"riverman" wrote in message
...
Its that time of year when I start daydreaming of the perfect summer
vacation. More often than not, I generate a list of things I want to
do, then end up sitting on my widening ass at a friend's house,
watching it rain, feeling like something important is slipping by. I
want this year to be different.

So far, my wishlist has some real cherries:
--Fly to northern Italy, buy a BMW motorcycle and spend the summer
driving the twisties in the Alps. Then ship the bike to HK for winter
use.
--Fly to Sweden, spend the summer alterating between my tent, Roger's
couch and Vaughan's spare room.
--Visit my family in the PacNW for a week, then rent a camper and
drive with SWMBO up the Canadian Rockies toward Alaska, fishing and
camping as we go.

So far, option 3 has a real draw since its the only one SWMBO would
come with me, but I realize that a 6-week vacation doesn't leave much
time to fish and cover road miles, so its probably not feasible to
drive all the way to Alaska. So that gets me wondering; where would be
a good region to 'aim for', and end up spending a lot of time
exploring and fishing?

I don't like big destination regions; I was pretty turned off by the
hordes at the San Juan, and I have no interest in hitting well-known
venues. I'd rather find a scenic fishable region and just poke around
on foot, doing day hikes and car camping along.

Anyone know of any places I could dream of aiming for?

--riverman

6 weeks is fine for a drive to AK from WA area. 3 years ago we took 7 weeks
and drove the 8800 miles round trip to AK. We left in June and did only
lake (Lake La Hatch {sp}) fishing in BC. The streams are closed because of
spawning till about July 1. We drove up the Cassier and returned on the
Alcan road. Lots of rain. Flew out of Kenai to fish Sockeye at Wolverine
creek. Maverick Air. Good trip, but you are really snagging with the fly
as the Reds do not bite then. But is one of the few places you can safely
fish with the bears fishing near you. We came back end of July and we
missed the really good runs of fish by a week or so. Some rivers were
closed for spawning, etc. This was more a sightseeing trip than a fishing
trip. I have a truck camper and most people in AK and Canada think that is
the better deal then trailers and big RV's. You can get down some smaller
roads to check out back country. If you go, check with Safeway in Anchorage
and see if the still sell the Special Olympics coupon book. Was $99 and has
lots of 2 for 1 coupons. Save $140 on flightseeing of Denali. We were sick
with ear problems so did not go, but buddy and his wife went, and they loved
the trip. Lots of nice pictures showing a great trip. Denali itself is not
worth more than 2 nights unless you are going to do a lot of backpacking. 1
road and that is buses only. Take the Tundra tour. They drive 50 miles in
and stop for wildlife sightings. 80% of the visitors do not see the
mountain. We lucked out and the clouds opened for a beautiful view for
about 30 minutes. If driving, figure more sightseeing than fishing trip.
Buy the Milepost, Amazon is cheaper than from the Milepost website. Is a
mile by mile look at the trip and updated yearly. We did a halibut trip out
of Homer. Fun trip. 2x 40# halibut. The prettier area of Alaska is from
Anchorage south along the Kenai peninsula.