If you like rugged scenery and quirky small towns and minor boozing honours, work in a trip to the Stewart, B.C.-Hyder, Alaska area some day.

After about four momentarily-hooked salmon, I finally nailed one Sunday: An eight-to-10-pound coho at the confluence of the Skeena and Kispiox rivers!

That's when I first flung a lure into the waters of the Bulkley River in the big pool below the Moricetown falls/rapids.

And at 4:35 p.m., some monster fish struck my lure.

That big boy headed for the centre of the river, peeling dozens of yards of line off my reel. I couldn't do anything to stop it, just hold my rod up and let it fight the drag.

Unfortunately, at 4:39 p.m., I slacked off for a second and this let the fish off the hook -- both literally and figuratively.

Oh well, hopefully there's more where that came from.

I saw hundreds of salmon below the falls, and the Indian netters seemed to be having a good day.

If you crave variety in watering holes, skip McBride, B.C.

The McBride Hotel proudly advertises itself as "the only bar in town!" :)

Afterthought

It was noon, and I thought about going in and asking for a caipirinha, but then asked myself, "to what point?" :)

Some fishermen in Smithers are complaining about heli-fishing.

They say heli-hunting was banned because it gave an unfair advantage to hunters. Well, the same should apply to those who spot fish from the air, say the complainers.

Heli-fishing's defenders say most fish caught are released alive, so there isn't the same impact on the resource as hunting.

It's true there isn't much shoot-and-release hunting being done and certainly not as much as there should be. :^)

As an aside, I was once listening to a CBC Radio national newscast on a sleepy Saturday in August. The first story in the 3 p.m. lineup was the drought in Quebec was hurting the dew worm harvesting industry, as the worms were burrowing deeper in search of moist soil (the worms are sold as bait to fishermen).

The announcer was just droll enough to suggest they were trying to have a modicum of fun that newscast. :)

The Jasper Marketplace (in Jasper, Alta.) is closed. Like, forever.

While this shouldn't be a problem, I had a major emotional investment in enjoying a slice of their sublime breakfast pizza.

Rather than doing so tomorrow morning, I'll now have just the memories forever more.

The thought saddens me.

After amusing the trout of the Bow River today and Monday with my hilarious imitation of a fly fisher, I drove back to Edmonton via MacLeod Trail, taking me just to the east of Calgary's downtown before rejoining Highway 2 northbound at 16th Ave. North and the Deerfoot Trail.

An eye-opening majority of fast-food joints and other service industry businesses had signs up looking for help, advertising either "above-average" or "top" wages.

If you live in a place like Toronto long enough and you never leave, you might start thinking there are between six and 10 stars in the skies.  You are wrong. To cleanse yourself of the perception-limiting effects of light pollution, follow these simple steps:

1. Drive Highway 7 (Sask.)/Hwy. 9 (Alta.) between Kindersley, Sask. and Hanna, Alta. (I was en route from Saskatoon to Calgary) on a clear summer night after dark (this Google map link is centred around Oyen, Alta., pop. 1,099).

2. Somewhere around Alsask, or as far east as Youngstown, pick a place where the farmyard lights are miles and miles apart. It isn't hard to do; you're in the heart of the Palliser Triangle, one of the most sparsely populated non-wilderness areas in this country.

3. There will be little side roads leading off into the wheat fields. Watch for the turnoffs, and if the weather's dry, get off the highway so you aren't hit by the lights of passing vehicles.

4. Turn off your vehicle's lights and the engine.

5. Look up. W-a-a-a-a-y up. You'll see stars. Millions of stars. Big ones, small ones, even carpets and caravans and constellations of stars (you'll be too far south for the northern lights, unfortunately).

6. If it's a moonless night, walk away from your vehicle. Even with the starlight, the blackness will almost swallow it up. Depending on the time of day, there will be a brush stroke of fading violet blue illuminating the horizon to the northwest, while everything south is a void. There isn't much vehicle traffic, so the only sounds you'll hear will come from crickets and birds.

7. Stay until your sense of cosmic wonder is restored or you're creeped out -- whichever comes first. :)

8. Finally, stand up on your tippy toes, reach up and try to touch the stars. They are millions of light years away, but they'll appear to be just dancing out of reach of your fingers.

Addendum

For a soundtrack while driving through this region, you can use pretty much any Corb Lund CD, but I was listening to Modern Pain. The song Manyberries (Manyberries is at least 140 km south of Oyen, but in the same type of hardcore plains country) fits the rhythm and the spirit of the region quite nicely.

In the current New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reports that some hawks in the U.S. administration saw Israel's battle with Hezbollah as a test case for a possible air attack on Iran.

This NYT piece from Aug. 14 (I thought I'd be the last media blogger in the world to mention it) talks about the difficulty of assigning proportionality to image when covering a conflict like Lebanon.

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart said cable news algebra works this way: A three-year war in Iraq has less news value than a 34-day war in Lebanon, but both mean shit compared to an apparent break in the 10-year-old JonBenet Ramsay case.

The news shows had a word for the Ramsay update, he said: "Oxygen." :)

The Beeb has a feature reviewing the Ramsay case -- and it happens to be the most-read story on the website right now. The NYT's look at the suspect's "confession" is on the home page.

Those are two relatively sober, high-quality news organizations. Whether the Ramsay case ever should have become as high-profile as it did is, to me, a moot point now.

The Beeb did a round-up of some Mideast bloggers in the wake of the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Lebanon.

The bloggers do not feel we have achieved peace in our time. :)