Summer Groove

Making the switch from all-out in-your-face action to too much time alone takes a little while. Energy is slowly coming back, now it's time to have fun while working to shed the gut. Reworking bad habits into better ones is always a challenge. Now making the transition from the fishing and drinking mode to the eat smarter and exercise consistently mode. Hopefully the trip up north will come together and two weeks of working in the woods will get the ball really rolling. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, eh? Back don't fail me now.

Can't believe Fedor lost. Werdum's arm-bar got him. Saw the fight on you-tube. The man has been an inspiration to us with spare tires. Reminds of what it was like seeing Ali lose to Leon Spinks. Hopefully Fedor will come back strong, he seems too intelligent not to. You gotta wonder how many more good fights he has ahead before age gets the better of him, too. Watching the fight doesn't make me want to step onto the mat again anymore, but it does inspire me to want to get the strength back.

Rivers

Just got back from river fishing out on the coast. Just what the doctor ordered. Well, not really, the doctor ordered that I lose weight by eating better and exercising more. There was exercise involved, anyway. The last three posts I wrote were pretty heavy, so I think I'll lighten things up to start off the summer summer.


Favorite Fishing Streams That I'll Post On The Internet (by state)

WA - Sol Duc River
This emerald beauty has been a favorite of mine for over 30 years. There's so much variety, and you can always find a stretch to yourself. You can catch a steelhead in the Sol Duc any month of the year. If you time it right you can get into king, silver, and even sockeye salmon. The cutthroat fishing is really underrated.

ID - Big Wood River
A small, pretty river lined with cottonwoods. Lots of spunky rainbows with some browns in the lower river. Fishing the Big Wood kept me off of therapeutic drugs during a particularly nasty period of life. My favorite stretch is between Bellevue and the North Fork, but don't be afraid to fish below Magic Reservoir in the fall.

MT - Blackfoot River
A must-do if you've read A River Runs Through it. I don't care if you saw the movie. I like it best between Ovando and Scotty Brown bridge. Great fishing for bows, browns, cutts, and bulls. Stop in at Trixie's when you get off the river.

OR - McKenzie River
Another gorgeous west-side river that is a great all-day float in the summer. Go below the hatchery if you're after steelhead and king salmon, above if you want to catch trout and want less company. IfI I didn't live in Washington, I'd probably have wound up in Oregon fishing the McKenzie all the time.

AK - Deshka River
This was a fantastic four day float. Fly into a lake, blow up the raft, float down the outlet to the Deshka. Eagles, moose, beaver, etc. will watch as you start off by catching grayling and rainbow trout. Dream of brown bears when you pitch the tent on a sand bar each night. If you go in June, you can catch king salmon on the lower end of the float.

UT - Provo River
There are still times and places on the river when you can fish without crowds. If you do, you'll be rewarded. I've had some all-time best days on this little river. I've also gone there, looked at all of the SUVs and driven the hell out.

CA - Yosemite Creek
A small creek with mostly small trout, but the location is large. There's something mystical about fishing around the polished granite boulders and chutes for pretty little cutties. If I lived closer, I wouldn't put this creek on the list, but what the hell, go fish it, who knows when or if I'll get back.

Yellowstone
Way beyond being included in mere statehood, this is trout fishing Mecca. The park is literally all good, except where the water is hot enough to cook the fish. Just a flat-out spiritual quality place. There is just something in Yellowstone that grabs me deep down. Pick a favorite out of all of it? It would probably be the upper Lamar River in the fall. Don't die without making the pilgrimage.

OTHER FAVORITE STREAMS
Yakima River - WA, Skykomish River - WA, Metthow River - WA, Hoh River - WA, Skagit River - WA, Silver Creek - ID, Big Lost River - ID, St. Joe River - ID, Salmon River - ID, Galletin River - MT, Madison River - MT, Ruby River - MT, Bitterroot River - MT, Smith River - OR, Sandy River - OR

Oh, there are plenty of favorite streams that will never be printed here, including the one I want my ashes scattered in. Half the fun of finding such places is keeping them secret with the few people you can trust.

