The impetus

My father's brother (yes, that would make him my Uncle, but now you know HOW he is...), Jim Gallien, sent me an email late last year, suggesting that we recreate an overnight backing trip that he, my father, my cousin Jimmy, and I made when I was around 7 (read that: 40 years ago!!!).

The original trip consisted of a short hike up Little Lakes Valley, near Bishop, CA in the Eastern Sierras. The lore of the trip is that Jimmy and I (8 and 7 at the time) got about 200 yards into the 2+ mile hike, doffed our seven pound packs, and sat down in the dirt in protest. An auspicious start.

The opportunity to recreate this trip was very appealing to me, not just because the Eastern Sierras are spectacular, but because it represented one of my "own" memories of my father. I say "own" to differentiate between the many mental images I have of him that are largely, if not entirely, created by pictures, films, or others' stories of his life. At any rate, the memory is of him fly fishing (a recently acquired hobby) from a large rock that protruded out from shore. He was using his new fly rod and flies that he tied himself (he was like that...). The funny thing about the memory though is that he kept catching the same four inch trout, over and over again, and he got increasingly frustrated until he finally gave up entirely. In the meantime though, Jimmy and I caught a full string of beautiful trout using a bobber and salmon eggs... We tried not to gloat over our trout dinner, but I am not sure how successful we were.