RPT; Wetside/Dryside, Wa.

Wetside: Hearing some good stuff per Steelhead in the Wynoochee. 2
fish and 8 hookup days. Gearhead LURES. Uncouth looking Knuckledragger
jewelleria. Boat/guide/gear, all day 150$ per. Tempting Jebus forgive
us our sins for we have . . . in our hearts have lusted. . . Oh ****,
Call the man already.

Dryside: River running high 400-300 cfs, but fish-able. Avoiding the
twisting thalweg, working the slower sides, lots of early evening
bouncing micro caddis, multiple hatches of #16 tan mayflies, I dub
them PMDs or PEDs depending on whom I am bull****ting at the moment,
and match to perfection the hatch with #14 Stimulators, tied in Royal
Wolf garb. And a tiny black and orange, ovipositing micro caddis.
Sweet.

Hungry little Cutts are not too particular, and the bigger "Rainbows"
deliberately working the heavier water and seams may still be around
later in this good water year, and in any case are a joy just to
watch. Wading needed to get them is well beyond my survival envelope.

In the afternoons I work my trees. I planted some 2' to 3' ponderosa
which this last Winter have been hammered badly by the critters and
the hard weather. Most now have the shape of a skinny as a rail guy,
with bushy, straight-up hair. So I re-wrapped them in this plastic
webbing, with a garland of orange and blue bailing twine. Theory being
that chewing on plastic is a deterrent to mammals. Their little
budding candles grow longer every day.

In the mornings I enjoy the simplified domestic regime of being off
the grid, and wandering meadow and river assessing the effect of
Winter flood and Spring's freshets. Rock moves, mud settles, drys and
cracks. Riffles take their diagonals, pools dig themselves.

This little Western river straightens and curls as it's constitution
dictates. From my sugar dike I can see the shallow cave openings in
the basalt bluffs, where Nez Pierce pony trains waited out weather
along this ancient trade route between the Columbia and the Upper
Snake. Where was this river then?

Reset. Repeat X6. Drive 250m over the pass. Catch the 2am ferry.
Dave Dos Pesos