Blog Post

A Late Season for Steelhead

Heidi Tiura • Feb 11, 2020

But fishing's picking up and the upper Trinity is busy!

Happy Mid-winter!

I had to use this drift boat shot because it is easily the coolest boat we've ever seen on the river. The owner (shown) also has First Love Tattoo in Red Bluff and he painted his boat. As I said when it first slid into the water across from us, "Wow, wow, wow." I ran for my camera. 

 The steelhead season's been slow to heat up but has improved recently. We had a large number of boats at the put-in a few days ago and it took a while for them to spread out and get going but that was a rarity. Usually, we might see one to three over there in the morning.

This is a good spot for practice and many times, guides give newcomers lessons right here. It's not uncommon for our guests to sit nearby to watch and learn; the bolder ones even ask for pointers as they go by. It is a pretty generous world with fly fishers and I love how they're willing to share their knowledge since with fly fishing, it's all about local knowledge and what hatches are occurring currently.

We have had Buf (boof), our newest in such a long and beloved string of great dogs, for a bit over a year now. She was a fat, round ball of fur not more than a few pounds when we picked her up in Alturas (if you're going to rescue a mutt, might as well drive way to hell and gone to pick her up). She is a mix of lab/border collie/Aussie and Great Pyrenees so we had no idea what to expect as she grew. Up until this winter, she was medium tall, lean and mostly had medium length fur. Her tail was rat-like (Steph goes crazy when I say this but it's true). But in early winter, that tail's fur grew into a magnificent, long swoosh. She has always had a wild set of standing waves across her back where the fur is much longer, as are her bloomers along the back of her legs. Thank goodness that appears to be where the Great Pyrenees kicked in and not her overall size. Even I can't believe it but at times, she's a lap dog.

Throughout summer and fall, Steph, Buf and I rode our motorcycles all over the place. We shopped in Redding because the sidecar and my bike's saddlebags hold a lot. We went up 3, over to Weed and down 5 to 299 and home, all in one day. And we went to Weaverville most Sundays. This was so Steph could go to church at a really neat place where humanity and kindness are stressed. We both need a reminder in a world gone mad that there are still good folks around and they're doing good stuff. Toward that end, Steph joined the church's Green Team to help reduce waste and green up the buildings. We invested in a bunch of LED lights for the church and Steph installed them.

Buf and I go to church, but not in. I figure if she can't go, I won't. We have bigger fish to fry which means we sit on 299 outside the church and look for log trucks and Walmart trucks and other motorcycles. She is goofy over all of them and one day, while I sat on Steph's bike with her sidecar open, Buf slowly eased up onto my lap. She's much bigger than she looks here and I can't figure out how she does it but she curls into a tiny ball when she wants to. So there she sat on my lap, lying in wait for her favorites and when they passed by, she reared up and barked her appreciation. Everyone in the church knew when several big bikes roared past and they knew Buf approved; she howled at the end of her rating barks.

She's a young girl with boundless energy so we run her alongside our bikes (Steph gets the harrowing duty of holding the leash) and we hit the Benton dog park next to the airport in Redding. What a fantastic thing dog parks are! She knows a few miles away where we're headed and even though she's secured with a harness in the back seat, she pounds us with a forepaw and starts talking; she knows.

Every day is an adventure with her and when the Kuhfahl family with their big black lab, King, spent Christmas at Sow's Ear, the two dogs ran non-stop. It was such a hoot watching them and when the whole family was in the hot tub, both dogs lunged up repeatedly, considering the odds on whether they'd fit, too, maybe. Probably not, though. They had too much fun ripping it up. We hated to see that family leave!

Winter can be a drab period here. There's not a lot of color which may explain how, just before my birthday in January, I finally decided it was time to break out the semi-permanent hair colors I've been sitting on for quite a while. I used a packet of green batik dye to color my hair in the '60s and it was really pretty. My arts & crafts teacher even sort of approved of the project (good, since I swiped the packet from class). Back then, green hair was enough to warrant mention in the Petaluma newspaper. The local happenings columnist asked if he'd been seeing things when he spotted that wild green-haired girl walking up D Street. I was on my way home from a great weekend of hitchhiking to San Francisco where I attended not one but two Fillmore Auditorium concerts (maybe The Blues Project and B. B. King; I saw both there).

