Sound to Sound

Amidst the dust and stress of packing moving out of our humble Richmond abode, I finished planning most of our trek. We are roughly planning to follow the through-hike conceived and constructed by the Te Araroa Trust but we have a few alternate paths or "tracks" as the kiwi's call them.

In general, Te Araroa south of Queenstown is a bit boring and passes through mostly farmland and has a fair amount of road walking - not my cup of tea. We aren't really invested in the idea of preserving integrity of the through hike (we are already skipping the north island) and we would rather take the time to explore other south island highlights.

Two of the main areas that the southern Te Araroa misses are the Fjordlands and Mount Aspirining National Parks. Fjordlands is notoriously the most demanding terrain to tramp in New Zealand and is also plagued by sand flies. The one track that is reasonably suited for all trampers is also one of the most popular and expensive in all of New Zealand. So I don't blame the Trust for by-passing this section in order to expand the accessibility of the track. Mount Aspiring, on the other hand, has tons of amazing tracks and breath-taking terrain not to be missed by the foot traveler and the Te Araroa passes around most of the park.

To compensate for these inadequacies, we've decided to start in Milford Sound (a large sound in the northern Fjordlands accessible by bus and boat) and head through Mount Aspiring National Park and eventually pick up the Te Araroa in Wanaka. Although we'll be getting to and from Milford Sound by bus, we'll be doing a kayak tour of the sound and the actually walking will start a short drive from the sound. The hike will eventually end on the northern coast of the South Island at Queen Charlotte Sound. Thus, sound to sound.

Milford Sound

Queen Charlotte Sound

I've taken the Te Araroa Trust's Google Earth file for the trail (shown in red) and added in some of the sections we'll be doing (shown in other colors) plus added place marks for towns we'll be stopping in and/or picking up supplies in. The start is indicated by a green place mark and the end in red.

I'm not sure what the post office situation is like there, but the TA's trail town information sheet says that the only post offices of any relevance to trampers are in Wanaka and Queenstown. This may be due to their capacity for holding large packages and mail would likely be available for pick-up in many other towns. All this to say that if you are interested and if you feel inclined, send us a letter or cookies. You will definitely receive a post card and extra kudos if you send homemade cookies across the world. Otherwise, you can just have some fun on Google Earth looking at our route. The kmz file is available for download below:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxdNdQ1F0SF2Z2V0WE50N21DQUk

March Madness: Trout!

With spring around the corner and coastal steelhead season dwindling to an end, I felt the pull of the mountains and the trout that call them home. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't seem to agree. This March is proved to but a much wetter month than last year and I had to adjust my tactics several times through this excursion. After two weeks of day-in and day-out fishing, hundreds of miles of driving, and several couches crashed, I built a chicken coup, cleared a fallen tree, went snow boarding, and somehow caught some trout.


Packing madness: kayak gea+fly and conventional fishing gear+camping stuff= way too much

After packing I was off to the foothills to hit up some lakes with my kayak. Sly Park, or Jenkinson lake, was the first stop. I made it by 3pm and decided to try for an evening session.


A nice sunset but no fish.

I made my way to my cousin's place no more than 10 minutes down the road only to find a large oak tree blocking the driveway. Cleared most of it, made some grub and passed out, glad to have a roof and kitchen in the cold weather---Thanks Sarah and Mas!


Next day I headed back to Sly Park for another go at some monster lake trout. Beautiful sunny weather, lots of fish on the finder, but no bites! Tried everything too. Ended up falling asleep on the shore after lunch under the shade of the nice pine.

Disappointed with the fishing and anxious to see my girlfriends new place, I packed up and headed to the next stopping off point, Garden valley. Her family is starting a small scale farm on a small piece of land there and things seem to be rolling along. There were hundreds of sprouts, bees swarming the empty bee boxes and lots of other projects stirring. In two days we set up a large coop and 13'X20' covered chicken run. They've since gotten a dozen chickens and have been getting tons of eggs, can't wait to see everything in action when I go back. For more, check this out: http://30tiesfor30years.blogspot.com/



Headed down to Folsom lake to try my hand at land-locked king salmon, but it was the same story---no bites. I got the down rigger working well though which should make for some interesting options in the near future. After trolling with another kayak fisherman who seemed to be having sparse but consistent luck with stocker rainbows I finally got a hit. Unfortunately it didn't stick and I went home skunked. The launch and take out were extra easy given that you could drive all over the shore, pretty neat.

Back to Garden Valley for some R&R tacos, best around. After a couple good dumps of rain my plans to fish the lower Yuba were blown out. I waited out the weather and made the long haul up I-80 to Truckee and beyond. Got a Nevada license and started scouting the river. I found a few beautiful stretches of river near Verdi and Boomtown, but no fish. The evening hours brought lots of midges out of the water but the fish didn't make an appearance. Headed back to Truckee to find my fishing buddy Nic and settled down at his Donner lake ski-bum rental. Unfortunately he couldn't join me the next day but his fishing map provided some more access points to scout out.


Many flies to choose from but only one rod to sling them: my hand built 6 wt switch rod was such a joy to cast I couldn't bring myself to even string up my other rods. I'll post about building my first fly rod soon.


Finally got one to the net! I found an amazing stretch of water near Mogul and got to fish with some awesome people including one dude named James who works at the local Cabela's super store. Good fishing with you James and I hope you got some more hogs from Pyramid.

Unfortunately the next day was too windy to fly fish, even for my hand-cannon switch. I spent the next two days slaying whitefish in the Hirschdale stretch, better than getting skunked and I couldn't have asked for better weather. Not the mention the hospitality at the Donner-Monster thanks again everyone!

I started hearing some rumors spread about some people braving the snow to get into the upper stretches of the Little Truckee River only to find amazing dry fly action---I had to try. Sunday I broke out early with a set of snow shoes and trekked my way up, about 3 miles I'd guess.


Low and behold on my second cast...



These little guys were all over the snow and getting blown around in heavy gusts. During lulls in the wind, but rainbows would lazily suck them down. I didn't have a good match for dry winter stones aside from a black caddis which didn't seem to work. As usual for the Little Truckee there was a very diverse group of bugs out so there were many other flies to choose from. Baetis and midges seemed to be working the best for me.


This one came out of the 610 hole for a #16 baetis nymph.



I ended the day with this beautiful brown.


There had been showers off and on all day, but I knew there was a storm blowing in so I tore myself from the water. It was pouring by the time I got back to the truck and there were already two worried messages from Nic. That storm dumped 12" of fresh powder at Suger Bowl so Monday morning was spent ripping up some fresh tracks thanks to some hook-ups from the ski-bum allies.

The afternoon brought showers so the boarding ceased. During a brake in the weather Nic and I got out on the water one last time.




Headed back the the bay to dry off all my gear and party it up in Santa Cruz for St. Patty's day. I tried to work some more shifts for the San Lorenzo fish trap but the river was blown out of course. Hope those boys get a few more fish for the hatchery. All in all it was a great trip and it will only get better as spring and some dryer months roll around.