Let's Talk Boatin!

It’s the New Year and for the past 15 days now, the days have been getting longer, which gets me thinking about boating. It is true that taking a crap gets me to thinking about boating, but I digress. Anyway, we are a little over 2 months away from the Lochsa becoming runnable, a little over 3 months away from tracing the steps of Powell through Cataract, and just over 5 months away from floating mostly naked with the sun beating down on our backs. I know you all are thinking about fresh turns, powder days and face shots, but the critical element of this time of year is that we need to apply for river permits, so we can whole-heartedly enjoy the rest of the year. Yep, I know, I know…besides for Doc, it seems like the rest of us are just giving money to various governmental entities on an annual basis. Personally, I have never drawn a permit through a lottery system in my seven or so years of trying, but I am not bitter. I look at that money as donations to river karma, so this year when my late June MF permit comes through and we can fish some of the best dry fly water in Idaho, it will have all been worth it.

The point of my rant is that our 4-Rivers lottery applications have been sent, the reservation for the Cataract trip went out in the mail today, I dropped off a couple Smith River applications at FWP this morning and I already have a May 21 Middle Fork. Do you bastards have your applications in? If not, get them in because the only thing better than getting your own permit is going on someone else’s where all you have to do is show up. Happy New Year!