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Edmonton, AB
91 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 12:16 AM
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Shirley Lake/Tawayik Lake Hike, May 7, 2012, Elk Island National Park, 30.5 km
Mary and I planned to go on a long hike to get ourselves into shape. I did not realize that it would turn out to be a very, very long hike. We began with the Shirley Lake Trail. This is an eleven km loop that goes past Spruce Island Lake, negotiates the ridge between Shirley Lake (North) and Paul Lake (South) and then runs along the west side of Oster Lake. There was a constant chorus from the frogs. In some spots they were unbelievably loud, although they would quiet down when they sensed us looking for them.
  
Right on the trail at Oster Lake we found the skull, jaw and bones of a bison. It was stripped clean.
  
At the end of the Shirley Lake Trail, we decided to visit the Narrows between Tawayik Lake and Little Tawayik Lake. We planned to go there and back the same way, since the information we had indicated that it was not possible to go west of the narrows due to the marshy conditions. When we got there we found it to be quite dry, so we decided to do the longer loop around the lake. There was one larger marshy bit at the end of the Narrows, but we were able to work around it from a spit on the right. It would not take much rain to make this part impassible, but it is open for now.
But first we had to get by the Plains bison. There was a big group of 30 and a couple of smaller groups of about ten each. There were several calves easily spotted because of their red colour. We warily navigated around them (they were, of course, congregating on the trail).
  
We came across two massive bull bison further up. They began to run off, but then circled around to face us. We gave them a very wide berth.
The last 6 km back on the Shirley Lake Trail was long and uneventful. |
Edited by - Semi Awesome on 05/15/2012 10:02 AM
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 Trail blazin', backcountry bushwackin', pine huntin', photo takin', long winded story teller
3839 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 02:35 AM
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Nice finding a skull of a Bison and seeing the rest of them.
On Mountain Goat you can tell how old they are by counting the rings on the horns.
I once found a Mountain Goat skull and one horn had 8 rings and the other 9 rings and according to the conservation officer it was 8 and a half years old.
He said that was quite old for a Mountain Goat.
How many rings were on those Bison horns or did you count them?
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over the hills and far away
Canada
725 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 07:09 AM
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| Looks like a fun trip. |
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Edmonton, AB
91 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 5:29 PM
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I did not know about the rings on goat horns (I came across a goat skull at King Creek Canyon, but I didn't really take a good look at its horns). I did a search about bison horns. It seems like they are not very reliable indicators of age on bison. The best method is to look at the wear on the teeth. In males, the shape of the horn is also a factor, but I don't quite get how you tell the difference between a male and female by looking at their horns. I found a website that looks at this in detail, but I have absolutely no idea if the one I saw was male or female. The teeth looked pretty good, which makes me think that is was not too old.
http://www.bisoncentre.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=217&Itemid=317 |
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Trail blazin', backcountry bushwackin', pine huntin', photo takin', long winded story teller
3839 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 8:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Semi Awesome
I did not know about the rings on goat horns (I came across a goat skull at King Creek Canyon, but I didn't really take a good look at its horns). I did a search about bison horns. It seems like they are not very reliable indicators of age on bison. The best method is to look at the wear on the teeth. In males, the shape of the horn is also a factor, but I don't quite get how you tell the difference between a male and female by looking at their horns. I found a website that looks at this in detail, but I have absolutely no idea if the one I saw was male or female. The teeth looked pretty good, which makes me think that is was not too old.
http://www.bisoncentre.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=217&Itemid=317
Yes, I found the same link after I posted that message to you.
It appears bison are tough to figure age and you are probably right if the teeth wre in pretty good shape then it indicates a younger animal but it also seems that Bison may live twice as long as Mountain Goat.
I also checked on ring of Mountain Sheep and I guess between the rinkles there are rings and rings are used to tell the age of Mountain Sheep too. |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13598 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2012 : 9:41 PM
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Interesting trip, I would be spooked to go anywhere near those large animals.
Thanks for sharing.
K |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
28 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 8:19 PM
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| Did the Shirley Lake trail on May 5th, good to see the skull is still there. I was thinking of the narrows trail but did not want the disappointment of having to return the same way if the water was to high, good to know it could still be doable. Have to agree that stretch of the Oster lake trail from the group camp area back to the parking lot is a bit of a boring stretch. |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 11:40 AM
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| 10.5 km for Shirley Lake, plus 16.5 for Tawayik? That really IS a long day. I was doing Moss Lake that day with a group of 10 but yours looks more interesting. We only saw a few bison at a distance. |
Edited by - peter1955 on 05/10/2012 11:42 AM |
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Campbell River, BC
Canada
782 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2012 : 1:32 PM
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| Looks like a very interesting place. I thought about visiting here at one time. Nice to see different landscapes. |
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Posted - 07/06/2012 : 6:06 PM
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far out. i was there on may 7, 2012, as well, and took some pictures similar to yours.
a couple of the buffalo bones:
 
and one of the beaver dam (complete with canada geese):
you're right about the frogs. they were chirping like crazy. and yea, every time i would get close to record them...they would stop. it kind of reminded me of that michigan j. frog episode of bugs bunny.
"no honestly, they were singing!"
"sure they were, rummy."
the next time i went walking along the shirley lake trail in early june, the buffalo head skull was gone. someone must have come along and taken it. that's nasty! i doubt whether park staff took it. i'm sure they would leave things like that alone to be part of the natural cycle.
i first noticed those buffalo bones in october of last year. here's what they looked like then:
the stench of this rotting bison was fierce! it really did smell like death. if i had stuck around for too much longer, i'm sure i would have been sick. he must have been killed just a few days prior, because i had hiked the trail not too long before this and there was nothing. judging by the amount of fur that was scattered around (both buffalo and wolf), there must have been a heck of a struggle.
anyway, i think i saw you walking along the trail on may 7. i was having a sandwich by oster lake around 12:30 while park staff were reloading some firewood for the picnic area. it was then that a couple of people walked by heading south...that was probably you guys. :-) |
Edited by - dwdeclare on 07/06/2012 6:21 PM |
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Stanwood, Washington
USA
314 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2012 : 8:23 PM
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| how cool to see the bison. I gotta put that one on the list. |
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Edmonton, AB
91 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2012 : 10:21 AM
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| Thanks for the update and the photos, dwdeclare. I was wondering how long it took for the carcass to be stripped bare like that. I am glad that I passed by the sun-bleached bones stage rather than the stench of death stage! Too bad about the missing skull. I think that it was us that you saw. I remember some sort of activity at Oster lake when we passed it. |
Edited by - Semi Awesome on 07/07/2012 10:28 AM |
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Shirley Lake/Tawayik Lake
