Mexico… Again!?

¡Hola, amigos! I'm guessing you know I'm back in Mexico from the title. And it's all Diane's fault... She suggested that we come along, so how could we say no? But regarding the again, I know, I know, I haven't written about my previous trips yet, but please bear with me. I'll get there.

Let me start with the flight down... Kudos to Deedee for finding a flight the travel agent couldn't. Namely a nonstop from Vancouver to Cancun. For a switch, I had the window seat. Most of the flight, I was looking at clouds, but there was kind of a cool stretch over Colorado where I was looking down at an open pit mine. Couldn't see much going on, since we were 7 miles and change up, but it was still kind of neat to see:

The flight was a little bumpy, in spots, with even the flight attendants getting caught unaware at one point. But even so, they remained totally professional and maintained their cool in spite of the 11 infants on board our plane.  Honestly, the kids were all pretty well behaved.

At any rate, we landed at just a bit after 6pm local, and our instructions from Diane (my cousin, more or less... She's family, so I don't worry about how,) said to head out of the airport and turn right once outside. Well... I'm not going to pick on my wife, but we eventually get over in the direction we need to go in.  Lesson learned... Set up transportation before we leave.  So we end up in a collectivo, or multi-person taxi at a ridiculous cost, but this will land us at the doorstep of our hotel, rather than the bus station in Playa Del Carmen. So, fine.  Except the driver can't read the address, since the interior lights don't work, and he's not familiar with that part of Playa. Hmmm.

The hotel we first stayed in was alright, clean, quiet, close to amenities downtown. It's called the Hotel Plaza Playa. Item number one on our list of things to do was feed ourselves. Here's where my experience in Tijuana came in handy. No, I don't have any pictures, but I'm not flashing an iPhone at night on a busy street, nor am I packing my big camera. Just good sense, there. We quickly found a little corner restaurant, and ordered 2x enchilada especiales. They were pretty good... Better than what passes for Mexican food up in our neck of the woods. Poor Deedee found the salsa a lot spicier than she expected, though.  We also found a market where we got juice, water, and fruit. Good enough for one night.  That was probably the highlight, however... The bed was so tiny, I was forced to sleep on the couch, which DID convert to a bed. And hard? Holy crap!!

The next day, we had breakfast.  I had breakfast tacos... And I'm once again reminded that I've never seen hard tacos anywhere in Mexico. So I have to wonder where the taco companies come up with their hard taco shells... Next, hire a cab. It wasn't a long distance to the condo where we would be spending the rest of our trip, but plenty long with baggage. We get to Natz Ti Ha (Mayan for by the sea,) and the room isn't ready. Okay, fine, it's early. Can we leave our bags somewhere? Done. Down to the pool for the next 3 hours.

 Oh yeah... The beach here has taken a beating, and I'm assuming the tide was in, since there wasn't much beach to be had at all. So, pool it was. At least for now. After we were able to get into our room, we changed and headed up to La Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue.

Foot traffic only, and basically your typical market street. Don't give too much heed to the hawkers, and do your own thing, and you'll have no problem. This is one of the few places that almost prefers pesos to US Dollars. Kind of nice. Following that, it was off to La Mega, which is a chain department store, somewhat like Walmart. We grabbed a few things, some essential, some not so much, and walked out 1800 pesos poorer. But that included enough booze to last quite a while.

I guess it's time to think about going to find some grub, again... At 8:30pm :)  I'll leave you with the view from one of our balconies to think on....

Go North, Young Man!

Last year, Dyno Nobel asked me if I would be interested in going to work in the Seismic field when things slowed down. It would be on a three weeks in, one week out basis, working six days a week with the seventh being an on-call reset day for my logbook. (As truckers, we're only allowed to work so many hours a week.  Dyno's system has us doing a maximum of 70 hours.)  Me being me, I naturally said "Yes."  And so began a whole new education.

