If you’re ever in the Buntzen Lake area after a storm, you’ll likely have seen some blow downs (downed trees) on the trails. This past February 2014 was bad – especially the night of February 15th, where about 5 large trees came down on the Buntzen Lake Trail.

First, here are some large blow downs on Eagle Mountain, just east of the White Rock Viewpoint…

Here are some trees that came down on the Swan Falls Trail…

Here is a tree that came down on Powerhouse Road, near North Beach…

And here’s one that came down on Diez Vistas Trail…

Here are two trees that came down on the Buntzen Lake Trail on February 15, 2014…

BC Hydro does a good job at clearing the trees after they have fallen – They’re usually cleared within a week at the most.

As a result of the many blow downs at Buntzen Lake, BC Hydro has completed an assessment of the trees that have the potential to fall on the trails and they are cutting them down to be proactive. Many of the trees are/were leaning towards the trail or are/were dead. If you see a tree with a spray-painted number in blue paint, it is an assessment tree and will be cut down.

Here are some trees that have been cut down near the old floating bridge area…

Over the past few weeks in May 2014, BC Hydro accelerated their tree cutting. Below are a few more pictures of the cut trees…

And here was a big blow down on the west side of the lake…

Here’s a photo of the tree one month earlier…

Industrial activities have been occurring at Buntzen Lake since the early 1900s.  The activities include: building of the tunnel, dam, penstocks, pumphouses, and electrical transmission lines. During my many hikes in the area, I have seen several examples of what I call industrial decay.

Below is a discarded and broken ceramic insulator I saw on Pumphouse Road…

Near the pumphouse, you can see the old pipeline exiting this 25 m metal cylindrical tube
I think its some sort of back flow prevention…

Next is a detail view of something on the top of the above shown cylinder…

The area around north beach was recently (May 2014) scanned for artifacts by someone and the artifacts were on display on the memorial. I think this is very cool. Below is a photo of the artifacts…

There is a shortcut from Diez Vistas Trail to Lakeview Trail, following a creek.
To my surprise, I saw this discarded industrial metal drum…

Close to the dam, I found these chunks of metal, which may have been sections of the original penstocks…

And here is a detail view of the manufacturer’s plate;
It reads… ‘BC Iron Works Vancouver, BC’…

Below is a section of the old water pipeline that was built in the early 1960s…

And here’s an interesting apparatus on a section of the pipeline…

Below are some old concrete hydro pole stands…

And next is a detail shot of rusty bolts on a hydro pole stand…

Here’s another photo of redundant hydro pole stands…

I saw this old wooden hydro pole on the Old Buntzen lake Trail…