Silver King Basin

This last Wednesday the other volunteer and I got another day off together, so along with the two teenagers who are here helping out with the horses, we decided to go out on another hike after the great day we had last time. This time we wanted to be more adventurous so hiked up to what is called Silver King Basin. The trail takes you to a beautiful wild meadow and a large flowing river that is inside a basin 1300 feet up into the mountains. IT WAS STUNNING. Honestly it might just have been one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

In the meadow was a log cabin where hikers are able to stay and rest, had I more than one day off and more time to explore I definitely would have stayed there for a few days.

My dream home

 It was a relatively easy walk, around 20km and I had such a great time. We were all laughing and joking the whole day and it was nice to just get away from the farm for a day, as often on my days off I am stuck on site as I can't drive. It's pretty easy to get slight cabin fever when you can't leave.

Exploring around the basin we found the last remnants of the old mines. A couple of mining carts and a portion of the tracks have been left for hikers to explore and we had a lot of fun climbing in them and taking pictures. It's pretty cool to think that this cart is over 100 years old.

I'm such a dork

Things at the shelter have quietened down a lot after the baby season. Our little deer, Brock (yes named after the Pokemon Character. When we picked him up he had a double sided eye infection, meaning he couldn't open his eyes at all, hence the name) is doing extremely well. He knows his name, and comes running to get his milk. He is very excitable and also completely adorable.

SUPER CUTE!!!

All the bears are doing great. Fisher, the bear that suddenly became gravely ill last month, has finished his meds and despite being given only a 5% survival chance by vets, pulled through and has been reunited with the other bears.

Eight of our ducks are ready to be released this weekend, along with our four foxes. Also Ninja, our Canada goose, has another friend. We got another Canada goose that we named Turtle. Get it. Ninja Turtle. We are hilarious! Ninja has been living in the same enclosure as the ducks since they arrived, so we have the running joke now that we have Turtle, who is a goose, living with another goose that thinks it's a duck. Not confusing AT ALL.

The two beavers, now named Willow and Aspen (much more suitable for the public than what we nicknamed them. Fussbutt and Chubs) are growing like crazy and we are still looking into options on where to send them. BC doesn't allow the release of beavers as, despite being the national animal, they are considered a nuisance. So eventually a home in a wildlife park or a zoo needs to be found.

L: Aspen (Chubs) R: Willow (Fussbutt)

Seeing as I am on  photo uploading spree, here is a picture of me in a den with Littlefoot, our yearling Grizzly bear. We tranquilised him so I was able to take paw prints. I never expected to get so close to a grizzly bear!

Phew, that was a long update. I'm in my last week at the shelter now, so my next update will most likely come from Vancouver, where I am staying for four days before I fly home. I think i'm also going to be avoiding the news for the next week as i'm getting slightly nervous to be going on a bunch of planes with all these disappearances and crashes that are happening right now. It's kind of unsettling to say the least.

Until next time!