Peek-a-boo with the Stick Man

See that little blue sign on the Jack pine? Well, it's just as hard to spot while negotiating the Prelude Nature Trail. It's an hour hike and took me close to two as I kept backtracking, in search of the stick man.

The trail is a big loop that starts off in rock and bush, climbing eventually above the lake. But there's no obvious path most of the time; mostly, you're scrambling over rock or lichen. What was particularly scary is that when I couldn't find the stick man and went to head back to the next one, he was lurking behind the tree and not visible from the other side. At one point I was going to turn around to head back, but realized it would be impossible to retrace my steps.


At times, the sign is quite visible, but the direction is open to interpretation. I thought I should go right here, because it's about a 12 foot drop-off in front. However, after searching fruitlessly for the stick man's clones, I discovered that yes, indeed, the idea was to head straight down.

If there were any spruce or ruffled grouse or whiskey-jacks, I didn't see them because I was too occupied with finding my way.

But I did stop to read the interpretative signs and learned that the densely packed pine cones are covered in resin, just waiting for a fire. The heat melts the resin, allowing the seeds to disperse and the pines to get a leg up in reproducing themselves. The clusters of cones look like fossilized slugs, wrapped around the branches.
The branches close to the ground send roots into the soil as another way of reproducing in a far from womb-like environment.

Before I set out on the trail, I checked in at the office, which is why I wasn't too worried about getting lost. I figured if the attendant saw my car sitting in the lot tonight he might search for me. When I asked about bears, he said 'no problem'--and then casually mentioned that a lynx had been spotted at another lake closer to Yellowknife, and much more in the open.

Prelude Lake is 29 km from Yellowknife on the Ingraham Trail, on a paved road that is 65 km
long with all kinds of picnic spots, boat launches and campgrounds along the way. The road is dotted with pot holes and loose gravel: Dust envelops the car when another vehicle passes you. Cracked windshields are as common on vehicles here as bird poop is on windshields at home.