Tuesday, July 28, 2009

July 17 trip down Cross Canyon

As usual I was a bit rushed leaving for another Wenaha trip with Grant. We had originally planned on leaving around noon on Friday so I made morning plans. Grant, however, finished work early and was itching to hit the road ASAP. Luckily I had packed the night before so I grabbed my gear (hoping that I remembered everything) and headed out the door.

For this weekend adventure we planned on a two-night trip into the Wenaha using the Cross Canyon trail. Would be a bit of a rough weekend as the area was under an extreme weather watch for high temperatures: in Walla Walla the temp was expected to peak at 103 each day of the weekend. Mother Nature didn’t disappoint as it was damn hot on the hike down Cross Canyon. Bit a disappointing start to the trip as there were three vehicles already parked at the trailhead. We briefly contemplated going to the Hoodoo trailhead, but since we had just hiked it two weeks ago we stuck to Cross Canyon.

Since there were campers at our normal spot we made camp where the trail intersects the river. Pretty open spot: right on the trail and below the Cross Canyon trail. However based on the fire ring and make-shift wooden bench the spot appeared to popular with campers. After setting up camp we put on fishing gear and headed downstream. A bit downstream from the rock/fence area (where the Forest Service used fencing and rocks to create the trail) Grant spotted a couple Bull Trout in a deep section of water next to the bank. Was pretty fun watching the bulls move from under the bank to chase his fly.

Downstream of Butte Creek is the first deep hole where the river runs into a basalt cliff face. Always been a disappointing spot, we have fished the spot several times and never had much luck. Friday afternoon was no different as we didn’t see any fish. A bit below the pool is a small riffle where I had landed a nice rainbow the previous year. I drifted the double bunny and copper john combo through the riffle a couple times when WHAM fish on. And not just any fish but a very large fish! After the fish made a couple runs up and down the river my 3x tippet broke and the monster was free (of course Grant chastised me for using 3x instead of a heavier 2x tippet).

Even though it was incredibly hot during the day the temperature cooled off in the evenings. In fact it got down right chilly! The drop in temperature was partially due to the fact we were camped on an exposed area a few yards from the river. We both got chilled in our hammocks and light weight sleeping bags. Good lesson to learn -- even on the hottest days the Wenaha nights can get chilly.

Saturday we awoke to realize that a horrible, wild animal had ravaged our camp while we slept! A mouse or squirrel had chewed holes through both of packs and gotten into various food items. On of my compression straps was completely chewed off and Grant had several big holes in his pack. After lamenting the condition of our gear we prepared a breakfast of oatmeal and black coffee. Instead of same old oatmeal packets I prepared an oatmeal recipe I found at trailcooking.com. It was a great recipe, easy to make and the freezer bag made for quick cleanup.

Since we had fished about a mile downstream the previous night we hit the main Wenaha trail and hiked to our stopping point. On the hike we ran into a decent sized rattler about 100 yards upstream from Butte Creek. He was curled up under a rock next to the trail. Not a good place for a rattler to be making home – right on the trail under a rock! Around 9am we entered the river to start the days fishing. Even at 9am it was getting hot! We kept our normal routine of staying in the water and fished downstream. At one of the deeper pools we caught a decent sized rainbow, whitefish and bull trout. I couldn’t resist naming the pool the “trifecta pool”. However I should name the pool “broken rod pool” because that is exactly what happened: in dislodging my flies from an underwater snag I broke my fly rod! Some items are special and items have special memories: my fly rod is both. In 1996 while living in Boise my wife took the time to hand-craft this rod for me. I have been lucky enough to fish many wonderful waters in WA, OR, ID and MT over the past 10-15 years: that rod has been everyplace with me! To make matters worse my 18th anniversary was in two days! Needless to say I was incredibly bummed. I was also bummed that in my rush to get out of the house I forgot a backup rod. Looks like a spare rod is a must have when venturing in the Wenaha wilderness. Earlier in the season Grant also broke a rod.

Grant was gracious enough to share his rod with me as we fished downstream. Not an ideal situation, but while one of us fished the other would look for bull trout or have a snack. I had the rod when we came to a nice looking, long run. That long run produced my best fishing of the weekend. For a while it seemed that every cast was producing a fish or a decent hook up. Like the “trifecta pool” I caught bulls, rainbows and a large 20” whitefish. What is it about Whitefish? Once hooked these fish don’t fight or put up much of a struggle. Too bad the 20” Whitefish was very deep and should/could of put a decent fight.

