No more broken legs

So last summer, while wearing rubber-soled boots, forging a creek to retrieve the umpteenth fly a friend snagged on a rock, I broke my leg.  This led to x-rays in Seward then surgery in Anchorage two days later.  I have a plate a screws to show for it... see HERE.

Patagonia has taken a page out of the mountaineers handbook with this nifty piece.  Something I'm including in my next order.

Why, because they're awesome.  You can take them off (which is great if you spend any time in boats).  They're not studs so they won't rip stuff up when you step in the wrong spot, and hopefully they'll save my legs. I'm completely convinced, they are one more piece of gear to keep track of, put on and take off, and actually seem a little unstable.  But I trust Chouinard

Yvon Chuinard is a blacksmith by trade, and this came right from his workshop.

Sticks and Stones

It's not often I get a terrible day of guiding.  In fact, it is very rare, almost never.  Days can be tough or low in numbers, low energy, nasty weather, general lack of luck, but never really awful.  But there are exceptions and this is the result of one of those really awful days.

X-Ray taken after surgery in Anchorage, AK

Taken 2 months after surgery

Lots of hardware 

Laid up on the couch in Hope, AK.

Ten days after surgery I was on the water again with my mother.  Blue bird day and plenty o' fish.

I still managed to get on the water once before leave the Kenai, 10 days after surgery

Farewell trout?

My mom got into some good fish

 Needless to say my guiding for the season is over.  But now my time is my own and recovery happens.  The East Coast (home) is laden with stripers so it is to the salt and away with the waders for a while.