We went on a heliski visit to BC, Canada.

It was our first time going there.

We stayed at a farm house, and were looked after so well we really felt being at home.

Everyone we met was extremely friendly.

We arrived as strangers, and made many friends.

Here is a selection of some of the photos we took.

There will be several selections, as well as some videos.

I hope you enjoy them.


VIDEOS

We stopped by this lake to have a break


A waterfall that is partially frozen


We stopped by this rifer bank to have lunch after seeing the wild horses


One of the many frozen lakes

Lunch on Calvert Island

Swans, bulls and horses

Gopro On A Helicopter 1

Gopro On A Helicopter 2

Gopro On A Helicopter 3

Gopro On A Helicopter 4

Gopro On A Helicopter 5

Gopro On A Helicopter 6

Gopro On A Helicopter 7

Gopro On A Helicopter 8

Gopro On A Helicopter 9

Gopro On A Helicopter 10

Gopro On A Helicopter 11

Gopro On A Helicopter 12

BC deserves more than a short visit, one of the most varied and beautiful places on the planet.

Grizz

Saeed,
Had I know you were just around the corner from me I would have stopped by for a visit. I heard you met my hunting partner, Elora for turns 80 on May 1.
I hope you had a good time, Walt and Carl as well as the King family are great people.
I am glad you enjoyed your trip.

Doug,

I am sorry I never knew you were close by.

Elora drove our bags to the airport, and we had a great visit with here there.

I showed her some hunting clips on my phone.

Both the Fosters and Kings are fantastic people. We became immdiate friends, and they certainly did everything possible to make us feel at home.

How far are you from them??

Mike and David took me on a helicopter ride to the coast, we had lunch there together.

We saw a mountain lion tracks right where we landed, and Mike saw one a couple of hundred yards from our lodge at the Fosters.

We saw two mountain goats from the helicopter, and two moose crossing a frozen lake.

I am going to process more photos and videos and post them here.

Saeed,

Glad you got to meet Elora. She is one of Doug's most interesting neighbors. She's had a very interesting life and is still full of life even at 80. She added a great deal of entertainment to our hunt with Doug.

Mark

Thankyou for these wonderful photos Saeed. They revive many fond personal memories. I've hunted twice in BC and hunting again next year. What I have seen of the province is country north of Smithers. From the air it is breathtakingly beautiful. Those vast tracts of wilderness stir something deep in a hunters soul. Some terrain compares so closely to our home wilderness I've had to pinch myself to remember I walk in the land of Moose and Mountain Goat and not the land of Tahr, Chamois and Red Deer.
Yes please for more photos and video Saeed. The perspective you capture is always fascinating.

A GREAT photographic representation of your visit, just as we have come to expect with you behind the camera.
Beautiful area.

Once again I get to go and see that which I will never get to go and see due to your photographic skills.

Fantastic photos thanks for sharing.

Got a question regarding the Mavic drone, lying in the grass with a broken propeller.

We did not get to use the Mavic as much as we would have done if we were not flying most of the time.

We were living in a valley, which can be quite windy.

What happened was I took the drone and flew it down the valley to take a video of some swans, bulls and horses.

I was getting warnings on my remote that the wind was too high.

But, as everything seems to be working, I did not pay attention to this.

The warnings became a bit of s pain, so I thought I will bring the drone back.

It was about 400 meters from me down the valley.

I turned around to my direction, and hit the throttle to full speed.

I noticed that the distance indicator was actually increasing the distance between me and the drone, despite the fact that it was supposed to be flying towards me??

The wind was too strong, and the drone was actually going backwards!!

By this time it was about 1200 meters away, and about to get into the Forrest.

I thought I better land it in the field, where I can go and get it.

It was just in the neck of time, as it hit a branch on the way down.

I had to walk several kilometers to go back, cross the river by the only bridge and get it.

I did get some very nice video over a frozen lake.

We could hear the water underneath the ice, it sounded like someone is running heavy machinery.

It did not help that my guide kept saying that he was not too comfortable on the ice, as part of the lake was melting

I have added some videos at the top.

Great photos, as we all expect.
I do most of my travels with you!

Saeed,
I am about 40 minutes from White Saddle, just around the corner near Tatlayoko Lake.

Saeed, great pictures as usual.

In regards to the Mavic and high winds, you need to switch to Sport Mode to get the performance necessary to buck high winds. I encountered something similar and switched to Sport and had no problems. I generally get 45 MPH in sport mode in calm air. The Mavic's more streamlined profile handles wind better than the Phantom series.

Unless I am in POV or Tracking mode, I keep mine in Sport Mode. Remember, you do lose the forward obstacle avoidance in this mode.

Saeed,

Thanks for sharing. BC is beautiful. How do you handle the cold? You live in an inferno and have no bodily insulation?

Cheers
Jim & Joyce

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:
Saeed,

Thanks for sharing. BC is beautiful. How do you handle the cold? You live in an inferno and have no bodily insulation?

Cheers
Jim & Joyce

Actually, it wasn't as cold as it was in Switzerland in December when we were in the Swiss Alps.

But, I found wearing ski clothes helps enormously.

We stayed in a modern farm house, and normally I am the first one up in the morning to get the fire going. Was amazed how quickly the wood would burn.

This is in complete contrast to when we were in Switzerland, as the wood there would take ages to start going.

So many places to ski - so little time!

