Above: A rising moon over Nimpo Lake and the coastal mountains beyond was an inspiration for one of our guests.
July 2004…
Flightseeing kicked off our 51st season at Stewart’s Lodge… with clear skies and sunny, unseasonably hot weather, the flightseers came out of the woodwork to fly up and view the Monarch Icefield, Hunlen Falls and the Rainbow Mountains.
As the weather eased into June with a change to rainy spells, hail and overcast skies, the word ‘then’ was cold. Looking on the bright side, the fishing picked up and an early season highlight was watching our sons catch wild rainbow trout… right in front of the lodge on Nimpo Lake!
June ended with temperatures rising and then some… on June 30th, a plume of smoke was spotted on the long arm of Nimpo Lake as the pilots of Tweedsmuir Air got up from the lunch table. Over the aircraft radio we heard the voice for one of Tweedsmuir Air’s pilots – Aron Sced – from Cessna 185 BUO calling the lodge to report that a house was completely engulfed in a blaze of fire.
Sid Blackwell, a pilot for Tweedsmuir Air over 12 seasons and lifetime resident of the Anahim/Nimpo Lake area, headed out by road to check on the fire; he happened to be the first one on the scene. Rhonda Stewart headed out with camera in hand, by boat, to take a look and retrieved a few pictures of the dramatic sight. For the next hour and 15 minutes two valiant helicopter pilots earnestly dipped buckets and poured thousands of gallons of water on the fire to secure the surrounding houses and trees of this ‘on fire’ residence of Garth Fraser and family. A third helicopter joined them for 25 minutes. The excellent and well-trained ground crew took over as the three helicopters headed back to their fuelling station at the Anahim airstrip.
Thank you Lord, no one was hurt… two children who live at the house had left the scene of the inferno, heading to a neighbour’s house to seek help.
This would be one of the few times a community could be grateful for all the forest fires burning… if there hadn’t been forest fires burning near Nimpo Lake, there would not have been the excellent, heroic help from these three helicopter pilots who were on the burning house site almost immediately to douse this blaze out!
A reminder that Stewart’s Lodge now has a liquor licence… ice cold beer will be available for our fishers and non-fishers, plus we will be offering an international selection of fine wines to choose from for dinner.
If you have a story and/or pictures from your trip to SLC that you would like to submit – please do – you just may find your adventures in the West Chilcotin posted on our web site!
We’ll keep you posted as the season moves along…
Stewart’s Lodge… we can make your fishing dreams come true!