White River Photo Shoot and Fly Fishing Adventure

The last couple of days I have spent wandering the Wenatchee Forest with a friend from my hunting camp Chuck Friedel.  We had sort of a photo safari and fishing adventure in the high hills and I learned a lot about my camera and photo composition which will help me in the future.  Chuck is an amazing man who has traveled the world on serious photo safari's and fly fishing trips.  His last trip was Argentina and he captured some raw images of the mountains and the people. I have also seen his African photo's where he did some amazing shots of animals and the countryside.  Chuck is a retired Boeing engineer out of the test labs and is very precise with all that he does.  He is a simple man, never married, and you can tell he has tried to get the fullest life possible and sometimes I watched as he just would sit deep in thought.  I enjoyed his company and his photo mentoring and learned a lot about F-stop usage, light compensation and just the photography process as he has learned it.  Chuck is also a person going through the challenges of dealing with cancer and just recently got of the second round of chemo treatment and is having to make some hard decisions going forward.  I have a huge respect for this man for how he lives with his challenges.  He and I walked several miles one day taking photographs and fly fishing and all he had to say is that he is not as young as he was the last time he was on these trails.  Then he would walk 11 miles, set up camp , and then walk the other 11 miles out the next day.  I didn't know when I invited him over that I would be bringing back some past "good" memories as a result of our travels.

I am blessed to come across people like Chuck and to learn so much about him, his life and his adventures over the past many, many years.  What a great two and a half days... I am sure that come hunting season he will show up with many of the photo's that he shot during our adventure.  He is a lot more learn-ed then me and has the "best of the best" equipment and clearly knows how to use it....

I wish the best for Chuck as he faces his health challenges head on and I will hold him up in my way to give him spiritual strength to make hard decisions and to continue to heal from this sickness so that we can do this adventure again.




Here are a couple of our early photo's up near Rainey Creek....

                                                                                        

Rainey Creek Feeder Stream

Great old snag....and feeder stream into Rainey Creek...Sometimes you have to get wet to get the good shots....

Sometimes you have to get up and personal....

High Country Pond with some great reflecting going on.....

Chuck and I fished both Rainy Creek and the Little Wenatchee River.  In the Rainey we caught some great little cutthroat trout up in the higher country and as we got down a little lower we caught some nice sized rainbows.

Chuck fishing the Little Wenatchee

The following pictures are from White River Falls....  it is a tough road to get up but well worth the trip.  Chuck and I set up early in the morning to do some pre-sun shots of the falls and try a few photo tricks and from what I can tell some of them really worked for me....

White River Falls... worth the drive...

White River Falls with some great composition tricks...

If you walk well above the falls the water starts to calm down some and you can at least get your line out to try the fishing.  In the past I have not done very well here but this time I stepped up my game and when with a bigger fly and got down and wet in the river and did well.  I use a size 10 Light Elk Hair orange bodied  Caddis Stimulator and it was clearly the fly that worked.  I sat in one spot and pulled out at least a dozen fish...  but who is counting.  It was great fishing and often times you would see the fish take the fly even before you would feel the tug and other times they would take the fly and jump clear out of the water....

Up above the falls on the White River.. Can you see where I might have fished?!?!?!