TRUCKS BOATS AND HELICOPTERS: PART V

[Sharphooks]

The biggest treat of the trip was being asked if I wanted to take a side trip to Damdochax Lake to help Warren repair the roof of the Telegraph Cabin NO. 5, a remanant of the Klondike telelgraph cabins that began in Ashcroft and went through Quesnel, Hazelton, the Upper Skeena, Damdochax, and then onwards to Atlin, Dawson City and up into the Klondike.

Warren's clan, the Wet'suwet'en , own that land and he wanted to reseal the roof of cabin No. 5

I got to fly up the river to Damdochax Lake ----quite an experience.




Here was the one of the inner walls. Look at the dates! A true piece of British Columbia's history.




And then all of a sudden it was November. I'd left my home base in September so this was the longest Fall trip I'd ever taken. And the temperatures weren't letting up. -2 C every morning. It had been a fantastic October for me but I knew it was time to head home

Here's the puppy in her chopper helmet. It looks goofy but it kept her ears pinned to her head and she was remarkably quiet and composed for the 1 1/2 hour flight back to Smithers





When I got back to my camper, the batteries were dead, everything had frozen and I realized how exhausted I was from just trying to stay warm for the last 10 days

It was a bit sad to be back on Highway 16 heading south after such a memorable trip. I needed a long drive to make sense of how the last month had unfolded in such an elegant manner. It would be a challenge teasing out the days one by one to recall them all over again

But the upside of the jumbled blur of images and tastes and smells and the sound of screaming fly reels????

---now I know exactly where I'll be next October!

 

[cambrowne]

Awesome write-up! Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

 

[Sharphooks]

Thanks for the comments, cam....much appreciated

I noticed discussions about steelhead for the most part fall on deaf ears on this site...definitely a salt-chuck platform. I worry that in a decade there won't be enough steelhead for anybody to talk about so I try and at least keep them visible when and where I can

 

[Chummer]

Awesome write up, looks like a great adventure with your dog in some unreal places

Love to do something like this one day. Just need more time off

 

[mikep]

Buckt list stuff! I miss steelhead fishing that's for sure.

 

[Sharphooks]

Getting time off ---that's the key . I got hugely lucky about 15 years ago and fell into a business I can do on my phone. IT was a major risk doing that fly-in to that wilderness area because October /November is the peak of my business---selling bait to commie dungeness fishermen. I thought I'd leave behind a long list of pissed-off guys when I boarded the chopper out of Smithers but I got lucky---that lodge up on the Damdochax had the magic satellite dish and on those long cold nights I got to sell a pile of Argentine squid while up in the middle of nowhere--hard to be a tech hater these days when you get to use the up-side of what it offers.

And the chopper pilots are a really cool bunch, too. I am gaga over that part of BC--there's just so much stunning terrain up there ---you'd need a life-time to even scratch the surface

The pilot on the way back to Smithers flew low so you really could get intimate with the terrain. He also knew his geography and pointed out a piece of the landscape that just blew my mind.

The Damdochax flows out of Damdochax Lake and is part of the Nass system. Meanwhile, just a bit north east of that lake is a huge wetland area connected by a series of lakes---the Wiminasik, the Damshilgwit, and finally, the Slamgeesh. The out-flow of Slamgeesh Lake is the Slamgeesh River which flows into the Skeena (!!!) So you have a very definite connection between the Nass and the Skeena!

So without any real stretch of the imagination, and seeing how flat that wetland area is, you easily could envision a Nass steelhead spawning in the upper Damdochax, and the resulting fry eventually migrating into the Wiminasik, the Damshilgwit and the Slamgeesh then eventually making their way back to the ocean down the Slamgeesh River into the Skeena.

Learning that little tid-bit made my whole trip!

 

[rockdog]

I always love reading your stories. Thanks for sharing!

 

[big rock]

Thanks for bringing us along with you on your adventures Sharphooks. It’s always a pleasure reading your stories. I haven’t been to either area but Hiada Gwaii really interests me. Did you need 4x4 for the logging rds or could you get away with 2x4 sprinter van? Agreed a chain saw is a must.

 

[Sharphooks]

All the tourist books recommend: "4x4 with high clearance".

Maybe on some of the less-travelled roads that's true but I didn't see anything that you couldn't drive in a 2x4. This was my first trip to Moresby which is mostly logging (dirt) roads. But there's active logging going on so they are kept in good condition. Yeah, the chain saw becomes a must-have due to wind storms. I was lucky because every time I came to downed trees laying across the road somebody had just cut a hole in them before I got there.

