The Feminine View of a Wilderness Horseback Trip

Wandering around the perimeter of the room at the Holiday Inn with a nice glass of red wine in my hand at the 2007 S.C.I. Fundraiser Banquet, something caught my eye! “A Wilderness Trip Donation from B.C. Safaris”! Hmmmm…this could be interesting. Since I had survived a couple of Ranch Vacations in Arizona and a mule trip into the Grand Canyon, how difficult could this be? The Love of my Life, Keith loves anything that involves horses and wilderness so maybe this could be a holiday that both of us would enjoy together. Words like “gourmet meals”, “guides and instruction in fly fishing”, “horseback riding”, “canoeing”, “photography”, “wildlife in the Cassiar Mountains”, “saunas” and “log lodge” rolled around in my head as we dined at the SCI banquet. A few more glasses of wine later and the auction began. I nudged Keith and said something about bidding on the above item. I think he was in shock or wanted to follow through before I changed my mind, so up went his hand. Someone behind us was also bidding and Keith’s interest began to fade, so just before the gavel went down on the final bid, I stuck my hand in the air and the trip was ours! Oh well, we have a year and a half before it has to happen and how bad could it be! Later that night we met Shane Black, one of the owners of B.C. Safaris who had donated the trip and he seemed like a nice enough fellow and he assured me there were few bugs to worry about etc. etc.

A year passed and I started to do the research on the arrangements for the trip. It took a month for me to locate Turnagain Lake on a map! It was way off the roadmaps that were readily available for British Columbia. I finally found it on a map of Alaska, just 20 miles south of the Yukon border. Using the Internet, I found some accommodations in Smithers and Dease Lake that would be staging areas en route to our destination. We decided to ask our friends, Kevin and Lois Laux who live in Wisconsin USA to join us because they had proven to be a lot of fun on two previous horseback adventures in Arizona. To our delight, they agreed!

Many emails and a few phone calls later to Shane Black, we had a list of gear to bring and a warning that we had to fit everything we would need for a week into one bag and it could not weigh any more than 50 pounds in order to meet the regulations of the Dehaviland Beaver float plane that would take us from Dease Lake to our base camp.
I knew this meant trouble! Being a woman who carries about 35 pounds of cosmetics for a weekend trip in civilized country and who also had to include hiking boots, sleeping bag, helmet, all my riding gear, plus a couple of bottles of wine, there would have to be some negotiations in order for me to survive! My hairdresser and esthetician came to the rescue with a few good suggestions.

July 15th arrived and we were off on the first leg of our journey, flying to Vancouver and then on to Smithers where we spent our first night plus the next day exploring this darling little western town, shopping, hiking, taking pictures, hot tubbing and dining. Then we were off next day to Dease Lake, a drive of over 8 hours straight north. We stopped to check out grizzly bears, salmon, black bears, glaciers and moose on our way. Everyone we met throughout the day asked us if we had lots of bug spray when they learned of our destination. Yuk!  
Arriving in Dease Lake, we checked in at one of only two hotels in town, the “Artic Divide” and proceeded to set up our bar in one of the rooms and settled down for a pleasant evening. Dinner was across the road at “Mama Z’s”, a fine dining establishment with great Italian specialties. Next morning we returned to the same restaurant and after paying $28.00 each for bacon and eggs, we realized that we were definitely in a world where the operative phrase is “supply and demand”.

Later that morning Keith Connors, one of the two owners of B.C. Safaris, picked us up. He reminded me of a younger Clint Eastwood and had that relaxed and charming style which won my confidence right away. We learned that Keith Connors would be our pilot in his newly acquired, refurbished Beaver aircraft. We waited while Keith picked up supplies then loaded us in the plane for our half hour flight over pristine lakes and wilderness. Now we had 2 Keith’s and 2 Lois’ in our party of 5!

