I've just completed a summer angling trip to McCloud, Pit, Feather, Truckee, and Walker rivers in California. The water was very high so (except for McCloud) the angling (and the angler!) were somewhat marginal. But the solitude was outstanding! I'll put some pictures below. The amount of water is a good sign; healthy for the fish and the watershed...just tough to wade and really tough to get a good drift.
I've been getting some notices from Trout Unlimited about a legislative attack on the Clean Water Act in the House of Representatives. Here's a read: http://www.tu.org/press_releases/2011/house-approves-bill-to-undercut-the-clean-water-act. I don't TRY to anger my more conservative friends, but man...what are we thinking? This is a BASIC law to protect what's left of our environment and it really should not be altered. I doubt we want to go back to the days of burning rivers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns.
What this legislation intends is to pass federal responsibility for this issue to states. The crux, to me, of what is happening in our governance these days is the feeling in people like the drafters of this legislation that government regulation has no place in the lives of Americans; that we must be "free" to do what we choose at the moment. Environmental protections, by their very nature, require all of us to do a good act for all of us...and to keep our eye on the future. Some will lose, but most will gain...and those who lose in protections like this are businesses who (by necessity) WANT or NEED to use the natural world to create jobs and profit. The nice thing about TU is that they are willing to work with this segment of us...when appropriate. But I put forward that this isn't one of these times. Regulation works for the common good in certain cases, and this occasion calls for us to act like a republic instead of a confederation of individuals. Compare the conservative position on this to that regarding the deficit (in which "our children's children" are to be protected from the HUGE federal debt). Shouldn't these two issues be consistent?
So, I would urge the reader to spend a bit of time reading up on this issue, and if you feel it's appropriate, contact your senator and work to protect the Clean Water Act.
Anyway, I took a video and a couple of photos...so here they are:
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| Just a real pretty side stream where it intersects the PCT |
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| A McCloud Rainbow caught on a dry...quick before he gets to swim away!) |
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