H is for Hayward

Most people have never heard of Hayward, much less it being the Muskie Capital of the World. Yep true, even though the picture above shows a smallmouth statue and not a muskie. The second shot, by the way, is Jimbo Meador and a famous Hayward guide Wendy Williamson, at the start of a float down the East Fork of the Chippewa River,a gorgeous little wet spot on the planet. She took us out for a few days and showed us the good places to catch both muskies AND smallmouth. We caught both I am happy to say. Hayward Fly Fishing Company sure treated us right. Good people. Good fly fishing instructors as well. Hayward, like most great places, is hard to get to. It is deep in flyover country, closer to Duluth than any other airport. Remote, beautiful, hard to get to. Don't tell anyone about it.

G is for Garbage Patch or maybe gyre

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Two "G"s and two "P"s. Nice symmetry there. The garbage patch presents nothing nice at all, but neither is it what many people expect. Most of it is not visible to the eye nor to satellite photography. Humanity is still the cause of it though.

Pelagic plastic is the official term. In an epic example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, I highly doubt (e.g.) Crest (just one brand name and by no means the only brand name; they are all included implicitly) ever even considered if the polishing particles they add to their toothpaste would ever be linked to the demise of the oceans and possibly, humanity. It turns out that I picked a relevant brand. Please click over and read the above Crest link. To their credit, Crest is phasing out plastic microbeads (aka polishing particles).

Also equally interesting that water treatment, filtration systems, sewage treatment methods and equipment, etc., were all largely designed prior to the advent of yet more evolution in our culture that would unleash a torrent of waste products that all our systems were not designed to handle. To be clear, the polishing particles in toothpaste, are spit down the drain. That goes to a water treatment plant where municipal sewage is cleaned up, including by filtration. The end product, newly clean water, is then discharged. Somewhere. If the plant is on the coast, there's a pipe that takes this out a couple miles in the ocean and "dumps it", although it is fairly clean to the eye. Except for all those polishing particles that are so small they slip right on through and go out as part of the clean water.

Finally inquiring minds may want to know the meaning of gyre. In a bit of further symmetry, the North Pacific gyre is basically the physical entity responsible for hoovering up all this garbage and aggregating it in one part of the Pacific.

Humanity. Who would have ever thought that a good thing like personal hygiene, could lead to a garbage patch of unknown size in the Pacific Ocean. That truth sure does seem to be stranger than fiction.

F is for Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump came to mind for "F" because I have had the pleasure of working with Jimbo Meador on several occasions. Winston Groome, the author of the book on which the movie is based, and Jimbo were childhood friends and still are I believe. Jimbo's voice and accent were studied by Tom Hanks as he prepared for the movie.

What makes Forrest Gump worth reading about? Well according to this blog there are several objects in the movie that one could interpret as symbols. The feather, running, the box of chocolates, and ping pong may all be more than they seem on the surface.

I find it interesting that the above blog has no ownership info that I can find. Is it Winston Groome's own site supporting the book/movie? or an adoring fan with time on their hands?

Philosophy Now, in this article also gives Forrest Gump a pretty good working over focusing on different symbols and a different mindset. Also interesting in a completely different way.

Funny how a simple thing sometimes is standing in for something complex. This leaves me wondering about other books and their underlying inferred or alleged symbology?

E is for Eggs in a Hole

Sometimes things just taste better. Just 'cause. Other times the taste reflects the company you are eating with, other times the pan that was used, and other times it's just plain good food. This particular time it was all of the above. I was staying with Jimbo Meador prior to the start of our project. They were kind enough to feed me breakfast. They wondered if "eggs in a hole" would be OK. "Never heard of it," I said. The rest is history. Sitting with Jimbo and Lyn eating breakfast in their cool old house on the beach was a treat. Watching the egg go from runny to firm to perfect in the hole in the bread in this wonderful looking cast iron pan was ...southern I guess. I still remember that breakfast. I don' remember the rest of the day but I remember eating eggs in a hole with Jimbo and Lyn, enjoying every morsel of breakfast and each scrap of syllable. Good people good place good day. Good food too.

D is for Black Drum

A few years back Quietwater went on a deep south adventure involving shallow salt water, fly rods, and kayaks. One day we met up with Gary Taylor at a marina near Slidell, Louisiana. With some kayaks added to his mother ship we went out the Rigolets Trestle in the midst of some fog bound for points unseen. We emerged into a big, shallow, open chunk of empty. I still call it the Lousiana Marsh. It was incredible.

This marsh is a place unlike anything I've ever seen. If you get a chance to get to Louisiana look up Gary Taylor and have him take you out for a day of fishing. He's a great guide, with a memory full of cool places to go in the marsh. The goal was redfish. We found a few, but the fish of the day was this enormous black drum that Gary caught and Jimbo landed. This fish story is brought to you by the always truthful, non-exaggerating letter "D".

C is for canoeing

It's a simple little thing. Not a necessity anymore. A pleasure. A lifestyle thing. Some like roller derby. Others like chess. I like paddling. What are the odds that there is someone out there that likes chess, roller derby, and canoeing? Probably half way decent. Maybe even right here in Madison.

But that's not point, the point is leisure pursuits. On the water. With a paddle. Boats help too. Just a bit. The other word to bring in here is "silent sport".

Quietwater has its name for a purposeful reason and it has nothing to do with jetskis or waterskiing or some pink-haired kayaker hucking him or her self over a 70 waterfall. Quietwater has everything to do with quietly slipping a canoe in the water, giving that one last push and sitting down in a seat and looking out over a lake smooth as glass.

So go find yourself a canoe. Find a morning on a quiet lake and feel the magic that comes over you when the loudest sound is water dripping off the edge of your paddle and a loon off in the distance.

B is for Birds

Port Arthur Pelicans to be more exact. This is low tide. They are sitting on a sandbar well offshore from Port Arthur, as you can likely see. We went aground on a sandbar much like this earlier in the day. The whole bay was hardly more than ten feet deep at most, and much shallower when the tide went out.

This was part of a project we did with Native Watercraft. Jimbo Meador was the host for a three part DVD we did featuring Native Watercraft-certified guides. Port Arthur was one of the locations we visited. Quite the adventure. Speckled trout and redfish were very nice to us this day.