Beautiful looking place. Trying to talk my son into getting a job there after Uni. So I can visit him of course

Northern B.C., perhaps the most beautiful places I have ever been too.

Thanks Saeed

Saeed,
You really do things right!
Thanks for sharing.

Makes me homesick for The North.
The way I saw BC was to drive across it in 6 one-way trips in either a 1985 GMC 4WD SUV,
or a 26-foot-box U-Haul rental truck loaded with household goods.
To and from Anchorage, AK and MO, KY, or FL.

The first time I had wife and kids along and it took 13 days in the summer of 1985.
They flew on airlines after that first drive.
But I always loved the drive, even solo.
Once I did 5400 miles in 6 days and 23 hours in the dead of winter in the GMC.
Driving is actually better that time of year,
before "break-up."

The first time I crossed the Yukon River bridge in my then brand-new 1985 GMC, I stopped to pee in the river.
That is a traditional prerequisite for becoming a "sourdough" and not just another "cheechako."
One must also kill a bear and make love to a ... well, never mind.

Surely you must want to hunt Alaska and Canada now?


There is more than one way to skin a wildcat.
Riflecrank Incurable Permanente

So beautifully pristine!!!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Did any of you notice the large mountain lion track?

We found this on the beach on Calvert Island!!?

Yep, in the latest posting, close-up of the sand, big mountain lion, eh? How many inches at the widest of the prints?



And looking back, the tracks of the elusive loghopper were found, crossing over log in the nearest foreground, moving from right to left.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:
Saeed,

Thanks for sharing. BC is beautiful. How do you handle the cold? You live in an inferno and have no bodily insulation?

Cheers
Jim & Joyce

Actually, it wasn't as cold as it was in Switzerland in December when we were in the Swiss Alps.

But, I found wearing ski clothes helps enormously.

We stayed in a modern farm house, and normally I am the first one up in the morning to get the fire going. Was amazed how quickly the wood would burn.

This is in complete contrast to when we were in Switzerland, as the wood there would take ages to start going.

Yes Saad our wonderful soft wood we have here in BC makes great firewood , but not so good gun stocks !!!
Glad you had a wonderful time in our great province . You should book a Grizzly Bear hunt in BC west coast .

Thank You for sharing such excellent pictures.

Outstanding Rocky Mountain Goat.
A "Ten" for sure, and getting close to a 10-inch horn?
Might be a new B&C record.
But not an Outer Circle record of any sort!
Not to be shot with a .375/404 Jeffery!

The all-time Stone Sheep record was taken in Muskawa River, BC locale by Mr. Chadwick in 1936.
Record still stands.
Some call it the "Greatest North American Big Game Trophy of All Time, the Chadwick Ram."
Oddly enough, shot/wounded with a 404 Jeffery and 300-grain bullet, by the out-of-breath, elderly Mr. Chadwick,
but finished off by the guide's 30-06.

There is more than one way to skin a wildcat.
Riflecrank Incurable Permanente

The photos are of two separate goats.

They were within a mile of each other.

So heliskiing is the excuse for all this adventure?

I always swore I valued my knees too much to ski.
My son is crazy about skiing.
I never understood that, but since he gave up rockclimbing for skiing, I thought it was a good thing.
He even moved to CO and hits all the resorts around the state most weekends there is snow.
That is most of the year at +11,000 feet.

I am going to have to take up skiing so as to have a hobby interest in common with my son.
All else is lower priority than skiing, for him. He has gone totally nuts about it!

Great new hobby for a sextagenarian!
But I am a few years younger than old man Saeed is!

I am really excited about learning to snowplow!
I'll try not to break a leg.

There is more than one way to skin a wildcat.
Riflecrank Incurable Permanente

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
So heliskiing is the excuse for all this adventure?

I always swore I valued my knees too much to ski.
My son is crazy about skiing.
I never understood that, but since he gave up rockclimbing for skiing, I thought it was a good thing.
He even moved to CO and hits all the resorts around the state most weekends there is snow.
That is most of the year at +11,000 feet.

I am going to have to take up skiing so as to have a hobby interest in common with my son.
All else is lower priority than skiing, for him. He has gone totally nuts about it!

Great new hobby for a sextagenarian!
But I am a few years younger than old man Saeed is!

I am really excited about learning to snowplow!
I'll try not to break a leg.

There is more than one way to skin a wildcat.
Riflecrank Incurable Permanente

Whatever you do, if you are not a good skier, forget helisking.

I have given up skiing when I discovered I can actually go down a black slope faster sitting on my backpack rather on skis.

I can also do it without a backpack.

It is all the new craze, as it is quite unique sport, and so far I am the only one who does it on a regular basis.

I get rather funny comments sometimes.

As I approach a very steep black slope, walking around the mountains and wanting to get down quicker than walking on a blue slope.

I take off my backpack, and get close to the steep drop.

Someone will say "You are not going down that are you?"

"Well, it is faster to get down than walking for miles around the mountains"

"But you need skis to go down this. This is black, and very steep"

"Real experts do not need skis. I have been doing this for years"

With all sorts of funny laughs coming from everyone, I sit down, and go straight to the bottom.

I have to be careful arresting my speed with my heels, or sometimes I do a summersault or two.

Beautifull ,very similar to our Patagonia .

.....incredible place, got to go there one day.....don't need any old fart welders there by chance ??

Roger