(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - I can get excited about fishing, and I often do. 

Next on the agenda other than trolling for May kings around here, is a trip to California for a wedding, then to Montana for fly fishing adventures near Yellowstone National Park. 

Yeah, I know, it’s weird. Every summer I have to explain why I would leave the state for two weeks or so when I endured a winter specifically to enjoy the outdoor summer bonanza. 

It’s one of those things you have to do once in a while to remember why you live here. 

The wedding is near Truckee, so it is surrounded by really great high Sierra Nevada trout waters. Since the hotel was filled, I rented a little cottage on a river and plan on arriving a day early to harass some trout.

I had to reserve my spot in the river-side shed with a check, yes, a check. There are business establishments in California that do not swipe cards. I’m not sure if that is refreshing or a warning sign. I’ll let you know in a month or so. 

Budget Car Rental requires a credit card. Two summers ago when I traveled south I rented a Yaris from which was terrifying. The thing safely topped out at about five miles per hour less than the flow of traffic which was ten miles per hour more than the speed limit. Last year I rented a mid-sized car that wasn’t tall enough for me. I’m not even that tall and I had to bottom out the seat and my hair still grazed the roof. 

But I shouldn’t complain about California rentals I guess, the rig I got in Juneau from Sketchy Car 4 U smelled like gas and required passenger side entry to prevent the alarm from sounding. 

The road trip portion to Montana will be in my buddy’s truck once I return my mid-size surprise in Reno. He’s got a really nice new Dodge Ram that costs a half-month of rent to register every year and some people look at him with accusatory glares, as if he’s on a mission to make the polar ice caps melt by September. I can’t help but appreciate the irony in Californians from San Francisco and southern California preaching how immoral it is to be in the logging or oil industry, while draining lakes and stealing water from other areas to sustain life in their urban community. 
It’s not exactly the same, but it’s not exactly all that different. Of course demanding people to change their lives based on my own personal ethics would be A) to advocate the limiting of their freedom, B) might make them consider moving to Alaska should they chose to put their money where their mouths are. I don’t want either, so I will stop at this, politics are rank with irony and hypocrisy because nothing can be reduced to a meme or a segment on a satirical news program. 

See? I’m already convinced I live in the right place because I can’t even think about California without being muddied with politics.  

Anyway, yeah, I’m headed to California then Montana in June and I’m excited for it. Prowling the banks of meandering rivers as the bottom of massive basins or thin canyons, throwing grasshopper and mayfly patterns at legendary trout in legendary rivers is exactly what I want. 

I’ve got a month to tie as many dry flies as I can and think of cliché and otherwise ridiculous questions to ask locals. 

Jeff Lund ©2017

Jeff Lund is a Teacher, Freelance Writer, living in Ketchikan, Alaska
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @alaskalund
Contact Jeff at Email – aklund21@gmail.com

http://www.jlundoutdoors.com

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SitNews ©2017
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Ketchikan, Alaska

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