Once we reached the water we had fished two weeks prior I decided I was bushed and got on the trail to head back to camp. As usual Grant fished a bit longer so I hiked solo back to camp. I was having a nice peaceful walk down the trail when a large brown creature jumped onto the trail ahead of me and run out of site. My initial thought was oh crap a bear (which there are many of in the Wenaha area). However after my initial shock I realized the critter had moose horns. In my explorations of the Wenaha I’ve never seen a moose, in fact I didn’t know there were moose in the area. Rest of the hike was pretty uneventful until returning to the rattlesnake rock. Sure enough the rattler was still there, coiled up under the rock, and rattling when I got near. Tough decision, stay on the trail and pass within 2’ of a coiled up rattler or jump down the embankment into the water. Well not such a tough decision I jumped into the water and walked the river back to camp.

While waiting for Grant I had another dehydrated dinner and read my book while waiting for Grant to return back to camp. About an hour later I see Grant across the river with a big stick and rock in hand. At camp he said not only did he again see the rattler but 3 more within 50’. One of them didn’t rattle until he placed his foot next to the snake! For the record don’t worry about the snake curled up the rock: Grant made sure that snake won’t be bothering any further hikers!

After dinner we sat in the hammocks talking about the day of fishing. Grant got a chuckle out of my close semi-close encounter with a moose. He also had never seen a moose in the area. A few minutes later Grant’s eyes get big and he shouts “watch out, moose!” I jump out of my hammock and sure enough that moose is barreling down the trail towards out camp! Grant’s yell startles the moose which slams to a stop, turns around and runs back down the trail. Incredibly funny moment -- a moose almost runs through our camp a few minutes after I was telling my story about seeing one on the trail.

Not much to report on Sunday. I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to fish which was probably a good thing since I didn’t have a rod. Instead I had a delightful day hanging in my hammock and read “What Angels Fear” by CS Harris (historical fiction mystery). Grant returned about 4pm and we waited until about 7pm to make the hike out. Was bloody hot and Cross Canyon is the steepest trail down to the Wenaha. The days rest did me good as I make the hike without stopping (3.2 miles and almost 2k elevation change)! Damn hard but I made it.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Some Pictures from July 17-19

Below is a link to some pictures from the July 17-19 trip down Cross Canyon. More pictures and a story later this week!

Cabela's Rods on Sale

Cabela's has some great pricing on their traditional II rods. Can pick up most models for $39!

Monday, July 13, 2009

South Fork Walla Walla Float

Ring Ring Ring .. 8am Sunday and Grant is calling to get me out of bed. We had planned to float the South Fork (and upper main stem) of the Walla Walla that day but I wasn't quite ready to start the day. After a quick breakfast I loaded up two new Outfitter X9 Pontoon boats that were on loan from Papa Coach. I felt bad (only slightly) that I was going to use his new pontoon boats before he had even taken them out of the box. But I figured someone should test them out to make sure they were safe for family use!

Note: I have never been in a pontoon boat and only been in a drift boat once. All this is very new to me.

Setting up the Outfitter X9 (purchased from Costco) was pretty straightforward. No major hitches in putting the boats together and we were fortunate to have the "help" of Grant's three young children. As Grant's wife put it "sometimes putting together things it is like an octopus in the fray". I suppose sometimes it is possible to have too much help.

For our first float we headed to Harris Park on the South fork of the Walla Walla and planned to float to Milton Freewater -- about 13-15 miles. It was about noon by the time we got ready and had the boats in the water.

Man what a blast! I have to say the pontoon boats are fun and very stable. Main problem was learning how to control the boats. In normal boat rowing you row "backwards" and pull the boat along. In the pontoon boats you are facing forward and mainly use the oars to steer..which is backwards of a normal rowboat. Lets just say it took a while to get used to the steering and movement of the boat.

We had planned to fish along the way but only stopped twice to fish. The South Fork was pretty low, brushy, and had numerous logs across the river. Because of all the obstacles we left our rods safely in their cases. Since it turned out to be a pain to re-rig every time we didn't fish much. However there appeared to be some pretty good pools between Harris Park down past the fish hatchery.

