Evening at the Ford.

Sunbeams break through dust and kicked-up gravel in the rearview mirror. Katie grips a bit tighter than I think she needs to on the door handle as we wind down a steep forest service road.

We hit washboard gravel a bit too fast and the rumble is the only sound we hear – it’s all we can feel, too, as it fills the cavernous back end of the 4Runner that I’ve again forgotten to put my back seats into from a camping trip a month ago.

The light’s fading. It takes longer to get here than I’d planned, but the light on the drive and the experience of going makes it worth it nonetheless.

We didn’t come to cast for fish – even though we are. The water’s too warm. We really shouldn’t be fishing anyway – the temperature broke records today. I chalk it up to Katie practicing her cast. She’s getting better at hooksets. I’ve tied on a heavy nymph. She hooks more rocks than you can count, but with each dip of the indicator she lifts the rod tip a bit faster at my occasional bidding until I’m confident she’d set the hook if these mossy rocks were fish.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little excerpt from the summer. There were supposed to be more images from this trip, but as you can tell from the story, we ended up hurrying a bit more than we like.

Until next time,