 

We started in November of 2013 with me flying to Calgary.  From there, I would proceed to Rockyford, AB, to pick up the truck and drive it up to Fort Nelson, BC.  Our Operations Manager, Kevin, would run ahead of me in a company pickup that would be left there for our use.  When I arrived in Calgary, they had just had a blizzard pass through, bringing high winds, and a big temperature crash.  It had dropped roughly 15 degrees and was suddenly -10 or so, instead of +5C. After spending the night in Stettler, Kevin and I proceeded to Rockyford, finished loading the last minute items into the truck, and left on our way to Fort Nelson.  Well... talk about nasty roads.  Admittedly, I've driven on worse, but there was no way I was going to make highway speed on that polished ice.  I didn't quite need to chain up, but I certainly needed to think ahead of what I was doing.  It took us 4 or 5 hours just to get to Whitecourt, where there are government scales, but I wound up being passed right on through as all the MOT workers were more than tied up with other trucks.  We made it as far as Fort St. John that night before I ran out of hours.

 

Alaska Highway

 

The next day we continued to Fort Nelson, on vastly improved roads. The Alaska Highway is maintained to a very high standard, and honestly, at -20C, even ice is like driving on blacktop.  I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures while I was going up, but so much of that drive was so boring, I was just glad to get it over with.  Especially since that truck cramped me up terribly. An interesting thing about the Alaska Highway is that when you're approaching Chain Up areas, they have lights that the Highways crews will switch on when it's mandatory to do so.  The worst spot was what's called Sikanee Chief.  It's a steep, twisty little sonofagun that drops down into the Sikanee River Canyon.  You stop at the Brake Check, make sure you're good to go, and then take your time heading down, and walk on it to head up the other side.  I was lucky... I never had to chain up.  Kevin and I spent the rest of the week in Fort Nelson, preparing the site and the apartment/office that Dyno had rented for the other driver and myself.  After the week, I drove the company pickup down and waited for the call to say it was time to go to work.

 

Alaska Highway west of Fort Nelson.  Yes, it's icy, but very driveable.
 

That came at the very end of November, telling me to be there for December 2.  I left Terrace on the first, heading for Dawson Creek.  Note to self, and you, Good Reader, don't drive the Pine Pass at night if you have any choice in the matter.  The snowstorms through there can be nasty.  At any rate, I made it to Dawson Creek, and carried on the next day.  The other driver arrived two or three days after I did... Phil was his name.  Good guy.  Different, but good.  The first two weeks, we didn't really do a whole lot except detail work, but it kept us busy.  Then, when the job actually did get started, it was a little rocky at first due to the weather not being quite cold enough.  But we got them going, and then they decided they were going to shut down for a week over Christmas, so we had to turn around and clean their storage out.  Very well and good.  Just in time for me to fly home, anyway, for my first turnaround.  I'll tell you... when you don't see the family for three weeks at a time, you want to spend your time with them when you can.  I'll also tell you... the Fort Nelson airport is unlike any other airport I've ever been in.  Security?  Not there.  We stopped and grabbed coffee on the way to the airport, and I got on the plane drinking the same cup of coffee!  It did, however, land in Dawson Creek, where we had to disembark, claim our luggage, and go through security there.

 

That's where the next 'adventure' began... We got into Vancouver okay, although a little behind schedule.  That was no big deal, because I didn't have to fly again for 5 or 6 hours, and on a different airline.  If everything went right from there on, I'd have been home by 11:30 or so.  Except, this was December 22.  The busiest day in the world for flying.  Due to all the delays, my flight didn't leave Vancouver until 2:00am.  That put us at the Terrace airport at roughly 4.  Fortunately, I had a friend on the flight who offered to give me a ride home.  Thank you, Ian.

 

Anyway... I got word that I had to be back in Fort Nelson for New Year's Day.  So I spent December 31 flying back up there.  January 1, 2014, Phil tells me in the morning to grab my trunks and towel, and off we went to Liard Hotsprings.  So off we go, four hours to the west, to soak up some of the nicest natural hot water I've ever been in.  Along the way we saw moose, bison, and MORE moose on the return trip.  That's a pile of swamp donkeys up there, I'll tell you.