To My Buddy Steve

I still can't accept the fact that we might have taken our last fishing trip together. I know you were trying to nudge me in that direction yesterday. I don't want to talk about you giving me your float tube. I can see how hard it is for you to walk now, how hard you have to work just to talk, and eat, the absolute struggle it is to get in and out of a car.

I accept that your life has made me take a long hard look at my own and to examine again just how little time we get here. Screw the yard, to hell with the dripping faucet, I don't give a damn if the pickup is dirty. How many more days do I get to fish, to hunt, to smell the cottonwoods, to feel warm granite, to listen to an elk bugle, to taste fresh king salmon? How many more days do I get with you, my other friends, with my brothers and their families, with my mom or with my dad?

No life is not fair. Not even close. Life is good? Makes for cute bumper stickers and T-shirts. It sure seems better for some than others. You had it good before this damn disease hit you. I know life wasn't always the bowl of cherries, but it isn't always so for anyone. I know, I know, that's what make the sweet times sweet. Damn.

The Kids Are All Right...

With only two days to go, I am completely spent. It usually takes two weeks at the start of summer to get the energy back. This is the hard thing for people to get who've never done it. Just how emotionally, physically, and even spiritually spent you get from the job.

And I've come to the conclusion, it's not really the kids that drain the batteries all the way down. It's what other adults heap on you. It's the absentee parents that expect us to raise their children for them. It's the politicians that want to blame us for a school system they refuse to fund adequately because schools don't pay for their re-elections. It's the fringe element in education who don't want to work with kids but who want to travel around and have the taxpayers pay them to tell us how we should be doing things.

I'm not tired of having the smiling faces greet me at the door. I'm not tired of working my butt off to see the proverbial light finally come on behind the eyes. I'm not tired of giving up the extra hours of what could be my own time to coach the kids who need that time and activity to keep them out of trouble.

No, I'm tired of the endless piles of paperwork and the e-mails that seem to come back to life more times than Jason and Freddy Kruger combined. I'm tired of explaining to parents that that have sat by like a dormant volcano, never lifting a finger to hold their child accountable for months, only to erupt with a few days left in the school year when their child won't pass and now they're faced with the inconvenience of summer school.

It's times like these when I can see how some of those understaffed USPS workers can "Go Postal." Two more days, a bottle of 1800, and days out on the river will patch it up all over again. After 22 years, I just wonder how many more I have in me before I finally won't want to answer the bell again at the end of August. Hopefully it's still a long ways off.

That Midlife Thing

I guess this is that time in life. Back when Dad was acting pretty strange after their divorce, I remember asking Grandpa if he went through some sort of midlife crisis, he just said, "Hell, I never had the time!"

I'm thinking it has to do with changing your mindset. When I was younger, it was always a matter of what I was going to do some day, what my potential was, what paths I would take? Now I begin to realize that some potential doors are closing, that I do not and will not possess certain traits I admire, and there is only a finite amount of time to accomplish a seemingly infinite amount of dreams and goals.

I also think that men tend to pine for what they perceive they have missed out on. I think this is why many family men buy the Corvette or run off with the secretary, looking for that adventure they didn't have living the culdesac lifestyle. I think it's why guys like me who have climbed the mountains, jumped out of the planes, ran the wild rivers, begin to miss the family that never materialized. What would it have been like to marry that sweet girl years ago, wake up next to her now, and be sending the kids off to college?

Not that there are serious regrets. I've been a lucky bastard. I've had a chance to realize many a goal, been blessed with a great extended family, a few solid friendships, and have worked at a career that has allowed me to be a positive force in many lives. I wondered what it was going to be like to get to this stage in life. In many ways it probably hasn't completely sunk in, and in many ways I'm just damned fortunate to have made it this far.