Final Day of Visit

We started out with a sleepy morning so we had multiple bowls of cereal with significant laying about.


However when things got started they really got started.  A hike up tin can hill near the Con Mine property and we had the setting for a great finish to the adventure.   


We had a momentous event, a boy's first fish!

Then to top it off John saved Dorothy from a certain fall and sacrificed a rib.  Has a certain biblical ring to it doesn't it?


Back to the Hotel, we did a little planning and prep for the move etc. and then off to Yellowknife river for a quiet evening.  I would like to add at this point we had lost about $20 worth of lures and six leaders>


Well after about two hours trying all the places we had tried earlier, and finding two more lures and three leaders, I got my hook stuck in something.   At first I thought it was more weeds, then it started moving away quite quickly!   I reeled it in for what seemed like a minute only to have it go out again!  I hollered to Matthew to get the camera and threw down my pack.  The fish wasn't cooperating and now it felt like it had hooked some weeds again, doh!
I look up and here's Dorothy heading back to pick us up.  Cool, she'l get to see the monster too.

Almost too much excitement at the end of adventure, but somehow ....  appropriate.


Patience and tenacity.  Dorothy informed me that we had fished every day and sometimes twice a day since arriving in Yellowknife.


Flight's tomorrow at 6:00am, Shuttle at 4:35 am.  What's adventure without a little adversity, eh?


John, Dorth, Matthew, Eddie 

Day 7 Fishing and Eating

Today Dorth was doing the handover so Matthew went to Canadian Tire and bought some shelving and a few more tackle box items.

We met Dorth for lunch, then went fishing for the afternoon.

Success today!  A 12" Pike or Jackfish as they like to call them here followed my lure in to the dock a couple of times and then struck.  What fun!  It had tried to swallow a 3" lure!

It had managed to get the entire treble hook in it's mouth with a prong out each nostril!  Thank heavens for the no-barb rule here in the NWT as it made getting the hook out quite easy with only a small spot of blood on one of the nostrils.  I got Matthew to touch it before releasing it, what fun.
Sorry, no pictures.

As the afternoon wore on some teens showed up all boisterous and started jumping off the bridge in several  diving configurations.  At one point the jumpers under the walkway asked us to align them with the one jumping from the railing!

TB continued - Breakfast awaits

Day 6 Settling In

Dorothy had to take care of a lot of official stuff today so Matthew and I slept in and then went fishing.


We left a note so Dorth could find us,


Matthew's third cast wrapped around a bush overhanging the water.  I leaned out as far as I dared and broke off the dead branch.  As I started to lean back in I noticed that the branch I was leaning on was also dead and could have dropped me face first into the weedy pond.  Phew!


We moved over to a footbridge and flushed out a family of ducks:

Next stop, Dorth came and picked us up for lunch.  We talked her into getting some more lures and dropping us off at a local fishing hole up the road.  


I had mentioned that the Mepps Black Furys were good for Pike so we got a set of four.  We also got a few small weights and a huge flatfish and floating minnow.  As we headed for the cash Matt blurts out "We're gonna own those fish"!   I thought to myself "That's what I'm talkin' about!"


That's where the fun started.  The horse flies and deer flies were "insupportable" and since we knew that DEET doesn't work on them we went without.  Matt had a hooded jacket that worked quite well, before long he was ignoring the flies.  I put lures on both rods and a little extra weight on mine since I was using a lighter lure.


We began to cast, Matthew is a natural and before long he was out casting me by 10 feet. We began to pick up weeds (some were exciting, they felt like fish) and had a few catch bottom but no more than usual.  After about 20 minutes Matthew got a little discouraged and asked to try another lure.  As he jumped down to get the lure he landed on my camera bag (no camera) ...... sunglasses yes.  I expressed little disappointment (how do you scold someone for being exuberant) and a few minutes later had the sunglasses straight enough to hold their lenses again. I tried them on and Matthew gave me the most contrite apology.  "I'm sorry about your glasses".   "It's OK" I said.


He caught this new lure on the bottom so I showed him how to get it loose.  He tangled the line around the rod tip so I showed him an easy way to untangle it.  I showed him how to use the open face reel and he had a good cast the first time.  He's a very quick study! 


The next thing I caught a freshwater clam by the mouth!  

I caught a second clam but it was dead.




Later on as Matthew got bored again he asked if we could go swimming.  "Sure" I said "but we didn't bring bathing suits".  Matt says "we could swim like this!  .  I said sure but then we'd be soaked and have only wet clothes.  Matt then says "We could go in our underwear!"  At this point the sun was scorching hot and the water looked very inviting.


