Torres del Paine, Chile and Tierra del Fuego 2012

The entrance to Torres del Paine National Park, the locals park rangers told me its too cold for any fish...

How could this be if in Alaska, Salmon and Steelhead run up glacial channels to spawn?

Las Torres del Paine, a 21km hike. Dad and I hiked up on an overcast day and had a window of time that we had set for viewing these mind blowing mountain fingers.  When we arrived, the clouds among us were at head level across the lake and on the mountain, so we could not see anything other than the opaque lake.  Dad and I decided to stay as long as possible in case that the clouds would burn off or blow away.  A few hours beyond our deadline, which meant that we would spend a chunk of the return leg in the dark with flashlights, the clouds began to clear at an incredibly slow rate.  But sure enough, they parted and God gave us that special moment.  I turned to Dad and suggested that it was a great place to spread some of Grandpa's ashes that Dad had brought up with him on the hike.   The hands represent the Orr 4 - Tucker, Julian, Ansel, and Mia.    

Los Cuernos del Paine on the right. 

Rio Serrano.  Imagine that in a couple of hours sunset brought an immaculate peach and purple sky that I was too busy fishing to capture.  When I get a hold of some of Dad's photos, I will add them here. I had done some research on the fishing in this mighty river and all of the information I had led to there being salmon.  We drove along the river for miles until I was in a place where I could wade, as the river mouth led to a lake.  I chose the spot above and when we pulled up we heard what sounded like someone had dropped a tire into a lake nearby.  The salmon bolting upriver were Kings!!  I had briefed my dad on how to fish for these bad boys since I had only brought an 8wt rod and reel set and was quite underprepared, but my Dad was in heaven taking pictures while I began to chase these Kings.  I cast to fish over and over and over until one finally took my fly right about 10 minutes before it was totally black out.  It was insane, because the prepping I was giving my Dad on how to fight and land a fish of this magnitude meant that he would have to chase the fish down river and palm the reel to create enough drag.  Little did I know I was just visualizing.  10 minutes later, gasping for air in chest waders, the king, with his mighty hook jaw, took one last leap about 80 yards down from me and broke off. 

We stayed at the buildings in red where we were the only people in the entire hotel/lodge.  Our waitress was THE most attentive of all time.  

Across the Straights of Magellan with the Darwin Mountains beyond us, the Land of Fire began to sink in.  The brave men before us and how remote of a region in the world we were tapping into.  This is what I live for.  

 

A land of wind, sheep, and gorgeous skies.  

After 3 full days of wade fishing in intense 30mph winds with gusts up to 50mph, I was blessed with this fat 10-12 lb female Sea Run Brown Trout.  Sea Run Browns are an incredibly rare species and tough to catch as they do not feed while they spawn.  Unlike salmon though, they do not die after spawning, they return to sea to feed, grow and return the following year.  

Our guide, Alejandro (Chilean native), was tough, relentless and fantastic.  He taught us how to cast a spey road, which was making 80-100ft casts possible in the wind.

MT 2011 & 2012

Pink Big Sky + Moby, our family's behemoth, white suburban.

                                 

Brother Julian seconds before spotting a wolf.                                             

Diamond Rock, Ennis Lake                                                          

                              Road up the Centennial Valley

I took one of my best friends, Ben S. to get a taste for Montana.  He had fly fished a few times, but after some coaching and invigorating an ancient athlete's muscle memory, the boy was hooked.  We fished for 7 days straight, nothing short of hardcore; from lakes, to rivers, to remote mountain ponds.  Proud to say, I got another friend who I can split time on the oars with. Great fall fishing with you bro!

But this beauty, caught in 6" of water, with a puppy yellow lab background stole the show.

           

   For all the subsistance minded nuts, this trout, as with all, was released.

                   

Buller, named after a river in New Zealand showing some self control with steaks on the table.

         

Fishing buddies across the river. 

                                                           

My Uncle Randy and I on the river.  He is heavily involved with Project Healing Waters, a fantastic organization that rehabilitates physically and emotionally disabled active military servicemen by leading them to fly fishing and other activities. 

