Most of my memorable stunts somehow involve steelheading.

#1 First day of planned 4/5 day trip. 5:00 am highway 12 near McCleary. Rolled truck on an ice patch under standing rainwater. Truck rolled clean over and landed back on the tires, with mostly sheet metal damage and 1 badly destroyed canopy. Also wrecked some of my favorite fishin' gear. Truck off shoulder in ditch. Struggled out, engine still running, can't find driftboat/trailer. Look about 50 yards down the road and there it is; only tongue is bent like a hairpin. Called buddy to come pull truck out. Had to load my trailer on top of his and then winch boat on top. Brought trailer to a shop in Hoquiom and had a new tongue welded on. Had to go to Swansons to buy a rod since all mine were toast. Headed for the river. I hooked the first one and had a fish in the boat by 11:00 am! Got 4 the next day! Ha, Ha!


Other #1: Water was high so went to fish an up-river stretch that is not normally even floatable. We were over confident; had two passengers, video cam, boat full of beer and gear. "Experienced" partner said we'd be OK! Negotiated first several drops and chutes fine.

Came to a spot where (like in the movies) all we could hear was a roar of the rapids, but could not see around the corner. Had to beach the boat to check it out from the bank. Current was too fast, and as I hopped out and grabbed the gunnel I was promptly pulled off my feet and face down behind the swiftly moving boat. Finally got it beached and got a look at the rapids. Ouch, was all I could say!

The rapids consisted of a very narrow gap between two boulders. Whole river constricted to maybe 8 feet across, with about a 5' vertical drop. The kicker was that they had logged the right bank, and a huge spruce was conveniently felled across the rapids. Logging crew had crossed over the log to anchor their rigging cables on the other side. The log was resting about 4' above the water, RIGHT AT the beginning of the boulder drop. Limb stobs stuck out all over, nearly reaching the water level. We all agreed NO WAY was it floatable.

In order to rope the boat down we had to cross the river as the side we were on was a sheer cliff at the rapid. And we didn't have much room. Dragged the boat as far up as we could go. We all got in, and I rowed like hell to make the other side in the swift current. As we neared the small rock/log outcrop we needed to reach, I was about to hop out the back end to control the boat and beach it. The guy on the right saw that we were very near the chute and panicked. He tried to hop out too, and for a second he hung there one foot on a log and one foot still in the boat before clearing the side. That was enough to pull the back end out in to the current, and I knew right away that the boat, and whoever was still in it, would be going under the log and down the chute.

Quick thinking by the other partner saved us, as he leaped out, landing in the water, and scrambled to safety on the rocks above. I grabbed the oars, made one stoke to straighten the boat out, tucked them in, and hung on for the plunge.

I was at eye level with the log, so my first thought was to duck. I hit the floor. As the boat went over, one limb stob hit me in the head, giving me about a 3" gash and huge welt. Another limb ripped most of the skin off my right hand (Yes, I held on to both oars). Worst part was a limb caught the front seat of the boat and ripped it off the threads. It came crashing back down on top of me and a couple fishing rods. Front of the boat plowed into the wall, where the impact sheared off the welded eye for the trailer winch. Also took on probably 50 gallons of water.

I found some slower water and pulled over. When my adrenalin settled I started bailing. Took my buddies about 20 minutes to cliff climb (including through a waterfall) down to the boat.

Exciting, yes; fun, no! Needless to say I haven't been floting that stretch anytime since!