Where Have You Off-Roaded Today? 3rd Gen

Us and our fancy trucks hey, to mostly get down forest service roads or to find parking at the mall.

Here is a photo of a truck with “camper”, taken 1930 in Vancouver. Note that is a dirt road still in the middle of Vancouver.

It is towing a “rocker” used for the gold fields. This guy heading to the Cariboo gold fields. Nice rig for sure.

Lets just say there were not a lot of paved roads in the Cariboo back then. Well, none really. Paving in the BC interior really did not start until after WW2.

The other pictures are of the Cariboo “road” in the 1920s.

 

I haven't ran it for a couple years, has the trail really gotten that rough?

 

It’s definitely rough but still very doable

 

It's hard to call forest roads offroading, But that's all we could do today. It's always fun playing around in the forest. We were in the Mogollon Rim area of Arizona

We also got hit by hail the size of water bottle caps while hiking back from the RR Tunnel.

 

Wow, I love that cabin. Any idea what the story is behind it?

When I deckhanded on commercial salmon trollers on the west coast of Vancouver Island back in the 1980’s, there was a similar cabin, right where I marked the red circle on the first satellite photo here. If it were too stormy to fish out at sea, we would anchor 200 feet off shore, and row our skiff ashore to cook up some salmon on the beach and do some exploring, and day use the cabin.

The cabin was built in the 40s or 50s by some Norwegian guys who left it in pristine shape. The interior had a homemade set of table and chairs, bunkbeds, and shelves stocked with jars of sugar, salt, etc. A note that read enjoy the cabin but replenish what you use and keep it clean.

The bigger map gives a better idea of the general location, which is just southeast of the small fishing village of Kyuquot.

No road access there, only way in is by large vessel with good navigation skills, or by seaplane.

Love it in BC when I find old cabins to explore. There are a lot of them around Merritt and Kamloops. Most are old broken down settler homesteads. Watch out for the bats and snakes…

 

Just one of many cabins in Northern Arizona.

 

Very cool.

 

Early '80's I worked out of the logging camp for a February-March job near Kyuquet.

Fallers dropped a cedar one day and had a sow black bear run out from the hollowed base. Turned out there were two cubs in there that hadn't yet opened their eyes. They covered the den with cedar boughs to keep the rain out but when they checked back a couple of days later, the sow had abandoned the cubs. They scooped them up and stopped in at the store on the Rez to buy formula and a bottle, brought the bears to camp and bottle fed them. The saying in camp was "life is not complete until you've been pissed on by a baby bear." Last I heard, they ended up on a farm in the NW US where wildlife was kept for use in movies.

Access to the logging camp was a landing craft from Fair Harbour. When our drilling finished we loaded the D3 on the landing craft and there was some debate about chaining it down or not. The boat left for the 45 minute crossing but was back in 1/2 an hour with a crew whiter than I have ever seen humans. Apparently they started surfing on a wave in the rough seas, came down of the wave and went bow first into the water and started to turn over. The D3 rolled out and the boat righted. Somewhere between Fair Harbour and the logging camp dock is an old D3 on the bottom of the inlet.

 

Have you been on/know status of Fossil Creek Road between Strawberry and Camp Verde? I was going to make the drive a year ago, but it was closed (I think due to fire damage).

 

I know fossil creek from Camp Verde to the falls is open, but it now requires a parking permit. Cannot go in without it.

I don't think fossil creek to Strawberry is open.

 

Awesome story, and too funny!

Yeah you can get to Kyuquot by boat if you launch at Fair Harbor. I spent 3 crappy days there once in the pissing rain when my skipper went back to Vancouver to get some parts for our deisel engine. That was around 1976 or so. I stayed behind to look after the boat, but no one else was there but me. I spent a few days in that pissing rain walking about the inlet and exploring.

