Fishermen, and EIRs

[balzaccom]

OK, OK. I fish everywhere I hike. Well, almost everywhere.

Our last trip took us to the upper reaches of the East Carson River, Golden Creek, and Murray Creek. It's an area that is completely closed to fishing year round. That watershed is now a preserve for the rare Lahontan Cutthroat Trout.

And guess what? There were no people there. No trash. The trails were not well maintained…but there also weren’t a million use trails around every lake and stream, either.

It was beautiful water, by the way.



This area was not particularly remote, but there was simply less evidence of humans, and more wildlife, than we have seen anywhere else. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Just saying. I love fishing in the mountains, and have done it for more than fifty years. But I am glad places like this exist.

[balzaccom]

Another data point...

One of our friends is an engineer, and he often talks about data points….when you get enough points on the chart, you can start seeing a pattern, and then you can come to some conclusions. They might be incorrect, but at least they are supported by the data.

So on our last trip we camped at Leopold Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness, and we were completely alone. Every other lake in the area had some campers, and some had what were described as crowds. But lonely Leopold was quiet—just us three chickens.



It was lovely.

Of course, Leopold doesn’t have any fish to catch…and once again we found that where there is no fishing, there are far fewer people.

Want to get away from it all? Then go someplace where the fish are not jumping. Or if they are, they’re illegal to catch.