April 2005-
Few can deny that being a pilot has privileges. One such privilege is access to remote wilderness areas for all types of recreation, including hunting. Even if you aren’t a hunter and are simply looking to experience the outdoors in as pristine and unaltered a setting as possible, flying into a remote resort or wilderness outfit can provide you with the get-away you long for.
Steve Knopp, owner of P. Ponk Aviation, had the privilege of experiencing an outfit in Northeast British Columbia called High & Wild Wilderness Safaris (aka Big Nine Outfitters, Ltd). Designed with every type of hunter or wilderness-seeker in mind, this organization, run for the past 20 years by Barry Tompkins and a well-trained guide crew, offers an expansive 1,500 square miles of mountain, forest and valley trekking, with nine different species of animals for hunting and countless more for viewing and photographing pleasure.
Located on the west side of the Alaskan Highway between Fort Nelson and Fort St. John, most visitors choose the fastest way to access the outfit—by air. From Camano Island, Wash., Steve prefers this convenient method.
On his most recent trip, he flew about six hours in his 1957 Cessna 182, clearing customs in Abbotsford, then routing through Prince George to Fort St. John and on to the main camp, landing on the 3000-foot airstrip.
While you can drive to the main Horseshoe Mountain Lodge at High & Wild, an additional nine spike camps within a 300-mile radius are accessible by air or horseback only. Of course, Big Nine Outfitters can provide you with both the air flights and the horseback experience.
In addition, for the true “roughing-it” die-hards, the guides will take you beyond the camps into the Northern Rocky mountains where sleeping bags on the ground and natural lean-tos provide the shelter for the night. Or, should you require a greater amount of comfort, the main lodge has eight bedrooms, two baths, running water, electricity, satellite phone, sauna and a hot tub to soak sore muscles after riding or hiking through the pristine wilderness.
Four fully-equipped base camps, geared with walk-in coolers, showers and some hot food, spread out from the main camp and are accessible by horse or their 2000-foot airstrips.
The operation was started in 1940 by Barry’s uncle, Gary Powell, and Barry began his dedication to the outfit as a guide, learning the delicate balance between nature and humans, hunting and preserving, and the responsibility of sharing the world without destroying it in the process.
As part of maintaining this balance, the number of visitors is limited at any one time, which means you need to book your trip early to get a spot at all. If you aren’t interested in hunting wild game, avoiding August through October is probably smart. Barry and his crew can customize your visit depending on your desired experience.
High & Wild’s flexibility also makes the spot quite popular with family groups, as Barry explains. “Our accommodations are so much better that we get a lot of family groups. We involve our clients in all aspects of their experience, and seeing happy clients is the best part of running this outfit.”
Steve requested his most recent hunt be as primitive as possible, flying into a base camp first, then packing horses into the mountains for several miles before leaving the horses and hiking by foot to the tops of the most remote ridges to scout for elk and moose. He spent almost as much time looking through his camera lens, marveling at the untouched beauty of the rugged land, as he did glassing the hillsides through his rifle scope.
“In Washington, even in the remote mountains, there are signs that man has been there—dividing lines of logging roads and strips of downed forest, litter on the trails, burned-out campfires—but up here, there is nothing. No sign that man has conquered this area at all, that it looked exactly this way hundreds of years ago, and we might not even be in the 21st Century.” He wonders how long it will remain that way.
A long time, if High & Wild has anything to say about it.
Though the Thomkins’ are making their living off the beauty and natural resources of these mountains, they are careful to respect the environmental aspects surrounding them as far as the eye can see. Guided hunts are limited to four hunters at a time, and camps are carefully left as natural as when they first arrived.
Many of the camps are solar powered, conserving energy and promoting an environmentally friendly self-reliance. Down in the valleys, however, signs of exploration by man are more prevalent. The hunters make use of these man-made marks, called seismic lines; long, cleared areas of land that were created by Canadian oil researchers.
The seismic lines act as landmarks and remote airstrips for the guides, such as Dieter Femmel, who pilots a 1978 Cessna 180. Criss-crossing the lower lands, Dieter doesn’t hesitate to use these natural grid marks as temporary or emergency airstrips if needed.
After several days back in the mountains, Steve and his hunting partner, Tom Barr, have each tracked down and shot an elk with the help of their guide, Dieter. But the experience is far from over. A three-hour walk dragging out the elk to the spy camp is followed by a 4.5-hour horseback ride to pack the meat back to base camp.
The meat can be further processed there and kept in the coolers while the hunters enjoy some hot food at the little log cabin lodge kept warm and inviting by the full-time cook and caretaker. There isn’t anything that Mr. Tompkins hasn’t thought of.
To top off the breathtaking experience in the Northern Rockies, once back at the main lodge, Steve returns to his camera and takes a creative picture of the line of planes on the runway. He has reason to be proud of the lineup, as four of the six planes sport P. Ponk Super Eagle engines.
The extra horsepower provided by the engines Steve designed proves quite useful to master the flying conditions in Northern B.C. Mt. Gary Powell provides a beautiful backdrop for the line of planes parked proudly by the runway.
While the elk meat will go to good use in Steve’s kitchen, and the 6 x 6 antler rack provides bragging rights and stories, he is most excited to share the awe-inspiring photos he has gathered throughout his trip. Breathtaking and beautiful, the photos provide only a glimpse to another world so far from the daily grind.
High & Wild has definitely found a way to balance the convenience of a fly-in destination with the serenity of a wilderness where time seems to have stood still.
For more information on High and Wild Safaris, visit www.bignine.com.
For more information on Steve Knopp’s Super Eagle Engines or P. Ponk Aviation, please visit www.pponk.com.
Cynthia Weaver is a district manager for Citifinancial, and lives with her husband and two children in Arlington, Wash. Cynthia has an English/Creative Writing degree from the University of Washington. She freelances in her limited spare time, and especially enjoys writing articles that spotlight unique places, people, and aircraft. Cynthia has soloed in a Cessna 152, and has been exposed to the aircraft industry through her father’s lifelong aircraft business.