The bigger issue is trying to figure out where you are. There's minimal signage. I did a trip out to the Mamin River, out towards Juskatla on Graham. It seems like the logging roads are logical to get there but there was minimal signage. I took lots of pics of the logging road layout from Google Earth and stored them on my phone for future reference prior to taking my trip so that really helped. Also, Google Maps was very helpful because it uses GPS instead of internet---that definitely saved me from getting lost----just keep that glowing blue icon headed in the general direction of where you want to go.

I heard the ticket is downloading Gaia. I saw a Gaia screen shot on a guy's phone I met on the ferry who was going elk hunting---basically a topo-map with all the logging roads with lots of detail, so a sophisticated step up from Google Maps

 

[Coyote Spooner]

I second the effectiveness and detail of GAIA. I have it on my iPhone and my iPad(cellular). I have a ram mount in my SXS and use it explore the extensive logging roads on Vancouver Island. I use my phone for walking rivers as well.

Thanks for your detailed write-ups, on your adventures. They give me inspiration to do the same, on land and sea.

 

[big rock]

Gaia is a great app. My wife is an ultra runner, her and her gang use it pretty much exclusively because of topo/elevation option. Combining Gmaps and Gaia works great to navigate around Van island.

 

[Sharphooks]

Thanks for the Gaia recommendation guys....good to know! My bro' used it while travelling through Portugal last summer and said it was the bomb for leaving bread crumbs so you can always find your way home....I heard it leaves tracks like a marine GPS which might be worth the cost of admission

 

[Hyde-N-Seek]

Great write up and story telling as always Sharphooks! Looking forward to your next adventure. Will give Gaia a try too.

 

[Aces]

It’s great to re live my old adventures while reading your riveting stories

 

[Sharphooks]

Thanks for that Aces....let's hear about some of your old adventures.....I bet you know parts of the west side of Van Isle that the rest of us have never been to....were you a steelheader back in the day?

 

[Aces]

Thanks for that Aces....let's hear about some of your old adventures.....I bet you know parts of the west side of Van Isle that the rest of us have never been to....were you a steelheader back in the day?

Yeah I’ve seen some pretty different and amazing things fishing Clayoquot sound, some in fresh water. Found several unique tacks. Finding moving Chinook in shallow water = winning the lottery. I actually guided rivers for steelhead, coho and sea run cutthroats for 12 years when I was ambitious, adding 80-85 days a year to my usual 120-130 days on the briny. Such a great time. The time between the end of Clayoquot sound fishery to the spring steelhead locally was punctuated with a 3-5 week trip patronage to the Thompson steelhead. Fishing daily with my club members we’re memories I’ll never Fogerty.

 

[Derby]

Hear u on the Thompson my friend...so many geat laughs and adventures with our club Everytime I think of the Thompson I think of a 25lb plus fish cart wheels half way across the river on my 1326 fenwick and 5 in Milnar reel that blew out of the tail out of the tin shack.... never to be seen agian

 

[Sharphooks]

I bet you guys have some T stories to tell, especially staying "3-5 weeks" each season. Wow, that's putting your time in and filling the memory banks.

Speaking of which---I had the Thompson on my mind the other day. I never fished gear on the THompson but on Friday I got a brand new Green CT 3106 in the mail. It is probably the sexiest looking off-the-rack rod I've ever held in my hands. Stone-cold gorgeous.

My first thought was: wow, if I'd had this rod back when the THompson was open I could have chucked a spoon up against the opposite bank no problem , and what a joy it wouldn've been to fight a fish on that rod!

 

[Derby]

My favorite spoon rod was the sage B4110GSH

 

[Sharphooks]

Seeing as how back in the good old days this would be prime time for the THompson, I'm going to start a thread where peeps can chime in with their T stories.

I think it's an absolute tragedy what happed to that river.....they estimate 250 returning adults this season, down from at least 3,000 -5,000 when you and I fished it. We can lay that fluviatile genocide squarely at the feet of DFO , those clowns who absolutely knew that in-river drift nets and endless chum openings in October and NOvember in the Fraser would wipe upper Fraser steelhead off the face of the earth.

Well done, gentlemen. You fulfilled your Mission Statement and successfilly managed to ZERO