Back in the USSA

Yep, you betcha. We are back from the land of Canucks, Labatt's Blue, Molson Canadian, and great fishing, eh.

Canadians have this interesting little colloquialism that they use in everyday speech. At the end of a sentence they will often say, eh?. So they turn declarative statements into aquestion. It's really odd and sort of fun to play along. An example would be something like this, "Looks like a storm is brewing, eh?" At first we weren't sure if you are required to respond to the question or simply nod and agree. We have done both.

We spent three weeks bumbledickin around some of the most beautiful country this country boy has ever seen. Towering peaks, deep canyons, wild rivers, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Big Horn Sheep, and a couple of Pygmy Nuthatches are just a few examples of the wildlife in Western Alberta and Southern British Columbia.

Charlotte was in Wino Heaven in the Okanagan Valley, near Oliver, BC, which boasts of over 100 wineries. We visited several and decided that Canadian wine is good, some very good, but lacking the full body of California wines. But hey, what do I know, eh. It all tasted like really yummy fermented grapes to me.

We rolled back into the USSA in Sumas, Washington and spent four days on a little lake near Snohomish, Wa called Flowing Lake. We visited with Charlotte's best friend from High School, Sharon Wade and one of my best buddies from the Islands, Jordan Barrows and his main squeeze, Rebecca Gerhart, joined us for a night of laughter and giggles around the campfire. Jordan brought Canadian contraband in the form of Ling Cod and King Salmon fillets as well as some cold smoked salmon jerky and a bottle of fine wine from the big boat where he is the executive chef. We ate well that night.

One of the big highlights of the trip for Charlotte was eating at Ray's Boathouse in Seattle. She claims it is her favorite restaurant in the world. It was a remarkable meal of Halibut steaks, Penn Cove Mussels, followed by dessert of three Port wines paired with chocolates, enjoyed looking at Puget Sound at sunset. It don't get much better than that amigos.

 Yesterday was agreeably the worst day of our trip. We spent over 4 hours in stop and go traffic going 50 miles! It was hot, tempers were short and four lanes of traffic going nowhere. Every person in Seattle was leaving town. It was like a mass exodus of humanity. Just Awful. The only redeeming part of the day was pulling into Cabelas parking lot and finding a Sani-dump station that you can use and it took credit cards!! Only good old Cabelas would think of that. Got a love it.

Now we are 40 gallons of poo and 40 gallons of waste water lighter!!

Speaking of poo. Charlotte says we have talked more about it in the last 7 weeks than she has in her entire life. Gotta love it. When you carry your poo everywhere you go it becomes a big part of your conversations.

We are now visiting with Charlotte's friends Peggy and Marilee in Olympia Washington. They have a nice little farm outside of town so we are back to the quiet of being away from the highways and crowd noise that is a constant in RV Parks around the world. They are great hosts. We have spent some time just hanging out on their back deck among beautiful flower and veggie gardens.

Today we head east after traveling basically North and West for almost two months. We will start fishing in earnest again this week near the Metropolis of Sprague, Washington. Look it. My buddy from long ago is taking us to a "special" trout stream that nobody knows about. Sounds interesting, eh?

Then on to Driggs Idaho for the Grand Targhee Bluegrass festival. Ye Ha!

We have learned much in our 6,000 miles we have logged to date. We are experiencing each other in a very contained environment and both of us seem to be loving it. We commented recently that neither of us has felt cramped or overcrowded to this point. That is pretty amazing, eh?

Andiamo!

Capt Coy, Ms Charlotte and Jojo

Great Beers in Olympia, Wa

Halibut at Rays Boathouse in Seattle

Fun Times over IPA's

A gift wine from Charlotte's friends that she says is one of the best Cab/Sav's she has ever tasted. That is saying alot if you know Ms Charlotte

Flowers from Peggy's garden

New pics to share

ihttp://taters.smugmug.com/Other-1/Unfurled-Kimberley-Bull-River/30581865_7VGbGn

News from the North Country

Well it's been a few days since we let you know what we are up to these days. We have been noodling around the mountains of the Kootenay Valley in Southern British Columbia. It is breathtaking.

We found a funky little moutain community called Kimberly, BC. It's about two hours north of the US border nestled in the high alpine region on St Mary's River. We have been heading up to the lake at the head of the valley to fish at dusk, which at this time of year is about 10:00 PM. We have been dry fly fishing and catching native Cutthroat Trout and Rainbow Trout. They are beautiful fish but a little on the smallish side for my taste.

Kimberly is known as a Bavarian Community with one of the largest (and underrated) ski hills in British Columbia. The town took on a Bavarian theme not because of the European influence but rather as a Chamber of Commerce idea in the late 70's to attract more tourists. It worked. Kimberly boasted the largest working Cookoo Clock in the world. And if you put a "loonie" in the till, (or a buck in the machine) Happy Hans will come out of the open doors and yodel for you. It's was quite amazing to watch the faces of little kids and us as Hans did his thing in the town square.

