That's a ton of vertical...you must be out ripping the pow almost every week. My new hero. I've only got in 11 days at Sun Peaks and 1 day of heli. Heading back up after New Years to rip it up again and try my best to catch up to you.My other two hobbies are High Power Sport Rocketry and Snow Skiing. Recently flew one of the rockets that I built to 15,000 feet. As for snow skiing, I'm aiming for 500,000 vertical feet of total skiing this season.
work get enough time to squat for a week .hobbies flintknapping.
That's a ton of vertical...you must be out ripping the pow almost every week. My new hero. I've only got in 11 days at Sun Peaks and 1 day of heli. Heading back up after New Years to rip it up again and try my best to catch up to you.
Your a busy man!!!! Love the gold mining stuff that’s very coolThis is a great idea for a thread topic Storm Trooper. Nice to get to know guys better on the forum.
Bit about myself: I'm semi retired. Owned my own business for 10 years doing importing, warehousing, wholesale and retail gaming products and drove truck before that for 14 years. Fishing both fresh and salt water are for sure my #1 hobby. I enjoy fly fishing a lot too tying my own fly's and fishing for trout, steelhead, salmon and sturgeon mostly in fresh water and in the salt I enjoy going after all the species we have here on our west coast. I do brood stocking for steelhead on some of the valley rivers which I have been doing since the late 90's as well as helping with fishery projects with the BCWF, FWFS, and others any chance I get with free time. I spent a lot of volunteer time building up the Chehalis Summer Steelhead Run by brood stocking from the returning Coquihala fish that we used for the original brood stock for that run. Originally it only had a Winter Run of Steelhead in the Chehalis. I built my own hard ABS brood tubes to use on my pontoon boat that I used to drift the canyon with to catch and build up that Summer Run of Steelhead. I also was the original brood stocker of the Winter Run of Steelhead in the Stave River using returning Vedder River Steelhead to initially build that run up with greater returns for the sports fishermen to catch. Prior to me brooding on that river the hatchery used a mixed bag of excess brood from other rivers in the 90's from the Alouette, Kanaka, Chehalis etc. but it was never direct brood from the Stave water body. It did have it's own good run of wild fish prior to the dam being built however. I also teamed up with a BCIT biologist brainstorming a way to help better imprint the Stave Steelhead smolts by holding them in net pens and feeding them for a month above the dam prior to their release in the river. With the FWFS/BCWF and BC Hydro teaming up we got funding for the joint venture. I fed the smolts twice a day every day with the help of my two very young daughters at the time. They loved going there to feed the smolts, watch them grow big and healthy and they were there for their release as well. I love nature and use any excuse to spend more time in it.
Other than the fishing though for hobby's I've been getting into gold mining over the past few years on a mechanical exploration level which is a lot of fun and keeps me occupied. I get restless pretty quickly lol. I've been doing prospecting on smaller levels since around 2010 and thought it was time to turn that up a notch.
I've also recently started welding/fabricating as a bit of a hobby too. I now own mig, stick, and tig welders. My welding is improving and I enjoy practicing that in my shop a lot. Have built a few things and just bought some metal to build a new pentagon fire pit for the family that I'll be starting this week.
I also really enjoy cooking. I smoke a lot of meats, fish, cheeses and do a fair bit of baking as well now.
Some pictures of some of my metal work lately:
Gold Mining Sluice BoxView attachment 42213
Fraser River Steel AnchorView attachment 42214
Fraser River Aluminum Anchor Filled With Lead For WeightSome pictures of some of my mining:
View attachment 42215
Cradle Net For Sturgeon For My Jet Boat
View attachment 42216
Excavator Feeding The Trommel WashplantI love to cook, smoke foods and bake!
View attachment 42217
Cat Loader Feeding The Trommel Washplant
View attachment 42218
Trommel Feeding The Sluice Box And The Settling Pond
View attachment 42219
Smoked Red Spring Salmon
View attachment 42220
Fresh Baked Sour Dough Rye
View attachment 42221
Dry Rubbed Alder Wood Smoked Baby Back Ribs With Smoked Sweet Corn, Grilled Veggies and Marinated Tomatoes with Bocconcini
View attachment 42222
This is a great idea for a thread topic Storm Trooper. Nice to get to know guys better on the forum.
