We had planned this trip for some time, but I had suggested cancelling. I argued that the pressures of buying a third fixer' upper, which meant essentially purchasing Mike a job, while our black house in Vanderhoof still had some minor finishing touches (who needed closet doors and things like railing for the stairs anyways). I was working a 7x7 rotation in Camp funding two mortgages and everything that went with that. Mike justified continuing said planned adventure because we had already committed to it his Dad and Uncle, who graciously adjusted the annual Father's Day trip to accommodate camp life, so right out off camp, off we went, fishing on Eutsuk Lake.
In 2022, right before we left for Thailand, Mike half-hazardly mentioned that his buddy Burt was selling his old fishing boat. She was an oldy, but a goody and had a hard top that you could suntan on. With very strong rum and coke in hand, Burt took me for a tour of the boat appropriately named Giver 'er Time, and I was sold - well, she was sold and we purchased. Mike failed to mention that his truck at the time wasn't actually big enough to pull the ol' 24 foot gal, and so she lived on my sister's front yard, mere meters from Stuart Lake, the following summer, but that's a story for another time. Needless to say, we've had some really good times on her, and I had no idea I would love owning a boat. With the convenient layout of the cabin, she was essentially a camper on the water. Mike installed a diesel generator for the chilly spring adventures, and finally I felt like I owned a tiny home, which has always been a want of mine.
The fishing adventure began well before the destination as we drove about a coffee fueled hour and a half and then took the Francois Lake Ferry, a 15-minuet sail, to the community of South Bank. We drove an additional hour to launch our boat from Andrews Bay into Whitesale Lake where we met up with the full crew in three other boats containing Mike's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, Mike's Cousin and Wife and Mike's Parent's and two friends were in the third boat. As we first entered the lake, we slowly kickered ourselves through a maze of rocks that protected us from the rougher open waters, and the excitement of our four-night boat adventure hit me better than any drip coffee has; any thoughts of a third home-buyers remorse, HR Mine Life stressors and Mike and my domestic disagreements over renos became a thing of the past as he lowered the leg of our boat into the water and gave Giv'er Time some love as we pleasantly (and surprisingly) watched the front end of our boat come out of the water, getting us on step, 10 jerry cans of additional weight and all.
While sipping beverages during the hour long boat ride, we had to pay particular attention to this portion of trip, as Alcan's Nechako Revisor is known for challenging conditions, including high winds and 'dead heads': floating debris and drowned trees from intentional flooding in the 1950s to create the revisor. Luckly, weather was on our side and it was a relatively calm day so we could find and avoid any concerns or visible blips in the water, while following buoys, keeping us safe from the drowned tress, which looked oddly like red and green wine bottles floating in the water.
One of the stars of the show included a portage needed to get us and our boats to our final destination. I've heard about this portage many times from the annual Father's Day Fishing Trip, but I was speechless upon seeing the portage itself. There is a land barrier between Whitesale Lake and Eutsuk Lake, which is the beginning of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park - which is where the Pine Beetle takeover bagan - Over 550 meters, which had a cabin, an information area and a couple of outhouses built between each water source. We were expected to move our boat onto a wooden structure on wheels that's fully submerged in the lake. The boat leans against the railing of the structure, and the security of gravity and the weight of Mike and I standing on the edge of the boat are expected to make sure the boat is secured to the railing. A quad pulls us and the boat 550 meters across land and into Eutsuk Lake. It was the jankest set up I've ever seen, and our boat, besides being our priceless survival mechanism deep in the wilderness, was a single digit thousands compared to the King Fisher Boats that accompanied us, and were expected to take the same, saving grace, half-a-K portage. with some minor slip ups (pun literally intended), all four boats made it successfully across.
The weather in Eutsuk Lake was gorgeous and calm, especially for early spring. It didn't take long before we were reeling in rainbow fish, larger than I've ever seen in person, let alone caught. The lake is well known throughout North America for having large rainbow, 10lbs and larger. From what I recall, my biggest fish during the trip was 8lbs 7oz, but Mike's cousin Becca, was over 9lbs. 
