The Big Move - Canada Here We Come: June 2010

So we made is back from Eutsuk Lake safe and sound and it was a memorable trip. We had one or two mishaps, but no one was hurt and spirits were high the whole time.

We left at 1am Sunday morning and drove through the night, 19 hours later we landed on the beach camp site. The last stretch of the road journey was around an hour on logging roads, driving towards the lake we could see off in the distance a huge plume of smoke from a forest fire (we now know covered 60 square KM) fortunately for us it was not where we were headed.

From Eutsuk 2010

The logging roads to access the lakes are basically heavy gravel designed for big rig trucks, hauling lumber, which presented our first little mishap and took a toll on the jet boat, putting out the drivers window. This was going to present a problem trying to drive the jet boat across the lakes to get to our final destination. Thanks to a downed sign and some duct-tape we managed to improvise something to provide some shelter and were able to launch on the lake.

The journey on the lake is usually around 4 hours however the wind had whipped up the lake a little and the decision was made to try and wait out some of the rough water in a sheltered bay, where we all pretty much managed an nap. As time was ticking on and the weather seemed to have eased we hit the water again, not long after the waves started whipping up again, making the shallow bottom of the jet boat bounce off the waves fairly violently. It was at this point the females among us, made a mental note to add a sports bra to their future packing lists. I understand a fair amount of discomfort was encountered. Aside from some shaken kidneys, my only discomfort came when Jaime opened the canopy on the boat while we were going flat out and I got crowned right between the eyes with a press-stud, leaving an interestingly central bruise, a stinging sensation and a bad head for a couple of hours.

From Eutsuk 2010

Bumps and bruises aside we arrived on the beach with a little day light to spare. All hands were put to setting up camp at speed. In doing so we managed to flick a tent pole up and catch Jaime in the face chipping one of her front teeth, despite my protests it was generally consider I had done this as revenge... I honestly testify now I didn't... no really I did not!

Camp being set up, next on the agenda was to have a nice warm drink and some dinner before settling in for the evening. Out came the gas bottle and the stove, but on trying to connect the two together we discovered the wrong hose had been brought. This left us with two options get very Ray Mears for every meal or speak to our neighbors. Unlike previous years when the nearest person is about 6 hours away, on this trip Jaime's Dad (Pete) was initially quite disappointed that someone else was camping near by us, fortunatly they were shipping out the following day and we were able to take their stove hose... Sorry Mr Mears all that we have learned from your shows will need to wait a little longer.

Now the fishing really began, trolling the lake with lines on down riggers, sometimes an hour or so would go between bites, and on other occasions 3 or 4 in quick succession and sometimes only minutes after setting out. We brought 21 Rainbow Trout home, but caught over 27, some were let go and some were eaten for dinner. The largest trought we caught on this trip was 7.2lbs but 10 and 11lb fish have been caught in Eutusk Lake.

From Eutsuk 2010

The first few days of fishing on the lake are mainly for sport and fish to eat there and then, the fishing to take home begins by about day three, once we have made an hours trip up the lake to collect ice from a snow slide. The slide which comes right down the mountain to the lake is impressive. Its a reasonably simple matter of shovelling packed snow in to a cooler where the fish will then be placed once cleaned. It was fortunately in these first few days we really encountered our remaining mishaps. The worst of these being water in the fuel.

From Eutsuk 2010

The jet boat runs on 5+ litre V8 petrol engine and just like any petrol engine, it doesn't run well full of water. We were fortunately heading towards shore when the engine started to splutter, on making it back the engine then stopped and would not start again... just to put this in context... WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NO-WHERE!! Thoughts of survival skills start to creep in to mind and the more meatie of the party wonder who the thinner members will prey on first. OK that's a complete exaggeration. There was some concern but we had confidence in Pete and he managed to strip down the relevant parts, remove the water from them and also pump the remaining good fuel out of the contaminated tank. Crisis averted.

We were motoring again and the fishing was good, we caught our 7.2lb fish and by we I mean, Jaime was reeling it in and the rod snapped, her brother David, grabbed the end and held it so Jaime could real and Rachel, David's wife hand over hand pulled the fish to the boat where I netted it. A true team effort for the largest fish of the trip. After that busy day of fishing we cleaned the fish on a near by beach ready for the cooler of ice and pulled in to shore ready to spend the rest of the evening by the fire. Just as I was taking my first sip if ice chilled beer I look down at the shore to see what looks like Pete's jet boat floating its own way home, yep in all our high spirits and humour as we landed non of us tied up the boat and it was now more than swimming distance away in the frigid water. In the 20 years Pete has been making this caping trip he has seen extremely few other campers at near by. Fortunately for us two groups this year. Our new neighbours happened to be heading our to place some drop lines for the evening and were able to recover the boat.

Its fair to say the rest of the trip was more or less incident free, the bumps, bruises, broken tooth, broken rod, broken window, broken engine and lost boat were all fortunate incidents depending on your point of view. It would be unfair of me not to mention some of the highlights of the trip but I have already rambled for so long, but we did have close up sightings of a Bald Eagle fishing, Cow Moose and Calf and even bear, and not forgetting the scenery which is amazing.

From Eutsuk 2010

Quite a lot has gone on since my last post. We moved into our new place in Mission on Monday, we had a lot more boxes and things stored than we realised. Our biggest problem being we have lots of things and not enough shelves, draws and cupboards to put them in. A trip to Ikea next week will put that to rights I'm sure. Quick shopping trips last week got us sofa's, a desk and more than enough for the place to start to feel like a home. We've cooked our first few meals (discovering which kitchen utensils we are missing) so I'd say the place was now officially lived in.

Last week was a bit of a blur, and we're still sorting our schedules out a little. Jaime is currently working three days a week and I'm working Monday to Friday.

The dogs are so far loving life here, since we moved down off the mountain they have not had any bears to chase and rabbits are few and far between, however don't worry they have found a replacement, squirrels (of which there are many in Mission) have become this seasons rabbit, the dogs only frustration being that rather than just run around and dive down a hole, a squirrel will run up a tree just out of reach and sit there and mock them and despite their best efforts (including Duffy trying to throw himself up the tree) they can't reach them. We're still exploring the area and finding offlead dog walks has been a bit of a challange due to the leash laws here, but we're persistant and not afraid to walk a long way so its working out. Yesterday we took the dogs for a good long 2 hour walk down by the Fraser river and found a nice little trail we'll be taking again, I think we could spend months if not years discovering trails in the Fraser Valley and probably will.

On a more personal perspective, I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the size of things in North America since we moved back. Everything from Sandwiches to Vehicles are MASSIVE. Picture this.... a simple pre-packaged Ham Sandwich from Sainsbury's or some other store in the UK... two slices of bread, a couple of slices of wafer thin ham and if you have gone for the ham salad option, a couple of lettuce leaves and tomato maybe with a faint waft of mustard, the whole thing cut diagonally placed side by side in a convenient triangular plastic container. Now try and imagine a 15" French stick, filled with a some lettuce leaves, a little tomato, around 20+ slices of not thin ham, cooked sausage, honey mustard dressing, sliced in half, placed side by side on a plastic tray wrapped in cling-film and sold for... £3. Its more than Jaime and I can eat for lunch combined.