Fishing the Metolius with TU Blogger Luca; Navigating Olympic Ntl Park

It's been a while, haven't updated in about a week, but I've been all over the Northwest and it's been a wild ride. Starting last Thursday, I drove north east, out to the blue-green, freezing Metolius River to meet up with Trout Unlimited's blogger, Luca Adelfio -- the luckiest guy in America.

From MattStansberry

Luca and I ate a fresh Deschutes steelhead at the Allen Springs camp site before hitting the river, looking for bull trout. They're an endangered species in the states, but if you were going to find them somewhere, the Metolius is where you'd be most likely to hook into one. They're a big, lazy, green trout, a super-predator. You fish for them most often in the winter with giant streamers.



Luca told me a few tales from the road, but we spent most of the time whippping the river to a froth. It's supposed to be one of the toughest rivers in the state to fish, and it lived up to that reputation, skunking both your humble narrator and the luckiest guy in the world. Check out Luca's post here.

Navigating Olympic National Park
The next day I shipped off to Seattle for a work event, following which Katie and I took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton. The drive from Bremerton to Olympic Ntl. Park wasn't particularly stunning, but once we got there...

From MattStansberry

Also, I picked up my first GPS unit before I went there. I was mostly playing around, but there was one feature that I tried to use. It has a Sunrise/Sunset feature, but I didn't expect to have to set my GPS unit's clock. The Garmins are set on Central time. I assumed they worked like a cell phone, got their cues from their locations. I found out the hard way, when the unit said sunset was at 10:00, stranding me and Katie on a dark rainforest trail, frequented by cougars two hours after sundown.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Needless to say, we made it back. I've stayed busy since, setting up a Web site for my local Trout Unlimited Chapter 678. I'm headed out with the crew from TU this weekend for a high lakes trip, finding some remote lakes that were stocked long ago, trying to see if there are still any wild populations.

Also, I've been Geocaching. It's harder that it seems. You read these logs online and it's all these kids and families. But I've only found one, and I've been looking for them for days. That's why it's fun I gues.

Dove hunting tomorrow at Fern Ridge. First day of bird season. I'll probably site my rifle in too. I've had the trigger fixed at Mazama's. Maybe look for some grouse that afternoon.