On Feb 24, 5:03*am, "Calif Bill" wrote:
"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.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What a ton of great info...thanks CB!

--riverman