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Reflecting on Rivers, 2017

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-11-02
Post category:Fishing River Uncategorized
Post comments:1 Comment

November typically signals the end to river floating season. In the past, seeing November roll around was a bit depressing. No more floating, fishing is pretty much over and the days are really short on daylight. It seems nowadays there’s no shortage of things to get done in November, so it’s not all that depressing, but it still marks the end of river floating season. And wow, was 2017 a season for floats.

I feel very lucky to be able to live in a place that I can float 7 rivers in a year (some multiple times) all within a one day drive of the doorstep. So these are my thoughts reflecting back on a year of being lucky enough to float over 360 miles on 7 rivers in Oregon in 2017.

Deschutes

How amazing is it to have the Deschutes as your backyard river? 1.5 hours to the put in, abundant permits, amazing trout fishing with bonus steelhead in the fall, and great camping and even hiking if you make the time for it. Trips to the Deschutes are kind of the bookend to the floating season. It is typically one of, if not the first trips of the season and is also commonly the last trip. It seems like it is always a good time to float the Deschutes with a wide season of good weather, predictable flows and great fishing, I don’t know what else to ask of a river. Fishing seems like it is on the decline, but I don’t ever see a year in the future without the Deschutes.

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Idaho 2017, Part 2

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-10-22
Post category:Hiking Truck Camping Uncategorized
Post comments:4 Comments

After leaving Stanley and the Sawtooths we headed south through Ketchum for a quick restock for the remainder of the week and then we were off over Trail Creek Summit to the headwaters of the Big Lost River. It was a homecoming of sorts, going back to a place I worked over 20 years ago. But mainly it was a visit to one of my favorite places of high mountains, lakes and streams. This is high country, with valleys over 7,000 and elevations topping out over 12,000. October gets to be a bit late for a visit due to cold overnight temperatures in this country, but it’s hard to get away much earlier in the year, so we made the best of it.

The first destination was Kane Canyon. We were hoping to get up to Kane Lake, which may just be my favorite high alpine lake, but quickly encountered snow on the trail which slowed us down. Snow, ice and short fall daylight led us to turn around with about a half mile left so we could get back to the trailhead and find a camp before dark. It was still nice to get up into the mountains.

We were back down to the trailhead with plenty of light left. Someone had cut some large rounds of Douglas-fir and left them at the trailhead. A portion of two rounds was all we needed to top off our firewood supplies for the rest of the trip so we quickly did just that and then headed down canyon in search of a camp. The canyon is full of beaver dams and willows and we kept saying, “There ought to be a moose in there!”, and sure enough there was. Just a couple of horns and some flicking ears at first, but then he came out to say hello.

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Idaho 2017, Part 1

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-10-21
Post category:Fishing Truck Camping Uncategorized
Post comments:4 Comments

With the end of fire season and cool weather in the forecast it was time to hit the road for a week off. Off to the high country of Idaho. Your vision of Idaho may be from I-84 passing through the southern part of the state. If so you may equate Idaho with a weedy wasteland of dairy cows and junk cars. And that is what is it. Trust me. Disregard the rest of this post and stay home.

We were Stanley bound, but we decided to take a day getting there and made our way up into the Payette River country and stayed overnight on the way. The river, mountains and forests were beautiful and call for a visit of their own.

We enjoyed an evening around the fire and were up the next day for the short drive the rest of the way to Stanley Lake.

The inlet campground at Stanley Lake is about how I left it last time I was there, which seems like quite a few years back. There’s a few less trees, and a few more dead ones, and the infrastructure is wearing out without much maintenance, but the mountains and lake don’t change. Beautiful as ever.

There are lots of memories at this lake. It is always good to be back.

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