We also spent one day on a guided fishing trip to the famous Bull River. We had an epic day. we rafted 22 miles of river in about 10 hours and caught at least 50 Wild Cutthroat Trout. Our guides Bernie and Jeff were typical laid back troutbums and new buddies by the end of the day. The Bull runs about 100 kilometers out of the high mountain wilderness down into the Kootenay River which runs into the Columbia, etc, etc.

This morning we are traveling westerly to eventually end up in Vancouver BC. If it is meant to be. Charlotte thinks I would enjoy seeing the city and hopefully the salmon fishing or Steelhead will be running the rivers when we get there.

We stopped and fished the Moyie River this morning for a couple of hours and touched at least 20 fish, the largest being a 16" Cutbow Hybrid Trout. It was beautiful. We also caught our share of native Brook Trout which are the prettiest fish in the world in my opinion. We have some pics but our camera dropped into the water for the 3rd time  and we are not sure it can survive a third baptism in a cold river in BC.

Last night was one of the most magical on our trip so far. When we were preparing for our daily dusk fishing outing we heard someone playing the Accordian in the campground. Before we knew it we were doing a Polka in front of our camper. Then we went up river and caught a couple of Cutthroat which we brought back in threw on the barbie for an amazing dinner of just caught trout and coleslaw Charlotte made along with a little Rex Goliath Wine followed by the best Bing Cherries cut up in ice cream for dessert!!! Heavenly

We will be cruising around wine county in the Okanagan Valley for the next four days It should be big fun. As you all can imagine, Ms Charlotte is stoked for this part of our journey. More stories to follow in a day or so.

All the best to all of you and may you find what you seek in this world!

Andiamo!

C, Me, and J

It's Raining!!!

When it rains in Canada it really rains. Three weeks ago in this area it dropped 100mm of rain in 48 hrs. I have no idea how much that is, but the locals were amazed and it caused major problems in the area.

The Trans Canada highway was washed out in several places, many million dollar homes were washed downstream. So Charlotte and I are driving downstream looking for one of those houses to pack up and ship to Montana.

A rain day for us is a day to pause and reflect, eat and watch a movie in Andiamo. We watched Finding Forrester last night and were very entertained. Dinner was left overs for me and a nice pan fried piece of Sole for Charlotte. Charlotte made a chocolate run so we could eat Reeses Pieces and popcorn during the movie. I was supposed to clean up the dishes but got caught up watching a documentary on film editing and lost track of time.

Today we are heading out to ride the highest gondola in North America and hopefully hike down back to Banff. We shall see as the clouds are starting to gather as I type this note.

Life on the road is starting to settle into somewhat of a routine as we get to know one another better as well as the cycles of being road warriors. We have met some fine folks along the way too that make RV living so much more fun and interesting.

Not much else to report today. We are working on our next month of travel and it looks like we are heading west through British Columbia to Vancouver then down to Seattle before driving east back to Idaho.

All the best to our friends and families!

Andiamo!
El Capitan, Charlotte and JoJo the Magnificent.

The Last thing you want to see in the woods in Canada

Ms Charlotte and JoJo and I arrived in Banff, Alberta a couple of days ago. To my Colorado friends, Banff is like Vail 25 years ago. Lots of money, pretty people, and hippies. Awesome place. We fit into the latter of the three by the way in case you were wondering.

Our first full day was spent hanging around downtown and people watching. The best of the best in show was a 60 something lady in full Cowgirl regalia including Chaps. She was also wearing see through white pants sans undies. She might have been "working" but we were not sure. Charlotte said she had a really nice Hat, but I didn't notice.

We found our new favorite hangout as well. A coffee shop called "The Second Cup" with great coffees and views for people watching without being 'Arkansas Obvious'. You know what I mean too if your from Arkansas.

We finally headed back to camp as we call it and made home made pizza and drank a little red wine from a box. Those of you that know Charlotte must be amazed that she would allow box wine to touch her lips. We have actually found some that meets her very lowest standards for drinkability.

It is amazing how light it is until WAY past my bedtime. The other night I woke up and looked outside and I could have identified a friend walking by across the street at 11:15 PM.  So star gazing has not been on our list of "things to do" lately.

Today we decided to get our lazy butts in gear and go for a hike along Lake Miniwanka (I am not making this up) and have a picnic. We found the trailhead and started our gradual climb up to a viewpoint of a glacier or something else. About 20 minutes into the hike we came upon a group of people standing int the trail pointing with looks of terror on their faces. Yep, you guessed it, a Grizzly Bear. I thought this bear was beautiful but  Charlotte had other thoughts.

