He had to wipe away course brush from his face and shuffle through thick salala for the first few minutes of the hike but he had a feeling he was headed in the right direction. If he was a more honest type he might have admitted that he was simply tired of swerving around potholes on unmarked and unkempt logging roads. But since old habits die hard, and there was no one around to call him on it, he kept right on lying to himself.
That’s how he’d ended up all alone anyhow.
As he made his way up the slight incline toward the bluff he hoped was at the top of the hill the deer trail began to open up every so slightly. Maybe a stray elk had wandered through once upon a time, but side trails of smaller animals stretched into the underbrush in every direction but up. Orange and red and blue mushrooms popped out in bunches from a thick mat of beige evergreen needles and little brown birds skittered amongst the branches of the salmonberry bushes that were just beginning to flower.
A lifelong Western Washington mossback, he was raised on the banks of swollen rivers and learned how to move quietly beneath the drape of swaying Evergreens. He knew how set the hook on a steelhead and how to field dress a buck. He knew that the orange mushrooms were good, the red mushrooms were bad, and the blue ones could go either way.
On that day though, he wasn’t looking for a fishing hole, or a hunting blind, or even a trove of wild mushrooms. He was searching for answers to existential questions that he wasn’t even sure how to phrase. Even so, he made sure to bring his binoculars, just in case the devil was indeed to be found in the details.
In the city he always left feeling disconnected and alone. Stale air pinched his lungs like he was holding his breath under water. Slabs of concrete and steel and brick made him feel caged like a caveman at a postmodern petting zoo. All the people with somewhere more important to go made him want to get away.
And so he did.
Crossing a stream he lost his footing on a rock and the rush of cold reminded him that he was indeed wild and alive. As the brush gave way completely the timbers became a cathedral towering overhead. Their outstretched limbs creating a filtered sunlight mosaic on the underside of the great canopy.
Eventually, way up ahead, another speck of light broke through what had at first seemed an impenetrable wall of trees. The squish of his soggy socks served as a metronome to his quickening pace. He grew excited and a little bit reckless. After all, he finally knew right where he wanted to be.
As he closed the distance to the top of the hill, the rasp of his panting breath had finally drowned out the sound of his sodden clodhoppers and the birds all seemed to keep a healthy distance from the proverbial man in the forest. But when he finally reached the top the spectacle took his breath away completely, and all at once, as a kind of hush fell from the surrounding peaks and coated the wilderness as it descended down into the valley below.
It was a slightly different vantage than he’d ever found before thanks to his haphazard choice of trail but his instincts had proven right in the long run. He’d found the sight he remembered from a trip long ago, back when life was simpler and happiness could be effectively encapsulated in a postcard image.
Across the valley sharp snow-capped peaks cut a jagged jawline against a Columbia bluebird sky. In the vast chasm below a funnel of overlapping evergreens circled to the edge of a mirror pond brimming with crystalline rain drops, fresh snowmelt and happy trout.
Busting out his binoculars he began to glass across the horizon, staring hard here, and gazing soft there until one finally came into focus. Nicotine white mountain goats stood stoic and confident upon their crumbling precipice as ten thousand shades of slate grey cliff broke off in ruined shelves around them. They had nowhere to go, because they were already where they were born to be. Only when the last of the snow finally melted away would they consider moving uphill for greener meadows.
Stuck inside his own head as he looked outward he felt the wind on his face before he saw the clouds overhead. But when he pulled his eyes away from the binoculars he could see a wall of black ink rolling over the mountain top. Like time-lapse he watched the color vanish from the sky as a million ripples disrupted the golden alpine pond. In no time at all the pile of round rocks he stood upon began to pitter patter with increasing frequency as the rain picked up its pace.
That’s when he smelled it and the memory came flooding back like a trip through Grandpa’s trunks in the attic. That smell, thick as bark, that only comes out when new rain pockmarks warm earth; His father had taught him the word for it when they had first visited this place so many years ago.
Petrichor: The earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word was some combination of the Greek words for stone and the blood that ran through the veins of their many gods.
As he hopped off of the slick rocks and back onto the trail he cast one last glance across the valley. Through the dimming light, he just make out the profile of the mountain’s goat, unmoved by life’s temporary unpleasantries.
If he had been honest with himself in that moment maybe he would have realized that he too was already where he needed to be. After all, nobody was waiting for him and nobody was worried. But he wondered what people might think, and what they might say, and so he hit the trail back to town already wondering if he would ever be able to return again.
FISHIN’
Catch-and-keep sturgeon fishing will soon beckon anglers like a siren song to the lower reaches of the Columbia River. That fishery is set to be open intermittently throughout May and June, beginning Monday. Currently there are eight sport sturgeon fishing days alloted in May and two days in June with a limit of one legal-sized sturgeon per day, and a total of two sturgeon per year.
