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Mystery Lake & Area is a Collectible item found in Episode 2 of the Wintermute story mode.

It is found on top of a Cupboard in the Camp Office on the upper floor.

Transcript[]

The following text is transcribed from Mystery Lake & Area

The Mystery Lake region is an Alpine valley, average altitude of 1200 meters above sea level, named for the large lake that dominates its South-Eastern quadrant. The region is fringed by mountains on the West and South, and the foothills of the Inner Island Range to the North and East. The region is bisected by a section of the North-South line of the Trans-Island Railway.

The region’s main characteristics are its heavily forested and hilly terrain, as well as abundance of wildlife. The region’s high altitude leads to low average temperatures, as well as some of the coldest night-time temperatures on Great Bear Island. Heavy snowfalls are common.

The Mystery Lake area is a popular Summer-time destination with campers and hikers, but the area largely shuts down during the Winter months due to its inaccessibility: there are no major roads connecting the area to the more populated regions in the adjoining valleys lower in the mountain chain, so the area is primarily accessed by dedicated hikers willing to make the long trek that winds along medium to advanced-level trails, from the nearest town of Rupert’s Landing.

The region’s harsh inaccessibility has been both a blessing and a curse over the years. Until the railway line was blasted through in the 1930s, the area was largely a pristine and untouched wilderness, but the lack of amenities or a standing population made it difficult for any real permanent infrastructure to take root. A project to link the Mystery Lake area with a secondary highway network criss-crossing between the various mountain valleys was abandoned due to the geological instability of the steep mountains and cliffs the highway caused landslides that were a continuous threat to the project’s viability, and the highway project was abandoned after only a few kms of roadway had been cleared.

In the 1960s, ambitious industrialist Richard Carter selected the Mystery Lake area for a new hydro-electric project, meant to provide power to a large mining operation in the next valley. The lake’s continuous replenishment by a vibrant aquifer network as well as mountain streams that channeled annual Spring runoff, made Mystery Lake a natural reservoir with untapped hydro-electric potential. Yet other than a small test dam constructed in 1962, this project was abandoned when the region’s inaccessibility and seismic instability made it cost-prohibitive.

To this day, apart from the railway line that passes through, the only connection between the Mystery Lake region and the adjoining valleys are the hiking trails that pass through the mountains. These trails often become impassable during the Winter months, due to cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. Also, due to the region’s generally uninhabited nature, wildlife have not become habituated to the presence of humans, which can make them threatening. Hikers and campers are warned to avoid the area during the Winter months, as well as to store all food and waste in “bear safe” containers.

Game History[]

* UPDATE 17 December 2018 (Update):
    • Added to game.
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