Outdoors with Don Q: A return trip to a remote British Columbia lake

This is the first in a three-part series of articles about my second, fly-in, trout fishing trip to Mitchell Lake, which is located in the Cariboo Mountains Provincial Park in British Columbia.
This three-part series will consist of:
Series No. 1: The flight from Dayton, Nevada to Mitchell Lake, B.C.,
Series No. 2: The people, accommodations and meals at the lake,
Series No. 3: The trout fishing.

How the trip originated:
It began about three weeks ago, when my first-cousin’s husband (Bob Scholes of Dayton) asked if I was interested in returning to Mitchell Lake.
The two of us had flown there previously in July 2009.
In our conversation, he said that we would fly in his private plane from Dayton, Nevada to Auburn, Washington and spend the night there, as guests of our friends, Jim and Brigitte Harkey.
Then early the next morning, together with one other passenger, Darrell Clair of Auburn, Washington, we would fly in Bob’s plane to Abbotsford, British Columbia to clear Canadian Customs.
Once through Customs, we would fly to Williams Lake, B.C., park his plane, switch to a Bell Jet Ranger II helicopter and fly the remaining 85 miles to our final destination of Mitchell Lake.
I asked my wife Elaine what she thought of his invitation and she said, “Are you crazy, he’s asking you to go fishing again in British Columbia! You had all kinds of fun last time and you better say yes.”
I told Bob that I was a “go” for the fishing trip, and that was the beginning of another unforgettable Canadian adventure that began on Thursday, August 16 and ended on Thursday, August 23.

The trip:
Early on the morning of August 16, Elaine and I drove to the Scholes home at the Dayton Air Park, where his A-36 Bonanza, four-seat, single-engine aircraft was parked in the hanger at his home on the edge of the airstrip.
Bob and I loaded our gear into the plane, taxied away from his hanger, lifted off at about 7:30 a.m., slowly climbed up to 10,500 feet and headed north toward Auburn, a 3.5-4.0 hour flight, dependent on the wind.
Bob is an excellent pilot with more than 3,000 hours of flight time and his plane is the “Cadillac” of small, single-engine aircraft. That superb combination made our flight seem to pass in the blink of an eye.
Along the way, we flew past Reno, Pyramid Lake, the Black Rock Desert, crossed into California, Cedarville, Goose Lake, crossed into Oregon, Lakeview, Bend, the Three Sisters Mountains, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, the Columbia River, crossed into Washington, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and then finally landed at the Auburn airport.
However, this time our flight’s sightseeing was severely limited as a result of a series of huge forest fires that were producing enormous amounts of smoke, all the way up to an elevation of about 10,000 feet.
At Auburn, Bob and I were the overnight guests of the very gracious Harkeys at their beautiful home, situated high on a forested ridge, with a magnificent view of the City of Auburn and Mt. Rainier in the distance.
Early Friday morning following a quick breakfast, Bob and I met Darrell at the airport and the three of us flew in Bob’s Bonanza from Auburn to Abbotsford to clear Canadian Customs.
From there, Bob flew us north up the Frasier River Gorge to Williams Lake, and along the way, I was absolutely captivated by the awe-inspiring, rugged, towering, snow-capped mountains along our path.

The helicopter:
At Williams Lake, we transferred ourselves and all our gear to a helicopter which is owned by Tom Arduini, and I had the privilege of riding up front with him so I could take digital photos of our inbound trip.
We left Williams Lake and flew in a northeasterly direction over the north arm of huge Quesnel Lake to our destination – Mitchell Lake.
Along the way, Tom took us on a leisurely sightseeing tour of the country between Williams Lake and Mitchell Lake, and I had the opportunity to take lots of photos of the passing scenery below us.

Special Note:
On August 22 on our return trip to Williams Lake, Tom flew us very close to some rugged, high mountains to see if we could spot some of the Grizzlies, Mountain Goats, Moose and Caribou that inhabit those areas, but unfortunately, we struck out, even though the scenery was breathtaking.

Mitchell Lake:
Mitchell Lake is located at an elevation of 3,065 feet, it is about 12 miles long, about 1-2 miles wide, has a depth of 1,000 feet, and contains Bull Trout, Dolly Varden, Cutthroat Trout, Kamloops and Rainbow Trout.
At the far end of the lake was our home for the rest of the week – “The Executive’s Lodge,” jointly owned for some 40 years by Jim Harkey, Sid Hendricks of Petaluma, California, and two other partners.
The three of us quickly unloaded all of our gear, the helicopter revved up, lifted up off the ground and took off to return to Williams Lake.

Our fishing group:
Later that afternoon, Tom brought in the other four members of our fishing group: Hendricks, his two grown sons, Gary also of Petaluma and Eric of Novato, California, plus Ray Gallagher of San Francisco.
The entire group was safe and sound at Mitchell Lake and it was party time!

Next week:
You’ll read about the people, the superb accommodations and meals that we enjoyed at that remote Canadian lake.

— Writer Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com