After a significantly busy week rushing here and there I decided it was time to go visit the Lyre River here on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. There are numerous small coastal rivers here the Peninsula. These rivers are watersheds for the Olympic Mountain range. Some of them are really not much more than large streams while others are large wild rivers. The Lyre is a bit different in that it is a “tail water” which flows out of Lake Crescent. People typically fish the Lyre in the Fall for steelhead. Steelhead are rainbow trout which leave the river system and travel out to the salt water for a year or two. When they return, they are big fish. Some steelhead do return in the spring and summer to produce the so called summer run.

I knew I would be a bit early for the summer run but I wanted to go out to the Lyre and just get to know it a bit better. It was a very nice day on the water. I saw only one other guy on the river, not what you would call a big crowd. By lunch time I had caught and released about ten juvinial steelhead. Spunky little guys. Then for some reason I began thinking about the old days of driving in the San Francisco Bay area traffic during rush hour. During those times it seemed inevitable that I would experience great bundles of stress while trying to get the the airport on time.

Just at that point on the Lyre, the next hour became a bit of a rush hour of its own. My current rush hour began by hooking a couple more particularly strong fish. I then moved up stream to a slower pool where I thought the fish may be resting. At the tail-out of the pool two trees had fallen into the water and were perpendicular to the increased water flow. I began fishing up stream from these windfalls. I looked up to notice my dog Midge walking out on the fallen tree nearest me, which she often does. Then for some unknown reason Midge simply lost her footing and plunged into the water up-current of the windfall. Immediately, the current slammed her against the tree and sucked her under. At that instant I knew two things for sure. First, I could not reach her to provide rescue. Second, I knew the force of the water could trap and keep her there until summer when the water recedes! Fortunately, my state of panic was relieved when I saw her pop-up like a cork on the other side of the log. Yeah, she is safe.

The only problem now was the other fallen log which Midge was quickly drifting towards. She saw it and tried to climb up onto it. Again, however, she was grabbed by the force of the water and taken under. This tree being smaller, Midge popped up on the other side of it more quickly this time. At that point she began to be carried down stream by the current. By the time she floated a hundred feet down stream she had been able to swim to the water’s edge and climb on to terra firma. Being a pretty tough dog she shook herself off and immediately provided mother earth with the biggest poop I have ever seen from her!

You want a rush? That was a rush.

The near drowning incident was to become only the first half of the rush hour. I sat both dog an man down along the river bank and decided to take a break with some lunch. As I sat there munching away on my peanut butter sandwich with wet and gooey dog in hand, I took the occasion to just absorb the world I was in. You know, to be in the moment. I slowly provided myself a 180 degree pan of the scenery before me. A small but beautiful river with very clear water. Lush greenery with plentiful ferns, some four and five feet in height. A forest filled with Western Red Cedar as well as an ample supply of Alder. Then there were the tiny flowers growing out of the moss covered rocks along the river bank. In a state of gratitude, this was one of the best peanut butter sandwich I have ever eaten, and the smell of wet dog next to me made it even better.

A few moments earlier I had undergone a large adrenalin rush with my four legged girlfriend’s near tragedy. Now I was experiencing a rush of another sort. I suppose some may describe it as a spiritual rush. Since I describe spirituality as being in a harmonious relation with the universe, yes, I suppose I would consider this to have been a spiritual rush hour.

Here’s to Growth,

Tim