Time has flown by after moving out to
Twisp last month, and I hope it slows down a tad or else I will be out of here before I get a good sampling of everything the
Methow valley has to offer. The
Methow, pronounced MET-HOW, is sorta Sun Valley meets Big Sky country, quieter and quirkier though. It is a unique place, with so much to do, one of those spots that leads quickly to an overwhelming realization that multiple lifetimes would be needed to cover it all.
Right now work is long, and tiring, but fun, rewarding and adventurous. The people that I have met living here are great and the guys I work with are becoming close friends. I was lucky to get this chance. Hiking, floating and wading rivers all day everyday is hard to beat, especially here. Today we surveyed the Lost river, not of Idaho, of the
Pasayten Wilderness here in Washington. An upper tributary to the
Methow, the Lost closely resembles northern Idaho streams such as the
Selway, Kelly Creek and Marsh Creek, but with a little bit of the destructive capabilities similar to west side rivers like the
Hoh or
Skykomish. I found three new
steelhead redds in a dark, heavily forested side channel off the main river, a place that has actually probably seen few people. Big Foot was probably following me the whole time.
It is still cold here, but the trees are filling with leaves and the days are becoming longer and longer. Summer is just around the corner now.