Ah the pull of a springtime river trip.
A clearly magnetic nagging of road-warrior-fever and fish not yet caught.
April has a way of doing that.
It was 70 degrees in short sleeves all week.
Ramen noodles out of the back of our pickup truck.
Boxed wine and cheap beer under the stars.
Frosty mornings and slow hikes to higher places.
Out of breath and out of shape.
Hot springs.
Sunshine in high elevations and the fresh morning smell of river.
There's something magnetic about river trips in the start of a season.
The dusting off of oars, the rustling of lifejackets and coolers, the un-burying of gear.
Regrouping our boat took some time,
and swinging into late steelhead season was a little later than us fisher-folk would have liked.
As we DID get skunked this time around.
But in the spirit of springtime Steelhead runs and budding Idaho high country...
It's all a Rebirth.
We found ourself late to the river, and late off the river,
neither in a hurry nor worried much about the sinking sun and dropping evening temperatures.
Idaho's springtime is hot days and cold nights.
As extreme as the landscape, and nearly as breathtaking.
I couldn't help but continue to think,
through the week of soggy neoprene waders and thick ski socks,
the near-green salmon water swirling all around me,
fly-line snapping over my head in a rhythm
much like the circadian rhythms that took over my senses.....
Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you're tired.
Sleep when you're cold.
This is a great way to kick off the cocoon of winter and embrace outside once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment