High in the mountains of British Columbia lies a lake of majestic proportions and astonishing beauty. Named HiHium ("Mother of Fish") by the local Shuswap natives, it is home to the mighty Kamloops trout, a subspecies of Rainbow trout and a world class sports fish. Since I was a small child my family has made the annual pilgrimage through the Canadian High Country to return to the bosom of the Mother of Fish. Ever since my former husband cast his very first fly onto the waters of HiHium lake (we honeymooned there) he too fell under the spell of this magical place. Upon the arrival of our son, the HiHium tradition passed on to the next generation. I have remarried, and my husband Neal has also fallen under the spell; the HiHium Zone is truly magic, a state of mind within an identical reality. We rise at dawn, pack our gear into the car and head North on what is for us, a seven hour drive. We'll watch the sunrise through the car windows and enjoy the scenery as we drive through rural farming areas on our way to the Canadian border. After crossing the border, the road takes us East at Abbotsford, heading up Hwy. 9 to Hope, a beautiful little town and the location where the Stallone movie First Blood was filmed. This is where the journey into Rainbow Country begins; it's the point where the trip gets interesting. From Hope we turn North on Hwy. 1 into the impossibly beautiful and rugged Fraser River Canyon (pictured below as it looked in the 1800's.) The drive is uphill with a shear drop-off on our left to the mighty Fraser River, the greatest wild salmon river in North America and one of the most commercially rafted.
We head up Hwy. 1 until we reach the 20 Mile House; this is our turnoff onto Loon Lake Road. Another half-hour and we've arrived at HiHium Lake Fishing Resort's base camp. For us it's been an longdrive; we're glad to arrive. Now there's just the trip to the lake... where the Kamloops Trout await!
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The HiHium Experience:
This site is a personal tribute and gift to the author's favorite spot on Earth.
The scenery changes as we pass through; from forested slopes to desert-like conditions. Our destination will mark our ceremonial entrance into Jack (Lodge pole)
Pine country. We pass many towns along the way; there's a lot of history along the route; this is Gold Country and stories of the Gold Rush are plentiful. We pass through
HiHium Lake is not readily accessible to the public; the owners of the resort, Ken and Laurie Ladoski, will haul us and our gear up to the camp. It's an 11 mile ride up a
narrow, treacherous hand-carved private road; we'll gain another 2 miles in altitude in that 45 minutes. The rigors of the drive are forgotten once we catch our first glimse of
that unspoiled five mile long mountain lake, perched at approximately 5000 feet above sea level. It's time to sit on the dock and take our first deep breath of truly clean air. We're home.