I cast a few more times and then I heard a yell from Matt as he slid quickly down the slippery rock to chest deep.  I dropped the rod, grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the dry rocks that weren't as slippery.   I could tell he wanted to cry so I just deflected his attention to wringing out his jacket, shirt and pants as best he could.  I hung them on a guy wire to dry.


"Well, lets go swimming then" I said.  He said he didn't want anyone to see him in his underwear. I had just stripped to my underwear and I looked around to see if anyone was watching.  Here are two kayakers about 30 feet away just ignoring our existence.  Since I felt exposed in my underwear (though stylish in my navy blue tighty whiteys) I thought I'd spread my embarrassment around.  I said to Matthew "What about them?" motioning to the kayakers. I turned to look at Matt and he was crouched down tightly in a rock crevasse!   


We had a short swim since the water was a little cold.  We got out, wrung out and I put on a dry shirt and pants while Matt put on a still damp ensemble.Searching around to get a few worms to improve our success I found a giant red devil with two prongs remaining and a leader.  I wiped it clean and put it on Matt's line.  He was now outdistancing my casts by double!  

Here's a picture of Matt trying out Daddy's new rod.   Notice the complicated casting technique around the spool.

Dorth came back to pick us up but we wanted to try a few more spots so she indulged us.  The next thing you know we had a bite and the water was roiling nearby.  I spat out a few prayers to the fishing gods, however the hook was spat out moments later. 


Dorothy advised me that my prayers were not exactly the words I should be using in front of an eight year old.  Sorry about that, can we get some weedless lures now?


Tomorrow we have the truck!

Day 5 Final Resting Spot (and that's a good thing)

We're here and connected and have a few quotes to share:

Mathew on setting the GPS to simulated:  "Whoa what happened there?"

Mathew and John were trying out the fishing gear when John glanced over and saw that he was hooked in the center of his shirt and was unhooking it.

Later I (John) mentioned that tomorrow Mathew will learn how to unhook a lure from his shirt.  Matthew "I already took care of that.


Dorothy about halfway to Yellowknife:  "Who'd a thought we'd be North of 60 and dying of the heat"

Later.....

Day 4 Tired

John woke up refreshed, however Dorothy was sleeping with the wiggly one. You know the one I mean, the one from the back seat.  

He seems somewhat deranged by his recent experience; what do you think?


Matthew chilled at the Subway and seems much better now.

We reached the milestone of the 60th Parallel, "North of Sixty", now that's cool.

Before leaving Peace River we bought fishing gear, CD's (Kingston Trio, Three Tenors, Leonard Cohen, Michael Buble).  After a while we found we could do better than those posers and sang our own way along.  

          

A big surprise for me was Alexandria Falls.  What a sight.  One hundred and fourteen feet with rock walls and short northern spruce.  

Have a look:

Here is Hay River. Spectacular.

We set up housekeeping in the luxurious Ptarmigan Inn, had supper and then went fishing on Great Slave Lake.

These fishing pictures were taken at 10:15 PM !!

Did I mention we were tired?  Yes and its 12 midnight and the sun hasn't set...... but we have.  

Good night all. 

Day 3 NSTR

Matthew and mom started their day at Mach 1 (10:00 at the WEM water slides!) .  

John did not.  Stayed at the hotel and did his volunteer ASHRAE homework until 1:00.  Then John was distracted by a Lambourghini Galardo.

Matthew was distracted by a challenge to walk underwater without getting wet.

At 1300hrs rendezvous for paninis and lattes and then quick departure for Peace River.

First stop in Onoway for gas and met a retired American serviceman and his wife traveling from North Carolina to Alaska on motorcycles! How nice to hop into the cab of a quiet and cozy Toyota truck as the rain clouds threatened. 

The remainder of the drive was uneventful with the highlight being the spontaneous construction of one-word stories…Boo hoo hoo. See videos!

The end of the day culminated in a culinary delight of more food wrapped in bread.

Later on we found some lost video that was shot by our creative genius in the back seat under extenuating circumstances.

Day 2 Saskatoon to Edmonton

Sleep in till 7:00. Clean cab,




...... Insert story here......

Walk Eddie, do some organizing, eat at McDo's.











Photo behind trusty steed

                                            Call from Africa.

Oil Rig

                                                                    Oil Refinery

Lots of oil wells

                                                                      Lots of these

Lots of this

   

   Lots more of this:                                             

Broken down car.

Discussion of the days events

Cyclists 

Cyclists

Grain Elevators

                Tailgaters

Construction

            Cement Plant

Old Bridge

Tunnel

Rubber Ducky

Keeping in touch.

Supper at Spaghetti Factory 

Mall Beach

Standing on the bridge

Strong Man

Dragon at theatre

Three of us in the mirror.

Pirates in the mall

Bubble King

Buying Bubbles

I'm done