July 29th 2019: The crew has all arrived and we kicked off our morning fishing for trout in Atlin Lake, British Columbia! Actually I’m probably a couple ahead of myself, let's take it back to Saturday, July 27th. For those who don’t know me my name is Tim McGee and I am from Longwood, Florida. The trip really kicked off in the morning of Saturday as I left from Orlando to travel to Whitehorse, Canada. Whitehorse is a fairly large town compared to the rest of the area. Arriving late Saturday night/Sunday morning, Jon Dobbs & Troy Anzalone picked me up from the airport to head to the hotel.
It was honestly quite comfortable, thanks to our custom beanbag chairs
The next day Jon, Troy and I had some time to kill while waiting for the final crew member, Temple Dillard, to fly in from Fairbanks. We took advantage of being in the larger town of Whitehorse and picked up some last-minute things. After we picked up Temple, one of us had to sit in the back of the of pickup while we traveled to Atlin, British Columbia. I offered to take on the first stretch of the ride. Troy took it the second half of the the 3 hour drive.
We arrive at Lake Atlin. At first glance it’s just mind-blowing. I’m from flat land, lack-of-color, Florida, and there we were in some sort of wonderland in BC. The first views of the lake didn’t look real, like it was a painting or photograph. Only growing my excitement finally being at the start point! So I made it back to where I started this story: Monday, July 31st. The day after driving from Whitehorse to Atlin. We got up and it was cold and rainy out. We headed down to the dock and took a charter out on the lake to try to do some fishing.
The one trout I caught (I caught the largest fish)
This was my first take on what was to come, it’s cold, it’s wet, and the realism of the conditions for this trip are about to set in. Fishing out on Lake Atlin for trout was a first for me, in the type of way we fished. We were trolling but the lake was insanely deep, so we had heavy lead weight that dropped the lure down and held it down until the fish hit. We all caught a trout which ended up being a great dinner! Even with the gloomy conditions, “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work,” that’s the saying right??
Temple Dillard takes one of the boats out for a run for the first time on Atlin Lake
After a morning of fishing, the skies finally cleared and we took the time to get the boats ready to start the trip. Swamp Runner owner and friend Jon Dobbs started his trip few earlier in Palmetto, Florida to make the long haul with the boats to British Columbia. The trip for Jon took him about two weeks to arrive in Whitehorse. With only one trailer, we worked on putting the boats in the water one at a time. With both boats in Atlin Lake for the first time, Temple got the chance to take one of the boats out for a test run before he drove Jon’s truck back to Fairbanks, Alaska. That was it: everything ran great and we were ready to roll.
So, you might be wondering how two guys from sunny Florida, a guy from Fairbanks, and a guy from Nebraska came together. Well Jon Dobbs, who is from Palmetto Florida, came up with a vision 4 years ago that he wanted to travel down the Yukon River, starting at the source. He did an incredible amount of research and found evidence that the Llewellyn Glacier is the source of the Yukon River, which ends at the Bering Sea roughly 2,000 miles away! Jon was the true mastermind of this trip. He spent about a year planning and preparing every step: making an all-inclusive gear list, preparing our plan for food, finding incredible historic stops along the way, researching the weather and possible obstacles we might come across. Troy, a native of Nebraska, the mechanic and second boat driver for this trip. And lastly Temple, who flew out to Canada to take Jon’s truck to Fairbanks in preparation for a resupply halfway through the trip. Only three days into this trip, we had already seen and done so much, but I still had no idea what was to come.
The Crew: left to right, Jon Dobbs, Tim McGee, Troy Anzalone, Temple Dillard
