Return to Shaw Lake

Yesterday, I went back up to Shaw Lake where the forest fires had the road closed until this past weekend.  Just on the other side of the mountains to the north of Big Meadows, the fires had raged through the area as they skipped past Big Meadows sparing it from the same likely scenes -- burnt trees all the way down to the water's edge and soot and ash all along the shores.  Amazing that the fish were still living in the lake at all.

The fishing was really much better than before the fires and I had seen evidence of that on Monday when one of the campers here brought back a 17-inch Cutthroat with a stringer full of others.  I went back there with renewed hope of catching something similar to the big one I had seen.  As I wound my way up the road and around the first couple bends, the evidence of the fire was everywhere and yet among the devastation one scene on the road really caught my eye (and many more peoples too).  Where one of the streams crossed under the road and a trail led into the blackened woods along the stream, all these beautiful purple wildflowers were blooming everywhere along the ground.  Amazing how quickly mother nature can bounce back.

I had forgotten to put my camera in the car yesterday so, I returned today to get a picture of the area mentioned above -- and try some more fishing too.  Yesterday, I caught and released 8 fish and one of them was a Brookie and the others were Cutthroats.  Within the first dozen casts I had caught and released two fish -- on consecutive casts.  Ultimately, I kept one nice Brook trout and one of the Cutthroats.

Today, I caught and released 4 fish, lost a few and decided to keep one more of those Brook trout -- had cooked the one yesterday on the grille and so liked the taste -- almost like Salmon.  Real, pinkish red meat.  Yum!