Beavers of 'High' society...

Well, today was another exploration day, this time out on another lake - this time upriver.  A gorgeously beautiful day, the water was calm and the bugs were out in force.  We hit the lake in the morning and immediately headed for the inlet creek, as that was where the pike should be...  A little ways back through the switchbacks we had to jump a beaver dam, and that was the first sign.  A hint of what was to come.  Here is a pic from up above it, but that came later on our way back out...

Anyway, right after the dam it was too shallow to go farther.  We found what we thought was a game trail going basically straight uphill.  It looked good so the thought of climbing up and having a look-see crossed our minds - highest point around and all.   We followed the trail, STRAIGHT UP, and found that it was...no, I am not kidding here...a BEAVER trail.  All the way up the hill there were cuttings and chewed chips, broken branches, etc.  And at the top was a stump graveyard where a cluster of birch found itself among all the spruce.  Wood chips everywhere, huge logs scattered around and lots of evidence of other huge logs being drug back down the hill.  Judging by the height of some of these stumps, this was a BIG beaver.  I am seriously considering going back for him, even though it is not at all a short trip.  He's that big.  But here's some pics we got at the top of the hill.

A quick pose, without me, so we didn't have to take Abram out of the pack - the bugs were AWFUL!

Here's a shot of some of the cuttings:

And a cartoon version of the same photo that I thought was cool - a new feature I found on our newest point-and-shoot...

It was so much fun - here's another. :D

The actual photo:

and the cartoon version of same photo:

Can't wait to post up some fish shots using this newfound tool :)

Now, some more shots of our trip to Beaver Shangri-la...

Some fun times having a shore lunch.

Warren checking out a butterfly

A shot of a fish camp on the way back home:

A view of how calm the water was today, looking upriver from the bluffs:

A shot of dipnetting for chum in front of the fish camps.  I actually kind of like the old-looking, grainy feel of this one:

And lastly, a random shot from today - a new puppy in the back of a truck we saw while walking by.  Cute little guy.