a new job, but no steelhead
todd and i had an excursion to walla walla last weekend, where i travelled for a job interview. the job is an online writing job, which i have since been offered and will accept.
walla walla is a pretty cool little town. some great food and local wineries. we really enjoyed it; we got put up in the fanciest hotel in town, and that was vacation-y. we drank some local cabernet and syrah and table red and bought the cheapest bottle at the tasting place :)
we also went to an small art exhibit at one of the local campuses. whitman college, it's called. has some pics of global warming's effects. we parked and walked across the entire campus, and it was very cool for a campus. lots of interesting art everywhere and young hippie-types playing frisbee in the freezing fog.
then we walked around town a little more, hit up an old-fashioned candy store and bought chocolate and smooth-and-melties. no one knows what those are except me, i guess, but they are one of my favorite candies. stopped in a restaurant and chatted with the bartended over a beer about walla walla. she was wearing a sideways leather hat and mismatched shirts and a skirt and looked super chic.
we went out for a fantastic dinner at a place called creekside. we were both really hungry but it took us a long time to settle on something from the menu; it all looked so good. kind've an early birthday treat, i guess.
we drove back on highway 12, over lolo pass. that meant going thru the twin towns at the id-wa border of lewiston and clarkton. cute. i tried to upload a pic of lewiston but blogger seems to be having trouble with pics. i'll post in soon. anyway, there was a massive industrial great-falls-style menace on the banks of this huge, beautiful river. pollution pouring out. and it smells bad, too. poor river, poor noses.
on the drive back, we stopped in orofino at the north fork, right below the dvorshak dam. people everywhere. we talked to a couple of people -- they said they'd seen very few fish caught. these are steelhead -- rainbows running all the way up from the ocean to span. these fish swim hundreds of miles! hundreds! we tried anyway... me with my little 6 weight fly rod. you should have seen people's rigs! they had massive slip bobbers and let their stuff drift 50 yards downstream. you wouldn't even know there was a guy upstream from you until you saw this huge flourescent thing roll through your spot, then get dragged back through. it was weird. we only fished it for a few hrs. we were going to stay there overnight, but the combination of too many people and few fish caught sent us looking for better water.
the clearwater was mostly frozen over upstream, but it had opened up again by the time we got the the south fork at kooskia. on the way there, we saw a rescue effort (by then, must have been a recovery effort) for a boat that had hit a patch of ice that stretch across the river. there were a bunch of cars and people had used rocks and sticks to try to break the ice. it was scary and sobering.
we fished the south fork for about an hour at dusk. met another couple, montana-type hippies like us, from bozeman. they'd fished all day and were planning to camp that night, too. they hadn't seen any steelies -- guess we beat them there -- but had caught one whitefish. we decided just to head the rest of the way home, since it was about 3 hrs away at it was only 5 o'clock or so. just above kooskia, the river became an ice river again, and the lochsa was completely locked in as far as we could tell by the moonlight. we thought about stopping at the hot springs, but there were plenty of cars at both of them. so we heraldo's-ed on the way home for some burritos and slept in our own bed sat night.
walla walla is a pretty cool little town. some great food and local wineries. we really enjoyed it; we got put up in the fanciest hotel in town, and that was vacation-y. we drank some local cabernet and syrah and table red and bought the cheapest bottle at the tasting place :)
we also went to an small art exhibit at one of the local campuses. whitman college, it's called. has some pics of global warming's effects. we parked and walked across the entire campus, and it was very cool for a campus. lots of interesting art everywhere and young hippie-types playing frisbee in the freezing fog.
then we walked around town a little more, hit up an old-fashioned candy store and bought chocolate and smooth-and-melties. no one knows what those are except me, i guess, but they are one of my favorite candies. stopped in a restaurant and chatted with the bartended over a beer about walla walla. she was wearing a sideways leather hat and mismatched shirts and a skirt and looked super chic.
we went out for a fantastic dinner at a place called creekside. we were both really hungry but it took us a long time to settle on something from the menu; it all looked so good. kind've an early birthday treat, i guess.
we drove back on highway 12, over lolo pass. that meant going thru the twin towns at the id-wa border of lewiston and clarkton. cute. i tried to upload a pic of lewiston but blogger seems to be having trouble with pics. i'll post in soon. anyway, there was a massive industrial great-falls-style menace on the banks of this huge, beautiful river. pollution pouring out. and it smells bad, too. poor river, poor noses.
on the drive back, we stopped in orofino at the north fork, right below the dvorshak dam. people everywhere. we talked to a couple of people -- they said they'd seen very few fish caught. these are steelhead -- rainbows running all the way up from the ocean to span. these fish swim hundreds of miles! hundreds! we tried anyway... me with my little 6 weight fly rod. you should have seen people's rigs! they had massive slip bobbers and let their stuff drift 50 yards downstream. you wouldn't even know there was a guy upstream from you until you saw this huge flourescent thing roll through your spot, then get dragged back through. it was weird. we only fished it for a few hrs. we were going to stay there overnight, but the combination of too many people and few fish caught sent us looking for better water.
the clearwater was mostly frozen over upstream, but it had opened up again by the time we got the the south fork at kooskia. on the way there, we saw a rescue effort (by then, must have been a recovery effort) for a boat that had hit a patch of ice that stretch across the river. there were a bunch of cars and people had used rocks and sticks to try to break the ice. it was scary and sobering.
we fished the south fork for about an hour at dusk. met another couple, montana-type hippies like us, from bozeman. they'd fished all day and were planning to camp that night, too. they hadn't seen any steelies -- guess we beat them there -- but had caught one whitefish. we decided just to head the rest of the way home, since it was about 3 hrs away at it was only 5 o'clock or so. just above kooskia, the river became an ice river again, and the lochsa was completely locked in as far as we could tell by the moonlight. we thought about stopping at the hot springs, but there were plenty of cars at both of them. so we heraldo's-ed on the way home for some burritos and slept in our own bed sat night.
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cheers,
N
Duke