Deschutes Round 2

Heading out this week to float the Deschutes.  I've been too distracted with the other responsibilities and projects to give the preparations their due.  Luckily I tied enough flies for the last trip to cover me for at least another 5 days (or years) on the river.  The decree came down from the captains of our boats...Skagit lines and heavy tips will be outlawed with the exception of the bright sun hours of high afternoon.  Scandies it is...swing'em up. 

I started a checklist last night and put together a few piles of carefully sorted gear.  When space and weight are important considerations, the idea is to bring just enough.  From there, it's necessary to fit the "just enough" into dry bags.  Between rain and river running, you can't afford to allow anything to get wet.  "Just enough" when wet, quickly becomes "not enough". 

Stay dry, stay happy.

Speaking of staying dry, part of my trip prep was to drop some new sheetmetal screws into the soles of my wading boots.  I was going to spring for the manufacturer's labeled carbide tipped versions for $30 but the $1.25 box of steel screws I bought 4 years ago isn't empty and they worked well enough in the past.  I'm usually all in on gear and gadgets but I have seemingly decided to draw the line on an extra $28.75 for riverbed grippage.

I started this post this morning and let it marinate on my desktop all afternoon.  Since my original typing I've received a few updates from out west suggesting that the lower stretches of the D may be unfishable due to high water.  There was a mention of a few other rivers as a fallback plan in case things don't clear in time.  As I read the options for plan B, C and D I chuckled thinking that ANY one of them was worth the price of admission and it was almost embarrassing to think of any of these places as a "back-up plan".

The Moon is flooded, we may have to settle for Saturn, Jupiter or Mars. 
Fire the thrusters...Giddyup.