I took a few steps ahead of the group and started talking to it while Charlotte took several steps back and got behind a guy from Japan with his pepper spray cocked and ready to shoot. I was told that chatting with them in a calm, strong, loud voice is the best way to deal with a bear in the woods. Let it know that it needs to move along and that we both can share the outdoors. This bear was not responding according to the bear management manual at all

When I started talking she looked at me and then snorted and looked back and whistled. I knew exactly at that moment this bear was not alone. A cute little Grizzly Bear Cub came down from the tree and ran up on the trail. It was at this moment I realized I was talking to the second most feared wild animal in the world, a momma Grizzly with her very young cub that could not have weighed more than a hundred pounds. Mamma was not a huge bear but was most likely in the 500 pound range. Did I mention that they were both less than 30 yards away.

It was time for me to employ the second response to a bear if response number one does not work. Start walking away slowly. Then at some point make sure you can outrun somebody else in the group. I knew I could not outrun Charlotte, but I would bet money on the old Japanese dude. We made our way back to the truck so I could change my shorts. I just made up the last part. But it was amazing to see the sight of a truly wild animal and her young trying to use the same footbridge with hundreds of other people today.

When we got back closer to the truck we found a yearling Big Horn Sheep on the road between a bunch of cars going by. He was scared &$^less. He finally got in line and ran across the one lane bridge with some cars in front and back of him. It was quite the sight.

Charlotte has become quite the resident rodent whisperer. She charmed a Canadian Ground Squirrel  as well as a very large Chipmunk up to eat out of her hand. This is a capital offense in Canada, so PLEASE do not call the Royal Canadian Mounties and turn her in.

We are finally getting back to fishing tomorrow. If the weather holds we are planning a two hour hike into a high mountain lake to fish for native Cutthroat Trout and some Bull Trout as well. Can't wait. We are stopping in to get some pepper spray in case you were wondering. I also have my sawed off 12 gauge shotgun that I carried when fishing in Alaska few years ago. It may join us for the hike. 

We are not sure where our next destination will be. Alaska has been in the running but I think we are getting too late a start before the snow flies up there. So heading south to tour more of the Canadian National Parks or driving more west to Vancouver is popping up. We will be hanging here for at least another 5 days.

Thanks for following our adventure. We recommend it to everyone. It's amazing to get up and not know where you are going that day. Very strange in many ways.

Life lesson from the road today. Don't always rely on the text books when it comes to dealing with wild animals! They are WILD animals.

Andiamo!

The road gang.

PS - In case you want to see pictures of these grand creatures, you will have to wait until next bear sighting because our little hiking camera has decided to operate randomly. Today was a "not working" day. It was working just fine before dropping it in the Yellowstone River last week.  Darn.

O Canada!!!

Well we finally made our initial long term destination, Banff Canada. It may be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Granite mountains surround this quaint little village. I am sitting in a coffee shop (not Starbucks, which is across the street) looking at a church spire with the back drop of Mt Rundles behind it. Amazing!

We arrive yesterday after a long travel day made much longer by a couple of truckers that collided and left an oil spill on the highway. Two hours of sitting in the truck playing our new favorite game "Heads Up". You can get the app for a buck. We saw a family playing in a bar and fell in love with it. Check it out.

Ms Charlotte was not pleased about the fact that our campsite only had electric and no water or sewage. As she says, "We have talked more about poo in the last month than in her entire life".
It's true, poo is a daily conversation about this like "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". Very stimulating and educational chat. It seemed a bit unfair to be paying about $50 per night to camp. But after checking the local hotel rates and seeing a Day Inn nightly rate of $280 we relaxed a bit. But hey, it's Calgary Stampeded Days so everything is inflated.

Our nicest experience yesterday was stopping for "push" and some lunch. The diner was called Humpty's. We did not expect much, but were delighted when they brought Charlotte one of the best "Veggie Burgers" she his eaten on the trip. My Spinach salad was delicious as well. Go Figure.

So the life lesson from the Road is "Don't judge a restaurant by it's name or looks".

The fishing is not happening since the rivers are still blown out from the recent floods. We crossed sections of the interstate that had been completely washed away by the raging torrents coming down from the mountains. It reminded me of the Big Thompson flood in Colorado in 1976.

Canada is also one of the cleanest places I have ever been. Not even cigarette butts on the ground at stop lights. Amazing. Like the Canada Party folks say, Canada - America only better.

I am beginning to understand why folks like becoming Expats up here. Just don't ask me to convert 116.9 cents per liter to US prices. For me it's impossible. So I just say pump and pay and move on my way.

We have logged almost 4000 miles and we've only been on the road a month. And we have fished at least 10 major rivers and 8 creeks. Life is good.

