River of Skulls

El Rio de las Calaveras
Getting lost is part of the whole reason to go fly-fishing.
However, you don’t want to be getting lost driving to the place of adventure.
After we left Stockton, like Marysville, you begin to intersect tiny towns hit hard by the recession along with demand on the local home laboratories.
Driving Hwy 26, Many of the street signs, removed or missing like the teeth of a few locals we asked directions from, made it a challenge to navigate.
After a few misguided attempts, Roger and I finally found “The Bridge” and then the River of Skulls.
While we geared up for our hike and new adventure, another fly fisherman hiking out was kind enough to give us advice about the place since it was or first time there. Roger prudently took the Obama decal off the back of his car and we headed off.
After a few minutes hiking, I began to imagine in my mind images from the Spanish naming of the river.
"In 1805, Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga was ordered by the Spanish Governor of
California to explore the Great Central Valley. Displace the local Natives, and
re-name everything he found. Well, one day Gabe and his horsemen came across a river
the banks of which were littered with skulls. No one knows for sure how the skulls
came to be on the banks of this river. Perhaps they were the remains of an ancient
battle, or a terrible plague. Or perhaps it was a really great party that suddenly
went horribly wrong. Whatever the case old Gabe, being a true master of the obvious,
named this river "El Rio De Las Calaveras" or in English, "The River of Skulls".
We started with pretty much the same rig, two-nymph setup; size 16 Pheasant Tail with a 18 copper BH midge behind.
The First few access seemed quite, we were just getting warmed up, swing casting, like Pete Townsend playing the guitar, just get’en into the rhythm, nothing fancy.
Then, we hiked upstream a bit more enjoying the solace of the stream, just looking around. At the next pool we noticed a few trout rising. We peeked in to get our game plan on. Roger would take the access first and I would go play just downstream from him.
A few swing casts, and Boom, there’s the flash of silver in the drift, zoom zoom and yow, hang on! Luckily, Roger had his camera ready and snapped a few pics, plus the landing, yow a beautiful young Steele, maybe a 2 year old. She was beutiful to see tear off after the release.
I hiked up stream and l gave Roger some room. It was a perfect day, overcast and cool. I had a banana and hung out looking around, woh no garbage, it was so refreshing not to be picking up garbage as I hike like at Putah or Lower Stan.
I hiked into another access and waded in quietly, that’s the trick the more stealthy the better, however my cast was crappy but I let it finish the drift, instead of ripen it out of the water early just to get it out 16 more inches and yow it paid off, boom! I got into a big one, I could see a deep large flash and the rodeo was on. After a few giving and taking of line, she was able to get down stream and tie me of on a limb… yow good fight she was big! I reeled in, tied on a size 18 brassie and waited for the area to cool off. Took some pics from where I stood in the river and enjoyed watching Roger upstream from me. He was getting some good takes from what I could see. After 10 minutes, I took careful aim and swung cast upstream from where that last drift originated, slowly it came right over the same spot, boom same as before, repeat performance except this time I kept a little more tight on her. She gave it to me for a couple of minutes, and then I guide her into the net, Yow 16 inches. She was beautiful! Simply stunning! Took a portrait and then she tore off into the abyss. I thanked the spot and headed for more new territory up stream.
While hiking along and enjoying the oaks, and willows, the stream meanders along unpretentiously with tight snaggy runs and riffles to play in. Along the way, I caught a few more bows in the precious size and gently let them go. Arriving at the dam we switched to dry fly and got one looking with an October Caddis Emerger right at the spillway. After letting him go, Roger had a go at it for a bit.
Soon we headed back down trail and across the stream, and went back to the first two areas and I got a couple there one on the caddis emerger and another on the caddis pupa dropper below.
When the Lower Stan is closed, The River of Skulls is my new winter sweet spot.

To see photos of the day:
River of Skulls

My Joy Rider/Fly-Pack

One Sunday after Mary and I returned from the JMT trek, we went to the local farmers market. While we were looking around Mary spotted a vendor she wanted to show me. Nan Eastep a clothing designer and seamstress had a pair of biking pants she wanted to show me. As we browsed her pieces, I immediately noticed a backpack that she had made. Constructed from waxed cotton making it water proof, it had two front pockets similar to a fly-fishing vest and then a large pack compartment behind with two additional side pockets for stuff. The cotton is all natural, the zippers made of steel rather than cheep nylon, and all hand made by her.
Whoa, I was hooked! I tried on one of the sample packs, and knew right away that it was great. I gave Nan a credit card and she took measurements, did a formal fitting and that was that.
1 month later Nan emailed me and said it was ready and that I could come by and she would finalize the loops for my rod keepers and handle.
I’ve been using it now for every trip and its really super comfortable to hike in. I thought at first I would take it off to fish and cast but I find that the shoulder and breast strapping fits so well that I totally forget it’s on.
To visit Nan Eastep:
Joy Rider Clothing

