doubled
10-14-2010, 09:33 PM
Well this was one hell of a journey. Numerous times from the moment we found out we got a bunch of leh bull draws, I considered saying “screw it” and wait until next year where I could start over by myself this time. The toll of side jobs, overtime, the “honey do” list and the self appointed task of planning this trip was taking a toll on my nerves. My blood pressure was higher than normal and that was not a good thing. There was however that primal instinct that kept prodding me along.
Initially, there was supposed to be eleven of us in the party with three doing their own thing once we got there. After hours and hours of planning, Google earth studying, Hunt BC Forum searching and hundreds of emails, we were getting close to our region 5 moose draws. Once the final day arrived, our party was down to eight and I was seriously starting to wonder if we were going to make it. I told my wife the night before I left that I would be up there regardless of what happened from here on in. Just days before we were to leave, even Mother Nature tried to make it difficult by removing several kms of Hwy 20 just before our area. This was some of the worst flooding they had seen in a hundred years. Apparently close to 8 inches of rain fell in two days. This added to the saga of my father in-law and he pulled out citing more reasons than a lawyer at a 2 year long murder trial. This also added to another member’s woes as he was supposed to sleep in the father in-law’s trailer and was now homeless. Now we were scrambling!!!
We ended up taking a tent trailer to accommodate the stranded member and a different truck so that part of it was taken care of. Saga #2 started as my father decides he can’t make it due to seeing his eye doctor on Oct 8 but seemed to be fine two days later and headed up to his buddies LEH in region 7 (SOB). Again, another member of our party becomes homeless due to my dad’s motor home not being there but there is room for him in the tent trailer as well. We scrambled up to the last minute to see if the road would be open by the time we left and everything still said it was closed but we had “inside” information that they were working on a detour and it would be ready by the time we got there (thanks to the HBC guys that emailed info about this, it was appreciated).
Another concern was going to be the road into the private property where we were supposed to hunt. Three of our companions used to live near there and Richie was the reason we put our draws in for that area (his uncle owns the property now). He was thinking that we would not be able to get our trucks and trailers in because of all the rain so he made arrangements with his Grandma that owns the Vagabond Resort at Nimpo Lake to stay there. I have to admit, the idea of running water, power and shower house was quite appealing especially with a bunch of guys drinking beer and eating canned pork and beans – can you smell the methane??? The drawback was that we had another 30 minute drive tacked on just to get to the property each day. Not a big deal but it is nice to camp nearby where you are hunting.
Now we were ready to leave!!We left after work and stopped at my parents in Barriere for the night to break up the trip. We unloaded the quads and left two of the trucks there as we traditionally hunt muleys on the Thanksgiving weekend there and this year was not going to be any different. Bob, Austin and Gary left earlier on and got to my parents in the early afternoon. By the time Chris and I show up several hours later, both Gary and Bob were well into their trip stash. My father likes to bring the best out of my friends and he did well again. We went for dinner at the local restaurant and then called it a night as we had a long day of travel ahead of us.
The morning arrives and we head out on our journey. We head up Hwy 5 and turn at Little Fort and start the Mt. Everest climb on Hwy 24. This is where a diesel F350 would be nice but instead we settle on my gas F150 or should I say peddle powered and watch turtles walk faster up the hill than we can climb. The drive turns out to be uneventful and we make good time to Tatla Lake where we meet the rest of our party. It sure looked like there were a lot of fires burning on that piece of road from Bill’s Puddle to Tatla. This reminded me of the 2003 fires at OK Mountain and Barriere with miles and miles of burnt forest – more of a warzone than a forest but it does come back quickly.
We meet up with Richie, his brother Robert and family friend Ryan and learn that the detour is in fact ready so we gas up and leave to get in line. We head up the dirt road looking for the pilot car as instructed and after 30 kms or so, start to wonder if we are on the right road. We were seeing Interior Roads trucks coming back so it had to be this way and fortunately hit the roadblock a few kms down the road. Now we wait for the pilot car. Richie had friends that run the store at Nimpo and he picked up a bunch of dairy products in Williams Lake as they had not been resupplied for days now due to the highway washout. While we were waiting, the temps were climbing and the bags of ice on the milk were melting faster than Al Gore could say “Global Warming”. I was not thrilled to see the thermometer getting over 20 degrees that day but knew the forecast was calling for cooler temperatures. Not exactly ideal moose hunting temps and wanted to be able to hang our meat without worrying about it. We had made arrangements to use a walk in cooler if need be but was hoping not to do that if necessary.
The pilot car arrived and we proceeded on the “new “ road to Nimpo. Overall the detour was roughly three hours but we finally got there with daylight to spare. Everything was unloaded and camp setup as fast as I have ever seen with only one “SMALL” incident. Robert will probably never live this down nor will Ryan or Richie let him forget about it but I guess Robert was the one that packed the Baileys and Crown Royal and needless to say by the time we got to the resort, there was Baileys everywhere as the cap had come undone in the bag. After Robert saw this, he cursed and swore more than a Johnny Knoxville Jackass movie. He grabbed the BC Liquor Store bag which also contained the Crown and took it out of the trailer only to watch the bottle of Crown do a nice swan dive into the ground. I could hear him crying off in the distance but was reluctant to go over and see what was going on as we had just met. I kind of figured out what happened when his brother and his buddy had him pinned with his legs apart and were asking if one of us could kick him a few times over. Not a good way to start.
