Well I'm late getting to this but better late than never I hope.
As many of you have seen in some of my earlier stories, my wife Liz and I, love Ryan Lake and have been there several times. This year however we were unable to go there due to the operator not running so we decided to give Dan a call at
www.andrewlakelodge.com/, a proud sponsor of the forum, and arranged a trip to one of their outpost camps at Bocquene Lake. We are certainly glad that we did!
We booked our trip for Sept. 4-11 and decided to fly out of Fort Smith rather than our usual departure from Fort McMurray on our way to Ryan Lake. The drive is much longer, but was beautiful and as we travel in a truck and camper we decided to take our time and make it a 2 day trip each way.
We packed our things and headed north through Slave Lake and up Hwy 88 towards Fort Vermillion.
We stopped for a quick break at the Wabasca River bridge and spotted a furry fellow passing by.
After a nice night at Hutch Lake just north of High Level we were on our way again and soon crossed the border and hit the NWT.
We stopped for a quick look at the spectacular Alexandra Falls,
and stopped for lunch at the equally impressive Louise Falls.
We made our way through Wood Buffalo and headed to Fort Smith where we checked in at the float plane base before deciding to park the camper at Queen Elizabeth Park right in town and settle in for a cool, breezy evening.
The next morning we were on our way back to the float plane base where we visited with some other travelers waiting for flights due to weather delays the day before. Luckily the morning was great for flying and Dan was soon in from the lodge where he was 'grounded' the previous day due to weather. What a terrible place that must be to get 'grounded' by weather!
We quickly met, loaded our gear and made the short flight to the lake. Dan showed us around the camp and helped us settle in. He was soon on his way to back to take the other travelers on their adventures,
and much to our delight we were home alone at Bocquene Lake.
The camp is very nice with 3 cabins and Dan was able to tuck us in there with no one else around for the entire week which was awesome and we loved it!
We stowed away our gear, headed out on the lake and were soon into some tasty walleye for supper. We were very happy to see that the scenery there was spectacular and almost a twin to Ryan Lake. We love trolling around watching the world go by and this is a fine place to do so.
Anyone who has not visited this part of the world is truly missing something spectacular. It is absolutely beautiful, peaceful and the silence is truly amazing. To be somewhere with someone you love in a place that is this wonderful and have it all to yourself is my kind of vacation.
And to have all of that and catch walleye like this which is plenty to feed the 2 of us is my version of heaven.
More to come.