A couple lessons learned

As promised, I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and got out on the water this past weekend.  It was my first trip of the year and, while my camera skills were weak, I did manage to learn a couple important lessons.

Lesson One: Water levels are stupid low.  This river normally is around 2,500 to 3,000 cfs when it's in its prime, and current water levels put it around 380 cfs.  I saw two other boats on the water--both of which involved everyone out of the boat walking it through a riffle.  I'll wait until water levels come up a bit before putting the new drift boat in the water.

Lesson Two: I don't know the first thing about spey casting.  I've watched a few short videos and read up on the subject online, but, as things sit right now, I've got serious work to do if I want to get the most out of my new switch rod.  At least it roll casts a mile.

Lesson Three: Even though Karta is turning gray, she's still got it.

Some Wisconsin stoke

So the picture quality is a bit rough, but it's good enough to tell that Tom is ripping lip out of the great lakes and I'm not.

This might be just the inspiration I need to put the skis away for a couple days, grab the pooch, and flog the water.  Stay tuned; a trip report will follow.

Sheep!

When I tell people I live in Anchorage, they often make the mistake of thinking I live in Alaska.  Sadly, I do not.  I live 20 minutes from Alaska.  However, now that the days are getting longer 20 minutes isn't so bad.  Here's what went on after work yesterday:

Karta, showing Evan and I the way up:

Go go gadget zoom (there actually were three):

Self-shot by The Wife looking out over Turnagain Arm:

Doug getting after it:

Evan, not afraid of refreezing sun-baked mush:

Karta and I pushed on past the rest of the crew to the saddle, eventually getting an up-close-and-personal view of the sheep from above and milking about 2,200 vertical feet out of the day:

It's been snowing off-and-on for the past week, and temperatures have been warming.  We were skiing on 6-8 inches of fresh that had warmed up during the day and was started to refreeze as the evening wore on.  Not bad, all and all.  Of course, the sheep were a great bonus.