Bison

Liard Hotsprings

Phil

Frost covered tree from condensation and freezing

 

 



Another thing about Fort Nelson... I got to spend some time working on night photography.  I would go out to a place called Steamboat Mountain, and it was so dark, and the air so clean, that I could easily come up with this:

Shot from Steamboat Mountain

Shot from the Brake Check on Steamboat Mountain

Shot from viewpoint on Steamboat Mountain.  Click for larger view.

And then, the Northern Lights.  Mister man, I haven't seen Northern Lights like I did up there in a long, long time.  I keep hoping to, though.  Eventually we'll get a clear night... won't we??  Anyway... here's a few of my shots from while I was there.

Looking north from the Alaska Highway, just west of Fort Nelson

Shot from Parker Lake Aerodrome, just west of Fort Nelson

 

The Milky Way from Parker Lake, just out of Fort Nelson

Star Trails from Steamboat
 

The Church at Old Fort Nelson.

The Wolfe on the Road

Well, I suppose I should actually dust this thing off and write in it instead of just thinking about it. I was looking back at some of my older posts, and realized that in some respects, I've come full circle in my life. And it makes me wonder how often it will happen again.  You see, when I was younger, 19 and 20, as a matter of fact, I was learning to drive truck. I started with a fella named Charlie, and he and I covered quite a chunk of territory around here with an old dog-logger (a type of log trailer.). Then I started running in the low-bed with a fella named Vern. Nice fella... Loved his coffee and his cigarettes. Both of these guys taught me that nearly anyone can learn to drive a truck... But it takes someone with something between their ears to do it safely.

So how do I say I've come full circle?  Well... Now I'm trucking. And yeah, that's my ride up there. My cargo is a bit more exciting than logs, though... it's explosives.  Find out more about where I work here. Now, don't get excited... as long as I keep following the rules, it's actually quite safe.  And I like to make it home at the end of my trip. And the interesting thing is that I'm going up into some of the same places I went with Charlie and Vern. And where I went when I was with Rona, when I wrote about going over the mountain.



At 6km on the Bob Quinn Trail.

Yeah... I get PAID to see scenery like that.  In fact, I'll post a few more pictures showing you my office when I'm on the road...

Up the North Kitimat FSR

 

 

There's some steep terrain getting up here, and more bears than I've seen in years.  It's common practice to announce on the road channel where you see bears so that workers can be aware.  There's lots of activity performed by solo workers on ATVs or UTVs.  Just a fact of life up there.

 



 





Near the back end of the Clore FSR

 

 

Next year, if I'm up in there again, I'll make a point of stopping and snagging a few other pictures.  The scenery is simply amazing. There's a couple of steep hills, and one of them is actually a sonofagun to go up when you're loaded.  I've only ever encountered one other hill worse... but we don't have to deal with that one anymore.

 

39km on the Kwinithal FSR, going towards Kitsault

 







39km on the Kwinithal FSR, going towards Kitsault.

Getting jealous yet?  This is what the job is like in the spring and summer...  But don't get fooled.  These roads can get you killed, if you drive too fast.  Or if you don't call on your radio like you're supposed to.  Yes, these are all radio-controlled roads.  Public access, which means anybody can get on them with or without a radio, so you have to travel these roads expecting to encounter somebody without a radio at any time.  Of course, you announce their presence and direction of travel to everybody else, so others know what to expect.  But nonetheless, it's beautiful, and the scenery is some sort of fantastic.  Yeah, I get paid to see that.  But I also get paid for this:

 

Going up the Kwinithal in the first snowfall of the year.

Yeah, you gotta take the bad with the good.  This is the SAME ROAD as in the last picture, but lower down on the mountain, and later in the year.  It's the first snowfall of the year up there, and I think this started somewhere around the 1000 foot mark in terms of elevation.  This is about 8 inches of snow on the ground, and the grader hasn't made it out yet.  How do you drive in this?  Simple... chain up.  Lots of truckers whine and snivel about chaining up, but to me, it's just a fact of life.  And there's worse things than chaining up... like sliding off the road. In all honesty, I made the trip with one set of triples (which goes over two tires at a time,) and a single chain on the steering axle, which I might have gotten away without.  But when you're hauling powder, why take the chance?

10km on the Brucejack Trail, heading down.

This road can be a bastard and bite you in the ass if you're not paying attention.  During the winter, you stay in the centre of the road, and don't even think about trying to make time until you get to 37km.  Going up, you start off with a 14% grade that you can't get a run at, so you make sure you're in the right gear to start with.  And you go up from around 500 feet altitude to over 3200 feet altitude in under 6 miles, or 10km.  Yeah... it's steep.  And then you start to drop down when you hit roughly 17 or 18km, with a lot of little ups and downs, and a few semi-flat spots, and some wild switchbacks to bite you hard if you don't know what you're doing.  This goes on until 36km, where it flattens out, but then you have avalanche zones to drive through.  Fortunately, the avalanche technicians are always paying attention, assessing and performing avalanche control.

Kinda makes "Ice Road Truckers" look like a bunch of candy-asses, doesn't it?  Don't get me wrong... I know damned well I'm going to get a lesson every day on driving.  Every day is different.  But I really do enjoy my job, snow and ice or no.  On that note, I'll leave you off with a picture I took while I worked last winter in Fort Nelson for Dyno.  That will be my next entry :)



 

Looking north from the Alaska Highway just west of Fort Nelson
 

 



9-11... Terrace Speedway Style

On September 11 2001, a true tragedy took place.  The single most deadly act of terror took place in New York City, as two planes were flown into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre.  That same morning, in Washington DC, a plane was also flown into the Pentagon.  And in Pennsylvania, thanks to the brave and valiant actions of the passengers, yet another plane was merely flown into the ground, instead of an unknown target.  That these acts of destruction took place is undeniable, and we remember with pride and regret the heroes who selflessly faced unbelievable danger as they tried to save as many lives as they were able.  These firefighters, police officers, and paramedics were just doing what they do.  As a former paramedic, I understand this... and I offer to all members of the Emergency Services who responded to that disaster, and to all members who serve today, everywhere, a heartfelt "Thank You."  Your service is noticed, and truly appreciated.  And we pray that nobody should ever have to respond to a terrorist incident of that magnitude again.

On September 11 2011, ten years later, in the small community of Terrace BC, it was an appropriate day for the Terrace Speedway to hold it's final event for the 2011 automotive racing season... it was our annual Hit To Pass and Demolition Derby.  Before I go any farther, I want to thank all of the volunteers for their many many hours of effort, and all of the sponsors for providing the funding for maintaining the Speedway.  I also want to thank the Thornhill Volunteer Fire Department for coming out to help also.  On this day, their firefighting services were actually required.

The day was started a little bit behind schedule, unfortunately.  But it DID start with a bang, as the owner of a car that was experiencing mechanical difficulties decided to get some use out of it for the day.  They rolled it.  When you watch the video, you'll see the car is being pushed by the pickup towards a ramp.  This single ramp is used primarily for this purpose, and as you can see, it does the job quite admirably.  This video is actually of the SECOND roll of this car, and is driven by the same driver in each case.  Oh yes... I'll explain why you see glass in this car in just a moment...  Thanks to the seatbelt, helmet, and a deactivated airbag, the driver was unhurt in both cases.

Why is there glass in that car?  Well... on this raceday they ran three classes of cars: Outlaw (which is the largest cars,) Banger (which is the smaller cars,) and Zero Effort.  Okay... I can hear you all right now... I'll explain some more: Outlaw and Banger cars are purpose built for the HTP and Demo, and have been stripped down and prepped similarly to a convention stock car by dedicated racers.  Zero Effort cars were made available thanks to Pronto Towing, for $100 to people who simply wanted to have something to run for this day.  These cars WERE street legal (aside from insurance,) on raceday, and the only modification was the removal of the airbags.  They were run with glass, lights, and upholstery still intact.  And it made for a great show.  The next thing we were treated to was driver introductions, , and then there was the Smokeshow Competition.  You can see the winner of that above

