Hiking on Heritage Day in Banff National Park may not have been the greatest idea. Surprisingly enough, the Icefields Parkway traffic was not too crazy and we encountered very few people on the popular trail we choose. Steve and his dad, Tom, Pat and his girl friend Ashley wanted to fly fish for brookies. You know I had just been there just 10 days ago but why not. A 20 plus km hike and fly fishing for brookies it is. We left Red Deer at 4 am and we were hiking by 7:30 am. The parking lot had plenty of empty spaces, ...score. 10 plus km of walking with 600 metres of uphill definitely gets your heart rate up. We arrived about 2 hours later. The sweat equity is well worth it!
We rigged up with chernobyls. Yes were were going to dry fly fish. The fly fishing was outstanding. It is fun to see the brookies come up from the depths and smash your fly. The wind was moderate so casting was not too challenging. Tom caught so many brookies. He love casting over the drop offs and watch his chernobyl disappear into the jaws of an aggressive brookie. Chili the dog loved checking out the brookies too. Chili went for several swims to stay cool. He certainly loved the cold mountain water.
We hiked out about 3 pm and of course my buddy Pat had to stop and catch some cutthroat off of a bridge. That has become a tradition. Ashley caught her first dry fly brookies too!
The downside of the day was driving into a terrible thunderstorm on the way down highway 11 just after Nordegg and the massive intense storm lasted all the way to Red Deer. Hail, heavy rain and wind made the drive quite uncomfortable. My Volkswagon Gulf handled the lousy driving conditions. By the way, my Gulf Station Wagon burned $70 of fuel to get to our destination and back to Red Deer. That was quite reasonable.
Click on the pictures to make them bigger. This was one awesome day to spend with four friends and a happy hound.
Chernobyls and Brookies
Tom's First Brook Trout on the Fly
The Wild Flowers are Blooming!
Yep Right off the Bridge-A Tradition
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