Once the rustling of our camouflage coats had stopped, I had never heard silence like it – thick, all-encompassing, so meditative, it was almost spiritual.
I had started my journey on a short flight from Vancouver 300km north-east to Kamloops in British Columbia. From there, I’d driven three hours north to Williams Lake at the heart of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region, which ranges from the Pacific to the Cariboo Mountains via fjords, lakes, temperate rainforests and plains.
Then, a pre-dawn drive across to Beaver Creek near Likely (aka the middle of nowhere), followed by a short hike at -27°C and there I was, crouching on my snowshoes in the nook of snow-laden aspen trees, looking for moose, lynx, wolves and ermine.
I was on a nature hike with Eco Tours guide Ryan Simmonds at the start of wolf and lynx breeding season in early February. “They’ve a one-track-mind right now,” Ryan told us. “That’s good news – they won’t be paying attention to us.”
The dawn sky had turned the frozen landscape pink, and the snow-covered roads were deserted apart from the odd logging truck.
Before setting off, Ryan set out some ground rules: “Whisper, proceed in single file behind me and when I stop, stay silent.” Ryan had an intuitive feel for the wilderness and had scouted the territory to assess where the most activity was likely to be. That said, nature is unpredictable, he reminded us. “It’s the way it goes. You can see what’s going on from the tracks, but sometimes you just don’t catch them in the act.”
As we walked, Ryan would stop and stand in silence, his head turning this way and that. He’d feel the wind direction and adapt our course, so our scent didn’t carry and scare the moose. As we saw new tracks, he’d explain how long ago the animal had passed, the species, sex, size and age.
“That is fresh,” he whispered, looking at prints in the snow that looked to me like all the other prints in the snow. “I’d say it was two moose: a sow and her one-year-old calf. Looks like she was dragging a dead rabbit.”
We returned to the truck to scout out Quesnel Lake, said to be the deepest lake fjord in the world, plunging to 600m, and around which elusive wolverine roam. The long, narrow lake was frozen and the hoar frost on the surface looked like floating diamanté rose buds in the late afternoon sun.
Back in the truck, we stared out of the windows willing a moose or lynx to appear. We’d seen cows, horses and birds of prey, but our eyes started playing tricks. A stump looked like a lynx; a fallen tree trunk, a moose.
However, there was much more to explore in this genuine wilderness. The Caribou Chilcontin Coast region – named in part after the reindeer that roam the highlands – covers around 12 per cent of British Columbia’s landmass, with a population that’s around 10 per cent of Vancouver’s. It is an area known for logging, cowboy culture, gold rush history, snowsports and fishing.
Visitor numbers peak in July and August, and tend to be lowest between November and February. It is a world away from the busy ski runs at Whistler and Banff and the bright lights of Vancouver.
But there is one place that was packed at the start of February. It was another bitingly cold morning at the 33rd annual Barkerville Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run.
Barkerville’s gold rush history is anchored by an English prospector named Billy Barker who struck gold beneath the high street in 1862. Now a heritage town that lies silent for most of the winter, it barks into life at the start of February as hundreds of huskies drag their sleds in a dash around neighbouring towns.
The decibels were notably lower at Fawn Lake, around 300km south, where the water was frozen to a depth of 12in – thick enough to walk on but not too deep for some ice fishing.
Like a desert mirage, three red tents sat on the ice, each a haven of gas fire, hot chocolate, bait, hooks, rods and drilled holes. It didn’t take long wiggling the rod in the ice hole for a 3lb tortoiseshell burbot to take my bait. It might not have been a lynx or moose, but it felt like a triumphant finale to my time here.
Air Canada flies from Heathrow to Vancouver and onwards to Kamloops.
Days Inn’s 100 Mile House is a good base for Fawn Lake fishing, doubles from £80.
Best Western Williams Lake is well located for Eco Tours BC, doubles from £115.
Wells Hotel is a characterful hotel in a heritage town near Barkerville, doubles from £90.
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