By Mike Davenport, Vancouver, British Columbia
A recent discussion about flying through British Columbia’s mountains from the Coastal Range to the Rockies brought to mind somewhere that is a little more local, at least for us here on the West Coast. This is about a destination that combines a scenic flight in the local mountains, some logging history, the opportunity to land on something other than pavement, and is not very far from home in the lower mainland of British Columbia.
The nearby mountain peaks range from 5,600 feet (The Golden Ears) to 7,400 feet high (Mt. Judge Howay) and have snow on their peaks most of the year. A recent flight to Stave Lake, the first for me, proved that sometimes you don’t have to go far to get into some fantastic country.
Stave Lake was created 104 years ago in 1920 when the construction of a hydroelectric dam was completed. It is located just north of Langley. It has a gravel strip that is a great destination for a picnic or just some place to go rather than the usual airport coffee shop for that $$$ burger. The lake is also reported to be a trout fisher’s dream with four species represented.
The landing strip was built by a logging company to service their work-camp site. Today it is virtually abandoned but is regularly maintained by volunteers to keep it from becoming too overgrown. Among the remnants of that history are the usual stumps and dead trees in the lake and another that might seem odd are several “dead” pickups and another wreck that appears to have once been part of a much larger truck. These might otherwise look out of place and yet seem to add to the ambience of the place.
The strip is 2,000 feet long and 300 feet wide, and for your first visit it would be wise to ride in with someone who knows the area. Local knowledge is important when planning any flights into unusual strips like this. The strip is oriented approximately north/south and features a large mountain on the north and the lake to the south.
Landing and departing are normally done downhill to the south and over the lake. While taking off to the north is doable, the massive rock bluff, while further away than it looks, can be more than a little intimidating.
This past September, I was invited to tag along with a friend in his Cessna 180 and was suitably impressed with the scenery and of course with his flying skills that he has learned in such diverse airplanes such as a Waco and a Staggerwing, not to mention various airliners. However, the strip is not limited to 180s and the like as it is regularly used by Piper Pacers, C-172s, and a variety of amateur-built airplanes.