The first actual races were obstacle courses run by each class.  Machinery tires were strategically placed  in the corners with arrow painted on them to indicate the route that the cars HAD to take in order to complete a lap.  The obstacles in many cases served to slow things down, and helped to keep things interesting.    That was followed up by an Outlaw Hit to Pass, and then a mixed Banger and Zero Effort Hit to Pass.  For the Hit to Pass, they changed the rule: "In order for a lap to count, you MUST contact another car.  In order to pass another car, you must hit it."  And the rule about the obstacles was removed, as were the obstacles themselves.  When the pack of cars started to open up too much, lead drivers would slow down in order for the others to catch up so that they could hit another car, or BE hit, in order for the lap to count.  I have to give my compliments to all of the drivers involved in the day's racing... they all put on a GREAT show, and everybody stayed safe.  If anybody thinks that driving in these races is just a simple thing... take a look at this little slideshow demonstrating a technique called a Pit Maneuver... this is basically the same technique used by police to bring vehicles to a stop during a chase.  You've got to be thinking and aware of what's going on, in order to know when and how to do this:

Now... while they were removing the obstacles (tires,) they needed something to fill some time.  They did this by holding a balloon toss.  One of the firefighters graciously agreed to let his helmet be used as the target as most of the children came out with a water balloon (unfortunately, they ran out... like I said, it was an AWESOME turnout!) and took turns throwing at it.  In the picture to the left, you can see the balloon rolling out to the side as it didn't break... although the thrower did win a fantastic prize... a Family Season's Pass to next year's racing at Terrace Speedway. 

 The children had a grand time, and so did our firefighters.  Truth be told, I think our firefighter who "volunteered" his helmet was hoping one would break in it so he could cool off a little bit... because after a goodly number of missed throws, he took the helmet and held it up, making himself a target also...  and when that didn't pan out, he and his partner engaged in a water balloon fight, much to the delight of everybody.

While I'm on the topic of firefighters... Remember I mentioned that their services were required? Yeah... during the Banger/ Zero Effort Hit to Pass, one of the cars very nearly rolled over, and was disabled. There was nothing that I could call unusual about the hit, at least from my vantage point... until I looked back and saw the smoke rising from the hood. And then noticed flames under it.... Pit crew members had the fire mostly under control by the time the firefighters got there, but they made sure it was well and truly out by prying the hood open and liberally discharging a fire extinguisher into the engine compartment. The driver was at no point in danger of burning... he was easily able to unbuckle his seatbelt, open the door, and calmly walk away from the smoking car, because it was a Zero Effort car.

I need to make mention that this race was intended to go on until the cars were unable to run... clearly this was the end for THIS car... who had gone in to the pits to have a new tire put on at least once.  Another car had it's left front wheel (or lead wheel,) deflated within the first two laps... and he kept racing several laps even after it was run down to the rim.  What a trooper!!  In the end, it was determined that this was the only car to actually make every single lap with an impact on another car.  Who'da thunk it?  Oh yeah... the last car running in this race?  Was the one that almost caused the burned car to roll.

After we had an intermission, it was time for the Demolition Derby... and that part of things went quite quickly.  The Zero Efforts were reduced to two cars able to go at it... Two hits later, they were done.  The Outlaws held their Derby heat... and that was a little bit of a spectacle, resulting in a few dead cars, after many, many hits and lots of smoker from the tires.  The Banger Derby heat wasn't quite so spectacular, although it was also quite entertaining.  It left a single car able to run... more on that in a moment.

In order to buy some repair time for the Outlaw cars, and also to give people something else to enjoy, a Garden Tractor Race was held.  Dennis and Fern Beaudette, of Beaudette Contracting, (yes, they sponsor the races,) brought their tractors out and raced them.  Dennis normally races stock car, and he took the older Husqvarna tractor, while his wife, Fern, took the newer Cub Cadet tractor.  This was a case of power winning out over experience, as Fern easily outran Dennis, even doing a donut in front of him.  This was also a crowd-pleaser, and had the added benefit of being just plain cute.

