That's Some Mojo Going On!



A perfect day for The River Damsel...skiing Deer Valley in the morning and fishing the Middle Provo in the afternoon!  The only thing that could have been better would have been to have a little warmer of weather.  But, I'm a tough old bird and the 10" of new fallen freshies made the skiing bearable.  (Temp. was -4 in the parking lot!)  I think that it warmed up to about 15 when I left for the river!!  Ha.  Hand warmers are wonderful things. I decided to take a few pictures for you...a sacrifice, let me tell you, as my hands were frozen holding the camera!  Anyway, this is the view on the Tycoon run overlooking Deer Creek Reservoir.  My volunteering each year at the World Cup gives me free skiing...a perk that I just can't give up. (Lift passes are $90/day)  There is a beginner run for the kids that I skied down at the end of my day as my legs had about just enough!  Thigh burn is felt when you do 18 runs in 3 hrs...let me tell you!  Anyway, the houses along this run are gorgeous and they have a few extra things for the kids and the kids at heart...



Even the bears have frozen snot!!! That would be me on the rooftop!



Some of you might think that I'm crazy for doing both activities in the same day, but the river is only ten minutes away...so....you know.  (You should have seen the expression of the ski attendent as he saw my fly poles next to the skis in the back of the car!)  And it actually seemed warmer than going downhill at 60 mph at -4 degrees...ok, maybe that's a little exaggerated...but, it seems like it's that fast!

The raccoons seem to have fun in the cold!



I figured out that with me doing 18 runs in 3+ hrs, I covered approximately 24,000 vertical ft...  And I burned off  about 3,000 calories according to my handy heart meter that I wear...not too bad of a work out, huh?  So, a productive day in my mind!  That's some mojo going on!

And at the end of the day, there was a fish (We'll call him Jr.)...to give me that WARM feeling from my head to my toes! For the first time all day!  :)

Cofisher's Woodchucks

Could Cofisher be right? The Midgeman thinks he is onto something...The question is HOW MUCH wood WOULD a woodchuck chuck IF a woodchuck COULD chuck wood? So, is it really possible that they were the "culprits" that night on the Provo River?

Things that make you go, hmmmmm...

Adventure On The Dark, Provo River

Do you ever have the desire to try something new, not knowing what to fully expect?   Usually, I will venture out and do something new as long as it's safe...Well...a few of my fishing club buddies wanted to go do some night fishing.  And it was my birthday to boot!  So, it sounded like a fun time...I bought a headlamp and I thought that I was ready...Oh, yeah, I also grabbed some mice knowing that this might be the first time that I could actually catch a fish on one!  But, no!  That wasn't all I needed...as I was going to find out.  I needed a secret service agent. Or a bouncer...or, Owl Jones! Yeah, that would have been more like it. 


So, let me begin...It was a nice summer evening in August.  The sun was just starting to give way to shadows on the water.  We had caught a few fish and were having a good time.  As the darkness approached, I grabbed my headlight and adjusted it where I would need it.  One step at a time, I carefully went into a pool of water just deep enough to give me a little apprehension, but the current was slow.  I was a just a little nervous, being the first time on a pretty big river at night. The moonlight glistening on the river was quite beautiful.  This river is famous for Brown and Rainbow trout.  And the night fishing is supposed to be some of the finest that you can find.

I was quite excited about it all, until..."Splash"! "Splash"! "Splash"!  WTF(udge)!!!  Rocks were being thrown at us from up above in the trees.  The section of the Lower Provo has elevated banks that have thick brush and trees.  We couldn't see who was throwing rocks, but this was not very funny, indeed!  I really didn't want to get hit in the head.  You couldn't see what direction the rock was coming from...so a pretty helpless feeling, if you know what I mean!  We yelled back at them to stop the throwing...but, to no avail.  So, here we were in the middle of a dark river, and nowhere to go as the missles were being fired at us, so to speak!  We called the Sheriff, as we stood in the river and they said that they would come and check it out.  They were about a half hour away though.  We thought about walking out, but then thought that we were actually safer where we were.  We didn't want to get into any scuffle with them either.  So, we stayed put.  Rocks were being hurled at us and above our heads about every five minutes.  It was not fun.  I will say that.  My legs were cramping up standing in one place.  In the dark of the Provo River, I never thought that my birthday would be so adventurous!  Or scary...I just wanted to throw a few mice.  One of my friends,  yelled out that he had a BB gun and he wasn't afraid to use it! (Although, he didn't have it on him at the time)  Oh yeah, that did it. Silence...five min...ten min...were they gone?



We heard the Sheriff yell out to us that they had arrived.  They combed the area and no one was there.  So, we all waded out to meet the Sheriff and his search and rescue dogs...ha.  We gave our report and the last thing the Sheriff said to us was, "If you are going back in to fish, have a good time!"  Yeah, right!  This night was finished.  We all laugh about it now and have a code word "Splash" that we say between us when we fish on the river now.  So, I guess that you could say, that fishing with me is...well...interesting!  Adventure in every riffle...errr...pool, whatever! (And my term, "Incoming" is not related to this night in any way!!)