I spent 16 years commercial fishing our entire BC coast. Been in 40 foot waves and a hurricane storm at Cape Cook that blew 90mph, gusting 110mph. Took us 3 hours to run into the anchorage at Klaskish inlet along with another 30 trollers or so. We were that ghost white when we finally made it safely into anchor. That was almost our end and its imprinted into my brain. My father and I on our crappy old original 36 foot troller.

After that, the 2 of us built the 39 foot troller shown in the anchorage photo. A great seaworthy troller. That is an anchorage just south of Cape Cook.

We started with an empty fiberglass Deltaga hull, and did all the rest ourselves. I mean all of it. The only work we did not do ourselves was the electrical wiring. We did all the internal ribbing in the hold, fiberglassing, hired a crane to load the deisel engine, mount the shaft, propellor, rudder, do all the rigging, all the finishing work in the interior of the wheelhouse, the rigging (all cabling hand wound), anchor housing, all the plumbing, etc. My father fished this one another 9 years before he retired, and I worked on it a few seasons along with working on several other boats.

No shortage of excitement, in fact often way too much. Almost run under twice by freighters while we were asleep and adrift far off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The sound of their propellor screw underwater woke us before they could plow us to the bottom of the sea. If we had not heard that, then no more breathing days.

Other photo is the day we put it in the water at Steveston. No mast, poles or rigging in place yet. No engine yet either. We got towed into Annieville slough where we finished building the rest. Thats me at the stern there with my arms raised.

You ever make it into Kyuquot? The other picture is a bunch of “Finlander” boats tied up at the BC Packers fish camp wharf in Kyuquot. My parents and all of my relatives from Finland. The camp shown at the top of the pic is the old McCallums fish camp. No one tied up there as none of the Finns sold to McCallums. That photo from around 1978 or so. We used to fish boats that size up to 100 miles off the west coast of Vancouver island.

 

Land Lubber Scottish/Ukrainian. I admire anyone who can stomach sea life. I get so sea sick at the mere mention of rough seas. Buddy and I fished in a 14' aluminum boat off of Bamfield, Stayed in
Poett Nook Marina and Campground. Fished out in the open around an island called Edward King Island. Calm sunny day but 8' rollers, I swear I could see the smokestacks in Japan out there lol. Anyhow, we were not catching anything as the bite was not on. I got so sea sick that I begged my buddy to drop me off on shore on Edward King Island. He laughed and said no way, the fish are biting now and your puking seems to be bring us luck. The Pr*ck! Lol... Took me a few days to feel better from all that puking. I'll stick to the mountains, rivers & lakes, Thanks!

Camping In Poett Nook Campground.



On our way down the Alberni Inlet to Poett Nook.





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Nice photos. Love the truck and very nice boat. Yeah a lot of folks sport fish alberni inlet, a very nice spot.

A long one here, then I rest and guzzle coffee.

Sea sickness affects a lot of people. Over the years I met several greenhorn deckhands who quit after a week or two on the boats as they just could not stop getting sick.

I was lucky and it never affected me. My first day out on the big seas, I have just turned 13 years old and school has just ended to start the summer “holidays”.

Skipper of the boat, my mother, me, and 2 other Finnish ladies. We are travelling direct from Vancouver to Kyuquot. About 380km by sea.

We round the bend at Victoria in the Juan de Fuca strait to head north. A 25mph NW wind blows for the next 6 hours, we are bucking straight into it, torpedoing under the 15-20 foot curling breakers. Skipper just keeps going. We are barely moving.

I am wondering WTF am I in for? I could be with my friends enjoying the summer break.

After the 8 hours the wind died and things calmed.

Everyone else got very sick, including the skipper who had already been fishing the coast for 10 years.

The older Finnish woman tells me don’t lay down, and don’t sit. Just stand at the front of the wheelhouse beside the skipper, and focus on the horizon, not on the waves. Hanging on and trying to keep my balance as the boat is exploding as it crashes into the base of each wave. After an hour I was fine and eating some home made Finnish rye bread and salt cured salmon. The older woman told me to not eat anything else and that the sal salmon would calm my stomach. She must have been right. Everyone else was sick for the rest of the journey.

Good thing I did not get sick. Once we reached Kyuquot, next day I was on my fathers troller, learning the hard way that working out on the open sea 18 hours a day with a father who accepts no mistakes, was not a summer holiday.

I have never had a day of sea sickness.

Those first 2 years working for my father were brutal. Might be anchored 30 miles offshore, or just drifting if it is too deep to anchor.

Day starts at 3:30am, pull up the anchor, put a pot of coffee on. Check the ocean charts to see where we exactly are. Chart your course to where you think the salmon are. Start fishing, usually 430am to get the gear into the water. Our boat had 8 main lines, each with up to 15 leaders so about 120 hooks in the water. Plugs, spoons, flashers, hootchies, etc.

Each leader usually 10-20 foot long, spaced apart so the hooked fish don’t swim up or down tangling the leaders. A 20-60 pound lead cannonball drops the main line down. Typically fishing anywhere from 120ft to 300 foot down.

hydraulic gurdies lower and raise the main line. Leader comes to the surface, grab the line by hand, and play the fish in. The fish are fighting, and you don’t have the benefit of a flexible rod with give in it. There is a foot long rubber bumper on the chinook leaders which helps some, but you only have 20 foot of line to work with.

Lean over the boat side and gaff it and deposit it into the checkers where they will be gutted by hand once you get 30 or 40 into the boat.

Might be a mix of coho, sockeye, pinks, and chinook up to 60 pounds. I have lost big chinooks that broke the 80 pound test we used for chinnook. They will take a full speed run and since the line has little give, they can snap it.

Do that all day long. Haul the lines, gut the salmon, and either pack them in ice in the fish hold or stack them if it is a freezer boat.

Repeat for 18 hours. Then try to sleep out on the open sea for maybe 3 hours of lucky, get up at 3:30am and start again.

Do that for 10-20 days, and then head in to harbor to sell your catch. No showers, no mobile phones or devices, no TV, no nothing but work, storms, and a ton of the craziest adventure you could imagine.

I hated it the first 2 seasons, missing my 2 month summer holidays at such a young age.

From age 15 on, I grew to deeply love the sea life and would never change a thing. Did that for 16 years. My longest time away from home was a season that lasted mid April to mid October. Spoke to my wife maybe 10 times in that 6 months. No phone on the boat, so I could only call when we got into a harbor and use the fish camp phone.

 

That's awesome but those harsh ocean conditions. You Vikings come by it naturally! Lol.. Thanks for the detail. Very interesting. I had friends that commercial fished. Based out Of Queensbough. They did Gillnetting on the Fraser and a few did the coast as well. One area was Namu. If I was purchasing salmon direct for personal use I always preferred trolled commercial caught salmon for a few different reasons. I would have enjoyed being a commercial fisherman. The long hours and the hard work wouldn't have deterred me. However, the open Ocean scares me plus rough seas leading to sea sickness would kill me. Otherwise I'd love being outdoors along with the summer pay would have been nice, like some of my high school buddies. Otherwise, nope! lol...

Keeping with the forum topic. Wife drove our Tacoma out to the Fraser valley yesterday exploring with the kids. Found a nice little spot out of the heat. Was busy, lots of folks out exploring too.

 

West of Bend, OR

 

Nice to see your wife taking the kids out in the truck like that. My wife never comes out to the woods any more. We did a lot together when younger, now she likes her comforts and greatly dislikes mosquitoes and horseflies.

That looks like a nice spot to soak and have a bath.

 

Happy Labor Day everybody. Got some custom pin stripes.

 

Top of Ophir Pass


Coming down into Ophir


The top of Imogene Pass


looking towards Camp Bird Rd from the top of Imogene Pass


Climbing up Imogene Pass from the east side

 

What front bumper is that? Looks really good.

 

It’s a Westin brush guard with a black bumper cover, it’s not a front bumper but thanks! And the brush guard did a great job, had to drive into a bunch of brush on the trail.