Because I Can: Another Chance to Catch a Grayling

Day 63 Tuesday August 16, 2016 Big Creek YTG Campground, site #3

229 towing miles 10.5 mpg

Stuck around Pioneer RV Park this morning to see if the local Ford dealer could get me in today, after being closed on the important Discovery Day yesterday. We checked with them at 08:30 and Thursday was the soonest they could take me. That’s no good. So I decided to go to the local Jiffy Lube, which I don’t like to do. Had some bad experiences in the past with these kinds of places.

So we hung out inside with our coffee, too cold to go out. Saw a fox running around the adjacent vacant site looking in the fire pit and under the picnic table for food. Found none and went to the next site. Got a blurry picture of him.

Did the Jiffy Lube thing and it cost me the same, if not more, than if the Ford dealer did it.

When I got back to the campsite, Marsha had everything ready to go, except hitching up. She needed the truck there for that. 20 minutes later we were leaving at 09:30. Spent 15 minutes at the dump station and we were headed east down the Alaska Highway. We were headed towards the community of Watson Lake where the Cassier Highway joins the Alaska Highway, just west of Watson Lake. Our destination was Boya Lake Provincial Park in British Columbia off the Cassier Highway.

Before we got to the Cassier Highway, we saw a sign for Big Creek Campground and thought we’d give it a look. We were originally thinking of staying here, but thought we’d get in too early and not make much progress. We pulled in to take a look, and pulled into site #3, a pull through. We immediately fell in love with the place and decided right there we would stay the night. This was at 2:00 in the afternoon. Big Creek flowed right past the campsite. There was no one else in the campground when we arrived and we got the best site in the place. Later in the day over half the rest of the sites were occupied.

After setting up, I was dressed in my fly fishing costume and in the river within ½ hour. Fished about two hours. Only caught one small grayling. Was disappointed. It looked like a beautiful trout stream that would hold lots of fish. I can’t believe I didn’t do better. But fly fishing isn’t about catching fish. There is the whole other element of enjoying the sights and sounds of the river, the forest, the wildlife, and the beauty of the environment in which trout choose to live.

A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work, I mean retirement.

Marsha went and got 3 logs from the free firewood bin and I split them up. We had about a 2-hr. fire.

We ate our ribs and halibut leftovers from last night for supper. Marsha had 3 ribs and I had one piece of beer battered halibut wrapped up in foil and heated on a slow grill.

Here’s some campsite shots.