Ok, Finally I Did That Trip...!

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krudler
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Ok, Finally I Did That Trip...!

Post by krudler »

Sorry this is a little late, but there has been alot going on....

The good news is that the first week of October I finally, after 4+ years of thinking about it, wondering about it, dreaming about it, and planning it, I made it to Tehipite Valley. Before getting to the details I would first like to thank everybody who offered their advice and tips over all this time, especially Buck :)

So finally a group of friends and other dudes, all of us into the flyfishing nature of the trip, got together and agreed to make this trek. There were 7 of us in total. Some were a little more aggressive about getting there in one day, meanwhile my friend Kerry and I and another guy took a more relaxed approach and split our hike in into 2 parts. We camped at Hay Meadow the first night on the way in, this is almost all the way to the lip of the valley and seemed to be the last reliable water source before the descent. Plus, we were kind of bonking by then so it seemed like a good idea not to push it and we went down the next morning.

The trail was not all that bad, there were lots of downed trees and stuff but they were easy enough to go around and overall the trail was easy to follow. Maybe this might not be the case in the early season!

The views all around, both in and above the valley, are freaking spectacular! :eek: And really worth the trip. The hike down (and out) I did not find that bad, although it was no piece of cake either. I only saw one rattler, on the trail at the bottom of the descent.

We made it out in one day. 15 miles with 4500+ feet of elevation gain. Good times. It was tough but the weather was turning colder and looking iffy and I really wanted to get home to my wife with her dad. Overall the weather was good during our week out there except for the first night in the valley when it rained almost all night, but not too hard and at least we were in our tents by then.

On to the pics:

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Stoney ancient indian pictographs.

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My biggest fish.

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Some friendly advice from the Forest Service.

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One cool thing was the second day at camp in the valley we noticed this S&R helicopter flying around the dome. Then it started to get lower and came right over us. Oh no, I thought, my wife called them to come get me! :retard: But instead it landed about 50 yards from our camp and unloaded a ranger and an archaeologist dude and then took off. They introduced themselves and were there for a few days to do a survey of the indian sites in the valley. Cool! They spent a couple nights at our campfire enlightening us with tales about the ancient tribes in the area and such, it was really cool and they were great guys (no luck on the helicopter ride back out! :D ).

All in all it was a really cool trip, and thanks again to all who helped! :)
"Krusty, you know Bette Midler?"
"Yeah we own a racehorse together - the Krudler!"
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Post by copeg »

Looks like an awesome trip. A place high on my list to visit, but I've always been a little timid of the rattlers :retard: Everything I've heard about that place makes me want to go even more. Great photos and trip report Krudler! Now I REALLY want to go.
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Post by AldeFarte »

Nice fish, Were they all fatso's like that? What worked best for you? Topwater? Nymph? jls
wingding

Post by wingding »

Those are beautiful pictures - another place to dream about going to.
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Post by krudler »

Thanks! It was a good time.
One thing I forgot - the day the 'copter came in with the ranger dudes, we were going up to see the indian art. One of the guys had already found it so he was going to lead us to it. The plan was to meet over by the trail at Crown Creek and go from there as they wanted to start fishing already and another guy and I hadn't finished breakfast yet. Anyway, the 'copter came in and kind of disrupted our timing a bit so when I got to Crown Creek they weren't there and I figured they had already gone so I continued on to catch up with them and figured I could try to find it myself if need be. So I'm walking through the forest at one point, working my way back to the river and I hear this huge sound and feel the ground rumbling - I look to the left and see the backside of a big bear taking off into the brush. My first bear sighting ever! Really! So I go only maybe 20 more yards and I hear this animal sound behind me, and I look back and there is a good sized cub up on a pine tree trunk about 15' up! So I'm thinking hmmm bear ahead on the left, cub behind on the right, perhaps I should move on... :retard: I start to walk fast and then another sudden sound and I look back and theres a second cub only maybe 20' behind me, on his way over to join his sibling up in the tree. He stops and looks right at me! It was way cool, but now I was getting spooked so I pretty much took off...no pics :(

Anyway, about the fish - most were around 10-12" or so it seemed, although there was a decent number in the 13-14" range as well, with a couple 15" ones caught like the one above. We were flyfishing, didn't seem to matter too much what we used although I did catch the big one on a red wooly bugger. I had most of my fun however tossing various caddis/mayfly imitations...big caddis (#12) in the evenings. I think alot of the guys were a little disappointed there werent 18"+ fish behind every rock, but personally I was having a blast catching 11-13" fish on big dries in the main stem of the river and near the confluence with Crown Creek. All were fighters. Good times.
"Krusty, you know Bette Midler?"
"Yeah we own a racehorse together - the Krudler!"
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Post by Trailtrekker06 »

Beautiful pics, sounded like a good trip! What a fish!
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krudler
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Post by krudler »

This is possibly over-the-top, but if youre interested one of the guys (Matt) put together a 4 min/54Mb video of part of the adventure (he took a bunch of camera equipment and I took along a mini-DVD cam)...if you have the bandwidth you can download it at:

http://www.blackdiamondtrout.com/Video/Tehipitetrek.wmv
"Krusty, you know Bette Midler?"
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Post by giantbrookie »

Wow. I really need to get to that place. Great photos and report. By the way, did you happen to have a fellow named Bernard in your group? He mentioned to me that he had been to Tehipite with a group recently it seemed like the time slot corresponded to your trip. We exchange emails every so often on interesting fishing places.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Post by copeg »

krudler wrote:This is possibly over-the-top, but if youre interested one of the guys (Matt) put together a 4 min/54Mb video of part of the adventure (he took a bunch of camera equipment and I took along a mini-DVD cam)...if you have the bandwidth you can download it at:

http://www.blackdiamondtrout.com/Video/Tehipitetrek.wmv
Dude, that video ROCKS! Looks like such an awesome time...I gotta go soon...
Last edited by copeg on Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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krudler
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Post by krudler »

John - Yes, he was there, he mentioned he had been bugging you. Heck, he's probably reading this right now.
"Krusty, you know Bette Midler?"
"Yeah we own a racehorse together - the Krudler!"
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