Trinity Fishing & Tubbing/Dunsmuir & Skiing Shasta

This is a terrific time of year even though it gives one a sort of sensory whiplash as we jolt from massive rains to warm and sunny days and then back to very chilly throughout Trinity and Siskiyou counties. We have a couple of really cold days when clothing has to be layered and up on Shasta, the snowfall coats everything in glistening white. But then you notice rioting daffodils sprinkle the countryside and tiny violets are in bloom.

Our Trinity guests the past month or so have caught some of the wild steelhead that are fresh from the sea and prolific well into April; celebrated milestones such as a 40th birthday; and escaped from cities to spend some quiet time by the river.

It is an odd contradiction that the wild steelhead come later in the season on the Trinity and are the most exciting to catch, but a lot of fishers don't know about this timing and miss out on them, having come up in the more popular months of November-January. The picture of Phil above was taken in the middle of February when he and his buddy Brian Miller fished with guide Greg Hector. Since the hatchery just released their smolt and German brown trout go crazy for them, it's also a very good time for German browns.

Dunsmuir guests have gotten the chance to ski Shasta and there have been many epic days, some of which Steph and I were lucky enough to catch. Having not had a ski season for 2 years, we felt we deserved longer stays up north and yet the Fish & Ski Haus is a vacation rental, so we worked out a cool bunkhouse option. Guests can rent the downstairs with its 2 bedrooms and 4 beds; full bath and laundry; and kitchen privileges upstairs for a mere fraction of the cost of renting the whole Haus ($35 per person per night if you bring a sleeping bag!). Last week, we hosted coaches for the Auburn ski and board teams. They were up there for the regional championships and had a grand time both on and off the mountain. (One reason they wanted to stay in Dunsmuir was because they discovered the Dunsmuir Brewery Works on their last visit and loved it.)

Then there was the birthday celebration for Mindi, and it was unusual because she and her girlfriends from college days left their husbands and kids at home. The ladies were able to sleep in, wear PJs all day if they wanted to and linger over gourmet meals each prepared and brought so that all they had to do was minimal prep. We put an E-Z Up over the hot tub so they could even enjoy it in the rain, and on sunny days they walked, jogged and ran all over Bucktail. Conversations wafted to us from their cabin's front porch and the hot tub and they seemed to truly enjoy themselves. It added up to a lovely birthday celebration.

Another of our Dunsmuir guests was Mike Sack, who bought Sanctuary Cruises from us. We have always been proud of what we created in Moss Landing and the strong conservation message we spread to our passengers. We started the company after losing a National Science Foundation grant because we stood up to our government's shameful approval of the Makah Indian's resumption of whaling despite numerous legal and moral conflicts. We took our self-appointed roles as ambassadors for creatures with no voice seriously and for me, having never had kids, I consider Sanctuary my legacy. It is one of life's true pleasures to say Mike and his partner, Dorris, continue that legacy.

Today is a special day regarding our shared conservation efforts. We created a lot of what we called foot soldiers in the whales' navy, explaining to them that places like Sea World were doing a terrible thing with orcas. Those animals range thousands of miles in the ocean and to cage them in parks and make them do tricks for people was wrong, wrong, wrong.

A 2015 Trinity guest delighted us with tales of her boycott of San Diego's Sea World (which was not taken well by her parents, who live nearby and are frequent customers when they have guests, many of whom were treated to the reasons for her boycott). We all agreed the time for an end to orcas in captivity had come, but it was the movie Blackfish that tipped the scales irrevocably in favor of the tuxedos. While the movie had some inaccuracies, it had a lot of painful truths. Sea World tried, but failed, to make them go away. And three years after the movie was released, Sea World has agreed to quit breeding killer whales in captivity and will evolve from the trained seal type of shows to more rescues of marine mammals in distress, such as dolphins that beach themselves and sea lions starving due to domoic acid poisoning (the reason most of the California coast had no Dungeness crab season for 2015-2016). So kudos to Sea World finally getting the message and Sanctuary Cruises for continuing to spread the word on what's going on out there where few see or understand what's happening.

An exciting side note: Mike is currently prepping his beautiful ketch to add her services to the company. Soon, folks will be able to sail or motor cruise on the Monterey Bay to be with whales and dolphins on the greenest vessels on the bay (Mike still uses bio-diesel and we were the first company on the Monterey Bay to use it).

It wasn't until we were riding the ski lift up Douglas a couple of weeks ago that I learned Mike was a ski bum in Utah the same year I bugged out after having run my T-shirt and sailboard shops there for 8 years. "Bum" may be an overstatement since Mike did work and live at Snowbird, one of Utah's premier ski resorts, during his year there. Isn't it funny how things work out? Over 25 years later, there we were, skiing Shasta and discovering our common Utah roots long before we'd both headed to sea.

From now until Memorial Day Weekend we have our lowest rates of the year at all of our vacation rentals, so take a load off and come visit. Mention this newsletter and we will give you an even better rate! Fish for those wild steelhead; hike with your dog; sleep until noon; or ski one of the most astounding mountains in the world (you can see it well over 50 miles away as you approach). You can even do all but sleeping until noon in one day and we've had Trinity guests who have done it, although I'd suggest keeping it to 1 or 2 adventures in a day so that you go home refreshed and invigorated. That is a spectacular feeling and you'll love it.
See you up here, heidi & the gang