Big Cott Round II

Big Cott Round II

January 22, 2012 what do you do when you slip on the river, almost give your camera a bath, and have to use your chest to take the blow so that it doesn’t go under? I’ll tell you what you do, you go back the next day; especially because the kids don’t want to go hit the slopes, and a new blanket of the greatest snow on earth fell last night. Wait a minute has it really come to that for me, am I driving up one Utah’s biggest canyons with my waders and camera instead of my skis? Yes.

I want to get to the same spot I went to yesterday to shoot the same area with really fast shutter speeds instead of slow ones. On the way down the bank, it is actually easier with a lot of snow, because it sort of packs up on each step instead of sliding down. The rocks on the banks are seriously wicked, they are really jagged. I can’t emphasis how they lay, making it really hard to get good footing; add to that just a ton of fallen branches lying across the rocks.

Once I get down to the river, I feel a total and complete bliss come over me. The river in the dead of winter is like a hidden pearl, a jewel that most people don’t get a chance to revel in. What makes it even weirder, is that I’m not even thinking about fish, and I don’t want my fly rod. I know I shouldn’t admit that, but that’s just the way it is.

During winter it seems that our mind and our bodies go into a mode thinking that all things are asleep--no more than asleep—dead.  And who wants to look at death? But winter is not death, its tranquility, tranquility and peace. Winter is the time of peace and rest; in that rest is life and joy, and the flow of the river is proof of that life. Even if the top of the river is iced over, under the ice, the river flows. And some days after it snows, the life under the blanket of winter sheds the coat, melts it, and flows on. What is more beautiful than a night of snow followed by sunshine the next day?

Okay, maybe all I just said is a bunch of bull shit. But, you can’t deny that a fresh coat of snow is wonderful! I don’t have to talk about it; I don’t have to pump it up. In fact go on, hate it, hate the snow, stay home and watch football. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, I want to see if Utah’s golden boy can lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.