steep. But there is something about it that keeps us coming back.

Tire tracks on a path through what was once a forest
now a boulder strewn field of stumps and deadfall
Evidence of man is everywhere.
in the roads that scar the land
in the bark and mulch on the forest floor where trees once stood
in the car bodies rusting in the gulch
in the hum and crack of the village below
in the rumble of the train across the valley.

But turn from the path
into the primordial forest
where neon green lichens hang from the trees
where spruce put down roots on rocks
where roots split stones in two
where crows call to one another
another world
where anything seems possible.

At the lookout
gnarled junipers overlook the turquoise lake.
Beyond you,
greening hills
a shining river
indigo peaks striped with snow.
Around you,
wind murmurs like a mountain stream.
Above you,
wind roars like waves rolling onto a distant shore.

A wild place,
where nature fights to regain her foothold.
where grass and prairie crocus and Douglas fir overtake abandoned bicycle jumps
rusts corrodes a rolled pick-up truck
and violets bloom between the tracks.

In this magical place you can still believe,
even in this age of destruction,
one day
long after you and I are gone from this world
trees will still grow
flowers will still bloom
birds will still sing

rivers will flow to the sea
ponderosas will still silhouette bonsai shapes against a marble sky
snow will still fall
mountains will still be blue

Nature will reclaim herself.