Moby Bow

A few weeks ago I traveled to Mossbrae Falls on the Upper Sacramento River. I heard great things about its amazing scenery and fishing since its recovery from the 1991 Southern Pacific train derailment where a tank car ruptured, dumping 13,000 gallons of metam-sodium - a highly toxic pesticide into the river killing everything down stream for 35 miles.
To reach the falls I parked along the road after crossing the bridge on Scarlet Way in Dunsmuir. I hiked along the railroad grading for a while I began seeing multiple side trails leading down to the river. I checked out a few spots but was eager to get to the falls since I never have been there before.
To say the least, the falls are stunningly beautiful and the fishing was quite great. Once getting over the secludedness, I tied on a standard fly that always seems to work, first a Hare’s Ear, then a Copper John, then a Pheasant Tail, but still nothing. I looked around on the shore in the Willows, in the water, but nothing noticeable bug wise, except for the hundreds of old exoskeletons from past Stone Fly hatches months ago. OK this is serious I thought, I’m going to work for this one. Time to bring out the big gun, my Cased Caddis. Its seems irresistible to trout sometimes, and when sharing the tie with others, most don’t use it, maybe that’s the reason for its success. After a couple of swing casts above a large submerged rock, there she was… Boom! Two jumps and the rainbow rodeo was on! After some good runs I finally landed her, and she was awesome, took a portrait and eased her into the recovery room. After the excitement, I sat on the shore, had a cup of coffee, and then focused on the pool just behind the same submerged boulder. This time I tied on a Birds Nest using a Duncan loop, I dredged the depths of the pool. Suddenly like a torpedo with wings, Yow! Out of the water, and across the stream he went. I had to take quick care, dropping in behind me, the full weight of the current and trout was against my 6x tippet. Patiently I got him in and took the portrait, catch and release! After the workout I sat and enjoyed the beauty of the place and was very grateful to be there, I hiked up and out of the spot and crossed the railroad tracks near the Train trestle and down again to the stream. The scrambling was great and hours peeled away before I knew it. Hiking by the railroad tracks and playing in the river reminded me of being a kid At 4pm I decided to hike out. Along the way back I only ran into three people visiting the falls.
To see photos of the day
Moby Bow at Mossbrae Falls

Conservation on the Upper Sacramento River
Cal Trout

Authority of the Resource

During our JMT trek this summer, Mary and I took special attention to packing out our garbage and biohazards.
As we trekked from South Lake into Kings Canyon National Park, we were shocked to see progressively higher amounts of garbage and litter on or near the trail.
I felt that Trekkers in general had a mindset of, “Oh some ranger will come and pick my Cliff Bar wrapper for me”.
At many of the lakes where we camped, old myths were evident. One that was prevalent: if you get the campfire hot enough, the fire will melt the tin foil used to cook trout. Often we could see the foil at the bottom of these lakes.
Toilet paper and Feminine products were also evident near most of the campsites.
The most shocking offense was our lunch stop at Sapphire Lake in Evolution Basin where we actually found a pile of human waste and toilet paper as close as 10 feet from the west shore near some erratic boulders. Did these hikers believe that the toilet paper would degrade that quickly, even if it were biodegradable?
Mary and I were so shocked by the litter, we began picking it up, if it was not biohazard in nature.
During the trek into Ansel Adams Wilderness just north of Devils Post Pile, we could see the evidence of Inyo National Forest’s effort to put more oversight into protecting the fragility of the high lake basins. At Shadow, Garnet and Thousand Island Lakes, recent obvious postings of wilderness regulations were at all of the trails leading into each of these lakes. The signposts explained the regulations on camping at these lakes with a map that also illustrated where you could and could not legally camp. This I thought was a good step but feel there still needs to be a conversation about why there are regulations, and what their goals are. It’s seems meaningless to say it is the “law” that you must camp 100 feet away from a lake without explaining why. Maybe “Authority of the Resource” rather than “Authority of the Badge” can empower conservation in the backcountry more effectively.

