TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

The Metolius River is fascinating, pristine, and oddly unsettling.  It emerges suddenly out of a nondescript spring and is an instant river — the volume is incredible. The water is the clearest I've ever seen, anywhere (and Mattie and I spent quite a few days swimming in Lake Tahoe back in our heyday).  Along the Metolius, there are underwater chasms where the water speeds up and churns downriver. The water rises and falls in huge eddies. Where the water is slower, it's so clear that when you look into it, it feels so deep that you get a sense of thalassophobia, like something big lives down there. ...which they do, but we didn't catch them.  We left the Crooked River and drove west through Redmond, then stopped in Sisters, OR to get some flies and tips (oh, and a new reel) at the fly fishing shop. They tried our best, but we were warned: fishing the Metolius is really, really hard.  In our optimism we drove straight to Allen Springs campground, which was quiet and e...

We left the Owyhee on a stormy Saturday after nearly two weeks of fishing and painting, and just as weekend crowds arrived. An annual May Owyhee trip will probably make its way into the van rotation — it was unlike any place we'd been, and like all those once-lesser-visited places, I hope it stays as wild and protected forever.  We have John Ljung to thank for inspiring this trip. Years ago he told us about this magical river, and I thought of him when we used flies he had tied for us back in 2018 to try for those big browns.  Brown town & trout pants FTW. On our way west and north we took a slightly longer route so we could pass through Mitchell, Oregon. It's a one street town a short drive toward the coast from John Day. We went through Mitchell so we could go back to Tiger Town Brewery. It's a quirky little place where we had stopped to eat out of desperation last spring, and found it to be one of those surprising gems with great beer and delicious food where you...

It's just so good, and so gorgeous.  Some rainy, blustery days on the Owyhee. We're still catching fish. We had a fun day trip to restock in Caldwell, with great food and beer at White Dog Brewing Co.  Purple wildflowers are showing up everywhere.  A happy man and a beautiful fish. Teddy doesn't mind these long river days. At all. An adventure dog and his person with red rocks,  a healthy river, dark clouds and bright sun. Even she catches fish.

We're back at the Owyhee River. It is gorgeous, if a little warm, and there are fish.  Greg is in the water all day, with the exception of an afternoon nap. We saw river otters. I'm painting again.  It's good to be on the move, and here for now. Beautiful canyon, red rock walls, wildlife. Great fishing.  Check check check check. Beautiful Owyhee browns. Plein air in the Owyhee River Canyon, late afternoon in May.  12x12 oil on linen board.

Well, we sold the little cabin at 19 Fremont Lane.  I woke in the van this morning (we moved the bed months ago) to a rare, oddly cold April rainstorm rolling through Paradise Road. It felt fitting to leave the lane one last time on a rainy day. It has always been my favorite weather in the canyon.  When it rains on Paradise Road, the river rises. If it rises enough, the riverbed gets cleared out and you know there will be more rocky-bottom pools in late summer. When it rains, all of Los Padres breathes a short sigh of relief because the next wildfire doesn't feel quite so imminent. It rains and the toads come out. Drought-stressed oak trees crack and block the road. The green season is extended. Maybe the river will run through the whole year — but probably not.  We packed up the last of our things and I took one last look in the bedroom where we said goodbye to Mattie for the last time. I know she's not there, but it still feels like leaving her behind.  I walked t...

Here I am, showing up years later after swearing I'd write more often. But somehow it's 2025, and we missed an entire year on the blog, because we were too busy out in the beauty of it all.  The TL;DR version (which got kind of long anyway, so maybe this is actually the "too long, read anyway" version), in no meaningful order:  Same job, going strong. Got a promotion. Almost three years out, I can say with certainty that leaving academia was 1000% the right move. Phew. My grandparents died. I don't know how to write about that yet. God, they were both just so cool. We thought they still had a lot of good years left. I miss them. I see them everywhere. I find myself wishing I could tell them about our travels, our life, the mountains. Sometimes when I'm out wandering, I try to anyway. I had forty good years with them, including weeks together backpacking in the high Sierra. More than anything, they just always wanted us around . It sounds so obvious, but it was...