Day 228 – Out of Range

5

August 15, 2016 – What did your day at work look like today?

This was mine 🙂

Rough, eh?

No cell phones, no email, no Facebook, no Pinterest…. nothing digital out here.

How incredibly awesome is that?

Just two people in a spectacular setting, trying to catch fish for enhancement purposes.

The only sounds are those of nature – the rushing Squamish River behind us, rapids roaring over boulders, birds in the trees, and the occasional jumping fish. The only other signs of human life on the river, a small number of rafting company buses heading upriver, rumbling past on the rough gravel road above us. An hour or so later, their occupants heading downstream in bright yellow rafts past us, through the raging waters on the other side of the gravel bar.

But turning our backs on the Squamish, we were on Shovelnose Creek, a lovely little side stream that we were fishing for Chinook today.

I have taken on a few new facilities and I’m trying to familiarize myself with their projects. A few weeks I was on the Cheakamus River, a fast flowing river with dangerous undercurrents and littered with trees and boulders that can trap an inattentive person unlucky enough to fall in. The Shovelnose is a bit more laid back, as you can see.

But it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies.

Our first net set didn’t go well. When the current exerted more force than the pin on the other side of the channel could manage and the net let loose, we had to use the truck to pull the net back out of the river and off the log it snagged; unfortunately in the process the log destroyed a third of the net and broke the lead line. Lots of clambering over rocks and pulling lines.

With a third of the net rendered useless by the snag we had to modify our set and set site, but got it in and then spent the next few hours waiting in vain.

I had an altercation with a pair of small trees when I was using them to aid me in sliding down a bank into a chest deep creek that I needed to cross to get back to the truck, and I have two skinned elbows to show for that.

And I twisted my ankle (right after we were talking about how each of us has managed to do some significant damage to ankles) while were carrying a net through the trees to the set site, but not badly enough to cause anything more than a passing half hour hour of discomfort before it worked itself out. No significant damage done. All good.

The biggest stress I have on these trips is making sure I’m not a burden to the staff I’m with.

Sadly we were skunked and didn’t catch anything, but it was still a good learning experience and I had an opportunity to spend a good chunk of time in conversation gaining a lot of insights on the programs and systems this new-to-me facility works on.

But I am seriously stoked to have a site that affords me the opportunity to get out on the rivers and work in the field…..in August! Most of my work in the field is in October, in the shittiest weather imaginable. It’s cold, it’s wet, and it would be miserable if it weren’t for the people.

But this…this is a gift.

An hour from my door to the hatchery, and then another drive up the Valley to the most beautiful areas imaginable.

The Squamish area is just gorgeous.

I could sit here for hours.

Oh, wait…I did 🙂

Sometimes a day like this is a gift for other reasons too, like getting your mind off of things you can’t control.

116 Photos in 2016 – 94. Pretty as a Picture