No Family!

I am on my own this weekend and for most of next week.  Its a weird feeling.  Kind of like when your parents used to leave you home for a few days.  I can get up whenever I want.  I can go anywhere I want.  I don't have to think about anyone else.  Its.....WONDERFUL!

Ashley is in Phoenix getting our home ready to sell.  Truth is, it should be me down there.  I only have finite vacation time and it was either go to Phoenix and fix up the house or accompany my family to Island Park Idaho for a week of family vacation.  Ashley wanted me to go with the family, so she is down taking care of business.

I have so may things I want to do.  I am grateful that our kids are generally up for some good out door adventures.  Still, there are some locations that are too far away, or that kids just cannot do.  I had it down to a final three.  Hike to Genoa Peak (6-9 hours), Hike to 4th of July Lake (Winemucca Lake is 2.5 mile hike and the kids can make it, but 4th of July Lake is over the ridge, and additional 2.5 miles - 10 miles total.  I want to see it), and fish the Silver Fork of the American River.  I have been there twice, but both times I had underestimated how long it took to get there and I arrive as the sun is setting and have not been able to put in a good days work.

SO - Today I got up at 7:00 am made a lunch, stopped a Maverick for a 44 oz diet Coke and a breakfast burrito and went fishing on the Silver Fork of the American River!  All Day, by myself - saw one other fisherman.

On a serious note, I wrote down some Geocaches to find on the way.  I got a new I Phone 6 from work this week (gave Ashley the 5), so my Geocache App was not working properly.  I got it working at the end of the day, so I found this Cache on the way home.  It was at a place called Tragedy Springs.  Why is it tragic?  I don't know, I never heard of the place.  I actually thought this was the turn off to go to the stream, but it was before.  I decided to look for the Cache anyway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_Spring,_California

So there you have it.  It is tragic in a sense.  I don't blame the Indians as we were just as ruthless to them.  I have been watching "Texas Rising" on History Channel which is a fictional account, but with alot of truth about the Texas Revolution.  Santa Anna viewed the revolting Texans as "pirates" not as an organized army under a country.  As such, he did not apply the rules of war to the game. 445 Texians were retreating from Goliad to meet with Sam Houston, but were intercepted by Santa Anna, they surrendered and asked for passage to the United State.  Santa Anna marched them in three rows and slaughtered them.

I have been thinking about that time - 1836, Texas Revolution, 1846-1848 Mexican American War, 1861-1865, Civil War.  For What? So you could scrape out some miserable existence living on 120 acres in Texas.  Constantly away from your family with a great potential that you would not see them again.  

We think that we have life hard today (and aside from health problems).  Life today has mild inconveniences, and its annoying, but man - I can work for 30 years in Minden Nevada and get a pension?  Not fight anyone?  Have collegefootball?  Sign me up.

Anyway - enough serious stuff - visiting his spring did make me feel for those who had a hard life as it was, and then had to end it that way.  The 3 that died were between the ages of 19-49.

The spring was nice.  I decided to take a drink which I don't usually do, but I was thirsty after a day of fishing. Also - I did find the cache inside a hollow log under some wood.  This is what geocaching is about - getting you to see something you would not have stopped at before.

The Silver Fork was awesome!  I made it so far and fished for about 6 hours.  I saw as much as I need to see.  Total, I caught around 40 fish.  Sounds great.  Only two were of any substantial size.  They were mostly 4-6 inches.  I did fish a small portion of this stream with Curt two years ago and he noted that it is a very clean stream - no bugs in the mud, so anything the fish are eating is falling into the water, it doesn't produce enough food for the fish to get big.  I did well.  Caught 9 below the surface with a copper john, and caught 30+ on the surface with an elk hairs caddis.  Its actually the most successful I have been with a nymph in California.  They were not taking off the surface when I started.

My work gave me the new I phone, and I don't have  a water proof case for it.  I kept in in a zip lock bag while I was on the river, so some of the pictures are not very clear.

One of the bigger ones - 10 inches or so

Pretty standard for all the other fish - 4-6 inches.  All rainbow trout.  Nothing for dinner

The biggest catch of the day was a 2-foot "Sierra Garner Snake."  I thought it was a king snake.  Garner snakes release a secretion that smells like skunk.  I picked this guy up and my hands smelled the rest of the day.  He swam right up to me.

From Yosemite Park Website:

Gartersnakes are the most common snake observed in the park. The park contains three species of gartersnakes, including the Sierra gartersnake. The Sierra gartersnake is highly aquatic and is most often found basking on the banks of rivers and streams or foraging in the water for fish and frogs. Aquatic snakes spend the majority of their time in and around water.

Biggest bummer of the day - both boots on my waders tore.  I did not even know that was possible.  I didn't even do anything crazy.  They are 3+ years old, so I will live with it, but man, I had freezing cold wet feet all day.  The right one I think I can patch, but the left one is large and in a difficult location.

I wish I could put a map in to show you where I went, but this program is a pain.  I could show the parking area - you can follow it way up to see the red bridge in the picture below.  I went so far.

Just an example of how fast and clear the water is running.  This photo had no plastic bag over it.  Huge pools full of tiny fish.  There were a few that I wanted to take a fishing break and swim in.  The river has huge boulders all the way down - impressive.

A few were cracked and then hollow in the middle.  I thought that was really cool.

An example of my view all day.  So many pools to fish, so little time.

This bridge was way upstream - 1.5 miles or so.  It was really nice, just for foot traffic.  Surprised they went through the trouble of building it.  I pulled about 8 fish out of this hole and had another 10 go after the fly.  I think some of the fish were too small to eat the whole thing.

This is the confluence of the Silver Fork of the American River (coming from the right) huge steep cascading water falls - hard to see with the trees. Caples Creeks is to the left coming in straight.  I followed Caples Creek up Silver Fork looked really steep.

This one is for the kids - we enjoy the "california snowcones" (actually called snowflowers).  I have never seen so many snow flowers as I did on this hike.  I took one picture that had 13 of them.  Usually you find them one or two at a time.  These were also huge.  Red is not a color seen in nature often, they really contrast with the forest ground.

Finally - on the way hiking back to the car after a full day of fishing - Am I back in the Redwood Forest?

Cool - Check one item I wanted to do off the list.  So much left to explore.  Streams, lakes, and mountain peaks to visit.  Came home tired.  No church tomorrow - stake conference.  Going to try and make it to 4th of July Lake.