You can see a bunch of pics at
http://taters.smugmug.com/Other-1/Unfurled-Montana-Paradise/30356387_Kj5MrD

Also, Ms Charlotte is a Canadian Celebrity. She was interviewed by the local news channel in Lethbridge, Alberta about coming up to Canada after the floods. She is deciding whether to post it so you can see it or not. JoJo was a star as well. I was off getting the oil changed in the truck so I missed it all.

Andiamo!

Capt, Char, Jojo

Montana Madness

We have spent the past week in Montana driving the blue highways and enjoying fishing the North Platte, Yellowstone, Mill Creek, Big Creek, and the Missouri.

It has been much fun and very frustrating at times. I have prided myself in being able to catch fish just about anywhere, but these huge rivers and creeks have knocked me down a few notches.

The time passes quickly each day we fish and my frustrations mount as I am baffled by the bugs and waters of this great state.

So ….. we are heading to Canada tomorrow for a couple of weeks to see if trout up der are more interested in our offerings. We will work our way up to Banff over the next three days to spend a week in the park fishing and exploring.

Ms. Charlotte is needing a spa day to get herself back into looking her best after hanging out with me for a month in a camper and fishing and hiking in 90+ degree temps.

I am considering not fishing for a few days to regroup and find my inner trout once again. Being skunked on two creeks and one river are not sitting well with the Capt.

We are adjusting to life on the road. It is not as easy as it looks or may seem, but it’s worth it to be able to stop and read all the “point of interest” signs along the way. When I was a kid we never ever gave a thought to stopping to get out of the station wagon to read a sign. That was just out of the question. So over the years when I took my family on trips, stopping to read a sign was out of the question. Like father like son. We were always just in too big of a hurry to take time out of our soooo important lives to do such a mundane thing and “lose time” on the trip.

But all that has changed now. We are taking a much slower pace and it’s getting slower every couple of days. We love the area around Craig Montana that we decided to stay an extra day fishing and messing around. When I went into the office to pay, the guy asked,
“Were you one of the people playing guitar last night?” when I said yes, he handed back the credit card and said the stay tonight was on him for helping keep up the spirit of the park. What a great bunch of people.

So the Missouri Valley here in Northern Montana is in the running to become our new part-time home after we finish noodling around this part of the world for a couple more months.

We are getting very sketchy cell service up here and Wi-Fi is a gift. We will add pics when we get closer to a bigger town.

Andiamo!!

Capt Coy, Ms. Charlotte and JoJo

Fishing Montana

The first time I laid eyes on the river it seemed like your typical river with bends and long straight stretches lined with Cottonwoods along it’s banks.

But then I stepped into the river for the first time and felt the icy cold waters from high in the Rockies flowing across my waders. The river seemed much bigger now that I was standing in it.

As I began to make my way to a spot that looked like it might hold one or two of the famous Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout the first thing I realized was how slick and slimy the rocks were on the bottom. It’s been said that wading the Yellowstone is like walking on bowling balls barefooted with axle grease on your feet.

Other than one or two other smaller rivers, the mighty Yellowstone may be the slickest river I have ever waded.

Charlotte and I pulled into a small campground along the river at the bottom of Yankee Jim Canyon and set up camp along in the trees not more than 75’ from the river. We could here it gurgling and see it running past our campsite.

We decided to get into the river just downstream and realized within a few minutes that I had made a mistake in thinking we could just walk along the edge around the next bend and find a nice spot to start fishing. My buddy JB Klyapp had mentioned a nice little riffle just down the way.

We spent about a half an hour struggling to keep one another from slipping and being forever pulled down the river to our own personal destiny. It was scary to say the least.

After much spirited conversation about my choices of places to fish we crawled up the bank and under a barbed wire fence to walk above the river down to our fishing hole.

When we arrived JB and his wife Lynnae were fishing the best spot as only a good guide would do. We moved downstream and started chucking huge Salmon flies into the swift current. On my third cast I hooked and landed a nice 16” native “cutty” as the locals call them. It’s golden color with reddish blue dots along the lateral lines made my smile. When I saw the telltale bright orange stripe under its jaw I knew it was a cutthroat.

Not long after that, Charlotte landed a nice 16” cutthroat as well. The Salmon flies were everywhere. They are like grasshoppers on steroids. These things are like miniature 747’s and they seem to love clinging to you and crawling inside your shirt and under your hat and behind your sunglasses. It is a little creepy to say the least.

When I looked into the setting sun, the sky is filled with flies. Mostly giant Caddis flies and the 747’s. It is a fisherman’s dream to be on the stretch of river when the flies are so thick it looks like the Apocalypse.

Just before we quit for the day I found a riffle that held many fish and managed to land a 20” German Brown trout. Many others won the battle and will be carrying some of my precious flies in there lips for a couple of days.

As we walked back to camp we talked about how amazing Paradise Valley is and how fortunate we are to be here together.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Mill Creek in search of big fat Brook Trout and then come back later in the day to fish the Salmon Fly hatch again.

This is Paradise for sure.