 



My Alaskan Hip Waders

Have you heard of "Stupid Pet Tricks"?

Well, this is a "Stupid RD Trick"...but

before I became The River Damsel...  

The Mud Flats of Cook Inlet 


About 8 yrs ago, my husband and I had a business trip to Anchorage, Alaska.  This was the first time that either of us had been that far north.  I was so excited to be going to the "real outdoors"!   Being a So. California "city slicker", this was all foreign to me.  We flew into Anchorage and my husband went off to his business conference and I headed out to the local shops to gather up a few souvenirs...you know how women do...Anyway, I decided that the next day was going to be something fun...I saw a sign that had "Fly Fishing Rentals" posted on it.  I thought, why not?  I wonder if I could learn to do this?  So, I ventured down a few blocks from the city streets to the riverbank which had the rental building. 

 

Lesson #1...Learn the skill before going out on your own.  The manager of the business said that he could teach me how to cast in fifteen minutes in the parking lot.  Ok...that sounded easy enough...or was it?  So we head out and I try to do a few loops in the air back and forth which looked very sloppy to say the least.  He said it was good enough to get the line in the water...Ha!  Then, he had me put on these really ugly hip waders that had attached boots.  Oh, I made Roseanne Barr look good...My friends really would have had a laugh if they saw me now.  So, he puts on a single fly and sends me down the river with a few fishing hints and one warning.  He told me to be careful not to walk in the mud.  Evidently, there was a tide that would come in and then go out each day and as it did, it would leave the banks pretty soaked with unstable ground and silt.  So, off I went on my first fly fishing adventure, not knowing what adventure I would find!

 

Lesson #2...Don't go alone when trying something new, like fly fishing.  And especially when going to a new frontier, like Alaska.  So, I venture down the riverbank with flypole in hand and a huge smile on my face!  This was so exciting!!!  I was outside enjoying the slight breeze and getting closer to nature than I ever had before.  I found a spot on the bank that was dry and stable and it seemed as good of a place as any.  I got my line out, my casting was really loopy and didn't go out too far.  I sure did wish that there was someone to watch and learn from!  But, no one was in sight.  This was really kind of unusual as I found out later, because it was towards the end of the King Salmon season and usually there was "Combat Fishing" as they call it, when everyone from the city goes after work for an hour or so because it is so convenient.  Ship Creek flows from the mountains to the Cook Inlet and is only a few blocks away from the city.  So, travelers flying in usually will head over if they have time to kill.  But, all was quiet.

Lesson #3...Listen  to instructions...especially about your safety.  No fish to be had as of yet...But, I know they were in there...many of them!  I was just not doing something right...Hmmm.  Well,  I had been casting with the same fly for an hour now.  And then finally, I was joined by...no, not another fisher, but a moose!  Now, I had never seen one up close and I did hear that they roam freely throughout the Anchorage area.  In fact, there was one walking through the Walmart parking lot the day before!  Walmart shopper? Lol...Well, this guy didn't look too friendly and he was bigger than me, so I just stood still as he was walking behind me.  I must admit, that my heart raced just a little as he came within 200 ft of me.  That was close enough for a picture, but didn't bring the camera...so, this pic will have to do.   I stayed very quiet and watched in amazement...what an animal!!  Then, came the next adventure...and being totally unprepared for it...Remember the one fly that I went out with?  Yep, that one fly now caught a snag...and there was no way that I could get to it...it was like stuck in the "mud".  I tried every which way to pull on the line, but it wasn't going anywhere!  Now, I remembered what the man told me...don't walk in the mud.  OK...so, I saw a sort of dry path that I could walk over to retrieve my fly.  I got a few steps in and down, down, down went my left foot.  As I tried to get it up and out of the hole that I made, it just went down deeper!  Goodness!  What had I got myself into this time?  This was not a good thing.  My heart sank as I couldn't go anywhere and the more I tried, the deeper I got.  I was knee deep now and as I tried to pull myself out on my right side, my right foot went in also!  What was next?  I started screaming for help.  Unfortunately, the rental place was too far away for them to hear me.  And there wasn't a fisherman in sight.  I wasn't going anywhere, but I remembered that the tide would come back in at some point, so I really didn't want to linger too long.  I must have been screaming for help for about thirty more minutes...when a "golden" fisherman approached my sight upstream.  Oh, was I glad to see him!  He finally reached me, but couldn't grab my hand from where he was standing without also having a problem.  He had a wading stick though, and he took it out of his belt and reached out again and my outstretched arm barely grasped the end of it!  We tugged and pulled for another ten minutes when my stocking feet finally budged out of the hip wading boots and I started to pop out of there!  I managed to crawl on my belly to where he was and he grabbed me and I never was so happy to see someone, let me tell you!  He cut my line, to free me from the snag.  The mud had risen up to my upper thighs when he found me.   And I don't even want to think about what if...I'm sure the rental manager would have come out at sometime looking for me...right?  Anyway, I thanked him and headed back to the rental building. 

