Silver King II
Day 2...
After the biking and fishing trip we drove down 395 and up into the Carson iceberg Wilderness where we camped out. The next morning we did the 15 mile round trip hike once again. It was me, BW, and DL. This was to be a pretty special trip as the next day the creek was scheduled to be treated with rotenone to remove the rainbows and make room to restore the native paiutes. Here are BW and DL at the entrance to the protected area:
This sign is about a mile from the trailhead. From where you reach this sign, is about a 3 mile shot straight down to the creek. Even if you were not going to head all the way up stream to the falls to take a shot at a paiute, this area would be worth the walk because it is just chalk full of rainbows. Interestingly, there are no browns in the river here because of a barrier falls downstream. This fact is important because it proves that the downstream barrier is effective - if it were not there would be browns up here that came up from the Carson.
After turning upstream and walking three tough miles, not tough because of the hiking but tough because of walking by so much pristine looking water, we arrived at the falls. Here we are at the campsite that is just at the base of the falls. This would be a great place to stay for an overnight trip, but be careful because there are active and attenuated bears in the area.
After a quick lunch we were off to catch some fish. The catching was as fast as my experience here a few weeks earlier. BW hit the falls and I helped him land a few to see if we could come up with a paiute. No luck. DL was fishing downstream and catching quite a few fish, but also no paiutes. I tossed out a streamer that BW had tied up based on the WCS Big Ugly and caught a few decent fish, then I moved downstream and put on an Adams. Then it happened again: I caught the rarest fish in the world for the third time! Here he is:
We fished as long as the daylight would allow, considering we had another 7.5 mile walk out. Unfortunately we would not see another paiute this day.
DL just could not stand to pass by some of the better looking water in the lower meadows.
We managed to finally put the rods away and get back to the trailhead just before dark. When we got there DL's DFG coworkers had already put up signs notifying people of the next days rotenone treatment.
Unfortunately the next day we would find out that a misguided environmental group would block the treatment for the 3rd year in a row with some unscrupulous legal maneuvering...
Atta Boy Dave, let's hope BW gets one in 2006. HTC #3...
ReplyDeleteFoiled by "Citizens Against Trout". I am worried about those wonderful little fish. I hope we can prevail one day in favor of an endangered species. There are plenty of crazy people with "fifteen minutes of political fame" agendas, but not enough pure-strain trout. bw
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