Wilderness Adventures - April Week Three
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This is about a remote area in west central British Columbia, Canada called the West Chilcotin. Surrounded by numerous glacial mountain ranges, alpine lakes teeming with wild Rainbow Trout, and full of wildlife. Living here goes from no running water or electricity to spacious log homes with all the conveniences and without the smog!
| 4/21/05
8:54 PM
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The Ice is Going Off!
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The ice has started going off Nimpo Lake today at an
unbelievable rate. If you look at the pic on the right,
the dark grey areas on the lake is ice, so it's still
mostly iced up, but boy is it going off fast! It's been
really warm the last two days, and above freezing at
night, so the ice is rotting quickly. Then when you
get a slight breeze that starts the open water moving
against the ice which has already candled, it was opening
up at about one foot per two minutes. Candling is an
interesting phenomenon. Ice on the lake is solid, and
rounded on the bottom by wave action and water movement
underneath. But in the spring, it begins to break down
into long slivers, much like icecicles, but square from
the top down, and is absolutely beautiful.
Today, a dog went through the ice in the back bay and
while we went to get the boat to rescue it, (you can't
paddle but you can walk the boat along on the ice, and
if you start to break through, you can dive into the
boat. Then you're stranded on the ice, but at least
you aren't going to die of hypothermia.) one of our
dogs went out after the drowning one. We were so busy
yelling at our animal to try to get it to come back
before it went through, that there was no time to try
to get out to the other one. Miraculously though, it
dragged itself out, went in a couple more times, then
pulled itself up onto more solid ice and skedaddled
the several hundred yards back to dry land. The dog
that tried to get out to him nearly drowned the same
way as a pup. You would think he'd have more brains,
but no.
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| 4/20/05
4:03 PM
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Profiling MacKenzie Trail Lodge
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MacKenzie Trail Lodge is a fly in resort accessing
the Blackwater River. Mackenzie Trail Lodge offers anglers
an unlimited variety of wilderness fly and spin fishing
adventures. Excellent accommodations, gourmet meals, experienced
guides and pilots, and the friendly staff make this a
full service quality fishing lodge. Your fishing adventure
starts with a breath-taking flight over the Canadian Coast
Mountains from Vancouver to Tsacha Lake in BC's Chilcotin.
On arrival our staff will meet you at the 3400-foot airstrip
and transport your luggage to your own private log cabin.
At the lodge you will enjoy a champagne welcome and a
summary of the many fishing options. The Blackwater River
is accessible either by boat, a short hike or by floatplane.
Fishing is spectacular, offering you a fishing adventure
of a lifetime that's bound to bring you back time and
time again! At Mackenzie Trail, we host a maximum of 18
guests in an intimate wilderness vacation setting, beginning
with a gorgeous flight over the Canadian wilderness to
Tsacha Lake, BC, at 3400 ft. elevation. There are no resorts
on our 14-mile lake, no roads, tourist boats or other
floatplanes. On arrival, our staff will meet you at our
private airstrip or dock, and we'll transport your bags
to your private log cabin.
Blackwater Lodge is a "do-it-yourself" fishing resort
5 miles up the lake from Mackenzie Lodge designed for
folks seeking a more secluded alternative to the full-service
Mackenzie Lodge program. The lodge is located 300 yards
from the Blackwater River as it flows into Tsacha Lake.
Blackwater Lodge offers a variety of fishing options,
including Tsacha Lake, several hike-out lakes, the Blackwater
River, and many other fly-out rivers and lakes. Blackwater
Lodge offers extraordinary fishing in a remote wilderness
setting, a must for any freshwater angler looking for
a total getaway. The "schedule" at the lodge is your own.
You can create the tailor-made fly-in fishing and vacation
getaway you've always wanted in a beautiful setting where
you'll be catching native rainbows in numbers you've never
dreamed possible.
So there you go ... you can read more about this resort
on their web site, Mackenzie
Trail & Blackwater Lodge and they are
featured on the Resorts
and Lodges page.
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| 4/19/05
12:19 PM
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Showcasing Nimpo Lake Resort
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Nimpo Lake Resort, owned and run by Mary Kirner, has
been around for a long, long time. Mary has herself been
an icon of the community for some time and has always
been willing to help out anyone new to the community.
She's also been our unofficial welcome wagon for years,
ensuring that anyone just arrived to live here gets invited
to dinner and introduced to everyone else. Her resort,
Nimpo
Lake Resort will be featured on the Resorts
and Lodges page as soon as I can get it
done. In the meanwhile, the following is probably the
best description for the resort. "Full service log
cabins, just bring your clothes, groceries & fishin' poles!
The barnyard wildlife: bunnies, peacocks, chickens, llamas,
geese, deer, etc. Great fishing, hiking, biking, canoes,
boats & motors, peddle boats, large dock RV hookups to
water/power/sewer, campsites for tenting, firepits & firewood
too. Fish average about 2 lbs, lucky (skilled?) anglers
get the BIG ones. (up to ~5 lbs) We will tell you how
to catch 'em, then freeze or smoke your fish for you if
you like. Enjoy exploring the many trails on foot or mtn
bike, bring your ATV along too. Most guests are repeat
or referrals. We think that's the ultimate compliment."
So there you go. Check it out for some of the best down
home hospitality you will find anywhere!
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| 4/17/05
8:27 PM
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Overall, AGM Was a Success
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The Caribou Chilcotin Coast AGM finished up at Escott
Bay Resort Saturday night with a Western style Bar-b-que.
It was to be held out in their large gazebo, but windy,
cold weather put the damper on that. So we all crowded
around in the lodge, ate a wonderful supper, did some
networking and listened to some great guitar music and
songs. Bill Van Es and his wife Darlene put on a super
dinner. Gerri Bracewell showed us a movie that she's put
together about the building of the Freedom Highway to
Bella Coola in 1953. What a remarkable woman she is! She
was the only one that took live film footage of the road
being built. She loaded up her two sons, and they rode
by horseback 40 miles in one day to meet the equipment
operators, one of whom was her husband Alf Bracewell,
in their camp late that evening. She got some great footage
of rock being blown by the powder man, and the cats knocking
down trees and moving the last boulders to touch their
blades together when the road being built from Bella Coola
and that from Anahim Lake, met. The movie was well done
and truly awe inspiring. Lots of interviews from the old
timers that were in on the building of the road and they
were real characters, all of them. It takes a lot of courage
and determination for communities to decide they are going
to build a road through the mountains where the government
told them it was impossible to go. And build it they did!
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The purpose of this web site is to draw attention to a
remote area of west central British Columbia. It is a
beautiful area that relies heavily on tourism. The search
engines don't know much about the West Chilcotin, Anahim
Lake, Nimpo Lake or any of the other small communities
in the region and I hope to change that! Even as large
as this site will eventually be, there just isn't enough
room or time in the day to fully describe this incredible
country but I am going to try scraping away at the tip
of the iceberg, so join me!
Follow
the links, and see what the West Chilcotin is really like!
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