Hunting and Gathering

Every four years a 'dominant' run of sockeye salmon makes their way up the Fraser River and 2018 was one of the big years. Reason enough to get a fishing license and gear and head out with a friend who showed me how its done. I like this sort of fishing! Within 1 hour I landed 2 nice silvery sockeye which is the daily limit for recreational angling. I went back two more times. We had one fish for dinner with friends, got another one smoked and the last 4 were cut up into fillets and steaks for the freezer. In total between 12 and 14 million sockeye entered the Fraser this year, a pretty solid number!

Only two of the fish are mine... two is the daily limit

Despite the dry summer, this year turned out to be a great one for mushrooms too. We found huge King boletes, a few nice bearshead/lions mane and last but not least lots of Pine Mushrooms (Matsutake). I added pines to my list of collectibles 5 years ago but haven't had much luck since then. So I was really hoping for a good year. Ans a good year it was! Even Peter came along for a day of mushroom hunting and we collected over 5 kg (I think Peter found more!)

Fantastic 'catch' of pines

To round out the winter menu there were also many berries to be harvested. Bags of black- and (bought) blueberries went into the freezer. And the wild blueberries were so plentiful that most of our hikes were rather slow. But the berries were so good that we ate them all and didn't bring any home.

And I was excited to see that pines went for  $33/lb at the Granville Island market. Maybe I should try to sell some next year?

Fall Flying

Paragliding conditions were below average this year except for a stellar week in July but we were away for it, paddling our canoe in the Northwest Territories.

But in fall we enjoyed a couple of very scenic flights. On a hike and fly mission we thermaled several hundred meters over the summit of Mt. Cheam and flew over nearby summits of the range.
Dodging clouds at Woodside I got a nice photo of a Glory or Brocken Spectre.

Hike and Fly Mt Cheam

Brocken Spectre at Woodside

Pete exploring the scenery in the Northern Cascades at Sauk Mountain

Fall hikes and colors

Despite the dry summer there was an amazing display of great fall colors this year. Nice weather lasted throughout October and gave opportunity to many hikes. On the trail to Blanca Lake in the Elaho valley we discovered some huge King Boletes. We finally scrambled up Mt Jim Kelly on a lot of rubble and loose shale (not the greatest hiking). My favorite was the area around Mt Bake with easy access and well groomed hiking trails (Chain Lakes, Lake Ann, Yellow Aster Bute, Skyline divide and Railroad grade). Blueberries were fantastic too!

Blueberries and colors were better closer to Heather Meadows parking lot

Adams Lake Sockeye - Dominant Run 2018

At the beginning of October I visited the sockeye salmon that had arrived at Adams Lake. Some of these sockeye ended their journey prematurely on a sandbank of the Fraser River (and then in my freezer), but since it was a dominant year with a solid number of returning fish I could reconciled this with my environmental conscience.