ABBOTSFORD TO MERRITT

So last time I was feverishly recording my various movements (that doesn’t sound quite right), I had arrived in Lillooet.  I kicked around town a bit, had a look at a campground and motel up on top of the hill, no thanks to the look of either, then eventually found a second campground down on the water.  Alas, all of his serviced sites were taken, and his non-serviced sites were in bright sunshine, no shade, and about plus 30, no thanks.  The owner of that campground told me about another one near town, and I found it, and decided to hole up for the night.  Fraser Cove Campground is a small place with smallish sites, but everything is clean, the owner is a heck of a good guy, and one can fish the Fraser River right there.  Open seasons right now are for whitefish and sturgeon, and I did give the former a try but only had a bite which I missed, and then a rock, which ate my rig and I gave it up.  I had a good sleep and there was wifi, but there I was unable to post pictures to the blog because the Internet was too slow or whatever.

My plan had been to go over to Pemberton to meet another gun guy for lunch, but the road from Lillooet to Pemberton is apparently fairly “INTERESTING” and I had enough of that driving from Lytton to Lillooet the day before.  So unfortunately I did not get to meet “Gatehouse” from Gun Nutz, maybe next time.

Instead, the next morning I headed out, through a series of mountain passes and valleys, to Cache Creek and then on to meet some friends near Savona.  Carl and Moe have a gorgeous home on a huge lot overlooking the Thompson River.  Carl and I worked together back in the 80s, and once we figured out when we last saw each other, it was probably 1989.  It did not SEEM like it had been 27 years......so we had a grand visit, enjoyed a steak BBQ and a couple beverages, and I camped out in their driveway overnight.  I even had the opportunity to do some laundry, which was quite welcome indeed.

 


Friday I headed to Kamloops to meet a fellow with whom I have had several gun dealings over the years.  Derrick aka mrpike is a fine fellow who has had an interesting life.  We had a good chat until his wife Rita came home, then decided that a pub meal would be a good idea.  Their favourite restaurant is an Irish place where the waiters wear kilts, which I found somewhat confusing, and our server “Cooper” had no explanation for it either.  He did allow that the ladies liked the kilts..........  The supper was very fine indeed, and I was ready for bed when we got back to the home of Derrick and Rita.

(above photo, Derrick is also a custom knife maker)

Derrick is an angler, his specialty being fly-fishing for pike.  BIG ones!  But there are no pike in the Kamloops area, so we headed out the next day to a trout lake in the hills.  The weather forecast had been for 70% chance of rain.  They were close:  we had 100% chance of rain about 70% of the time.  Launching and recovering the boat in a fairly shallow ramp saw me entering the water with my boots and clothes on, and with the rain pretty much constant we got a wee bit damp.  BUT!!!  The rainbow trout were plentiful and active, and we caught probably a couple dozen small ‘bows, all under a pound.  We kept one limit of five trout for a feed, and froze them back at Kamloops.  Rita prepared a lovely supper, after which I retired to the camper where I slung a clothesline and hung my VERY wet garments, then broke out the electric heater.  It has been a while since I slept in a sauna, and I do not wish to repeat this experience any time soon........

Sunday morning I loaded up the rig for a short hop across Kamloops to another gun guy, Luke aka kamlooky.  Luke is a lot of fun, tells great stories, and is also an angler.  So we loaded up his boat and headed out to another trout lake up in the mountains.  The drive up was fairly interesting and I was pleased we were in Luke’s 4WD pickup, not my rig.  We launched without getting wet, and commenced trolling for trout.  Luke likes to use a willow leaf with a flatfish behind it, and suggested I start with a willow leaf and wedding band (which is a kind of spinner).  I asked him if he would be terribly insulted if I went with my own choice and was told to go for it.  I clipped on a Little Cleo ¼ oz in fire tiger and had a strike immediately.  We landed that trout, re-set the lines, and I had another fish on.  It was pretty much like that for the whole time we were on the lake, and the rainbows were mostly in the one to two pound range.  I would estimate we caught thirty or so lovely plump trout, and we did keep a couple feeds of the larger ones.  Mine are frozen in the camper freezer, awaiting a time when I will be able to cook them up.

Once we got back to Luke’s place and had the boat and gear stowed, it was getting on for supper time and we hit his neighbourhood pub “Tumbleweeds.”  Both of us enjoyed HUGE burgers and sides, a couple cool beverages, and headed back to Casa Luke, where I turned in for the night in my rig.  Luke had warned me that it “might” be noisy out there, but I neglected to put in my earplugs when I hit the pillow.  So somewhere in the night I was awakened by a quite loud freight train that I believe probably went directly over top of my camper, judging by the sounds of it, and remembered at that point to insert said plugs in said ears.

There was one more gun guy in the same general area that I had hoped to meet, and so I drove to Salmon Arm, where I met Bruce, aka H4831.  He had sold his very first gun on Gun Nutz to me some number of years ago, which he remembered but I did not.  Bruce was born in 1925 and has had an interesting life, including quite a few years as a bush plane pilot.  I had previously owned a copy of his book but had sent it to a friend that I thought would enjoy reading it – so I took this opportunity to purchase a replacement copy.  We talked about Bruce’s youth when his family homesteaded in Northern Saskatchewan, he showed me some fascinating pictures from back in those days, and soon enough it was time for me to get back into the rig and back-track to Kamloops to pump bilges, take on diesel and propane, and commence the next step of this adventure.  I wanted to take a motel room for the night, so that I would have reliable Internet and could take a long hot bath.  I have accomplished both aims, and once I pack up this computer I will be heading to Logan Lake to meet my old buddy Glenn, and his nephew Don, who will be my “accompanying hunter” for an elk hunt starting Saturday in the Kootenays near Cranbrrok BC.  Please wish me luck!