Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

“Ian, I’ve been on an elephant. I’m 99% sure I’ve rode on an elephant.  In fact, I think I’ve been on an elephant twice.”

“So darling,” I replied, “If you’re 99% sure you were on an elephant once, are you 50% sure you’ve been on one twice?”

“Well, I know I was on a camel.”

Ah, the interesting conversations we have around here sometimes.  With lots of laughs as well.

Earlier in the evening, I went over to Hook, Line & Sinker/The First Cast to pick up the Simms Headwaters Taco bag I had ordered as well as a fishing license for Colleen. When I walked in the door, Brian Primeau met me inside and said, “Ian – come on over here and let me show you what just arrived today.”

I followed Brian over to the fly fishing section of the shop and Brian opened a new box of hats.  Rogue suede hats with a cotton mesh, made in South Africa as well as Kangaroo skin Barmah hats from Australia.  I tried them both on. The size medium Rogue fit while it took a size Large Barmah to fit. Not sure if relative to Australians, my head is large, but to South Africans, its average. But regardless, I liked them both. The kangaroo skin hat is very light and can fold up.  I really liked the mesh on the Rogue hat for air flow and can see how it could be comfortable on warm, sunny, humid days.

The funny thing is, I like hats, but I hardly ever wear them.  When I worked on the ranch in Alberta, a western style hat was just about mandatory, but since then, it’s rare that I have one on my head.  Perhaps this summer I will wear one more often and offer up reviews of both the Rogue and the Barmah.

How did elephants come out of this? Colleen and I were looking at the Barmah website and it shows a photo of a couple riding on an elephant. I remarked that I thought it would be fun to have an elephant ride someday.

Colleen is still trying to remember is she’s been on an elephant twice, but is still “very” sure she’s been on one once (99% sure).  And absolutely sure she’s been on a camel.

I don’t know if she’s been on either an elephant or a camel, but I’m very sure she’ll be catching more trout this year.

Last Thursday turned into a gorgeous day with the sun shining brightly and the temperature hitting about 15 or 16C in Southern Ontario.  Most of the snow had melted away, and it was one of those days that just shouldn’t be wasted indoors. Especially at this time of the year when such sunny warm days are still rare.

Colleen and I decided to take advantage of the weather and we hit the road in the Jeep Liberty with the sunroof open. It was wonderful to feel the sun shining down on our heads! I thought it would be interesting to take a drive up to Highway 89 and see what the Grand River looked like near its headwaters.  Although in the summer months, one can often walk across the Grand at this point with barely getting their ankles wet, in spring the Grand can be ferocious with snow melt runoff and ice jams.  It is not uncommon for Highway 25 through the town of Grand Valley to be closed due to the river flooding over it’s banks.

The Grand begins it’s long journey near Dundalk, Ontario which is north of Highway 89. It crosses 89 east of Mount Forest, at the Village of Keldon.  On Thursday, the river was not as fast nor as high as many other previous springs, but considering it’s often not much more than a trickle here in the summer time, it was still impressive.

The Grand, looking upstream (north) at Highway 89.

Looking downstream at Highway 89

From Highway 89, the river flows through the Township of East Luther on its way to Grand Valley and the Village of Waldemar, picking up the flow of a number of tributary creeks and streams that drain the area.  North west of Grand Valley is the “Luther Marsh Conservation Area,” where visitors can hike, canoe in Luther Lake (after July 31st), cross country ski and snowmobile in winter, and enjoy the wildlife. Often, bird watchers have sightings of nesting trumpeter swans, great blue herons, loons and bald eagles. Some years ago, while visiting the area in late summer or early autumn, I watched as conservation officers captured young trumpeter swans which were to be relocated to add to a population on James Bay (if I recall correctly).

I used to live in Waldemar and remember well the spring time ice break-up on the Upper Grand. Huge chunks of ice floating down the river and often, the ice chunks would jam up together, causing dams and flooding of the banks.  In the summer, although the river is much lower, there are pockets where small smallmouth bass hang out and will take a variety of flies including small caddis floating on the surface.  I’ve spent a number of enjoyable  evenings wading the river in this area wearing shorts and using a light fly rod to trick the feeding bass before enjoying the lights of fireflies after dusk.

Upstream of Waldemar, near Grand Valley, a section of the river remains deep enough all summer for a population of pike to call home.  Downstream of Waldemar, as the river approaches Lake Bellwood (an artificial lake formed by Shand Dam), larger size smallmouth bass can be caught, if you know where to find them.  There are no trout in the upper reaches of the river. The water temperature is just far too warm in the summer with little overgrowth and few trees to provide shade.

Last Thursday, Colleen and I drove through Grand Valley and Waldemar and here’s what we saw:

Looking upstream from the bridge at Waldemar.

Looking downstream from the bridge at Waldemar.

After leaving Waldemar, we drove down towards Lake Bellwood, and then through Fergus on our way to Guelph.  The river looked quite high downstream of the Shand Dam near Fergus – where many anglers will probably be lined up come Opening Day in pursuit of the Brown Trout that are stocked here.

On Friday, we visited the picturesque town of Elora, where the Grand flows through on it’s way south ultimately flowing into Lake Erie.  The Elora area and south to Wilson’s Flats is also prime Brown Trout water for fly anglers.  Here’s Colleen and I with the Grand flowing over the dam at Elora, behind us:

As I wrote here and here, I recently purchased a 2006 Jeep Liberty that ended up having window regulator issues.  Turned out there were three window regulators that needed replacing. After some research and discovering that this seemed to be a very common problem with Jeep Liberty vehicles, and the fact that to me, it’s a safety issue, I called the Canadian Chrysler Customer Service line.  To me, having my son in the backseat while driving through a major snowstorm or driving rain with the risk of the window falling down is not just an inconvenience – but a safety and security risk.  And not just my son – it would be a safety risk if Colleen was driving with me in such conditions and the window fell down.

Chrsyler Canada didn’t offer me much at all.  They advised that because the warranty was expired (60,000 km – my vehicle had just under 64,000 when the first regulator let go), there was nothing they could do.  The told me that because I did not buy it from a Chrysler dealer, I wouldn’t be entitled to any “goodwill” even though the person I spoke with agreed that it could be a safety issue having windows fall down.

I was advised that I should have tried to have a “relationship” with a Chrysler dealer – then maybe some “goodwill” could be provided.

So I walked into the service department of Wellington Chrysler in Guelph last week.  Walked up to the first service consultant, introduced myself, shook his hand and said, “I’m here to begin a relationship with you.”  After his quizical look, I told him the story of the window regulators, my conversation with Chrysler Canada, and gave him the opportunity to see what they could do.

I have to give it the guys there – they did understand the issue and managed to work out something for me that was agreeable and helpful.  They did a fantastic job, and I’ll certainly not hesitate to take my Liberty into them for service.

Thanks to John and Neal and the manager at the service department of Wellington Chrysler.