Hornbrook and Klamath River

We are six miles east of Hornbrook, California and I-5. Our campsite is along the beautiful Klamath River, the water is full and clear at this time of year. As I look out the window sipping my mug of hot water, I can see the golden sun on the mountain, trees and barely to the edge of the water, it is 6:14AM. The sun is casting it's long shadow and the color saturation is optimum for that Kodak moment. The air feels fresh and no noise but the rippling sound of water flowing under our window. There is a family of ducks close to the shore playing around and having breakfast. Not a care in the world. The river runs swiftly and when I see the small white caps, I imagine salmon on their way upstream to their spawning grounds.

Yesterday, some of the campers launched their kayaks and floated downstream. The river has some white water areas but not anything that would tip you over…famous last words. If you are a fisherman “wannabe”, there is a fly fishing school here and we see boats drifting by with fishermen casting their lines in the water dancing their fly onto the surface inviting the fish to bite. It’s the perennial cat and mouse game, who’s got the best trap or lure…

The Klamath headwaters are in Oregon with confluences with the Shasta River, Trinity River and Salmon River before reaching the Pacific Ocean. Before the six dams were built, this river was the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast. However, it is still famous for its salmon runs, later this year around October and November millions of salmon will return to their home to spawn; their home is the Iron Gate Hatchery. The returning adult salmon make a 190-mile trip from the ocean to the hatchery. We hiked to the hatchery yesterday and spent 30 minutes talking to the fish technician, we met him in the building where the fry (baby salmon) were being cared for until they are large enough to be put out into the runs. The runs contained millions and millions of Coho, Chinook and steelhead fingerlings which will be release in the river later this year. The natural life cycle of a salmon is 2 to 5 years.

Our front row seat next to the Klamath River. See the Internet satellite antenna on top of the coach? that's how you get our emails. We've joined the 21st Century.

The flyfishing fisherman after their elusive dinner.

Floating down the river, what a life....Somebody's got to do it.

Looking up stream and taking in Mother Nature.

This is a shot for Randy Siple. It's a American LaFrance hook and ladder and probably for sale if you are interested.

We had a great visit with the fish technician at the Iron Gate Hatchery. He spent 30 minutes talking with us and answering our dumb question. Does a fish sleep?

This is the Chinook Salmon run, there are millions of fingerlings eating, resting and waiting for their time of release into the Klamath River and subseqently to the Pacific Ocean 190 miles downstream

1,000,000? Count them...and this is only one family.

Our beautiful bouquet to you from a beautiful place!

Click on any of the photos to make them larger if you want.

"The Wandering Jue's"

Allen & Donna

Happy Father's Day

The thing that sticks out in my memory about our dads were their commitments to long hours to their work and family. Hobbies, vacations, long weekends and floating holidays were not in their mindset or part of their lives. In their minds, if they worked hard and were successful and saved money, it was their means of giving to their children the things that they never had.

Our dads were raised during the depression years which left a lasting impression in how they would live their own lives and their teachings to us would reflect those values. During those difficult years and during World II many provisions were being rationed. Everyone was affected by the war and each citizen was asked to sacrifice for the war effort. You needed ration stamps for meat, sugar, butter, oils and cheese. Rationing stamps were issued according to the size of the family. One of the items that I clearly remember being scarce was bubble gum, bubble gum is formulated with rubber in order to give it greater strength. Rubber was important to the war cause. When dad did get an order of gum, I was a popular guy in school.

I recall recycling was a big thing, save aluminum cans to make ammunition, paper, cardboard, and scrap metal for guns, tanks, etc.

Everyone had a Victory Garden, growing their own food, therefore, the invariable reminder of “eat all your food and don’t be wasteful”.

It was important for them to emphasis to us the importance of education, work to the best of our ability, and be good citizens and stay out of trouble.

Our Dads showed the way for us to be good fathers and to provide for our children as they provided for us. I am thankful for Dad’s and Tony’s pioneering spirit that brought them from a tiny farming village near the province of Guangdong, China to the Gold Mountains of America.

We are left to wonder how very fortunate we really are … Our family is truly The American Dream.

This is my favorite quote:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose forever our ventures."




And my father had the vision to take that voyage when the tide was full and was rewarded beyond his wildest dreams, America is truly the land of opportunity.