Day 1, Wednesday, August 23, 2006 (Seattle to Fernie, B.C.)
Al, Greg and Andy met at JR’s in Bellevue at 5AM. We wanted an early start to the trip as we’d planned to drive straight thru to Fernie, British Columbia,(517 miles and 10 hours driving time with a +1 hour time change) located in the Canadian Rockies near the Continental Divide and due north of Northwestern Montana.
This year we were driving Al’s Subaru station wagon (26, 647 miles) and Greg’s Hemi Dodge Durango (14,267 miles). We hooked up the CB radios and began loading the gear. Cloths, sleeping bags, nets, fly vests, waders, wading boots, hip boots, cameras, coolers, water…..the list is endless….oh….then there’s the two-dozen fly rods and a couple spinning rods. This year’s trip also saw the YG trying out cooking a few meals themselves so in goes frozen meats and cooking supplies. The Subaru was full and the Durango was stuffed! Even worse we still had to pick Mike up in Spokane and find a place for his gear. Note to self: Bring less stuff next year! As if that’ll work, we tell ourselves that every year.
At 5:41AM we were off, headed east on Highway 90 to Spokane. Oddly enough, if you’ve read any of our other adventures, we hadn’t had any disasters this time during the first hour of our trip.
Our first stop was at Indian John Hill near Cle Elum, where JR broke out breakfast….yes…since we left early for this trip and JR didn’t have time to prepare one of his great kick-off breakfasts, he’d packed bagels, creamed cheese and smoked salmon for a tailgate breakfast. Yum!!
At 8:45 we passed thru Moses Lake, Wa., took a break at Sprague Lake rest stop, and reached Mike’s house in Spokane at 11:05AM some 280 miles down the road.
Mike shared the photos of the moose in his back yard…..yes, a real moose that was eating his apples & apple trees. The moose, a young female, easily steps over the chain link fence in the back yard, harasses Grady, Mike’s Irish Setter and eats what she wants from the garden. Some people have pests in their yard; few people have moose pests.
After packing Mike’s gear into the Durango….well, just believe it wasn’t a pretty sight….the Durango was packed to the seams and we were talking about the possibly of needing a U-Haul trailer.
11:15AM and we’re off to the "Flying J" truck stop, on the Idaho boarder, for fuel. $3.05 per gallon for regular, $3.22 per gallon for premium required by the Durango’s Hemi. The Subaru got 28.3 mpg and the Durango 18.29 mpg. $88 bucks worth of fuel.
North to Sand Point, Idaho with a quick stop for a Mr. Sub sandwich and, of course, a mug of Starbuck’s Coffee. 1:15PM and 345 miles from Seattle.
Crossed the border into Canada at Eastport at 3:15PM at 360 miles, after a quick stop at the Duty Free Store for a bottle of Scotch & Irish Mist.
Moving down Highway 3, we checked the score this last year on animals hit by vehicles - we saw the same sign last year as they have an annual lottery on the final numbers (:>))
We rolled into Fernie, B.C. about 6PM and checked into the beautiful condo Riverside Mountain Lodge Condo’s located on the Elk River. We’d rented the condo for 4 nights from Ned Cooper at the Elk River Guiding Company (www.elkriver.ca ) 3 bedroom, two bath, kitchen, living room, cable TV, sleeps 10…..a great place!
After the long haul and unpacking everyone claims a room and AM and JR take the sofa sleepers. As the rest unwind AM and JR go to the local grocery store to pick up the remainder of the groceries for the next four nights. AM chose to forgo dinner and the rest head off to Yamagoya (Mountain Hut) Japanese Restaurant in DT Fernie. Last year on our visit to this establishment we had perhaps the best Japanese dinner ever, this year would be different. Much the same as with our return to streams that have held magical days of fishing you simply cannot keep lightning in a bottle and this is the case, very slow service, overdone food and lack of follow-through (our rice comes as we finish our main course.) Perhaps they have changed owners, nevertheless it is enough to make this place a pass on our next trip to Fernie.