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Over the past 45 + years, NIHO President Rudy Nielsen has travelled all over beautiful British Columbia. Along the way, he’s had many exciting adventures both on and off the beaten trail.
Here in Rudy’s Stories, NIHO shares some of his best stories of life in the backwoods wilderness and in the urban jungles of BC. |
After I graduated from high school, my first full-time job was with the Ministry of Forestry in central British Columbia. The pay started at a munificent $182/month, although I, as a cruiser, made $212/month. Back then, that was great pay. I was able to buy a beer for 10 cents, and provide for my family. Those years were the best years of my life. I learned a lot about wilderness survival. I lived in tents in remote areas,
For all the preening, fussing, care and feeding of, it’s easy to forget that the human body, yours and mine, is no more than a supple matrix of congealed proteins, carbohydrates, minerals and, according to some, a soul and mind, floating in what’s about 60 percent ‘body water’ for the average human male. Basically, we’re just taut wet sacks of ambulatory meat and bone with orifices . . . and God help you and me when that sack decides it’s sick,
Many years ago, on a sunny fall Sunday morning, when both of my two sons were still very young, I decided to take my wife and sons fishing for the day. I was living in north central British Columbia at the time and a friend had told me about a serene, but remote, lake with lots of hungry, one pound trout, about 100 miles south west of Prince George. My friend also had told me that this lake was fairly inaccessible and that the only possible way to drive in there was with a 4-wheel drive vehicle,
Many years ago, I bought a number of 160 acre parcels sight unseen on the northern part of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. These properties were very remote and inaccessible by road. To view them, I would either have to take a helicopter to the properties or hike into the properties and spend a few nights under the stars which, while I prefer, I did not have time for. For about 15 years, I did not have time to travel to these properties,
On a crisp fall morning last October, with the golden red leaves from the poplar trees reflecting on a calm, slightly misty lake, I took off for a four day fishing trip accompanied by a good friend, a master fly fisherman who has fished in many good streams around the world, and his nine year old son. We flew directly from Nimpo Lake, located in the Chilcotin, to Euchiniko Lake, which is part of Blackwater River system,
One very cold mid January morning in northern British Columbia, in a fairly remote area known as the “Lakes District”, my oldest son and I got ourselves into trouble… but with good common sense we managed to reverse the situation. We had ventured out in search of a 160-acre parcel of land that was on the market for sale at a very attractive price. When we left our home the day before, the weather had been clear,
With all of my years of experience in the remote British Columbian wilderness, I have developed what I call my Sixth Sense. Nature has taught me to be aware of my surroundings by listening and observing its sounds and sights. When hiking in remote areas, every 15 to 20 minutes I stop, stand motionless in one place, and listen and look for unusual things I listen for things like the rustling of leaves, the snapping of a twig,
I can say, in all honesty, that I have experience putting stitches in my own head!
It began on a crisp morning late one September when I took off from Prince George in a 185 Cessna float plane with Dan, my friend and flying instructor, for four days of Caribou hunting in Tweedsmuir Park.
At seven thousand feet we leveled off and reduced power to cruise. It took us two hours to reach our destination,
In the 45 years I have spent hiking and camping in the great outdoors, I have encountered many animals of various species. My father was a trapper in the early thirties and he taught me at an early age what to watch out for at different times of the year regarding the feeding habits and moods of animals in the wilds. So over the years I have developed a sixth sense as to when and what animal I’ll meet and which animal wants to have its picture taken and which one wants to be left alone.
I have had hypothermia a number of times in extreme circumstances and conditions, but the experience that stands out the most in my mind is a hiking/hunting trip I took some years ago with my oldest son Dean, when we went to a very remote area of northwestern British Columbia for a ten day hunt.
I love getting close to nature and enjoy hiking alone, or with my sons, going from one destination to another,