Opening Day of Fishing Season on the California Lakes

We were a bit confused. We've been seeing fishermen dippin' their lines in just about every pothole and drainage ditch in California for the past month and more. But they've been talkin' for days that this weekend is the "Opening Day" of fishing season.

Heidi finally asked a gal at the Forest Service Visitor center up to Mammoth Lakes; "what's the deal".

I guess it's that those more southern waters are year round but these more Northern Lakes and streams are seasonal.

Well the quiet empty lake ain't so empty any more. There must have been two hundred boats, maybe more plyin' the waters of Lake Crowley in search of trout and whatever else is hiding in these waters yesterday morning.

You couldn't quite Walk across the lake on the boats as one guy boasted... but if you were a good jumper you might could have made it with dry feet. ;)

Dale rode up from Lone Pine and joined us here a few days ago... he's the drifting biker living on his Honda Nighthawk. You think ya'll ain't got enough to live on the road? He's free in the wind on less than $1000 bucks a month... I'm leavin' him a bit of privacy by keepin' his bearded visage un-published. ;)

Sure, he's living pretty austere, but he's figured a way to live that fits him and he had the cajones to reach out and grab it.

In the late morning yesterday he joined us for a partial circuit of the lake in the truck to get a different perspective of things 'round here. The "road" is one lane... if sage nearly scrapin' the doors is indeed a full lane. Here and there you have to slide off the side crunching the brush to let somebody goin' the other way pass by.

*Lake Crowley, California and the Sierras*

They started sneakin' in all around the lake late Thursday. There was even some skyrocket fireworks takin' off from the northern shore! :) By Saturday morning the passions of fishing season were on full display.

There's boats from lil' skiffs to one I saw that might look more likely in the bay at San Diego. There's folks on every accessible beach... and some even on the beaches that can really only be arrived at from the water...

From the other side of the lake you get a nice perspective of this camp we're set up in now as well... It maybe gives a clearer idea of the space a drifting boondocker can enjoy between the Mississippi and Big Sur...

That's our camp, just right of center below that "notch" in the high mountains... from a lil' bit different angle...

... One of the Fish Camps appears below us and you can see our camp... right above, and a touch left of where the snow capped peaks are shining off the lake... still can't see it? :) It does kind of start to makin' a guy feel a lil' bit insignificant to see how small he is in the whole scheme of things.

They had a fishing tournament running last weekend down at Lake Isabella, while we were down at Tuttle Campground in Lone Pine... This weekend the tournament schedule came up here. How'd you like to be one of the people draggin' a fish tagged to net you $10,000 buckeroos if you haul it out of the water! :)

I have to say it... in spite of the "Rap" that California gets 'cause of the politics of a "few" folks down to L.A. and San Diego... the people of eastern and northern California are a tee total different sort. They are no relation to the "Stereotype". Their voices just get drownded out by the weight of the population in the big towns.

The people we've met along the Eastern Sierras and in past trips through the north section of the state from Sacramento north are more akin to Wyoming and Montana natives than the picture that comes to mind when somebody says "California".

It's live and let live and mind your own affairs for the most part... and the country itself is some of the most gorgeous a fella could ever wish for.

*Road down to the Lake Crowley Dam in California*

That's maybe the best part of traveling into places you've not been in a while, or never been at all. It doesn't take goin' to foreign lands either. Right here at home in the U.S. or even Canada... Prejudices you may have picked up generally can't survive travel. Your eyes get opened by the realities of the world you wander through.

You'll discover that the "News" you hear on the propaganda box is material best applied to your garden to provide plenty of proper fertilizer. Yup... if it's a talking head on the tube... or a politiking Statesman WANNABE... what they're spouting at you is 'bout 1% truth (so they can point at it for credibility) and 99% unadulterated Bull Feces.

The best people to listen to are the handymen in Lone Pine, the carpenters outside of Missoula, the rancher near Sheridan, the fisherman on a boat from Anacortes, the trucker at a rest stop east of Wilcox... The PEOPLE that live each and every day just trying to live their lives...

That's the very BEST part of this life I am now blessed with. I can see what FREEDOM looks like, un-tarnished by the stench of never ending loads of bull feces from wannabe's  and their enslaved followers.

~ Pack Your Bags
~ Wander
~ Shake the Dust of Prejudice Off Your Boots
Brian