To see bio-hazard
Authority of the Resource

Rainbow Rodeo Part 1

During my John Muir Trek between South Lake and Tuolumne Meadows, I
was fortunate to fly fish some of the most exhilarating and technically challenging streams in the
"Range of Light."
One that ranks for me as the most stellar of wild trout habitats is the
South Fork of the San Joaquin River. First, the terrain is very exciting, from
Goddard Canyon to the confluence with
Piute Creek, much of the access requires a "sixth sense" or
"ballerina awareness" while carrying your rod and gear. Climbing over
talus and polished granite benches is a skill set to access the many
exquisite pools, tail outs and countless riffles. It's understandably
apparent once you hook into one of these wild trout, that they are a
product of this environment. Feisty and strong, these hybrids would
hammer the fly, then propel themselves out of the water, to then
vigorously swim upstream and launch themselves out of the water again
often two feet into the air. Angling one these inspired fish with my
3wt rod was like equating it to a "pinball rodeo." Wow! Just hang on!
Tight line!
Even at this high elevation, roughly 9,000 feet, the fourteen trout I
caught and released were an average size of twelve inches nose to
tail. It was obvious that high biomass and the water purity that
flows from many alpine catch basins at the headwaters are definite
causes to their size and spirited strength. These well-fed trout, I'm
calling Cuttbows, rather than Paiute Cutthroats, have striking
coloration, heavy spotting, evident parr marks and distinctive red
stripe while lacking the slash under the jaw. (See Sierra Trout Guide
by Ralph Cutter, pg 15).
During my energetic scramble up this freestone stream, I found
abundant amounts of Cased Caddis and some large March Brown Stonefly
Nymphs which resembled ones I have found on the Lower Yuba east of
Marysville in northern California. During the day that I had to
investigate this stream, I thrived on the remoteness and grandeur
that complimented this rugged river. Most of the fishing technique
was high stick nymphing with a BB amount of weight. Before the trek,
I tied a few ginger "Hares Ear's," with gold ribbing, and a small
piece of holo-graphic tape over the thorax, that closely resembles
the Cased Caddis flies I have found crawling over the rocks in most
of theses streams. This fly worked very well and was one of the most
productive flies I tied for the trip. From any trail head the upper
South Fork is a least a two-day strenuous adventure on trail in the
wilderness, however as you loose yourself in the scenery and quality
of angling, the distance will seem to fade away.

120 miles on the John Muir Trail, not the JMT Speed Cult part 1

Mary and I just returned home from trekking and fly-fishing roughly half of the John Muir Trail. We started our adventure at South Lake, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada below Bishop Pass after a fun hitch hiking adventure from where we left our car in Yosemite National Park.
We were trekking the untraditional direction of south to north for pure convenience. During the whole trek from start to finish, we did not see as many people on the trail proper as we imagined we would have. From LeConte Canyon to Yosemite we probably saw on average 8 people a day, with many crossing the trail to find adventure in other areas of the region.
Of the many trekkers we met, we were amazed how unprepared they were for the more difficult sections of the trail to still to come, that being Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park. Most of the trekkers had cross-trainer type footwear with little or no ankle support, but still were carrying at least 40 lbs some 50 lbs. Many of the novice type had sprained ankles and much blistered feet. A few that we had meet at the Vermillion Resort at Thomas Edison Lake were already considering plan “b” to their attempt at “JMT in 21 days”. Some of these “Speed Cultist” even had other issues that ranged from infected full depth blister wounds, debilitating raw chaffing in their genital area and shin splints. Yow! I was just very surprised, when fellow trekkers, particularly one in the Duck Lake section, asked me if the trail was going to keep getting harder, unfortunietly with a dumbfounded look, I didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, but what he feared. “ I said from Yosemite to wear the South Fork of the San Joaquin River comes out of Goddard Canyon is some of the most manicured and graded parts of the JMT you’ll hike, from there on to Mt. Whitney you get into some rugged trail in comparison, more wilderness and no easy way out. Oops? I guess I should not of said that. I was just stunned! Where are you from? Oh, well…Mr. dark cloud…
Mary and I did very well, we decide that we wanted to enjoy our 21 days doing half of the JMT, spending the afternoons painting, journaling, fly fishing or simply enjoying each others company and a leisurely swim.
Neither of us had any injuries not even a blister. We do wear good footwear; Asolo and Vasque backpacking boots are necessary especially on the freshly graded trail in Evolution Lake Basin. Soon I will post a gear list of what we brought and the individual weights of everything.
To see photos from our adventure 
120 miles of JMT
To see trekking journals
JMT Trekking Journals