Speaking of fish hatchery one of the highlights of the day was spotting four salmon along the float. Very cool to see these huge fish in the small river. One of the them swam past the boats half out of the water! Amazing the speed and power of these huge fish.

I would divide the float into three parts. First third was a blast: combination of white water rafting, exploration and mastery of the boats. River had enough water that there wasn't much problem getting around. The middle third of the river pretty much sucked. We both lost an "oar stopper" from an oar and ended up being forced to use one oar as a paddle. Plus the river got much more shallow with more down trees and obstacles in the water. We ended up pulling the boats around many obstructions in the water. Really became a pain. Last third of the trip was pretty fun. The river more or less straightened out and the float became pretty easy. Plus we just resigned ourselves to go with the "flow" and let the river push us around. This seemed the easiest way to deal with only having one paddle.

The float took about 6 hours which was probably a bit too long for our first pontoon adventure. Next time we will probably put in at Harris Park and float just past the fish hatchery..hopefully this way we will get in some fishing time.

I'll post my thoughts on the Costco Outfitter X9 later this week.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

4th of July Wenaha Trip

Grant and I had a wonderful four-day Wenaha experience over the 4th of July. Originally we planned on leaving early Friday morning; however that morning Grant had to replace the starter in his Jeep Cherokee so we got a bit of a late start. With new starter and battery in place we hit the road for the Wenaha river.

The Wenaha Wilderness area is close to the Walla Walla Valley – only about 70 miles from Milton-Freewater. However much of the trip is on gravel mountain roads so the drive is about 2 hours.

From the south side of the Wilderness area there are few trails down to the river. We decided to fish the lower portion of the river so we hiked down Hodoo trail (about 3 miles). The Hodoo trail ends at the river on the opposite side of the main Wenaha trail. Water flow was low enough that crossing didn’t pose a problem.

Once to the bottom of the trail we sent up the Hennessy Hammocks, unpacked our fishing gear and hit the river. For the first day we fished downstream from camp. Directly below Hodoo is a nice hole (we call the Big Hole). Since Grant is a gentleman he let me have the first crack at a big bull trout. He climbed up the bluff to peer into the water and spot. On one of my first casts I had a bull follow my fly as I stripped it through the water. Unfortunately I was a bit quick on the strips and never allowed the fish to grab the fly. I was still able to land a smaller bull in the Big Hole.

We finished the day’s fishing at Crooked Creek which is roughly 3 miles from Hodoo. Grant fished a bit below Crooked Creek and I hit the trail back to camp. I was exhausted by the hike down Hodoo in 100+ degree weather. Was probably a good thing since Grant didn’t catch anything below Crooked Creek.

Friday night was going to be my first night in my Hennessy Hammock. Grant spent the previous weekend in the Wenaha and slept in his Hennessy. However hammock camping proved to be cold and he had two miserable evenings. A problem with “hanging” (i.e., hammock camping) is there isn’t any “loft” under the sleeper. The cold area under hammock can make one’s backside very cold. I had read about being cold hammock camping so I outfitted my Hennessy with an underquilt. Also based on Grant’s recommendations I layered up in heavy thermal underwear, two pair of socks and put the rain fly down around the hammock (to keep cool air off). About 1 minute into the hammock I was miserably hot! I ended up flipping off the rain fly and sleeping in my long johns. I was still too warm and spent most of the night out of my sleeping bag. Overall my first night of the Hennessy was awesome! Normally after a night of sleeping on the ground I’m stiff and sore, not so with the Hennessy.

Saturday we headed upstream about 3.5 miles (about half way to Cross Canyon) and fished downstream towards camp. based on Grant’s experience we skipped fishing around Fairview Bar.

In the late afternoon dark thunderheads started to roll into the canyon. As the rain drops started to fall I got nervous about our camp. I had left the rain fly off my hammock and had visions of coming back to a hammock and sleeping bag full of water! We finished fishing back to the Hodoo trail and made it back to camp just has a light rain started to fall. We were able to get our rain flies set up and camp prepared for the approaching rain. We literally got everything set up 10 minutes before a heavy downpour. Certainly was a great lesson: no matter what the weather looks like ALWAYS prepare your camp for rain.

Sunday morning I awoke very tired. The hike down Hodoo and 15 miles of hiking, fishing, and river wading was taking it toll on my body. After another breakfast of black coffee and oatmeal we decided to again hit the water below Hodoo. After a good couple hours of fishing we decided to continue below Crooked Creek and fish some new water.