All keeper sturgeon must measure between 44 and 50 inches from their snout to the fork in their tail. Those Lower Columbia River sport sturgeon fisheries are slated for the Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays of May 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 30, plus June 2 and 4. That fishery will be open from the Wauna powerlines near Cathlamet down to the mouth of the river at Buoy 10, including Youngs Bay and all adjacent Washington tributaries. Legal sturgeon fishing will end at 2 p.m. each day, but catch-and-release sturgeon angling will be allowed on non-retention days.
Currently salmon fishing is shut down on lower Columbia River from the mouth up to Bonneville Dam, but anglers are having some luck in the dam pools. Walleye fishing has been even better in the slack water, particularly at The Dalles and John Day. At The Dalles last week, the WDFW sampled 174 anglers on 66 boats with a haul of 205 keeper walleye and 22 fish released. At John Day the WDFW checked 102 anglers in 46 boats with a total of 191 walleye in the box and 14 fish released. One bank anglers also kept two walleye.
While the mainstem of the Lower Columbia is currently closed, there are opportunities to chase both steelhead and Chinook on area tributaries. According to Karen Glaser up at Barrier Dam Campground, anglers have been coming in for late winter steelies as well as the improving run of spring kings.
“It’s both right now. We are seeing both spring chinook and steelhead being caught,” said Glaser. “It’s not red hot. You’ve got to put your time in. Our runs aren’t like they used to be but there are fish in there.”
According to WDFW, sampling on the Cowlitz last week the fishing was most productive up toward the hatcheries. The WDFW sampled 330 bank rods down river from the I-5 Bridge and found just five keeper rspringers as well as two bonked steelhead. One adult spring chinook and four steelhead were released. The WDFW also sampled 88 boat rods with six adult springers and one steelhead to show. Upriver though, 131 bank rods kept 15 adults and one jack spring Chinook, while keeping three steelhead and releasing another. Boaters didn’t have nearly as good of a time last week as the WDFW sampled 55 boat rods with just one adult and one jack spring Chinook to go with one springer that was released.
Glaser added that, “Sand shrimp and salmon eggs are the two main things for bait,” but noted that tuna bellies, corkies and yarn, and twitching jigs have also brought fish to the shore lately. Glaser reported the river flow below Barrier Dam at 8,400 cubic feet per second on Wednesday afternoon, which was up form 6,390 cfs on Monday when the weather temp was just below 47 degrees.
Last week at the salmon hatchery, separator crews recovered 329 winter-run steelhead, 101 adult springers, five jacks, seven summer steelhead and two cutthroat trout. Cres also released 12 winter steelhead and one cutthroat trout into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton. Another 40 winter steelhead and eight spring kings were leased into the Cispus River near Yellow Jacket Creek, and nine steelhead, one cutthroat trout, 14 springer adults and one jack were released into Lake Scanewa.
Anglers looking for ways to rip a lip on those fish trucked above the Cowlitz River Barrier Dam received good news on Monday when the state agreed to fund a grant to improve river access. The grant authorizes Lewis County to acquire and develop 1.6 acres of land upstream of the Skate Creek Road South Bridge, while adding parking, vault toilets and a gravel walkway to the water.
The funding of $227,750 was awarded from the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office’s Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account. It will be matched with an equal amount from Lewis County Public Works. The project will be conducted by Public Works. A project description noted the abundant fishing prospects at the site.
“However, fishermen and residents wanting to access this reach of the Cowlitz are forced to park and walk along narrow high-traffic volume roads, cross guardrail, and traverse steep riprap banks to access the river,” read the release.
Heading back downriver to the Columbia River and its other tributaries a rule change on the Kalama River once again allows anglers to keep hatchery steelhead in the lower river. That opening applies to the mouth up to within 1,000 feet of the upper salmon hatchery. Last week on the Kalama River the WDFW sampled 79 bank anglers with two keeper Chinook and two steelhead. A total of 51 boat anglers kept 51 spring Chinook
Steelhead retention in the lower river was shuttered in April due to a low return of fish to the river’s hatcheries, but those broodstock goals are now expected to be met. The daily limit for steelies on the Kalama River is three hatchery steelhead, with a mandate to keep all hatchery steelhead through June 30. Spring Chinook harvest is also still open with a daily limit of six fish, of which no more than two may be adults.
On the mainstem Lewis River last week the WDFW sampled eight bank anglers and four boat rods with no catch. Similarly, the North Fork produced no catch for 13 bank anglers but three boat rods caught-and-released two steelhead. Chinook fishing is currently closed.
On the Chehalis River, anglers have been allowed to target salmon since the beginning of May but the action hasn’t reached the Twin Cities yet. Some anglers are twitching jigs near Independence and by Borst Park, but the only anglers catching anything have been heading way down river. Boaters have been having the most success west of Elma where the run seems to be lingering.
