Paddling East, Fishing West

Had a nice float with Kristine down the south branch and mainstream of the Au Sable. I won't go deeply into detail. We paddled, we saw eagles, deer, an otter; slept on the ground, woke one morning in fog so thick it felt like drizzle; ate out of cans and bags; I watched in agony Thursday night and Friday morning as rainbows rose to BWOs for hours on end in the waters below Mio.

We took few pictures on this trip--certainly not enough to offer anything like a photonarrative of the trip. Since I had the camera most of the time, the quality may not be what it could have been. But here are a couple of random shots that came out OK.




The Mason Chapel, on the south branch




Our last night's camp, at Meadow Springs

I started missing the trip as soon as we hauled out. I've been online-window-shopping for canoes since we got home.

Quite the mind-wipe it was. I didn't give much thought to work or other routine concerns, except to note a couple of times the fact that I wasn't thinking of them. Returning to reality is much harder than letting it go--I almost began that with "unfortunately," but I'm not sure about that.

After the float was over and the livery hauled us back to our car in Roscommon, we headed up the road to Grayling to recover with a motel room for the night and the obligatory dinner at Spike's. In the morning, I snuck out to fish the Manistee, giving the Au Sable a break because I'd never tried the Big M before in trico season. A fair hatch came off around 9, and I took 5 legal or better browns, plus some dinky ones. Fish were active in a few locations, but completely absent from long stretches of water. Nothing worth opening the champers over, but a pleasant wrap to the trip.

A busy week ahead, with preparations for classes. I may or may not blog