My North Cascades Story - Exploring Wild Rivers

By Thomas O'Keefe, Pacific Northwest Stewardship Director, American Whitewater

As the sun began to peak above the horizon we emerged from our tent to greet the new day and the river that flowed past our camp. My 4-year-old son Aki joined me as I pulled my fly rod from its case and made a few quick roll casts where the Pratt River joins the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. My son watched carefully and indicated his interest in trying to cast. It took a couple tries but he soon had the general idea and was able to toss the fly out into the current.

We sat there together in the early morning sun enjoying the river and the experience of being together. The trip had been a spur of the moment decision. The day before we had loaded up the car after dinner with a tent, some food, our fishing gear, and a small raft. We had our boat on the water and had floated down to a secluded camping spot on a gravel bar before darkness closed in across the valley. That evening a ribbon of stars lit up the night sky and my son sat there studying the heavens. I reflected on the fact that we were less than an hour from our home in a major U.S. city, but there on the gravel bar we could have been on a remote river in Alaska. The North Cascades has the highest concentration of wild rivers of any place in the lower 48, and dozens of them provide accessible opportunities for exploration and adventure.

My son took a few more casts but the fish weren't showing much interest in my ragged old elk hair caddisfly and my son soon turned to looking for bugs and other creatures in between the rocks along the margins of the river.

Throughout the summer my son and I explored more wild rivers and by the end of the summer my son had caught his first fish on a fly rod. Now one of his most popular questions is, "When will we go fishing again?"