Essential X Series

More than a day is needed to celebrate the women and mothers in the world who care for, nurture, and give birth to all life and more than a day is needed to tell their stories.

For the Month of May, we celebrate the women in our lives who have taught us to hunt and fish or who are learning it for themselves as a way to reconnect with internal forces that drive us to thrive with The Essential X Series. The stories will be published anonymously and in their words. It is with hope that they bring up a memory that makes you smile and a determination to pass on your experiences.

The first tale is from a friend who I have known for a couple decades and is now a grandmother a few times over. Her words below.

“One of my favorite memories of fishing was many years ago when my kids were about the ages of 3 and 5.

We had decided to hike into Marion Lake in the central Oregon Cascades within the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. At an elevation of 4,134 feet, the hike from the trail head to the lake is mostly uphill and depending on the amount of storms that have gone through, it can be a little challenging if there are many fallen trees.

This time there were quite a few downed trees crossing our walkway and I was weighted down with snacks, fishing gear, extra clothing, and drinks making my backpack particularly heavy for an out of shape Mom of two who just wanted to give my kids a great experience in the mountains.

We started our hike early in the morning and the mist and fog gave the walk kind of a magical quality. The kids were unfazed by the difficulty of the hike as I was “blessed” with two very active and athletic children who did not even crack a sweat as I labored behind them trying to keep up and keep them on the trail.

They loved crawling over the fallen trees in their path and I cursed my great idea as I flopped and rolled over the numerous trees in the way. At a few spots along the way the sun cracked through the thick blanket of white and we had a little view of the bright blue sky.

But as we arrived the lake, it was fogged in tight at every point where the fog hangs so close to the shore and the top of the water that you couldn’t see much farther than about 20 feet. As we looked for our fishing spot along the shoreline, we could hear other people talking in little echoes all around the lake, but we couldn’t see anyone through the dense fog.

My son Mitch was so excited to go on his first fishing trip and to use his new Christmas fishing pole for the first time. We got him all set up and went through the instruction process of how to put on the worm, how to cast, where to aim, and found a little stump for him to settle in for his first fishing experience. It wasn’t long before Mitch had a fish on the line and pulled it in. At the top of his lungs he screamed, “I caught a fish! I caught a fish!”.

He pulled it up out of the water and swung it around all over the place as we tried to dodge getting hit in the head with it and all chaos ensued. We were all laughing and appreciating this special moment as Mitch chattered all about his catch and what was really special was you could hear the other people out there in the mist on the lake laughing too and we realized that even though they couldn’t see us, and we couldn’t see them, they were able to enjoyed our special moment too. “