Turtle Stories

         I read a dramatic and tragic story concerning a turtle the other day.  A pilot and the passenger in a small plane were killed in North Carolina when, as the landed, the pilot lifted a wheel of the plane off of the runway to avoid hitting a turtle.  The action caused the plane go out of control and crash, killing the occupants.  Just the mention of turtles put me in mind of the experiences I had with turtles.

    Turtles aren’t native to the Robson Valley, but in August of 1993 I was quite amazed to come upon  a turtle crossing Mountain View Road as I biked to work.  I picked the creature up, put it in my backpack and later took it to the news paper so they could report the unusual visitor to the Valley and take a photo of it.  I kept the turtle confined in a box throughout the day and after work, biked it home and put in the tiny little fish pond we had beside our deck (This was before I had built my pond.)

        The turtle was still at the fish pond the next morning, but during my absence during the day when I was back at work, it took off.   It was an a Eastern Painted Turtle, but I had no idea how it had gotten to the Robson Valley.

Of course there are very few secrets in the Robson Valley, and during one of our coffee breaks at work, I learned that Rex Hatchard had gotten four turtles down at the Okanagan, brought them to the Robson Valley and released them at Horseshoe Lake.  I guess the one I saw made it from Horseshoe Lake to the Fraser River, swam a bit, then climbed up the steep bank up to Mountain View Road.

A year later in mid-July of 1994, I had my second encounter with a turtle.  Elaine a friend and one of my Forestry co-workers, was just just driving back to our office after checking some recreation sites.   She flagged me down as I was just starting to head out to the highway for my bike home.  She had a surprise for me.  She had found another painted turtle, she had spotted this one as it was crossing Highway 16 by Bircher’s field (beside the Fraser River).  She had watched in panic as three cars passed over it, but luckily avoided hitting it.  

When I finally got home, Elaine came by and delivered the turtle to our house and we carried it down to the pond and set it free in the water.  It seemed happy to be free in the water again and we watched as it swam around exploring its new surroundings.  Hours later when my wife and I went in for a swim and we could see the turtle periodically poking its head out of the water watching us.  It was fun to watch the turtle watching us every afternoon as we took a swim.

        The turtle spent the rest of the summer at the pond and even over wintered, and it was back the following year when things warmed up.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca