Cottonwood Lake
...peace and rusty rails

Beside the road from Nelson to Salmo, Cottonwood Lake is a small lake with steep sides and clear water — you can see ancient logs lying on the bottom. Grey cliffs and gloomy forest loom high above the shoreline.

On the east side I spot sunken railway sleepers and a fishplate or two, relics of the Burlington Northern Railway line that lies abandoned but in good condition just a few metres above the water line.

It's been abandoned since 1989, and the track is rusty, but looks almost as if trains could still run. There's even a "Whistle" sign near the highway, where the level crossing is buried in tarmac. I amuse everyone by videoing the track. Lenore just shakes her head..she's used to my weirdness.

I look for signs of the line nearer Nelson, but apart from some old dumper trucks parked on the rail-bed, it is difficult to see. But from a high spot on the north side of the town, it is possible to see the line sweeping above the southern edge of the town.

In the lake, small fish leap high for flies. At the south end there is a rushing of water as the lake spills over into a stream, and the occasional vehicle passes on the out-of-sight highway, but otherwise all is peaceful. We circumnavigate the lake easily in a canoe, twice.

There's a small park around the lake, and we picnic with Lenore's uncle, aunt and nephew and nieces at the north end, roasting tofu wieners. Our bonfire smoke drifts quietly southwards. Mosquitoes whine...

Postscript (2002)

Built originally in 1893, the Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway, part of the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway, was in use for less than 100 years, and was finally dismantled in 1998. There are plans to convert its track bed into a hiking trail, which would be a great idea.

BRITISH COLUMBIA