May 13th 2019 - Clearing our Path

We started off our morning with a nice hike to a place called Mid Valley after everyone arrived. Mid Valley is the hub to a lot of movie and TV productions in the lower mainland. Movies such as Twilight and The Revenant, and the TV show Supernatural were filmed in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. The Valley is approximately half way to the dam, which is why it's called Mid Valley. It is There is a nice gazebo structure along with two lawn chairs and a beautiful view.

Mid Valley

We saw two deer walking and eating along the path in close proximity to us, they glanced over a few times, but didn't seem to be bothered.

Deer in Mid Valley.

On our journey there, we stopped by a site where a single stone chair sat against a tree. Due to the placement, it is presumed to be built more recently than the McKenzie Creek camp since the tree it was built against is second growth. Bob mentioned that it is difficult to date because there is no trash found in the surrounding area.

Stone Chair leaning against a tree.

We also stopped by a butterfly garden which didn't currently have any butterflies in it, most likely due to the season, but Bob said it was probably built to make up for a lost habitat during the construction of a trail in the LSCR. Once we got back to camp after our excursion, students started clearing all of the sticks and newly grown trees off of pathways and certain features at the McKenzie Creek site. After about an hour of clearing, we gathered for lunch and Karoline collected our garbage for the waste audit.

Students clearing the Cedar Plank Road.

After lunch, we visited a site called the cabin on the hill. Two students found and cleared a somewhat easy path from the road to the site in the morning so it was easier for students to get there. The cabin was likely not part of the McKenzie Creek camp shown by the presence of wooden floor boards that have not yet decomposed.

The Cabin on the Hill site. 

Like the stone chair, this site is also hard to date. A metal lid of some sort and a few broken pieces of bottle glass were found years ago by some students, still not giving enough information to date them. The border of the site is marked with nails and string.
After Bob finished explaining the cabin on the hill, we ventured over to a water hole/system that was used to collect and carry water to the McKenzie Creek site. The giant rectangular hole with remnants of cedar planks lining the walls is on the west side of the paved path, and it is also where one border of the McKenzie Creek camp lies. When Bob asked his students to excavate the water system years ago, one woman volunteered to clear out all of the foliage that was thrown into it, most likely by construction workers when building the asphalt path close by in the early 2000s. A wasps nest was also removed from the hole, and I am sure that all students working in the area appreciated the other student getting rid of it. The cedar planks that made up the walls of the water hole have decomposed due to their exposure to the elements after the students a few years ago uncovered it, but the hole stills remains along with the ladder Bob built to get down into it.

The exposed water hole and ladder built by Bob in a previous field school.

We finished clearing giant logs and branches from our site in the afternoon and ended the day by filling in our yellow notebooks. Tomorrow we plan to scan the entire site in groups of two or three and flag all cultural items found on the surface, such as ceramics, bottles and nails. Hopefully it doesn't rain too hard tomorrow, and if it does, I am sure we will appreciate the wonderful weather we've had so far.