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I
could not afford a 4-wheel drive vehicle in
those days, let alone a winch on the front, so I
had to use my common sense and improvise. At
that time in my life I owned an old two-door,
blue Dodge Dart. I had considered my problem as
to how I could get in there and try to catch
some of these trout, and this fine Sunday I
thought I had the answer. I wouldn't give my
tires a chance to get into the mud…. and get
stuck. I would take with me a simple portable
road and I would put this road over the problem
areas. My kids were only six and four and
already they loved camping and knew how to fish.
It was my wife who had to be talked into another
one of my outdoor adventures, which she thought
would be an afternoon fishing trip. She did have
some concerns about leaving so late for a lake
we had never been to before, but with a shrug
she agreed to go.
So
from behind the house I took four 10-foot
lengths of 2" by 6" wooden planks. I then got my
small roof rack for the car out of the basement
and fastened it to the roof and tied on the
wooden planks. I also threw my bumper jack into
the trunk just in case we really got stuck. We
then took off late morning, equipped with
fishing rods, some sandwiches and a lot of
enthusiasm for some great fishing.
We
drove west for about an hour on the main
highway, which was a gravel road, then turned
off onto the dirt road and continued south. We
were about 14 miles down the road before we saw
the first bad sections, which were very deep,
wet, muddy ruts. Now the worst thing about the
ruts was not the fact that my summer tires would
spin around in the mud, but if they dropped into
a rut the car would settle on an axle or the
undercarriage and the wheels would be suspended
in air, leaving no traction. And without any
traction and being hung up would really be
trouble!
I
stopped before the ruts, got out and sized up
the situation. I soon realized I couldn't go any
further unless I got out the boards. So I pulled
them off the rook rack and put two ahead of the
car and slowly drove the car on top of them. I
then got the other two planks down and put them
in front of the car, butted against the other
two, and again slowly drove onto the next two
planks and pulled the two from behind me and
placed them in front again. I continued this
procedure for about a half an hour before we
were on a good dirt road again. We continued on,
then hit another bad spot and again had to use
our planks. The going was slow. When I saw a
third bad spot, which was across a swampy
meadow, I was debating whether to return back to
town or continue to find the lake.
After
coming this far, and being a determined
fisherman, I decided to continue on,
even though I was already wondering to
myself how I was going to get back out
in the dark. We had one very bad
occurrence when the planks became very
wet and slippery and the car slipped off
them into the ruts. The car was
suspended on the axles and the wheels
were hanging above the ground. I took my
bumper jack out and jacked the back of
the car up as far as I could. The wheels
were about a foot above the ground. I
slowly walked to the side of the car,
all the while steadying this unstable
car with my body. I slowly went to the
side, then with all my might gave the
car a mighty big push. This is called
"throwing the car off the jack". Very
dangerous and not recommended. The car
shot off sideways and the jack flew out
from underneath the car, but the car
landed one foot over, on the road, out
of the rut. I did the same to the front
end. I repeated this again to both the
back and the front.
Now
the car had moved over 2 feet away from the deep
ruts. I then jacked up the front, put part of
the plank in, lifted up the back, slid the plank
under and let the car back on the planks. I then
continued with this plank routine for most of
the afternoon until we reached the lake. But it
was worth it.
We
came to one of the most beautiful spots I had
been to in a long time. The lake was calm with a
beautiful creek running into it just 100 feet in
front of us. Without any hesitation I opened the
trunk and pulled out my fly rod, quickly joining
the rod together, putting on the reel and
pulling through the line. I tied on a 5 foot one
pound leader and to this attached my most
favorite fly - a Royal Coachman. Both my sons
had been watching me intensively and when I set
a fast pace for the mouth of the creek they both
were right behind me.
With
a slow motion I started letting line out and
when I had about 30 feet of line in the air I
let my fly drop onto the water, in some ripples
right behind a rock. Almost immediately a trout
came from nowhere and took my fly. The fight was
on. After about five minutes I landed one of the
nicest trout that I had seen for some time… firm
with great color. It didn't take long to land
three more. After landing the fourth trout, my
mind was already starting to calculate how I
could possibly convince my wife to stay here,
and make her comfortable in this spot, where I
was catching these magnificent trout. We had no
camping gear and only part of a sandwich left
from lunch… so we were not prepared at all.
