Schoen Lake Provincial Park

This park is located 140 km north of Campbell River. The drive goes north to Sayward then northwest to Woss but before the small town of Woss there is a posted sign to Schoen Lake Park. The road is dusty gravel and well signed but rough in places. It starts out with lots of deep potholes all over the road which means driving 10 kph. A car had driven ahead of me but later the driver had turned around and drove back.

The road is only 13 km to the park but the rough road and slow driving takes a while to get there. At a junction to Mt. Cain and Schoen Lake, the road improves a bit and becomes dirt and gravel with less potholes but the sun creates shadows on the road and makes the potholes difficult to see. There are several small bridges to cross over creeks and limited places to pull over on this one lane narrow road. A speed sign appeared with 30 kph being the maximum. Funny place to have a sign; I’m already ¾ ways there. Closer to the campground, the road becomes very rocky with fist sized rocks on the road. Suddenly, a sign appears cautioning drivers to slow down as the campground is ahead. How can one drive fast anyways?

I was pleasantly surprised to find no one around. I stopped in at the kiosk where a bulletin board provided information about the campground and park. There was info about bears and cougars which I read carefully. I had read on the internet that back in 2008, there was a cougar attack on a boy in the campground. But the caution listed on the board was of the rain. A warning states that if there are periods of heavy rain then abandon the park as the possibility of slides can wash out the road. A posted sign nearby states that it cost $11 per night to camp but no one came around to collect and there was no envelopes to put the money into the metal post for self-registration which means that I camped for free. Unlike other developed parks, this one is more rustic and remote so the fee for camping is lower.

There are only 9 campsites here and I walked around but found that site 6 is the biggest and best since it is right at the lakeshore.

It has 2 picnic tables and a fire pit but more importantly it provides unrestricted views over the lake to Mt. Schoen. Nearby, is the picnic area and boat launch. There are a couple of logs to sit on which juts out into the lake. The water is quite shallow near the shore so swimming is allowed near the boat launch area. There is a trail which connects to the 3 other campsites in the dark woods but there are no views of the lake due to the bush along the shoreline. The other sites are located on the other side of the road and offer a bit more privacy but are small with no views.There are several big trees in the forest here which made me look small.

There are no well defined trails in the park but a rough route along Schoen Creek which I tried to find. I saw a path leading from campsite 9 which I followed in the woods. Due to all the deadfall, the path was hard to follow. I did see a single ribbon at the edge of the dark forest which opened up amongst stands of birch. I followed what looked like a path then turned back after a while. 

There wasn’t much to do around here except relax but I get restless just sitting around doing nothing. I saw a loon swim close to shore and heard a sound of some animal off in the forest; it could have been an elk. I heard a splash in the water and saw a beaver swimming around and a humming bird flew by. Other than that, it was very quiet.

Someone had collected wood and placed it in a neat pile near the fire pit so I started a campfire and relaxed. Some of the wood was not quite dry and that produced a lot of smoke.

I had to wait patiently for sunset before I got ready to photograph. I saw where the sun was setting and I knew it would light up Mt. Schoen. I had previously scouted around for the best place to photograph it so I went to the boat launch/picnic area just a few steps away and had my camera set up. I brought my bear spray along and looked around me every so often. I hung around just after 9 pm photographing the fading light on Mt. Schoen. 

I hung around just after 9 pm when the sun faded away then I headed back to my car. I felt safe sleeping inside and it is much warmer than a tent.

It got quite dark at night and I had a restless sleep on a thin mattress. I had to go to the washroom at 5 am so I got my headlamp and bear spray before heading to the outhouse. It was a chilly 4*C out.

When I saw the moon rising above the forested mountain ridge at 5:30 am, I went to the picnic area and photographed the moon slowly rising and drifting over one of the snow covered peaks. 

The thin clouds slowly turned pink. After a nice sunrise, I headed in the forest exploring around. I saw evidence of former logging. Some huge tree stumps lay in decay. But there was a more recent cut of a large tree stump near one of the campsite. I suppose it was cut down for safety reasons. I did a rough estimate count of the rings and guessed that the tree was at least 400 years old.

I was debating whether to stay here another night or head out. I decided to leave as I would be bored with nothing much to do. I drove out till I came to the junction and decided to head south along the Nimpkish Logging Road to Gold River.