 As I said... at this point we were very nearly done... and remember I mentioned the Banger Heat left one car able to run? It was the same with the Zero Effort class... and so... with our drivers being more interested in putting on a show than anything... they decided not to bring the cars home. That's right... out came the rollover rig yet again, much to the delight of the spectators.

And then... it was time for the final event of the day: the Outlaw Derby Final... with only two cars left, it was destined to be quick...  So we thought.  There was a lot of screeching, crunching, and smoke as the two cars jockeyed back and forth and slammed into each other again and again, until finally it was conceded that the green car was simply unable to do anything at all... it sat on the track like a lump on a log.



Taking Everything Into Stock

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of updates for the last week or so.  I've been taking a little bit of downtime since the family left, and trying to get some much-needed fishing in.  And while I've had my camera WITH me, I haven't taken anything new, aside from MORE phots at the Racetrack.  More on that in a later post.  As far as having my camera with me while I'm fishing... my apologies, I've had my rod in my hand, and not my camera.  That being said, I've had TONS of fun with that, and my right arm is pretty sore from fighting all the fish... on Sunday September 4 I caught and released about a dozen salmon.  And nope... not a single picture.  Ah, well.

Well, folks... today I don't really have any photos to share although I've spent my day going through many, many pictures.  I was reading on something called stock photography.  And what I read inspired me to start looking through my archives to see if I had anything which might be suitable for use as stock material.

I can hear a few of you asking me... so I'll answer the question, "What IS stock photography?"  The short version is most of the imagery we see in magazines and an awful lot of what we see on TV, is stock imagey, meaning it was taken in advance by somebody.  These pictures are used for advertising,  illustration, demonstration, and to be visual "fill."  It's often easier and less expensive for agencies to search through a library of images than to hire a photographer or graphic designer.  As a result of that, there are agencies that make these libraries available, for a fee, to those people.  These agencies also pay people, such as myself, royalties for producing these images, when our images are used.

So I've decided that if I can make $20 or 30 a month, or preferably more, I'm going to start working on shooting and producing stock imagery.  Needless to say, I'm now a little bit cross-eyed and fumble-fingered from working with my pictures.

So what provides good stock imagery?  Well... how about an image like this helicopter?  The whole image is in good focus, it's very clear what the subject is, and the open space to the side makes it very usable for a variety of purposes.  With a minimum of effort, it can easily be used for illustration or advertising.  The nice thing about an image like this one, is that no model releases need to be signed or submitted.  Okay... so I was wrong... I have a couple of pictures.

The whole drive behind this is seeing the published figures from one photographer who submits to several agencies, and reports of dedicated stock photographer's earnings.  It's a worthwhile step towards my dream of being able to make a living as a photographer.  So... if I happen to ask you if you'd sign a model release for me... you may end up appearing in a brochure or a magazine or something like that.  But bear in mind... the royalties that I make from a single picture aren't much, if you're interested in a cut...  Unless, of course, you're willing to hire yourself as a model for a day or so to a starving photographer.  If nothing else, we'll have fun.  Did I mention that I'm a starving photographer?

Make-A-Wish part II

(Text edited Saturday August 27 morning; pictures added Sunday August 28 evening.)

Well, folks, I have to apologize for not getting an entry up sooner, but it's been a busy week.  And sadly, I've missed out on more of Amber's visit than I would have wished.  But it has been good; we've put smiles on her little face and given her and her brothers memories that I doubt will ever leave.  They've had a close call with a cougar, and they've been out riverboating on the Skeena.  They've been to Prince Rupert and dipped their feet in the Pacific Ocean.

As I said, a lot of this, I've had to miss out on a bunch of it, but that's not sour grapes, that's just life.  And so I'll write on what I can, starting with the trip in the riverboat.