Long Lost Blog

I have been lucky for the past few years to be able to focus both on my work and be able to pack in a few adventures here and there.  What I may have mentioned at the onsent of this blog was that I was on the verge of teaching English in Malaga Spain, after graduating from college, but once that fell through, I began to research gnarly trips that I knew I could not do (in terms of time away from work and real life responsibilities) once I began a career.  Hence Las Aventuras de Jahns Kabul was born and thus I embarked on an unforgettable road trip to Alaska!  

Since then, roughly two and half years ago, I began working for an oil service company.  I started out as a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Pilot and Technician, which allowed me to work offshore for 21 days at a time followed by 21 days off!!  The emphasis here, other than paying my dues offshore, is the time off.  But unlike the Aussies, Brazilians, and Norwegians who work similar jobs offshore, I did not get paid during my time off.  Nonetheless, I organized a savings plan to incorporate the following: 401k (8%), Roth IRA (3%), Liquid and Emergency (3%), Stock market account (5%), and BADASS Trips (5% +).  Again, the emphasis here is on the TRIPS! 

So, looking back on the three year gap between posts, I would like to update the public (I still have followers and page views to this day!) on some fun fly fishing trip photos since AK!  

Around North America in 80 Days

Trip Reflections:

Somehow, I managed to travel around this western portion of the world in nearly 80 days, but it was never a race and always enlightening.  Its interesting because there were times when people I spoke to had no idea where I had been, so I wanted to plot a lot of points on a map and show you the extensity of my trip.  I drove exactly 14,027 miles.  I inadvertently followed the Continental Divide for most of my trip, but since I was in search of mountainous beauty and great fishing it makes sense.   Now that I am back home I get to buckle down on the more real aspects of life after college and take care of some well-worth-it debts.  

Courtesy of Apple screen shot and Google Maps.

Courtesy of www.absoluteastronomy.com 

Thanks Yous:

I want to take this chance to thank my parents because I had their enthusiastic support the ENTIRE time and I am sure that they were worried a few times.  You guys made the trip possible for me.  Gracias, como siempre.   

For those who were particularly generous and hospitable to me, thank you: Ben in Fort Worth, Lisa & Kurt and Frank & Barbara in Pagosa Springs, Grandma in Ennis, Bug and Randy in Helena (thank you for putting me in touch with great fishermen), Sussie and Tom in Kalispell, Dennis and family in Kenai, Monica and Richard in Calgary, Tod on the Bow River, Kent in Juneau, Bill and Nick in Ketchikan, Chester in Vancouver, Jen in Tofino, the Wilsons in Portland, and Javi in LA.  I learned that as much as I created this trip for myself, you guys enriched it.  Thank you. 

I want to thank the rest of my family and friends for supporting and hosting me along the way as well.  It was not only encouraging for me to here your optimism when we spoke, but it was necessary when things got lonely. 

Thank you to the following fly fishing guides and helpful people: The Reel Life in Santa Fe, Let It Fly in Pagosa Springs, Dan’s Fly Shop in Lake City, Madison River Fly Shop in Ennis, Fish Tales in Calgary, Adventure Guiding in the Kenai Peninsula, Darcy in Anchor, and Kenai River Fly Fishing in Cooper Landing.   

I want to personally thank Toyota Motor Corporation for providing the best possible vehicle created to roam the US and Canada’s more wild terrain.  I began my trip with 240,000 miles and never had an issue.  Originally owned and exceeding 250,000 miles is unbelievable and yet I never doubted it.

**I hope that this adventure and online journal is one of many that I will have the chance to share with you.  It has been a pleasure keeping you guys informed.  

Headed Home

Days 77-79

I stayed the night at a Motel 6 in Phoenix and slept in since I had a cold that was brewing inside me.  I checked out minutes before my cut-off time and began my drive home.  It would be 1,200 miles from Phoenix to Houston and initially I was determined to replicate the Ennis to LA trip.  I was stoked for coming home, but I did not have to push it since I had all the time in the world to carry out my trip. 

