This ain't sea world, this is real as it gets!

There are few things in this world that make this Canadian backwoods girl happy. One of those is cheesecake. The other is Bass Pro Shops. I also love boats. Hence my love affair with this weekend.

Sorry, while I shed a few tears. RB and I went to the Toronto International Boat Show this weekend, as the company that he works for offered him free tickets. Let me tell you, it was a drool fest. RB used to sail lots as a kid and up until he was nearly twenty. He loves to sailboat. Me? I love two things about boating: Speed and fishing. If I can combine the two, then hallelujah!

We first went and took a few shots of some motors. I felt a bit like Tim the Tool Man Taylor and forgot temporarily about my estrogen.

Aw-yeah, baby! A 40hp Big Foot! RB is over 6' so you can see how big this motor is.

Well hello, beautiful. May I say you're looking rather "fly", all shiny and new with your beloved 60hp. This is the newer Mercury 60Hp Flyway.

After we had our fill of boats, we decided en route home to stop one of only TWO Bass Pro Shops in all of Canada. The other is in Calgary. What more can a girl ask for but to be greated by a great big Bass hanging in mid-air? Inside were mounted fish and game galore. In particular I enjoyed the "home decor" aspect. I quickly called my mama and said in the most southern accent a Canadian girl can concoct "Mama! I'm inna Bass Pro Shop and I've died 'n gone 'ta heaven!"..to which my ma replied, "Dawn, do NOT make your house look like a trailer park!". I'm sorry, but that glass coffee table whose base was constructed from a set of deer antlers was a beaut! And heck yes I WILL have those moose-decor lamp shades.

I digress, I did not purchase these. However, RB was nice enough to purchase me a ball cap I had been admiring and a brand new...skillet! Life is good my friends, life is good. We eyed up some fly rods and reels. RB gasped at some of the prices, but I know that sometimes you have to spend a little extra dough to get quality goods.

I don't know if RB was impressed I wanted to take his photo with the duck, or not. Regardless, I thought he looked kinda cute next to the fake ducks.

sigh, what a wonderful sea of rods, reels, nets and tackle. A girl could live here forever, except that if I lived here forever I'd never actually get to fish.

In the end it was a glorious day of outdoor-ness. It was a nice break from the winter cold to think about the warm summer ahead where I get to "get outside" and find my chi or my chee or whatever it is it's called. Find myself? I don't know. I just want to hook somethin' and fry it up for dinner.

What are you looking forward to doing in summer?

Headin' up to the North Country with a cold wind in my eye...

Okay, so those are Rankin Family lyrics. And I suppose when they said "North Country" they really meant northern Nova Scotia/Cape Breton Island. Well this is the true north anyway, and really this afternoon I headed further west and not so much north. Ahem. Technicalities.

So I'm spending this weekend in Kluane Country (not 'north country) which nuzzles up to the St. Elias Mountain range to the southwest of the Yukon. It is home to Kluane National Park , Champagne and Aishihik First Nation and Haines Junction. It also has a number of beautiful lakes (like almost any other part of the Yukon) such as Kluane and Kathleen Lakes. In addition, Aishihik (pronounced Eh-jii-ack with a soft j sound as in jolie) Lake, Dezadeash (pronounced Dez-dee-esh) Lake, and Pine Lake. It's a pretty amazing spot here. I can't really put into words the beauty of this area of the world. When you first drive into the outskirts of Haines Junction it looks like you're going to drive into the St. Elias mountains. They are HUGE and look like they will swallow you whole. And when the sun is in the west it reflects and sparkles off the mountains and the water creating a million shades of greens and blues and yellows. It's really quite magical. This is all interspersed with the bright blue of the sky and the purples of the fireweed and other flora.

I drove to Dezadeash and Kathleen River and Lake this evening in an attempt to find anglers to survey. No such luck. I don't blame them--there were sporadic showers occurring along Haines Road (This road leads from Haines Junction to Haines, Alaska). It's really neat when there are rain or snow clouds hanging around the mountains. It can be bright blue skies above you and before you but up to the right above the mountain range you can see just sheets of grey or white--looks like sheer silk. This is normal and are just showers that eventually will move over you. Tonight we're expecting showers that are heading in from Beaver Creek.

I attempted to fish tonight on Kathleen River which is on the outside (east side) of Haines Road which borders Kluane National Park. It flows out of Kathleen Lake which is inside the park. I went fishing and all I caught were these damn mosquitoes. What joy! :-) I tried spraying repellant on me and I swear the skeeters up here have adapted to Deep Woods scent. There seemed more of them after the fact! So after 10 minutes and five casts I simply gave up. I will either wait for mid day, catch a breeze, or wait until I'm back in the BC lower mainland where the pollution seems to keep skeeters and all nice forms of wildlife (sad fact) away.

If you check out my flickr account you will see a couple photos I took of some fly fishermen on Kathleen River. I will post one below so you can see an example. More to come when I'm back in Whitehorse where it will actually upload more than 2 in 2 hours.

Well a long day ahead of me tomorrow if'n I can find a dry spot to heckle people (aka Anglers). There is a fishin' derby going on about 80 clicks northwest of here at Destruction Bay. I don't know if I'll make it there as it's quite the mileage. You'll here if I did though! So on that note I shall leave you for another day--kill these two mosquitoes buzzing in my ear with a swift kick to their knees and off to bed am I! Thank the heavens for blinds...so bright still!

Fly Fishing on Kathleen River just outside Kluane National Park.
If you click on the photo it will take you to my Flickr account page where you can access the full-meal-deal-in-all-its-pixely-glory-make-it-into-a-desktop-background size!