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Planning
22 Aug 07
23 Aug 07
24 Aug 07
25 Aug 07
26 Aug 07
27 Aug 07
28 Aug 07
29 Aug 07
30 Aug 07
31 Aug 07
01 Sep 07
02 Sep 07
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2007 Yellowstone Gang “Bull Trout, Grayling,
Grizzly Bear & Gravel” Trip
Other trip names suggested:
· “2007 Dust Bowl”
· “Fish of a 1000 casts”
· “Forestry Trunk Road Trip”
· The “Griz, Gravel & Gills” Trip
· “Canada – ‘eh”
· “Fly fishing a 1000 miles of Gravel with a 1000 Casts” trip
2007 Adventurers: Al Miller (AM), Andy Batcho (AB), John Richardson (JR), Mike
Shaunessy (MS)
Waters fished: Elk River, Wigwam River, Stream “X”, Stream “Y”, Flathead River,
Wedge Pond, Beaver Pond, Clearwater River, McLeod River, Embarras River, Lambert
Creek, Brazeau River, North & South Fork Ram River, Red Deer River, Sheep Creek,
Stud Creek, Daisy Creek, Racehorse Creek, Highwood River, Blackstone River,
Sheep Creek, Oldman River, Livingstone River, Crowsnest River.
Introduction
At the end of the 2006 Yellowstone Gang trip to British Columbia & Alberta,
Canada the YG members were discussing the possibilities of trips for 2007. All
agreed that we’d fished Canadian waters for the last two years and it was time
to move to a different venue.
Discussions ranged from, returning to the beginnings of YG trips to Yellowstone
National Park to drifting down the Salmon River (River of No Return) in Idaho.
But the adventures of fishing Canada kept returning to our discussions. Many
said that there was so much more to see in Canada, and several members having
read both “Alberta’s Trout Highway – The Forestry Trunk Road” and “Trout Streams
of Alberta” Trout Highway”, which describes a gravel road built from near the
U.S. boarder to near the Northwest Territories. The road was built, north to
south, along the east slope of the Canadian Rocky Mountains to facilitate travel
of heavy mining, logging, oil & gas truck traffic, keeping these huge trucks
from damaging the paved roads traveled by the public. The building of the road
provides one huge advantage for the trout angler…..it crosses nearly every river
& stream flowing east from the Canadian Rockies! The road is called “The
Forestry Trunk Road”. (FTR)(Hwy. 734)
The more the YG discussed the opportunities provided by the FTR, the more we
convinced ourselves that a return trip to Canada was in our future. AB & MS
wanted to return to the Wigwam River (BC) to take another crack at breaking the
fly rod Bull Trout World Record on 16# tippet, several members wanted to catch
an Arctic Graying, AM & JR wanted to catch & photograph a Bull Trout, others
wanted to return to some of the spectacular fishing & streams we’d experienced
in 2006 and several members wanted to experience some of the myriad of new
rivers north of Calgary & Nordegg.
Discussions continued throughout the summer of ’07 and more data (G2) was
collected by all, but in the end, Canada provided an overwhelming siren-like
lure to return. With more internet exploration, pawing over maps and reading
books a return trip to British Columbia & Alberta began to take shape.
Reservations were made in Fernie, BC and Nordegg, Alberta which we determined
would work as “base-camp” locations. JR also researched accommodation
possibilities in some of the more remote areas we would be visiting and found
several “out-of-the-way” locations which turned out to be great accommodations
in the “middle-of-nowhere”. Dates for the trip were set for leaving on
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 with a return date of Sunday, September 2nd, 2007.
YG member, Greg Koenig (GK) sent an email to all saying that he and his wife had
planned a trip to China during August and he wouldn’t be able to attend this
year’s trip.
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