 With my fly pole in hand, I told the manager that was all I had left from my expedition...and he sighed as I told him where the hip waders were...still stuck in the deep mud...err...quicksand!  That's pretty much what it was.  And I was indeed grateful that I was safe and sound.  Who really cared about catching a fish anyway?  He was very kind and offered me a half of a salmon to take back home, but all I could think about was getting back to my room and chilling out a bit!  As I went back to my hotel, I looked over a bridge and saw an amazing scene, similiar to this one to the right...Huge Salmon!  And thick...yep, I'm most definitely going back now that I have had a little lesson learned and I now have a bit more experience fly fishing.  What a day it was...and after I got back to talk with my husband, he told me stories of how people have lost their lives in the Mud Flats of the Cook Inlet...not that I was in that kind of danger, but my experience was enough for me to remember to be more careful where I walk!

Here is a little bit of a recap...Ship Creek is said to be almost completely BEAR FREE...Just an occasional moose strolling around.  It is also relatively safe as compared to a wilderness fly-in trip that Alaska is known for.  Unless, you find mud and try to be a smarty pants like me and test your luck!  One interesting note...The land surrounding  Ship Creek is owned by the Alaskan Railroad.  They have been very good to fisherman as long as the anglers respect the property.  There are beautiful rainbows and salmon in this river.  The King Salmon go until the middle of July and the Silver Salmon go until October.  One last bit of advice...Read signs that are posted in the Cook Inlet...which is the most dangerous section of the Mud Flats...They can be fatal!  The Cook Inlet has the 2nd highest tides in No. America.  When they wash back out to sea, they leave glacial silt and mud that exhibit quicksand quality.  Futile efforts of rescues have come up with unfortunate results!  What's next for me?  A trip to Alaska in 2012-13 to try again, preferably with a group of people and maybe even a guide and a bush plane!!  LOL.

And believe it or not...after this trip, I didn't fly fish again until two years ago...and now I can't put that darn fly pole down!  :)



A Chance To Meet ALL Of You!!!

So, this weeks "Outdoor Writing Prompt" from OBN is the open ended question, "If you had a chance to meet some Outdoor Bloggers you’ve come across online, who would it be?  Who would you like to fish with, hike with, camp with, hunt with, toss back a beverage with?"  There is a very large group of people that I would like to meet.  I believe that the OBN get-together in the summer will be a chance for me to enjoy interacting with those that I have blogged with and with those that I have yet to meet... I'm sure that there will be great "cross-training" in other fields that I don't know about and I will marvel at those that have talents that are beyond what I have ever tried to do!  And then there will be those fellow fly fishers that I will marvel at their talents as they share with me their experiences and vast knowledge. 

To narrow this down is difficult...but, hey, that is what OBN is asking us to do, I guess!  So, I will take the "OWL" approach and just pick a few that I know best and for the rest of you that I enjoy reading and appreciate you reading my posts...just know that there are a lot more of you that I really want to meet!

The River Damsel hopes too meet and fish with:

Owl Jones,  http://southernblueridge.wordpress.com/... What can I say?.  We are so much alike,  but still very different, I'm sure!  He's just a crazy and honest guy who really makes me laugh. (Especially when he says "Incoming!" in his vids!)  I know that I can read his post and have a better day.  But, would someone take that Tenkara rod away from him??? Haha.  Buddy, if you forget the grits, I really won't mind!  :) 

Howard,  http://www.cofisher.blogspot.com/  This guy rocks!  (For an "0lder" guy...haha) j/k Howard!  His blog is so diverse and always has something different for the reader...from glass rods that he wants me to try...(heehee) to a fish name "Rodney"!  Honestly, Howard has a lot more "expert" knowledge about fly fishing than he admits.  And a sense of humor to boot!  And he can take a little bit of teasing... :) 

Rod,   http://poudrecanyonchronicles.blogspot.com/ ...What can be said about wanting to meet the "Midgeman" himself?  It would be an honor, let me tell you...I have only tied a few flies and I am mesmerized with each post when I see the talent of this man.  He is my "Czech" nymphing blogger friend...finally, I meet up with someone that shares an interest and maybe a passion for this style of fishing.  I appreciate his experience that he shares with all of us...we are so fortunate to have him as a fellow blogger!  :)

 

So, I can't wait to meet ALL of you of the OBN...  It has been something so different than I thought it was going to be.  Thanks to Rebecca and Joe for creating such a fun place to meet such great people with so many outdoor talents and skills...See you in Colorado!