Our first surprise was a landing on Glacier Lake (which is as cold as its name suggests!) where we were met by Shane Black, the second owner of B.C. Safaris and our wranglers for the week: Corbin, who is Shane’s 19 year old son, and Brandon (who could act as a stand-in for Brad Pitt!). Wow! They helped us unload the plane then carefully balanced our entire collection of luggage and the supplies into the panniers carried by the horses. Shane, Corbin and Brandon looked like they could use a shower and shave, but, hey, they didn’t smell too bad and they seemed to know what they were doing. Their slight grimace when they loaded in my precious cargo of wine and cosmetics didn’t put me off too much!

Then, we found out that the first half of our wilderness experience was to be in the spike camp, not the lodge, so I realized there would be no “breaking in” session for this holiday! We walked about a half-mile over rocky ground to the camp (Thank goodness I had abandoned my sandals in favour of my riding boots before take-off in the plane!).

There it was before us – a bright green 20’x20’ A-frame cabin (which became known as our “Holiday Inn”!) and a lovely brand new Cabela’s igloo- style tent, big enough for 4 people! Shane gave us a choice of which “abode” we wanted for our sleeping quarters but highly recommended the tent with its 3” foam mattresses as opposed to the cabin with canvas cots. He was right! That night after martinis, a gourmet dinner of moose chili, homemade carrot cake and bannock bread, the four of us snuggled into our yummy sleeping bags and before long I was off to dreamland, as snug as a bug in a rug. The night was so peaceful, the air so cool (about 8 degrees C.) and the beds so comfy, that I, who had not had an uninterrupted night’s sleep in at least a decade, did not wake up until morning! 

Day 2 of our Wilderness adventure started with the sound of cowbells. Our horses were shackled at night and a cowbell hung around their necks for safety before they were turned out to graze in the nearby fields. In the morning, Corbin and Brandon rounded them up and brought them back to the camp to saddle them and feed them for our day’s trail ride. But where do I do my morning “toilette”? The boys had brought warm water and washbasins for Lois and me and had set them on the panniers for our “ablutions”! Yikes! I climbed the hill to the “potty” which was a wooden box topped by a toilet seat and surrounded by a blue tarp mounted over a branch for privacy! By the time I returned to the washbasins, I decided it was too cold to be bothered so, my first day in camp started without even washing my face, never mind putting on make-up! A hearty breakfast was ready for us. Never have bacon and pancakes tasted so good.

Our staff of three did all the cleanup, prepared our lunches (with a choice of moose sausage or tuna sandwiches plus treats and fruit) and got the horses ready for us to mount. They accomplished all of this in the time it took us to get dressed for the day’s ride. I wore 5 layers! Our days never got above 16 degrees C. so I made use of my gorgeous new microfibre long underwear, flannelette pj’s, jeans, down vest, winter jacket, toque and my Cabela’s raingear. Once I added my helmet to top it off, I was grateful that there were no mirrors in camp for me to scare myself!
Our horses were beautiful, well-trained, sturdy saddlebred/percheron cross animals who were able to navigate over every kind of terrain. We headed out for a day of viewing absolute gorgeous scenery, stopping often for photo opportunities and to scan the mountains with high powered binoculars to spot stone sheep, moose and caribou. This trip was scheduled for the week prior to the stone sheep hunts at B.C. Safaris and was, in a way, a practise run for the staff and horses before taking on the hunters. Keith Worden and Kevin Laux are hunters, but I think they enjoyed the opportunity to ride in true wilderness without the responsibility of “looking for a trophy”!

Back at the camp, we had our first lesson in fly-fishing. Corbin was my teacher and his patience and skill made learning this new sport a totally fun experience. I never caught a fish despite several attempts over the week, but it was certainly not for lack of support from my coach.

Back to the camp for cocktails and another fine dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce made from scratch complete with moose meat, fresh garlic and all the Italian spices Shane brings to camp. All the time he was cooking, Shane entertained us with wonderful stories of experiences in camp plus the tale of his absolute change of lifestyle when he left his position as owner of an upscale menswear boutique in Prince George eight years earlier. He learned the guiding business and how to handle horses after going into partnership with Keith Connors at B.C. Safaris!

