Kitsumkalum Lake, B.C. – Storm clouds over Kitsumkalum Lake, B.C. This photo is in colour, which you will see if you look closely at the blue mountain peak. (Photo by Robin Rowland)

Kitsumkalum is a huge lake and river system northwest of Terrace, B.C. The upper Kitsumkalum flows out of the mountain range into a large (and when I was there) placid lake. The lower hexadecimal turns rough quickly emptying from the lake into rapids and a canyon that are a favourite for whitewater rafters.

My visit was also a travel day, so I took my two small point and shoot cameras with me on this part of my trip. The reliable (always battery draining) Minolta A2 and the Lumix FZ28 with the tele extender that can reach a 700mm equivalent. The only problem with the Lumix as a telephoto zoom is that although it is a good camera, it uses the low end lever to change from wide to tele and therefore is not as precise as a SLR lens can be, especially if you suddenly spot wildlife.

It was a dull gray overcast day and also the fish weren’t biting, so we had the lake all to ourselves.

We stopped the engine of the jet boat for a moment and heard the cry of the loon echo across the entire lake. I’ve heard the loon many times on the much smaller lakes of northern Ontario. Here at first the cry seemed to come out of nowhere in the vast expanse of still water. Then I spotted a far off wake and aimed the Lumix, catching a few shots of the bird that is an icon of northern Canada.

Kitsumkalum Lake, BC. – A male hawk lands on a tree near his nest. The head of the female is barely visible above the twigs of the nest near Kitsumkalum Lake, B.C. (Photo by Robin Rowland)

We were looking for a place to stop the boat for lunch (my guide also wanted to fish while I ate my submarine sandwich). We heard a high pitched alarm call and after awhile, as the boat drifted, we spotted the nest. We were far off (this shot was taken with the A2 at its maximum telephoto) but the male kept circling the tree, landing on a branch, returning to the nest and circling the tree again until we had passed by.

Kitsumkalum River, B.C. – A bald eagle reigns over the upper Kitsumkalum River, B.C. (Photo by Robin Rowland)

After lunch we went up the upper Kitsumkalum, going up almost 20 metres in elevation (by my GPS), high into the mountain range. Half way up we spotted a huge bald eagle, perched in a tree. I would estimate the eagle was about three to four times larger than any other I’ve seen on this trip. Photo was taken with the Lumix FZ28 plus the tele-extender.

As I said, I prefer to travel light, so I am carrying an Acer 10-inch Windows netbook. Very good screen quality. But Photoshop doesn’t like it, I kept getting messages saying your screen is too small. I couldn’t work in raw because Photoshop won’t adjust the screen. So I had to process all pix as jpgs, using Picassa to save a copy of the raw file as a jpg. Photo Mechanic by the way now has screen adjustment that works on netbook screen.