Jeeps Only – Off-road Family Fishing
After a busy May filled with visiting relatives, trips to Prince George, catching up on our stock supply of Scrambled Eggs, and a weekend camping trip along the Nechako Reservoir with extended family we finally found some time to try out some of our latest new gear as a family. We bought a Jeep TJ last winter, something Leroy has wanted for a long time, and he has put a lot of time and effort getting it trail ready and able to carry all our gear as well as all our family. We also picked up a new extra large Jetboil from Nechako Outdoors to speed along our meal prep. So we needed a bit of a challenge for the Jeep, and a long enough day-trip to warrant taking along some TrailFare meals. We had just the place – our “Jeeps Only” fishing hole – accessed only by an 8 km crawl down a narrow track that snakes down the side of a steep hill with lots of rocks, holes, and a bit of water thrown in. We had only been into the lake once before, three years ago in our old white Jeep Cherokee, and had come home with our limit of rainbow trout. With the girls now big enough to catch their own fish, everyone was bound to have fun.
The little red jeep was loaded down with the canoe, extra fuel, Leroy’s chain saw, and all the essential offroading gear that lets me breathe easier knowing that its very unlikely we will get truly stuck or stranded. We turned off highway 16 and got going on the forest service roads that became increasingly narrow and unused. I had our backroads mapbook handy, but we were also beginning to recognize the terrain and lakes as we approached our trail head. It had been three years, but I guess some things you just remember.
Within the first kilometer there is both a ditch, and a significant road deactivation to navigate. I remembered the later as being a bit sketchy in the old Cherokee, but the TJ did fine. Granted, this time round I had offered to climb out and get some video for Leroy, so that might have changed my opinion. I find it always looks more intimidating over the hood. The trail continued to narrow until it came out along the edge of a steep hill and the rocks and camber of the trail became the challenge. The smaller trees had grown up since we had been in last, but the scene was still spectacular, even if our destination was still out of view. Leroy got out to cut a few trees off the trail, pretty standard for any trail here where the pine beetle killed so many trees 20 years ago. We continued our crawl down the valley and around a sharp turn before winding through an old fire burn from about 6 years ago. Here the trees were now head height and crowded close to the trail, some smaller ones even growing up in the middle and making a constant clanking and scraping as they slid under the chassis of the Jeep. There had been some spectacular huckleberry picking when we were here last, it looked like it would probably be more challenging now with the taller trees.
We stopped several more times to cut fallen trees, once for me to get out and help navigate a more severe washout someone had marked with a flagged stick. The end of our lake finally came into view through the tops of the trees. In a few more years the view will just be the young trees, thick as fur and too tall to see over. The last obstacle was the water just before the end – I’m not sure if its just a flooded bit of trail or a bit of swamp. The bottom is rock, but it is also obviously always wet. Here willows lean in close, almost looming conspiratorially. And then it all brightens – opens up onto a neat little camping spot with two trails down to the water where you could launch a roof top boat, a rough log picnic table, a fire pit and more than enough space for a vehicle and a tent. We set the kids loose, and started unpacking.
The new Jetboil was fantastic. We had enough hot water for our three TrailFare meals – Mac and Cheese, Lasagne and Stroganoff – and coffee within five minutes. Another ten were spent rehydrating the meals and we were good to go. Alice was excited to try out her new fishing rod – at three years old it was her first time with a real hook and reel. We weren’t long on the water before she got the first, and her first, fish. After that it was a matter of keeping both the kids’ lines and mine in the water and dealing with the successive catches while Leroy paddled. A couple hours of fishing went by in a flash before a smattering of rain sent us back to shore. Anna and Alice carried packed up fishing rods, life jackets and other gear up the short trail to the Jeep for Leroy to stow before he came back for the canoe. I worked on gutting all the fish. By the time I was done, he was just lashing down the canoe and we were ready to head out. It was a long trek back. The sun was setting as we crawled back onto the forest service road, and we still had at least an hour more to go. It would be a late one for sure, but what a great way to spend the day.
