Category: Nature

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A Bit of Distance

 

How are you doing with the quarantine? Yeah, us too.

Even though we’ve embraced the social distance concept, there is a limit to how much you can ‘stay at home.’ We aren’t gallivanting across the countryside … but we have found a number of places nearby that allow for zero contact with other people and include a nice walk.

Surprisingly, there are few people at the Sunriver Nature Center during the week, so it has become a great morning destination when the neighborhood walk starts to get a bit stale.

As we’ve mentioned in these blog posts, there are a huge variety of walking trails and most are paved. The nature center sits near the Deschutes River and away from most of the resort’s development.

There is a pond with lots of water fowl, lined with benches to sit and soak in the spring sun. We have enjoyed this space alot and it seems like we’ll be able to continue to do so … for now.

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Scouting a cold blue ribbon

The Deschutes River north of Maupin was, for years, a go to fishing spot. There are BLM camp sites along the river from the bridge on Highway 197 to Mack’s Canyon.

When we moved to Central Oregon it was with a thought that we’d spend time on the lower Deschutes.

However, we’ve since discovered the Crooked, Fall and Upper Deschutes and haven’t been to Maupin in over a year.

This year, as we were planning camping excursions. I noticed there is an extension of the BLM land South of Maupin.

In all those years we never even looked that way!

This week we decided to take a day trip back to the old fishing spots and checkout this new area.

The scouting trip was interesting.

That stretch of the river flows through a much tighter canyon and while there are some nice stetches of water, for the most part steep banks and narrow roads make this a much less inviting area.

We headed North, downriver, to our favorite parking spot … Oak Springs. We enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back to home.

Lower Deschutes is on the camping list, but we’ll be back to old haunts rather than any of these newly scouted sites.

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Staying away on the Crooked

The weather has been so nice we took advantage and put the new Euro rod through its paces.

We are back on the Crooked River … fishing … training Tip in the ways of the river …

and generally practicing our own form of social distancing.

This time I evaluated the new rod and in the process caught a couple. The biggest problem encountered is the cobble rock bottom that makes wading difficult and precarious.

At the Crooked we generally don’t cover a lot of river.  Instead we pick a spot and work up and down from there (maybe a quarter of a mile at most). While the river’s bottom is rock and moss, the bank is really easy to traverse.

As the weather keeps getting better, this will be a regular destination for us. It feels great to hear the river rush by and take the time to breathe in the good and exhale the bad.

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Tight-line Dead Drift

For a few years now we’ve been dabbling with the ‘Euro-nymphing’ flyfishing technique. About this time last year we got some formal instruction from Mary Ann Dozer. Then this week we finally broke down and purchased a dedicated euro-nymph rod.

I found an Orvis ten foot three weight that cost less than two hundred dollars. It arrived this week, so we took it out for a test cast on the Crooked River.

Euro, or tight line nymphing uses a two fly rig with weighted wet flies or split shot. As the name implies this is fished with the line kept taut through the arch of the drift.

The day was warm, for mid-February, and sunny. We hooked up to several fish and caught a couple of decent ones. There is an old adage which says, “a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.”

Well … this was a GREAT day on the river.

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Late Winter Road Trip

There is a regional flyfishing show in Seattle every year that we’ve been interested in checking out.

Last year we had a huge snowfall around the time of the show. But this year we’ve enjoyed a few weeks of mild weather and clear roads, making a trip north and west a possibility.

Any time we’re on Pacific Northwest roads during winter, we travel with basic emergency supplies. Cold weather coats, hats, gloves and boots and a cooler full of rations.

Columbia River, Washington Hwy 14
Snowqualmie Pass

Our route plan was to use US 97 north to Washington state, hit interstate 90 and use Snoqualmie Pass to get over the Cascades

There are still a few feet of snow in the passes but the lower level roads appeared clear.

We kept watch for changing weather conditions, even tracked avalanche warnings, knowing Snoqualmie Pass is at risk. When stopping for coffees and to stretch our legs, we spoke to a couple of area locals about road conditions. Apparently there was a road closure at MP 67, but they figured it would be open by the time we arrived (which it was).

South Central Washington has fruit orchards and over 240 wineries.

We’d never been through these parts of the state so it was nice to explore some new country. Apple and wine country to be exact, plus it’s really a beautiful drive.

Seattle, Washington

Getting to Seattle and the show was not a problem, took our time and made it through the crazy Seattle maze of freeways.

The show was … well, glad we went, but we’re not going again … okay.

Didn’t explore Seattle, instead we headed out the next day to knock around Central Washington.

Our plans got shuffled when there was an avalanche delay on Snoqualmie and we had to shift routes south, then east to White Pass and into Yakima.

We encountered a bit more snow on this southern route and any view was hindered by a snowstorm. We did however get a sense for the potential of White Pass and the Mt. Rainer area and plan on a revisit.

Spent a night in the heart of Central Washington wine country and the charming little town of Zillah. It’s just east of Yakima and on the northern edge of the Yakima Nation’s reservation. This area is on the eastern edge of the Cascades and the start of some really beautiful canyon land we are itching to check out.