All I will say is that after months of “being on the run,” I was more than ready to get home, sleep in my bed, shower consistently and not worry about re-icing my cooler.  Around midnight I was exhausted, had driven through a couple seedy West Texas towns, one of which had the full service gas attendant smoking a cigarette.  I told the guy he was a fool, but he didn’t care.  Inside the same establishment, the custodian mopping the floors plotted my pathway and then the cash register lady told me I was not welcome there!  I drove through a miscellaneously located Texas border patrol that included drug dogs and a search at 1AM. 

Within a few miles of the stop I chose a rest stop to sleep at.  At 3AM, I was rudely awakened by the shining lights of a large diesel truck that was parked behind me.  It sat high enough to blind me from inside the car and was loud enough (since it was idling) to wake up a sleep deprived and medicated patient.  I was furious.  I asked them if I could pull my vehicle up and ask them to turn off their engine.  But I could not fall back asleep.  I drove another hour, found another rest area, and slept until dawn. 

My last eight hours of driving were forgettable, but coming home was awesome. 

Grand Canyon

Days 74-76

We arrived hours after dark, but luckily I had a simple two-man tent that assembles in ten minutes.  I put Claire in charge of sorting out the bedding while I made my most cooked meal of the trip: Ramen noodles.  My chef’s touch added cabbage, three eggs, zucchini, and mushrooms.  Seconds after dinner we passed out.  I have to give Claire props because she was tough for enduring the cold.  I did not know how cold it would be either night that we were planning on staying and both nights it was 28 degrees or colder and there were no complaints.

The next morning we made scrumptious pancakes with blueberries, coffee, and eggs.  We packed a tuna sandwich lunch for our day at hiking and set off to see the Grand Canyon (we took liberty in pronouncing it with a French accent to reaffirm our tourist tendencies and to be funny).  All of a sudden we realized that we had been sleeping on the South Rim of the Canyon and that the mile deep crevasse was within ½ a mile of where we camped.  We got direction for where to visit and what to see, but I quickly learned that your time at the Grand Canyon should not be spent seeing things, but doing things.  We hiked along the Hermit Rim road for a few miles stopping at a number of picturesque viewpoints, but the really cool, cliff-edged hikes were much longer.  There are a few hikes like the one to Plateau Point that were visibile from a lot of the viewpoints above and it killed us because we had not planned better.  But I have to say, I do not regret the trip because we did everything that you could see from a car, including the Dessert Road and we maximized our time there.  Some of the cooler hikes were about fourteen miles one way so in reality we played it well. 

Cute baby

We took some sunset shots from the South Rim and then had time to shower before the facility closed.  That evening, we made a chicken fajita feast.  I made a fire while Claire made her impressive Guacamole and grilled veggies.  We feasted and roasted smores in lieu of it being Halloween. 

Yesterday, we woke up fairly early, packed up, and chose to hike part of the South Kaibab trail, which was a portion of one of the more “fun” trails.  See, we did not know that to hike all the way down the South Rim and to the hotel at the bottom required six months of planning in advance, so the lesson is that were coming back. 

Our tent scene.

The Grand Canyon is unbelievable.  It is insane because the huge tectonic plates bleow the earth’s crust vertically shifted a lot of square miles.  So if you look away from the Canyon you see miles of tree-lined plateaus, but if you look down the canyon (which is deeper than a mile) or across the canyon (wider than than a mile as well) there is the North Rim which stands at 8,000’.  The point is, that the Colorado River, erosion, continual tectonic movement, gravity, volcanic activity, and God’s touch created one of the MOST amazing terrains in the world.  My interpretation of the Grand Canyon is calling it a reverse mountain, but it is definetly one of the world’s wonders and I am happy to have squeezed a small portion of it into my trip with Claire. 

Later that day, we drove the Desert Road, which loops east and then south towards Flagstaff.  A nice couple recommended that we drive through Sedona to get a glimpse of the dessert and the monstrous natural earth outcroppings that are there. 

That evening we drove down to Pheonix to take Claire to the airport since she had to return to work in New York, but thank you for visitng me and being part of my trip.  Vegas and the Grand Canyon would not have been the same without you.