After a quick stop at the local range, Richie took us into the property as far as the locked gate as we did not have the key yet. The road looked fine and we all decided that we would hunt in the morning and then pack up and move camp onto the property in the afternoon. The property looked awesome from what we could see and our hopes were higher than the stars that night.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2345.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2342.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2344.jpg
Initially, there was supposed to be eleven of us in the party with three doing their own thing once we got there. After hours and hours of planning, Google earth studying, Hunt BC Forum searching and hundreds of emails, we were getting close to our region 5 moose draws. Once the final day arrived, our party was down to eight and I was seriously starting to wonder if we were going to make it. I told my wife the night before I left that I would be up there regardless of what happened from here on in. Just days before we were to leave, even Mother Nature tried to make it difficult by removing several kms of Hwy 20 just before our area. This was some of the worst flooding they had seen in a hundred years. Apparently close to 8 inches of rain fell in two days. This added to the saga of my father in-law and he pulled out citing more reasons than a lawyer at a 2 year long murder trial. This also added to another member’s woes as he was supposed to sleep in the father in-law’s trailer and was now homeless. Now we were scrambling!!!
We ended up taking a tent trailer to accommodate the stranded member and a different truck so that part of it was taken care of. Saga #2 started as my father decides he can’t make it due to seeing his eye doctor on Oct 8 but seemed to be fine two days later and headed up to his buddies LEH in region 7 (SOB). Again, another member of our party becomes homeless due to my dad’s motor home not being there but there is room for him in the tent trailer as well. We scrambled up to the last minute to see if the road would be open by the time we left and everything still said it was closed but we had “inside” information that they were working on a detour and it would be ready by the time we got there (thanks to the HBC guys that emailed info about this, it was appreciated).
Another concern was going to be the road into the private property where we were supposed to hunt. Three of our companions used to live near there and Richie was the reason we put our draws in for that area (his uncle owns the property now). He was thinking that we would not be able to get our trucks and trailers in because of all the rain so he made arrangements with his Grandma that owns the Vagabond Resort at Nimpo Lake to stay there. I have to admit, the idea of running water, power and shower house was quite appealing especially with a bunch of guys drinking beer and eating canned pork and beans – can you smell the methane??? The drawback was that we had another 30 minute drive tacked on just to get to the property each day. Not a big deal but it is nice to camp nearby where you are hunting.
Now we were ready to leave!!We left after work and stopped at my parents in Barriere for the night to break up the trip. We unloaded the quads and left two of the trucks there as we traditionally hunt muleys on the Thanksgiving weekend there and this year was not going to be any different. Bob, Austin and Gary left earlier on and got to my parents in the early afternoon. By the time Chris and I show up several hours later, both Gary and Bob were well into their trip stash. My father likes to bring the best out of my friends and he did well again. We went for dinner at the local restaurant and then called it a night as we had a long day of travel ahead of us.
The morning arrives and we head out on our journey. We head up Hwy 5 and turn at Little Fort and start the Mt. Everest climb on Hwy 24. This is where a diesel F350 would be nice but instead we settle on my gas F150 or should I say peddle powered and watch turtles walk faster up the hill than we can climb. The drive turns out to be uneventful and we make good time to Tatla Lake where we meet the rest of our party. It sure looked like there were a lot of fires burning on that piece of road from Bill’s Puddle to Tatla. This reminded me of the 2003 fires at OK Mountain and Barriere with miles and miles of burnt forest – more of a warzone than a forest but it does come back quickly.
We meet up with Richie, his brother Robert and family friend Ryan and learn that the detour is in fact ready so we gas up and leave to get in line. We head up the dirt road looking for the pilot car as instructed and after 30 kms or so, start to wonder if we are on the right road. We were seeing Interior Roads trucks coming back so it had to be this way and fortunately hit the roadblock a few kms down the road. Now we wait for the pilot car. Richie had friends that run the store at Nimpo and he picked up a bunch of dairy products in Williams Lake as they had not been resupplied for days now due to the highway washout. While we were waiting, the temps were climbing and the bags of ice on the milk were melting faster than Al Gore could say “Global Warming”. I was not thrilled to see the thermometer getting over 20 degrees that day but knew the forecast was calling for cooler temperatures. Not exactly ideal moose hunting temps and wanted to be able to hang our meat without worrying about it. We had made arrangements to use a walk in cooler if need be but was hoping not to do that if necessary.
The pilot car arrived and we proceeded on the “new “ road to Nimpo. Overall the detour was roughly three hours but we finally got there with daylight to spare. Everything was unloaded and camp setup as fast as I have ever seen with only one “SMALL” incident. Robert will probably never live this down nor will Ryan or Richie let him forget about it but I guess Robert was the one that packed the Baileys and Crown Royal and needless to say by the time we got to the resort, there was Baileys everywhere as the cap had come undone in the bag. After Robert saw this, he cursed and swore more than a Johnny Knoxville Jackass movie. He grabbed the BC Liquor Store bag which also contained the Crown and took it out of the trailer only to watch the bottle of Crown do a nice swan dive into the ground. I could hear him crying off in the distance but was reluctant to go over and see what was going on as we had just met. I kind of figured out what happened when his brother and his buddy had him pinned with his legs apart and were asking if one of us could kick him a few times over. Not a good way to start.
After a quick stop at the local range, Richie took us into the property as far as the locked gate as we did not have the key yet. The road looked fine and we all decided that we would hunt in the morning and then pack up and move camp onto the property in the afternoon. The property looked awesome from what we could see and our hopes were higher than the stars that night.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2345.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2342.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/doubled66/IMG_2344.jpg