A diamond in the rough

In the sternwheeler era, the north shore of Kootenay Lake was demarcated in mile posts from the Nelson city wharf. From Six Mile we would head north-west and up thirteen kilometers to Six Mile Lakes. Along the way, a burbling stream flows down its timeworn rock bed. Mosses carpet the forest floor and a variety of mushrooms, all except the prized edible Boletes, are on display.

You can walk alongside this chain of three connected lakes, aka beaver ponds, that are the headwaters of the Duhamel Creek watershed.

• 

There are no majestic jaw-dropping vistas but nature simply enthralled. A raft of ducks dove and resurfaced, popping up like corks. Cute and playful river otters manoeuvred through a log jam. Where beaver, nature’s engineers, had modified the environment to suit their needs the road is flooded. In the still of the night what else was happening?   

•