It
was now just about an hour before dark and I
knew that there was no way I could safely
retrace my steps in the dark. If we slid off the
planks at night it would be difficult and very
dangerous working with planks and a jack and no
light trying to get the car back on track.
My
wife was standing by the car waiting for us to
pack up and ready for the return trip when I
approached her. I told her that it would be very
foolish to go all the way back now because it
would be dark soon and we could slip off the
boards and get really get stuck. I said we
should camp out and spend the night here. I
didn't tell her that I also had another motive…
I wanted to cast my line into the water early
next morning! I told her not to worry, that I
would build a really good camp with what we had,
and it would be fresh smoked trout for supper
and for breakfast.
The
first thing to do was find a protected
spot out of the wind, fairly flat and
with no rocks. I found a place about 300
feet from my car in a clump of aspen
trees. I had only an hour
before dark so I had to use very wisely what
little daylight was left so I could build a
lean-to and bed for my wife and sons so that
they would be as warm and comfortable as
possible.
As I always carry an axe, I cut down a number of
small aspen. I took my shoelaces out of my shoes
and cut the laces in half. I put two halves back
in the top parts of my shoes (a little loose but
it did the trick) then cut the other shoelace
into two pieces, and tied a horizontal aspen to
two other standing trees using a half lace at
each end. I then cut a number of aspen about two
or three inches in diameter and about 10 feet
long, and leaned them on the horizontal pole,
spaced approximately 6 inches apart. Next, I
wove a number of aspen branches through these
poles. On top of this I laid down a number of
spruce boughs and also stuck some into the
sides. I now had a lean-to with a roof and one
open side.
Next we needed a bed.
Knowing that the cold comes from the ground up
it is best to protect yourselves by getting your
body off the ground as much as possible. I built
a bed by cutting a number of spruce boughs and
then cutting off the top 12 inches and sticking
these into the ground in a reverse direction
from the way they hang on a tree, so it kind of
makes a springy bed. The more you put in, the
better the bed. I like them about 5 inches
apart, and of course the closer together the
warmer the bed, but it is a lot more work. I
started the bed and my wife and sons finished
it. When finished, I laid my old fishing coat
down on the spruce and that was our bed for the
night.
A fire was our next necessity. I built the fire
opposite the lean-to, in front of the open side,
about six feet away. I cut some large wet logs
and piled these up about 4 high, held in place
by a number of stakes I pounded in on each side.
My father, who had been a trapper, taught me how
to do this trick many years earlier. This way
the smoke is pushed away by the breeze from the
lake and the heat is pushed into the lean-to by
the backlogs. With the fire going, I went into
the bush and found as many dry logs and snags as
I could, hauling them whole, right into the camp
and lying them beside the fire. I next put
a number of large rocks around the fire. This
stops the fire from spreading and also absorbs
and radiates a lot of heat. If we had had a
frying pan, we could have used this heat for
cooking. By this time I had run out of daylight
and was working by the light from the fire. My
wife and sons
were now nice and warm in the lean-to and I kept
the fire stoked.
As
soon as I had the fire blazing, I took the trout
down to the lake and cleaned them. Then, with my
knife, I opened the trout along the backbone so
they would lie flat for cooking.
After
that I went back to camp, put some willow sticks
through the trout and stuck them in the ground,
facing the fire. Throwing some leaves from the
willows into the blazing fire gave us smoked
barbequed trout. It took about a hour to cook
the fish, turning them a couple of times.
Everyone watched in eager anticipation because
we were all hungry by now. We had a trout each -
fresh, smoked barbequed trout… they sure were
good. One thing about this type of supper -
there are no dishes to wash afterwards. After
eating, I settled my family into the lean-to for
the night, with my coat underneath them and
their own coats on top of them, like a cover,
all cuddled close together for extra warmth. I
settled down and sat Indian style beside the
fire and continued to put logs on it to keep it
going. After I had replenished the fire each
time, I dozed off. In the middle of the night
one of my two sons joined me and spent the rest
of the night with me, by the fire, Indian style.
Indian style is relaxed with legs crossed, body
hunched over and arms in your lap.
The
next morning at daybreak, while my wife and
youngest son were still sleeping, my other son
and I caught four trout for breakfast in a very
short time. After our delicious meal we all got
back into the car and headed for home, using our
boards all the way back out as we had done
coming in! It was a fishing trip to remember. |