Bit about myself: I'm semi retired. Owned my own business for 10 years doing importing, warehousing, wholesale and retail gaming products and drove truck before that for 14 years. Fishing both fresh and salt water are for sure my #1 hobby. I enjoy fly fishing a lot too tying my own fly's and fishing for trout, steelhead, salmon and sturgeon mostly in fresh water and in the salt I enjoy going after all the species we have here on our west coast. I do brood stocking for steelhead on some of the valley rivers which I have been doing since the late 90's as well as helping with fishery projects with the BCWF, FWFS, and others any chance I get with free time. I spent a lot of volunteer time building up the Chehalis Summer Steelhead Run by brood stocking from the returning Coquihala fish that we used for the original brood stock for that run. Originally it only had a Winter Run of Steelhead in the Chehalis. I built my own hard ABS brood tubes to use on my pontoon boat that I used to drift the canyon with to catch and build up that Summer Run of Steelhead. I also was the original brood stocker of the Winter Run of Steelhead in the Stave River using returning Vedder River Steelhead to initially build that run up with greater returns for the sports fishermen to catch. Prior to me brooding on that river the hatchery used a mixed bag of excess brood from other rivers in the 90's from the Alouette, Kanaka, Chehalis etc. but it was never direct brood from the Stave water body. It did have it's own good run of wild fish prior to the dam being built however. I also teamed up with a BCIT biologist brainstorming a way to help better imprint the Stave Steelhead smolts by holding them in net pens and feeding them for a month above the dam prior to their release in the river. With the FWFS/BCWF and BC Hydro teaming up we got funding for the joint venture. I fed the smolts twice a day every day with the help of my two very young daughters at the time. They loved going there to feed the smolts, watch them grow big and healthy and they were there for their release as well. I love nature and use any excuse to spend more time in it.
Other than the fishing though for hobby's I've been getting into gold mining over the past few years on a mechanical exploration level which is a lot of fun and keeps me occupied. I get restless pretty quickly lol. I've been doing prospecting on smaller levels since around 2010 and thought it was time to turn that up a notch.
I've also recently started welding/fabricating as a bit of a hobby too. I now own mig, stick, and tig welders. My welding is improving and I enjoy practicing that in my shop a lot. Have built a few things and just bought some metal to build a new pentagon fire pit for the family that I'll be starting this week.
I also really enjoy cooking. I smoke a lot of meats, fish, cheeses and do a fair bit of baking as well now.
Some pictures of some of my metal work lately:
Gold Mining Sluice BoxView attachment 42213
Fraser River Steel AnchorView attachment 42214
Fraser River Aluminum Anchor Filled With Lead For WeightSome pictures of some of my mining:
View attachment 42215
Cradle Net For Sturgeon For My Jet Boat
View attachment 42216
Excavator Feeding The Trommel WashplantI love to cook, smoke foods and bake!
View attachment 42217
Cat Loader Feeding The Trommel Washplant
View attachment 42218
Trommel Feeding The Sluice Box And The Settling Pond
View attachment 42219
Smoked Red Spring Salmon
View attachment 42220
Fresh Baked Sour Dough Rye
View attachment 42221
Dry Rubbed Alder Wood Smoked Baby Back Ribs With Smoked Sweet Corn, Grilled Veggies and Marinated Tomatoes with Bocconcini
View attachment 42222
CD - has your gold mining paid off in any way? Looks like you got a few bucks invested in all that gear. Must be fun to think you might hit the motherlode any time...
Thanks HM! Ya there are some bad seeds out there but that's the case in all kinds of outdoors activities. There's always gonna be dip ***** that ruin it for others leaving garbage behind and not doing reclamation properly on the ground they disturb. Reclamation bonds are getting higher and higher now so if guys don't clean up their sites now they lose a good chunk of money so hopefully that helps with making sure guys do what's right with the land they are working. Sad part about the bonds going up is that it also makes it tougher for smaller mom/pop operations to be able to afford to keep mining in some cases. Hard to make everyone happy in these situations but for me I put mother nature before all the other stuff and most of the miners I know are the same way.X2,
CD; I do have a "bucket" of dirt and "gold" that needs washing. Don't ask where I got it but the stream bottom was yellow. I thought fake but no its real, tailing gold from way back. As you state I fully understand the feeling that it ignites. What hurts is when I walk among the old mines and see the total mess left behind. Abandoned trucks, trailers with 40 washers/dryers and cabins each with a good stove. That place is 600km up a rough trail so the reason it was left. Awesome post and thread.
HM
Totally agree, reclamation is the reason the road in became a built truck only trail. Good and bad aspects as now nobody is in there without a very long horse ride. I am ala red seal cook so we also share that passion. Mouth watering meal you have there.Thanks HM! Ya there are some bad seeds out there but that's the case in all kinds of outdoors activities. There's always gonna be dip ***** that ruin it for others leaving garbage behind and not doing reclamation properly on the ground they disturb. Reclamation bonds are getting higher and higher now so if guys don't clean up their sites now they lose a good chunk of money so hopefully that helps with making sure guys do what's right with the land they are working. Sad part about the bonds going up is that it also makes it tougher for smaller mom/pop operations to be able to afford to keep mining in some cases. Hard to make everyone happy in these situations but for me I put mother nature before all the other stuff and most of the miners I know are the same way.
Next stop the Chili Bowl. Lol