Day 3 involved more riding in the mountains and some fly fishing in Glacier Lake, hoping for that perfect Artic grayling or rainbow trout. Brandon made a fire for us beside the lake to warm our frigid bones. How he ever managed that with the wet twigs and branches, I’ll never know, but the warmth from that fire was a lifesaver.  Lois Laux and I felt quite at home coming back to the cabin that night, dressed for dinner in our pj’s, no makeup and barely a comb through our hair. The cold temperatures meant no bugs! What a bonus!

Day 4 was moving day. Our staff packed up the camp and loaded all our gear onto the packhorses and we were on the trail by 9 with a total of 11 horses. This time we had a new guide, Gene, who had been flown in to take us on the 7 hour ride over the mountains to the base camp at Turnagain Lake. Those amazing horses took us through mud which was, at times, up to their bellies, snow, fast running rivers, thick buck brush, narrow trails, rocky ground and lichen. They never missed a step. There were a few places when we had to get off our horses and walk down steep slopes that were on such an incline that we would have been at risk of vaulting over our horses’ heads had we tried to stay in the saddles. 

Finally Gene navigated us into the base camp at Turnagain Lake and never was there such a beautiful sight! The log cabins and lodge were set back from a lake as smooth as glass with mountains in the background and horse corrals behind us. Keith Connors and his wife, Joan along with our cook, Marcy, a guide, Glen and black dog, Bruno welcomed us. Our evening was spent having a much-needed shower followed by martinis on the deck of our cabins and a dinner straight out of the “Best of Bridge” Recipe book - braised ribs, fresh salad from Joan’s greenhouse by the lake, fresh homemade bread and rhubarb pie! We had just enough energy left to enjoy a sauna in the bathhouse. Corbin had built a fire under the rocks in the cedar-lined room and it was just right for us to add water when we were ready. Needless to say, that night was pure magic when we laid our heads on real beds with down duvets and a crackling fire in our cabin’s pot bellied stove.

Day 5 our hosts thought we needed a reprieve from riding and took us to a special area on the lower lake for fly-fishing. It was 9 degrees C. as we set off, so needless to say, we had layers of clothing again, this time including chest waders. I could barely bend my knees to get into the canoe, but somehow we managed and after a portage and paddle, we arrived at yet another place of beauty. We stood quite comfortably in the icy cold water and cast our lines a million times to no avail. Lunch was in the boats before the long trek back to camp. Keith and Joan had put beer and white wine in the hollowed out log that served as a cooler for the lodge guests. It worked with icy spring water flowing in and out continuously. Later we enjoyed more food, more great stories, this time told by Keith Connors and that led us to the end of another perfect day.

Day 6 involved a great trail ride high into Bomber Mountain and across the Artic Divide. We sat on soft lichen on a mountainside for lunch and spent an hour spotting caribou and sheep. That night Keith Connors barbequed stone sheep and caribou for our dinner and poured Naked Grape wine for us which he had flown in that day from Dease Lake.

Day 7 involved more fishing, this time from a motorboat. Keith Worden tried his hand at fishing from a “tote and float”, an inflatable tube-like contraption. Those of us who fished from the boats had no success, but Lois Laux caught a nice trout from the dock, so we were able to enjoy fish for lunch. That night we had our final dinner followed by a bonfire and watching the antics of the local loons on the lake. We toddled off to bed knowing that our adventure was coming to a close but with many “memories in the bank” to carry home.

Day 8 came all too soon and we packed our 50 pounds of “stuff” to load into the Beaver aircraft for the flight back to Dease Lake. Everyone, including Bruno the dog came to the dock to say goodbye. Hugs and tears were the “order of the day” before flying off for the final leg of our journey. We knew that a little piece of our hearts would always remain in those Cassiar Mountains.
 
Keith Connors and Shane Black are first class hosts and their staff was exemplary. B.C. Safaris not only gave a generous donation to S.C.I. Ontario Chapter in their Wilderness Adventure but they provided a “Trip of a Lifetime” to four very fortunate guests. Keith and I feel very blessed to have been part of this journey with our very good friends Kevin and Lois. We made memories on a unique adventure that I am proud to say I not only survived but also thoroughly enjoyed. I never have to do it again, but I thank God and my lucky stars that I raised my hand in the air that fateful night of the S.C.I. Banquet.
 
Lois M. Worden
Feb. 2009