2018 was a good year but a tough year in several respects and I’m actually kind of glad this one is over with. Thanks to Lira I hiked close to 2000 miles this year and we managed to get out and do quite a bit of fishing and hunting, logging 108 days total in the water, hills or fields. I also somehow managed to build a boat for the sole purpose of taking her fishing with me since she coludn’t quite work out in a float tube. Catherine and I had a lot of fun spending many days exploring the Middle Fork Valley this year and also camping and hiking on the Oregon coast.
Along with the good there were some hard times. In early March my mom had a bad fall and we found she had suffered a very small stroke with the fall. She was healing up from that when she had a second stroke that sent her to the hospital. Kristen and I flew back thinking we would be helping move her to an assisted living facility since she had started to talk again and was recovering a bit but during our travels a third stroke took away that hope and a few days later my mom passed. We held a nice but small service in an Iowa blizzard before flying back to Seattle.
Over the winter I had started a big project in the garage, I decided to build a boat for the upcoming trout season so that Lira could go fish with me. I got plans, started buying materials and then began building. I’d never attempted a wooden boat before but thanks to YouTube and my friend Jeff I fumbled my way through it. I finally got the boat together in early May and we took it on its maiden voyage. Over the next six weeks Lira and I were out on the local lakes almost daily. She loves sitting in the back and watching the line for trout and gets so excited when fish start jumping. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out but plan to do a few small upgrades over the winter of 2019.
In early winter we had a few bird hunts but the season really started in late April with spring turkey season. I headed over to Cheney for a few days in what was tough conditions for turkey. On the drive over it was 95 degrees, at 3:30 am it was about 50, by the time we hit the field it was in the 40s and by noon it was below freezing and sleeting. Craziness but I did manage a Jake that first day. The second morning dawned perfectly and within minutes of shooting light we called in a big flock of birds with two big Toms, one of which went down to my 20-gauge. This was my first mature bird and we’ve been enjoying these two birds all year long.
Sometime in late March Catherine and I began heading out to the Middle Fork since the road was now paved and open. Well, where it wasn’t snow covered early on it was open. We started hiking all the hikes in the area and just kept going back for more. This year we went up to Granite Lakes several times plus did the trail up to either heavy snow or an impassable creek early in the year. We managed to hike all of the CCC trail over the course of several hikes. We did the Pratt River trail multiple times as well as the Taylor River trail, going to Otter Falls or just up the trail and back down. We even managed to hit a grouse with the car one day and came out with dinner. We still have a lot we want to explore in the area and will be back for sure next year, it has become our favorite place to hike in the area.
In early June we took a trip down to the Oregon coast, Lira’s first camping trip. This trip was amazing. We spent several days at Cape Lookout and then several more at Cape Perpetua walking the beaches and hiking all the old growth we could find in the wilderness areas down there. June was the start of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Hike to Hunt Challenge and it got me out for decent hikes every single day. I managed to raise $600 for BHA to support our public lands and logged 500 miles over the course of the summer.
June also brought the start of tenkara season so Lira and I stopped taking the boat out and moved to the local rivers to catch trout in traditional Japanese style. Lira turned into a good fishing companion in the rivers, she wades along with me and then gets to play fetch with her duck decoy when we are done fishing. We spent many days on the Tolt and South Fork fishing together as well as a few other small streams or lakes we’d fish when out hiking.
July brought Camp Triplet. We had the triplets up for a week of adventure in the Snoqualmie Valley and up in the North Cascades. Locally the kids camped in the back yard and played in the river every day. In Mazama we were joined by Kristen, Cadence and Marshall and stayed at the Freestone Inn. We hiked to Cutthroat Lake and Lake Ann and caught small trout in the high lakes and spent time swimming in the lake and the pool at the ranch. I also got Marshall out to learn how to shoot sporting clays and a rifle while he was here.
August started hunting season for me with a trip down to John Day, OR to chase after elk. The weather was hot and the fire danger high so no elk were harmed on the trip but I will be back in February to see if I can finally fill that tag. I also got Lira over to Cooke Canyon for a warm up hunt at the end of the month to get her ready for pheasant season. Also during our trip to Manama, Kristen decided to take a job in sunny LA and her and Cadence moved in early September. This was a big change for our family and they are having quite the adventure in SoCal. It also led me to start a several month long remodel of the condo in Redmond which I’m hoping to sell soon.
In fall I transitioned from fishing to hunting. I spent several days early in the month scouting for deer over in Ellensburg and getting in some more bird hunting on preserves as well as grouse hunting in the local forest. Late in the month I set up deer camp along the Yakima River with our friend Lisa who I was mentoring this season. We hunted most of the early muzzleloader season and I was so close, too close, to getting a buck. While I didn’t manage to harvest a buck I learned more during the 10 day season than I had in the previous years of hunting deer.
By the time deer camp was taken down pheasant season in Western Washington was underway and Lira and I were getting out as much as possible chasing birds. Once the season for wild birds opened in Eastern Washington we split our time between pheasants on both sides and quail, chukar and Hungarian Partridge on the east side and managed to bag a few new species. Catherine and I did overnighters in Ellensburg every week or so tromping around the hills and looking for mule deer, bighorn sheep and raptors as Lira focused on the birds.
Fall also brought an answer to a health question I’d been dealing with all year – why the heck do I have a burning pain in my lower left leg? I’ve had this pain on and off for several years and in the past it was always calmed down by chiropractic and physical therapy. This year it didn’t work and the pain became a daily occurrence. My doctor thought the problem was a combination of degenerative discs and a thickening of the ligament in my spinal column so sent me back to the neurologist. The neurologist thought it was a worsening of my neuropathy so ordered another nerve conduction study, i.e, torture session, for me. That came back negative so another MRI was ordered. The spinal MRI showed a lesion on my cervical spine so a brain MRI was ordered now that MS was suspected. The brain MRI came out clean so I technically don’t have MS since that requires multiple lesions. I have what is called CIS – Clinically Isolated Syndrome – which is now considered to be the first stage of MS. At least we know the cause of the burning pain and now the hope is that the next round of MRIs in the spring will show no progression or new lesions. So far I’m taking a natural approach to this using the Wahls Protocol and Low-Dose Naltrexone and it appears to be working though I still have burning pain most days.
Late fall and early winter continue with bird hunting in Eastern Washington and planning for the year to come. We will continue going to the Yakima to hunt birds and waterfowl in January until the season closes. I’ll be back elk hunting in mid-February in hopes of finally refilling the freezer with something other than birds and fish and by then tag season will be in full swing trying to set up some hunts for the fall. A few preserve trips will be needed in February and March to finish up the season and get Lira out for those last birds. A turkey trip is planned for early May. After that we will see what I draw for tags. In August we will have Camp Triplet again this time in the San Juans and after that Catherine and I take off for a trip into the backcountry of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska which could be the biggest adventure we’ve had in a long while.