Well, we went all the way to Montana to float the Smith River, but it was an awfully long drive to not see a sight or two on the way home. So with that in mind, after we pulled off the Smith we stayed a night in Missoula and then it was on to a day trip on the Bitterroot river just outside of town.
Sometimes life gets busy. Well, maybe it is busy more than it isn’t. Anyhow, it leaves you wondering how you really get away from it all on what could be a hectic 3 day (Memorial Day) weekend. Are you going to end up “getting away from it all” with 10,000 of your closest friends at the nearest lake? Or maybe just stay home and avoid the crowds? Or is there a place you can go, float over 40 miles of river and have your pick of campsites, and hardly see a soul? Why yes, there is such a place.
There are occasions where you might ask if you should just stay home. In those times I usually am reminded of one of my favorite passages by John Muir.
November typically signals the end to river floating season. In the past, seeing November roll around was a bit depressing. No more floating, fishing is pretty much over and the days are really short on daylight. It seems nowadays there’s no shortage of things to get done in November, so it’s not all that depressing, but it still marks the end of river floating season. And wow, was 2017 a season for floats.
I feel very lucky to be able to live in a place that I can float 7 rivers in a year (some multiple times) all within a one day drive of the doorstep. So these are my thoughts reflecting back on a year of being lucky enough to float over 360 miles on 7 rivers in Oregon in 2017.
How amazing is it to have the Deschutes as your backyard river? 1.5 hours to the put in, abundant permits, amazing trout fishing with bonus steelhead in the fall, and great camping and even hiking if you make the time for it. Trips to the Deschutes are kind of the bookend to the floating season. It is typically one of, if not the first trips of the season and is also commonly the last trip. It seems like it is always a good time to float the Deschutes with a wide season of good weather, predictable flows and great fishing, I don’t know what else to ask of a river. Fishing seems like it is on the decline, but I don’t ever see a year in the future without the Deschutes.