Oh wow which nightmare should I write about?


This story is long but well worth the time you will take to read it.


Well last fall on our annual trip to the coast for fall salmon we stayed in Forks for a week.
If you remember we had the lowest river levels of all time last fall so Salmon fishing was basically a tidewater affair. There is nothing worse than fishing for salmon in tidewater with dozens of sealions chasing them everywhere even up onto the bank. So if it's not bad enough you don't catch but a couple fish trust me it gets worse! I never knew how much out of towners are disliked there. We could'nt even walk down the road without car loads of "FORKS TOUGHGUYS" trying to start a fight with us, Oh stay away from the local bar on a friday or Saturday night if you can't defend yourself from all the tough drunks. After a couple near brawls I guess it was time to come home.
We loaded the boat on the truck and noticed one of the trailer tires was flat. With no spare are only hope was fix a flat. After a can of that we are on our way back to Tacoma. About twenty miles down the road we here a boom and the same tire went flat again. Stuck on the side of 101 with no more fix a flat we unhook the trailer and I wait with the boat while may buddy drives back to Forks to get some more Fix a flat and a tire patch kit. About 45 min later here gets back we go through the same routine. O.K. we are on the road again.
Wrong,another 15 miles down the road flat again. Needless to say we only made to the ONP turn off to the Queets valley and planned to stay the night there so we could let the glue on the tire patch harden over night. Good idea right......Well the next morning every thing looked good we made all the way out of that dirt road and the tire plug never popped out. Right on we on pavement with 10 empty cans of fix a flat and no full ones left cross your fingers... Well we made it about halfway between Queets and Quinalt and boom blows out again F$&k what are we gonna do? Unhook the boat take all the poles, and the oars put them in the Cherokee were going to Aberdeen to buy a spare. We get to Aberdeen oh guess what it is, Sunday! NO TIRE SHOPS OPEN ON A SUNDAY the only thing open was a tire shop at sears but they only sell tires no rims yep we bought a tire and thought we could put it on the rim we have
We finally make it back to the boat, oh guess what we are missing the bike, ice chest, and the net damn theives don't let us see you with our bike!!!
We start removing the old tire from the rim by cutting it with our fillet knive, after getting that off the hard work begins trying to get a tire on a rim might be the most difficult thing i have ever tried to do, but we did it but how do we get the tire to take air since it not beeded to the rim???? Sh#& we are screwed when we finally gave up A truck pulls over to offer some help. He turned out to be a life saver since he knew some handy man in amanda park who had a machine that could get the tire beeded onto the rim after what seemed a week long ordeal we finally got the new tire on the rim and the rim on the trailor. Yeah we are on our way thank god for the Quinalt Indian that helped us but slipped and said his son had "NEW" bike that he found on the side of the road. He said his son was doing some wood cutting back up the highway so we decided to go and check out where he was cutting and see if he had our bike and other stuff that was stole out of the boat. We searched but no luck lets make a U-turn and head home here is a little piece of advice stay on the pavement, we were in a drought so my buddy thougth it would be OK to swing in the ditch to make the U-turn.......Wrong. The right side of the jeep ended up buried halfway up the door in mud. Thanks to the guys who pulled us out. Imagine seeing all this unfold on highway 101. I will never say "It sucks to be them" ever again. Because on that trip me hand my (mentally challenged) fishing partner were those guys you drive by and say that to.
But when it comes down to it I will be the first to say it's all worth it... IT sure is amazing the effect a steelhead/salmon can have on you.
Crazy as it sounds can't wait to do it again

Im ready for the annual weeklong steelhead trip Mar 22. I got the time off so Steve if you read this before the next time I talk to you.
Send a message to the metalheads...IT'S ON!