No concerts loomed in the near future here, but my hair colors started calling to me so I asked Steph if he would help me apply the colors--midnight blue, jam, pink and sea glass green. He reluctantly signed on and we learned as we went. It became such fun and we tried all sorts of approaches, most of which worked. The best thing about this stuff is the colors fade true with each shampoo, giving infinite variations. Steph's patience and attention to detail were really something; he did a terrific job.

I was due to get a new driver's license the day after the big project so there I was with this outrageous combination of some strands that bled from the deep blue into jam into pink tips, others that were solid colors and around the face, more sea glass (a tribute to my old teacher). When our friend Laurie asked what DMV put down for my hair color, I said, "Drugs." Not quite accurate but also a tribute to my first coloring job. Jeez, that wasn't the first, come to think of it. I visited an old family friend in Hollywood in the early '60s and bought a cheapo hair coloring for black hair that turned mine a shocking purple. I guess it was always in my blood.

For Christmas, I gave Steph an Instant Pot. I wasn't sure he'd go for it but, like my hair coloring, he has risen to the occasion in a grand manner. Yesterday, he moved a batch of fresh yogurt from the Pot into jars. He has made the best black beans EVER; steel-cut oats with apples; pot roast; stews and much more. It's been a struggle to not eat too much because he's always whipping up something new. He also revived and increased his cast iron cookware after a brief visit to my sister Jan's. She's always used hers and we fell into the ease of non-stick but cast iron is so much better for us. Arroz con pollo was Steph's most recent dish and it was succulent. He used green and red bell peppers, lots of onion, chicken base, brown rice, freshly-ground cumin, saffron and, of course, chicken. He also has started using a pig-shaped molcajete which I have owned for almost 50 years, but I never used it for its intended purpose. Steph grinds herbs in the pig which I just get such a kick out of.

My Christmas present from Steph was another chainsaw, but it's specialized. It's a battery-operated pole saw and the chainsaw can be removed for small cutting jobs. With a very powerful battery and a long operating time per charge, it will make so many maintenance jobs that I love to do far easier.

But our big gift to both of us was a great home gym! It takes up one of the three big river-facing windows in the living room so there is no ignoring it and we're both highly smitten. It has two towers and weight stacks plus a bench that can be used in several ways and the whole thing allows us to get in an excellent workout without a long drive to a gym. We had planned to join White Wolf again in Weaverville but the drive bugged me and certainly held back how often I went. I loved it, but when Costco offered the FTX, we jumped. The older you get, the more important it is to do heavy, weight-bearing exercises. We already knew that but got a kick out of a woman we just read about who is in her 80s and she beat the crap out of an intruder with her broom. Interviewed for this story, she flexed her muscles and bragged about her workouts. You rock, lady!

LOWER RATES ARE HERE!

We have officially entered our Quiet Season for Sow's Ear. This means the nightly rate starts at $125 for 1-2 people who use 1-2 beds (cleaning drops to $65 for them) and for a party up to 6 the rate's $145 with an $85 cleaning fee. You can hang out, fish, eavesdrop on fishers (!) and have a super time with your dog. They run free and Buf is the official greeter, guaranteed to produce near-catatonic dogs by evening.

The photo above shows two intriguing items. The birdhouse that hangs over our deck had a visitor recently. A nuthatch landed on the porch and took a look at the digs inside, crawling all over while peeking outside frequently. Once it was back outside, it stayed a while more. As you can see, it has electricity already but in the hopes of actually attracting a nesting pair, I plan to remove the lights and hang it a bit higher. Just in case the nuthatch comes back with the partner, I sprinkled birdseed inside and out.

Beyond the birdhouse is a fly fisher who was bank fishing. No guide, no boat. I watched him for quite a while. I'm convinced there is nothing more peaceful and relaxing than seeing a fisher work the water unless we consider the fisher's view. I'm pretty sure he knows he's got the plum position. You can have it, too. Come on up.
See you up here, heidi

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