Report submitted by Margaret Graham and photos by Adele Stapleton

On Saturday, five brave souls ignored the forecast for rain showers and headed out to Roderick Haig-Brown Park to view the salmon in the Adams River.  We chose the September 22nd date to avoid the crowds of people who will be converging on the park during the Salute to the Sockeye Festival Sept. 28 to Oct. 21.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any fish in the park, although we enjoyed the stroll along the wooded path and read the signage about the salmon and the Secwepemc people.

Hoping to see some fish, we drove to Scotch Creek where we ate our lunch and managed to see three red sockeye salmon as well as a few dead ones. Our next destination was the Flume Trail parking lot on Holding Road.  We followed the Lower Flume Trail which crossed Bear Creek on sturdy bridges and eventually made our way down to the Adams River.  We saw another three salmon on our hike, making a total of only six fish for our day’s efforts.

Our journey through the forest was very pleasant, surrounded by towering Douglas-Fir and Cedar trees. The flora is completely different from the Kamloops area due to the greater amount of rainfall that the Shuswap receives. The forest floor was carpeted with a variety of mosses and fallen trees which nourished an interesting assortment of different fungi.  The rain held off until we started back along the loop to the parking lot, but we had come prepared for the weather.  Hopefully, those elusive salmon will make an appearance during the festival for the thousands of visitors who are expected to arrive along with the fish.