We started 2022 heading into our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and got introduced to Omicron and all its siblings and children. 2022 also seemed to be the year where the effects of climate change really hit home in the PNW. For all the weirdness though we actually did quite a bit this year and spent a lot of time outdoors truffling, hiking, camping, hunting and fishing.
The year started, and is ending, buried in snow. Part of our weird weather. When I moved here 32 years ago it was partly to get away from the cold and snow in Iowa, the winter of 2021-22 really messed up those plans when Seattle was colder and snowier than Des Moines was. With Omicron raging throughout the country there was no where to go to get away so we got to deal with the coldest and wettest winter/sping on record with multiple big snowfalls that lasted a week or more. Once the snow would melt though it was all about the truffles this winter. Lira did her Advanced Truffle Dog class in January and February and actually started finding truffles on her own which was awesome. We enjoyed truffles for dinner or breakfast for months pairing them with eggs, pasta, salmon, venison and pheasant.
By March truffle season merged in with trout season and Lira and I began hitting the lakes for trout and doing pretty well. At the beginning of April I took a three day trip over to Eastern Washington to camp and fish at Isak’s Ranch, a set of private spring-fed lakes that hold incredible rainbows that were hungry and wanting to eat a fly. On the last day a blizzard was moving in and I had to bail out by 11 am so I headed to the lake early, fished three hours hard and landed about 3 dozen rainbows in the 16-20″ range before hitching up and trying to beat the storm over the Pass. I had snow on the downhill side but luckily it didn’t last long and soon turned to rain.
Truffle season kept going through April with the addition of mushroom hunting going on. We found quite a few oysters in the spring along with verpas and false morels but no real morels. Trout fishing kept going in April hitting more lakes as they opened and stocking up stocker trout in the freezer. Of course we also got another dumping of snow in April and Lira even found truffles in the snow after it started to melt.
May brought turkey hunting and I did two trips this year, one to Spokane/Cheney and one to Medford. Washington raised their limit to 3 turkeys in Spokane County and this year I managed to get all three in one day. Early morning was a long wait to get birds up in range, they just kept wandering around in a meadow well out of range below us. Finally a Tom and two Jakes followed a hen in. I got the Tom and then managed a shot at one of the Jakes before they ran off, two down. Mid-day we had a setup where a big gobbler came in that was being very wary and staying behind some trees. He finally popped his head into an opening and I shot. I hit the bird but didn’t drop him but my long follow up shot took him down, biggest turkey I’ve killed by far. Of course after that the weather started going to hell and with another storm on the way I had to bail out early the next morning but had already limited so that wasn’t an issue. This was beginning to be a pattern. The Oregon trip was similar, there you can only take one bird a day so I actually had some time to fish and explore on top of hunting. I got one bird each day in two days there so five total for the spring season. And, of course, another storm on the way home from that trip made for a rough tow home.
In early June we packed up the Outback and took a road trip down to Point Reyes National Seashore. It was a long two days of driving but we had a good night in Rogue River on the way down and took lots of breaks to get Lira out for brief walks at rest stops along the way. Once there we had three days of hiking and beach walking and Catherine got to visit with her old friend Lindsey. The trip overall was great, the only downside was that Lira got covered in ticks on one ridge hike and then got a foxtail in her foot in Medford on the way back which ultimately required surgery.
In July the weather finally turned from the cold and wet spring to the hot and dry summer. We bass fished locally and took a camping trip to the Teanaway where we got to do one of our favorite hikes up Navaho Pass. Once the rivers started dropping into shape I spent the summer learning how to Euro nymph on the Cedar, Methow and Middle Fork. I had a blast and learned quite a bit in my first season using this technique. Mid-July I headed up to the Okanagon for a few days in the blistering heat to fish for sockeye out of Brewster as well as some trout fishing on the Methow. The trip was insanely hot especially since I was boondocking with the trailer but I brought home enough salmon to get us through the year, had a great afternoon fishing the Methow and saw a moose as an added bonus.
The August heat got us to head out to the coast and Quinault rainforest for a few days in an attempt to cool off. That turned out to be a great camping trip. We walked the beaches several days but also did the big south loop on the Quinault where we saw many old growth trees and got to the Lake Quinault Lodge where we got married 23 years ago. We will definitely return next year and found a great campground on the lake that we will use. The rest of August was spent hiking and fishing tenkara on the small rivers close to home.
In September we headed up to Mazama for a four day trip to do some hiking in the north Cascades. We decided to stay at the Freestone Inn instead of camp so it wasn’t too hot. We hiked the upper Methow Valley trails, the Maple Pass Loop (another favorite), Goat Peak and Cutthroat Lake while we were there plus I got in a lot of fishing on the Freestone lake for big trout. Lira found a few grouse on the trip and we even did a bit of grouse hunting but unfortunately the grouse had moved on by the time we got back to them with a shotgun in hand.
October was deer hunting and I went back down to Medford with Lisa for a six day trip in hot and dry conditions that were ill suited to deer hunting. We gave it our best thought and hunted hard every morning and most evenings while I spent the 95 degree middle of the day in the Rogue catching trout or swinging for steelhead. I never saw a buck the whole time though the last day up in the Siskiyou Crest did finally see some does. My friend Lisa got to see some deer but they were running at full speed after an attempted deer drive so never got off a shot. We got back from Oregon and Lira and I started pheasant hunting up until the Loch Katrine fire started burning 10 miles from the house and filled the valley with wildfire smoke for over a week. Luckily the rains came and saved us from more smoke ending a very hot and dry four month period.
The last few months of the year have been cold. We had a freak cold and dry spell in November that broke records followed by a cold and wet spell that dumped over a foot of snow at our house and left us stranded a few days and dealing with snow and ice for over a week. We got in some end of season bird hunting, started truffle practice to get ready for the season and managed to catch some big trout in Beaver Lake when they did the fall stocking.
Overall a much better year than the last few as far as getting out goes. I managed to camp nearly a month this year and with our two non-camping trips came out to 40 days of travel of some type. I did a LOT of fishing, hunting and truffling this year. I had my second most days out hunting/fishing year ever coming in at 132 days total which means I was hunting or fishing at least 1 of every 3 days all year long. If you add in truffle hunting and mushrooming I was out doing some food gathering activity over 1/2 the days of the year with a total of 190 days.
This was also my first full year with the Tesla. Of course, Elon had to go ruin it all by being a complete dick after he bought Twitter but I still love the car. Saved 10k miles on the Tacoma over the year and for a good chunk of the year I can charge effectively for free thanks to our home solar. We keep debating on replacing the Outback but for now are waiting to see what happens with the EV and PHEV developments.
At the end of the year I got serious about my seemingly non-stop sleep issues. Starting in October I wasn’t sleeping well at all, worse than my already bad normal. I was getting 3-5 hours a night and was just exhausted by mid-month. Near the end of the month I signed up for the Month of Sleep Intensive by Magnetic North and started working with the material plus a CBT-I program I had downloaded. It’s been a rough last quarter of the year but finally this week I averaged over 7 hours a night for the first time in who knows how long. I’m going to continue working on my sleep and fitness in general in the new year working with Raven as a coach for the first six months of the new year.
Who knows what 2023 is going to bring but I’m hoping we just keep seeing some incremental improvement with regards to pandemic(s) and we can still get out and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. It’s still been tough visiting family through all this though we did get to see Cadence a few times during the year and I got to watch Nolan play soccer many weekends in the fall. I do have plans to finally get to LA in the spring for Cade’s graduation and fall for a concert , just trying to figure out the best way to get there, would someone invent that transporter already.