As our travels send us further South to the water consuming counties, we change our spots and adopt all the proper ritual to make us indistinguishable from the locals.
Upon our return we notice small things common to the water-bearing provinces that simply don’t manifest themselves in the cold stone canyons of urban California …
As I came back through Silicon Valley and the Mothball Fleet, I noted all manner of dirty brown drainages filled with industrial solvents and castoff silicon wafers. A fellow could spend quite some time learning the area – but only after finding waders that didn’t melt in the combined effluent.
I did pull over and admired Solyndra’s empty parking lot. It happened to materialize out of the pre-dawn gloom and I needed to … eat lunch.
Screw the beaming children and barking dogs, fish scrambling in fear is charged with emotion, and I’m glad to be back …
Ah yes, You may have seen the Guadalupe river, my favorite: the Penitencia Creek, maybe the Stevens Creek, certainly the Coyote Creek most of which are in some phase of rehabilitation. The Dept. of Fish and Game is having trouble find a fish species that will dine only on the naturally occurring heavy metals that float near the surface of the manufacturing discharge. Much hope is being placed on the recent Tsunami to highlight a new species not unlike say, Rodon or Gamora. America’s “rust belt” has failed to produce an aquatic version of the rat that is sufficiently hearty to withstand silicone valley effluent. As you may imagine, the waders are less a problem than your tippet.
I’ve caught wild trout in Steven’s Creek… honest to god wild trout… beautiful little fish. It is always surprising what survives.