My coworker, Kelly, won a boat a number of years ago, and he's one of the kindest people I know, particularly when it comes to young children.  When I mentioned to him that Amber and the guys were coming out from Ontario, he suggested that we get them out on the river.  Because of the weather, we were finally able to make that happen on Thursday evening after work.  My brother and everybody (except Susie and my mother,) met down at Fishermen's Park with Kelly and helped him launch, and I rushed over as soon as I finished working for the day.  The boat is restricted to five people, so it was originally planned that Colin, Alex, Ryan, and Amber would all go with Kelly for a turn, and then come back.  Poor little Ryan got scared, though, and I climbed in in his place.  We took a turn around Skeena Street, saw properties on the south of Graham Avenue, and came up the west side of Ferry Island and looked up at the Big Blue Box (that is, WalMart,) and then circled around Ferry Island, down through Hell's Gate, and then back up around Alberta Bar before returning to where we launched from.  We offloaded Colin and Amber, and loaded my brother, Bob.  We essentially did the trip in reverse to what we had just done, except without going around Ferry Island.  It was a very memorable trip for all of us, and the kids got to see eagles, seagulls, and afterwards, while standing on the boatlaunch, a black bear.  It was a good end to what was a great day.  Here's a quick video:

The next day was the only day I was really able to spend with them entirely.  We had decided to spend the day fishing, and due to restrictions, decided to head west towards Rupert.  We had to get past the Exchamsiks River in order for them to not have to pay extra licensing fees.  The drive was pleasant, with a couple of black bears spotted beside the Kalum River; even the brief rainsquall didn't dampen our spirits as we drove through.  We ended up starting to fish at the Kwinitsa River, seeing at first a few good splashes of trout.  And none of us noticed that the fish stopped jumping while we were there.  After no action on several flies, my brother and I noticed quite a large wage from something we couldn't see, and we naturally thought it was a large fish.  After  it made a 360 turn, we finally realized that something was amiss... the river had been invaded by a seal.  We packed up and started to move ourselves back upriver, looking for a place to fish before we hit the Exchamsiks River.  A number of little creeks were investigated, and rejected, until we ended up on the Kasiks River.  There we saw some nice risers, and decided we would fish it, but after we fed Ryan, who was complaining of being hungry.

Of course... it made us realize WE were hungry, also, so we sat down and had a burger and fries at the Kasiks Wilderness Resort.  This was simply one of the best burgers I've had in a restaurant in a long time.  And the fries... YUM!  Folks... don't let the appearance of the building fool you... don't let the small dining area fool you.  The restaurant has good food, good coffee, and the prices are simply excellent.  Oh yes... don't just simply figure on it being simple truck-stop fare... the daily special was a curry chicken rice hotpot with naan bread.

Afterwards, we returned to the Kasiks River and fished, mostly without success (although I did manage to get a small trout to take my fly.)  We shared the fishing hole with two others on our side of the river, and perhaps eight people who had arrived on the other side of the river in two boats.  One of the fellows on our side succeeded in landing a Cutthroat trout, which after determing what it was (who goes fishing without knowing your species?  Or at least a reference?) he cleaned and kept, and my brother watched the group across the river catch and release a number of larger fish... at least one coho, and probably a few pink salmon.  With time running out, we packed up and returned to town.

Dinner that night was at our place, and Deedee had made a really nice Shepherd's Pie, Coleslaw, baguette, and Strawberry-Rhubarb and Blueberry-Peach pies for dessert.  Dinner was great, and the house was filled with laughter and merriment.  The one person who would have made things complete, my sister, was unable to be there, but it was still simply great to have us all together.  We got people together and took a few pictures, and then, sadly, it was time to begin goodbyes.  I hate goodbyes, especially when it has a tendency to be a year or more between visits... I had last seen Collin 12 years ago, before Dad got terribly ill.  And I was only just getting to know his wife and wonderful children.  It didn't seem quite right...

This morning I brought them up to the airport and put them on the plane.  Well... through security, anyway.  Not much point in hanging out simply killing time when you can't visit with the people you're seeing off.  So be it; I will make the best of my day, and remember our visit, and plan to go out their way for a change.  Next year, I tell you... Next year.  And I hope and pray that little Amber is still going to be around for Deedee, Raeanne, Rechelle and me to go and see again.