I just returned from doing the lower float on the Deschutes (sun-wed.) We saw two sleds pulling out at Mack's Canyon as we were launching Sunday morning and the BLM sled about an hour after that and one sled on Monday afternoon (not fishing), other than that saw only trains and a solitary mountain biker on the east side of the canyon just below Harris rapids - so that should help better define how far up you can mountain bike without extreme difficulty. The weather was a mixed bag characterized by near constant wind, accompanied by gusting wind, clouds, sun, showers and/or rain. The camp host at Heritage Landing commented on how windy it had been, and when someone that lives on the mouth of the Deschutes makes a note of the wind, you know it was not pleasant. I am not sure what some of the gusts were on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, but I am extremely happy that it laid down a little on Wednesday when we had to run the real rapids, as Monday and Tuesday we had to row downstream at times just to avoid getting pushed back upstream and were all over the river laterally. The wind made fishing a chore and the mixed bag in weather did us no favors with hatches - it was not consistently cloudy enough to get the mayflies going (or too windy, or too cold or all of the above), not warm enough to really get the caddis going etc., so we saw few rising fish and had only a very few hook-ups on dries (even though that is our much preferred method of fishing trout in rivers.) When we gave up and switched over to the dark side, we did OK on deep sparkle pupa's fished with stonefly or prince anchors to get them down. We spent a lot more time in camp hiding from the weather than we had originally anticipated as the evening caddis/spinner fall really did not happen. What was hatching was a mix of PMD's, PED's, caddis, microcaddis, and little yellow sallies.
We had a nice time, but it was very much a camping/rafting trip. One thing to note - we (read I), pulled one stupid stunt just below Gordon rapids, as I did not pull enough anchor rope. Likely a combination of wind gust and a breaking wave put just enough force on the anchor to lift it over the rocks I had set it behind, and when I looked up from my camera, the cat was nowhere to be seen. I screamed for my partner (who had worked well upstream) and took off running downstream and finally caught up to the boat - which had lodged on the other side of the river. For some reason, my partner had not taken off his life vest after running Gordon, so I stripped off my waders, put on his life vest and swam for the boat. I thought that I had started upstream of the boat with plenty of margin for error, but 5000 CFS is nothing to underestimate and ended up coming to shore well below the boat, but thankfully still above the bouldery run above Colorado. When I download the track from the GPS, which was on the boat, I will have a better idea about the distances involved, as they are likely much distorted in my head. I now have a much greater appreciation for how people drown in rivers. Not that I almost drowned, but I could not believe how exhausted I was upon reaching the other side and that was with a high quality white water vest and a "controlled" entry in to the river. I think that I am going to be spending a lot more time in a life vest on the boat in the future, as well as spending some time in a pool getting in better swimming shape - not to mention ALWAYS putting out 3 x more anchor rope than I think I could need. It would have been a long day had we needed to hike down the canyon and back up the other side - likely even longer if I had been stupid enough to try the swim without the life vest. Why my partner left his vest on to go fish that run is beyond me, but it saved the day. Tight lines, Andy