Spring kings will be open to sport harvest on the Chehalis River until dusk on June 30 unless otherwise noted by the WDFW. That Chinook salmon fishery will extend from the mouth of the river at the Highway 101 Bridge up to the Highway 6 Bridge in Adna. The minimum size for spring Chinook is 12 inches and the daily limit is one salmon. Steelhead and other gamefish fisheries will remain unchanged.
With lowland lake fishing season underway anglers have been flocking to area billabongs to pull trout and other worm biters from the water. In Toledo, South Lewis County Park Ponds is set to close from May 10 through 2 p.m. on May 12. That closure will precede the annual youth fishing derby so that crews can stock even more hatchery trout for kiddos to catch. For information email penny_lancaster@msn.com.
Last week, Tacoma Power employees released 5,000 rainbow trout into Mayfield Lake and several other area lakes have been planted with healthy helpings of trout. Failor Lake in Grays Harbor County has been stocked with more than 2,000 trout recently, with 675 of those fish averaging at least four pounds. In Thurston County, Lake St. Clair has been planted with about 30,000 rainbow trout since March.
For anglers trying to hook a much bigger fish, halibut season is set to close after May 11 in Marine Area 1 (Ilwaco). According to the WDFW anglers have caught 8,455 pounds of the 11,182 pound quota during the first three days of the recreational halibut fishery. Fishery managers believe there is enough harvest quota remaining to allow anglers one more offshore opportunity on Friday. The nearshore halibut fishery in Marine Area 1 will remain open Mondays through Wednesdays until further notice.
HUNTIN’
The novelty of wild turkey hunts has worn off by now and only those with a high tolerance for the intoxicating pursuit are still out bushwhacking in order to bag a gobbler. Those hunts will continue on both sides of the Cascades through the end of May. The general spring hunt has a combined limit of three birds for the season, of which only two may be taken from Eastern Washington, with the exception of Chelan, Kittitas, and Yakima counties where only one tom may be killed per person. A one turkey limit is also applicable in Western Washington, although two turkeys may be taken in Klickitat County. Only male turkeys, or those with visible beards, are legal for hunting.
Even more pressing for inspired hunters is the looming deadline of May 23 to submit special permit applications for deer, elk, mountain goat, moose, bighorn sheep and turkeys. Permits are doled out by random drawing based on a cumulative points system. In order to apply hunters who plan to target deer or elk must first purchase a hunting license for those species.
Applications can be purchased from vendors or from the WDFW website. Applications can then be submitted online or by calling 1-877-945-3492.
Most special hunt permit applications cost $7.10 for residents, $110.50 for non-residents, and $3.80 for hunters under 16 years of age. However, residents purchasing applications for mountain goats, any bighorn sheep ram, any moose, and "quality" categories for deer and elk will have to pay $13.70.
While long prowling cougar hunts finally came to an end when April expired, coyotes remain fair game all year round.
BOATIN’
The WDFW is asking boaters in Puget Sound to observe a newly established “no-go” zone near the western edge of San Juan Island in order to protect orca whales.
The no-teeth restriction is intended to cover anglers and all other boats in order to protect an imperiled population of southern resident killer whales.
That population has fallen from 98 whales in 1995 to just 76 at the end of last year. Those losses are blamed on a loss of abundant food sources such as Chinook salmon, disturbances from boat traffic and noise, as well as water toxicity.
The no-go zone is located on the west side of San Juan Island, including:
From Mitchell Bay in the north to Cattle Point in the south, extending a quarter-mile offshore for the entire stretch.
In an area around the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, the no-go zone extends further offshore – half of a mile.
The “no-go” zone is drawn around the areas where killer whales are most frequently observed foraging and socializing.
“This voluntary no-go zone is a good step in helping to reduce human impacts in an important foraging area for southern resident killer whales,” said Penny Becker, WDFW’s policy lead on killer whales, in a press release.
Ron Warren, head of the WDFW fish program, noted that the request is likely to upset anglers who fish the San Juans, especially when considering the reduced opportunities for salmon fishing in the area this year. However, Warren noted that there is an exception for commercial fishing vessels targeting Fraser River sockeye.
“Our efforts to recover killer whales ultimately will mean more salmon returning to Puget Sound each year, which will benefit anglers as well as orcas,” Warren said, in the release.
BIRDIN’
On May 12, fans of the fair feathered amongst us will be able to participate in a nationwide bird counting effort. Saturday will mark the 25th annual International Migratory Bird Day, when serious birdwatchers and lackadaisical twitchers alike celebrate the nearly 350 species that travel from their wintering grounds in the southern reaches of North America to summer nesting grounds in the great northern hinterlands.
This year’s theme is “The Year of the Bird”. Additional information can be found online at www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/migratory-bird-day.
