The BC Parks camp at Coldfish had a super friendly and interesting couple hosting there. They had flown in to the strip at the lake in their 180hp 172. He had a pretty neat set of rock/mud flaps on the plane. It was fairly rainy when we arrived so we elected not to walk up the mountain and put up fly camp in the rain. Instead we did a day trip to the other side of the lake for the first day and returned to a dry cabin for the night. After that the weather was great and we headed into our intended destination for a week of sheep hunting from fly camp.

Rock flaps on a very nice 172


The airstrip at Coldfish. I had thought about doing this trip on wheels but couldn't fit the changeover into the timeline


A couple pictures from our rainy day on the Spatsizi Plateau side of the lake




Sheep camp on the far side of the Ecological Reserve from the lake


Pics from high above our sheep camp

We did a lot of glassing and we did find rams. None were full curl though.

Glassing


Couple 3/4 curl rams

We flew home via the coastal route. From Coldfish to Stuart, down the Portland Canal to Prince Rupert. At Rupert we got Avgas at Seal Cove and took a cab into town for fresh fish and chips at Bob's on the Rocks. We flew from Rupert to home down the coast in one 4 1/2 hour leg. Arrived home to find that, with all the hiking and minimal food, I had lost 12 lbs.

Meadow of alpine wildflowers


Another ram


Dock at Seal Cove, 4 Beavers and 2 185s

Fraser Farmer wrote:

Breathtaking (the mountains.)

The men and tents are nice too.

Thank you for the wonderful picture and stories. Really enjoy seeing your flying adventures.

Zzz wrote:

Fraser Farmer wrote:

Breathtaking (the mountains.)

The men and tents are nice too.

Well, if you like the man pictures so much you'll like this one. We stashed a few beers in the float compartment and they stayed pretty much at lake temperature in there (cold) even though the air temps hit 32C one day. When we came down off the mountain it was about 30C on the valley floor for the final push, we all marched straight to the plane, dropped packs, took off our boots and jumped in the lake for a swim and then had a beer.

Full support! Just like those boxer briefs.

Zzz wrote:Full support! Just like those boxer briefs.

Yep, buddy's an internet underwear model now, so he can put that on the ol' resume.

Found a little time to share some more pictures from this trip.

Here's one of the river crossings on the valley floor, still within the ecological reserve


Up high in one of the passes




more sheep


moose


coming out of the hunt toward Rupert we flew 35 minutes from our takeoff before we crossed a road of any kind

On the way up we stopped to stretch our legs at Turner Lake which is part of a canoe route. We pulled up to the little dock and people started rushing up to load gear into the plane. They thought we were there long overdue ride out. He did show up as we were getting ready to take off


Hunlen falls


The wagon healed on to the beach at Coldfish camp

As always, wonderful pictures and another great adventure! Thank you for sharing with us!

Beautiful scenery - and photos which do it justice!
Thanks for sharing!

We're still enjoying beautiful weather here in BC so I took my Dad and my two youngest fishing in nearby Fire Lake. The Floatplane Association has a canoe stashed up there so we stuck our 2 horse on it and trolled the lake for a couple hours. It was sunny and my youngest daughter can't resist swimming in a lake, no matter how cold it is.

Indeed, finally good weather up there! Looks like an awesome trip with your Dad & kids. Thanks for posting!

Almost makes a wheel-landlubber like me want to get floats!

tedwaltman wrote:Indeed, finally good weather up there! Looks like an awesome trip with your Dad & kids. Thanks for posting!

Almost makes a wheel-landlubber like me want to get floats!

Floats are where it's at exploring BC's backcountry. For my part I'm envious of the guys that get to fly backcountry on wheels, keeps the plane so light and nimble. I'm poking around for some tundra tires for the 185.

It's still dry and hot here in BC, and the flying weather is great. I took my eldest daughter Helen for a deer hunt at Taseko Lake in the South Chilcotin. We flew in up through the headwaters of the Lillooet River, over the big glaciated area that feeds quite a handful of rivers (Bridge, Bishop, Taseko, Lillooet, and more) and flew down the Taseko River to Taseko Lake, checking out a few other area lakes on the way for future adventures. It was hot, even at 4500 ft where we camped on the lake. We got sweating hot hiking around and swam in Taseko to cool off, on October 15th! The whole area was dirty with Grizzly tracks, wolf tracks, moose tracks and deer tracks, but I think the heat had them active in the night. We had wolves howling all night and it got cold enough that the water bucket had 3/4 inch of ice on it in the morning.

Helen, unloading the plane


Evening campfire


Breakfast at dawn



Out hunting



Having lunch and packing up

Some more pictures from the hunting trip.

Glacial lake high in the pass, it was smokey as we flew home but there is ice floating and that is the toe of the big glacier at the far end


High glacial country



Taseko Lakes, we camped on the far side of the narrows

Thanks for the pics! I've camped at Fishem the odd time to hunt this time of year and as hot as it got during the day, the nights had a real chill to them. As you noted, grizzlies around, a sow with cubs put the scare into a couple of buddies with a Stinson mountain biking an old road. Looks like you flew right past Bridge Glacier/Lake too, Daedeluscan camped up there this summer. Can't wait to recap my ABW and get back out there. Damn I love this country.

Thanks for the great pictures. I'll probably never get up there so this is the next best thing.

Karmutzen wrote:Thanks for the pics! I've camped at Fishem the odd time to hunt this time of year and as hot as it got during the day, the nights had a real chill to them. As you noted, grizzlies around, a sow with cubs put the scare into a couple of buddies with a Stinson mountain biking an old road. Looks like you flew right past Bridge Glacier/Lake too, Daedeluscan camped up there this summer. Can't wait to recap my ABW and get back out there. Damn I love this country.

We hiked from Taseko over to Fishem one morning, it's a pretty spot. Our intended destination was actually Yohetta Lake but when we got there and overflew it a bit we decided it was either pretty thick or pretty steep everywhere around that lake.
It was 25 degrees Celsius at Taseko in the afternoons. You might have seen warm weather there at this time of year but 25 has got to be a record, and pretty ridiculous for deer hunting. Those poor deer grow their winter coat based on daylight period, they've got to be so hot right now.
I didn't even realize there was a strip up there but now I'm going to have to go back and check that out. I have a buddy that landed with floats in Bridge Lake at the glacier. He's braver than me.