Below Crooked Creek the fishing was horrible. Not sure why but for some reason we couldn’t find any fish. Maybe it is because the river is straighter and doesn’t seem to have as many deep pools. Maybe it is the fact that there is more sediment in the river. For whatever reason the fishing was poor and not worth the effort (at least this day). Only bright spot was a decent rainbow I hooked and landed. As we debated the merits of keeping the fish for dinner he wriggled free and saved himself from our campfire.

On the way back we decided to fish a hole near the camp site more time. Interestingly we saw a big fish jump out of the water twice: once he was moving upstream and another downstream. We never got a good look at the fish, Grant thought it might have been a bull trout but I saw a very coppery color and think it was a big rainbow (or maybe an early salmon). After seeing this monster rise twice Grant switched to a dry fly (stimulator). We never caught another glimpse of that big rising fish. Grant did catch a decent rainbow that we kept for dinner. Upon cleaning the rainbow we noticed his stomach was stuffed full of caddis and caddis casings. Was a bizarre sight to see a fish stomach full of tiny sticks and rocks!

We had been in the wilderness area for three days and had yet to see another person. Strange considering we had covered A LOT of ground over three days and it was the 4th of July weekend. That all changed Monday morning. After a rainy morning (which was blessing since I was able to rest for a couple hours) we left camp to cross the Wenaha at Hodoo. At the bottom of Hodoo was an absolutely amazing sight – we saw the first person of the trip! This guy had packed a 9’ pontoon boat plus gear down Hodoo (his pack was about 75 pounds AND he had the boat frame)! He was planning to solo float the Wenaha to Troy, OR (planning on taking 4 days). Was a bit disappointed when he said he was going to fish using big 9” lures and worms. Big lures are one thing, but worms are forbidden on most selective waters. The fish tend to swallow the worms making it impossible to release them unharmed. This is even more troubling with the endangered/protected bull trout in the Wenaha.

With the day wearing on we hit the trail and headed back to camp. After getting camp broke and our packs loaded up it was 7:30pm (about 2 hours later than we had originally planned to leave). Not sure if it was the cooler weather (was about 75-80) or the fact I was getting used to walking but for the first time I was able to make it up Hodoo without stopping. Was an incredible feeling making it to the top in an hour (this on top of the fact we had already done over 7 miles of hiking/fishing earlier that day).

A few miles driving away from Hodoo we were flagged down by a vehicle. They asked if had seen two men and a three-legged dog on the river. Apparently the wife of one of the men had gone into labor two-months early and just had their baby. These guys were trying to notify him of the birth his child. Only problem is they had no idea where he was or what vehicle he was driving. We explained to them we had been upstream and downstream over three miles in each direction and not seen a soul. We departed for home joking about two men and three-legged dog. About the time we hit the main road that borders the wilderness area I had the thought that the two men and three legged dog probably started in Troy. Most people that visit the Wenaha start in Troy so they don’t have to cross the river. We turned around and drove back to the Hodoo trailhead just in time to catch the men before they hiked down the trail. We explained to them the trail is on the far side of Hodoo and most people start hiking the Wenaha trail at Troy.

Funny that over a holiday weekend we don’t see a single soul along the river and then on Monday meet someone planning on solo floating the river and a group of men looking for two men and a three-legged dog.

Overall a great trip into the Wenaha.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Hidden Pools is Born

So why hidden pools? I've been thinking about an outdoor adventure blog for some time now. Over the years I have had the good fortune of exploring and fly fishing some incredible outdoor locales in the Western US (WA, OR, ID and MT). As I get older and starting thinking about the places I've been I wonder how they will change over time. What will the landscape look like? What will the fish runs be like? How will we change the wilderness area around us?

Also my sense of adventure and passion for the outdoors is small compared to my good friend and blog partner Grant. He is a true fly fishing "bum" (in the best sense of the word) in that most free weekend he spends seeking out fly fishing opportunities: often spending weekends by himself in wilderness areas. I look forward to hearing about his various adventures.

Now this will sound sappy but both Grant and I have young children. I think it would be an interesting legacy to our children to see the places we have explored, hiked, and fished. Who knows maybe one day when they are old enough they will want to retrace the places we have been. Hopefully the hidden pools of today will still be a great treasure in the future.