Elvetur

River trip.  Yesterday me, Chenoa and Heather took a little hike down to the Bø River.  We had been studying a bit of Norwegian and were talking about going on a hike, and for a while I was in doubt as to whether I should try to get something done or go for a walk.  It was far too nice out to stay inside, and who says going for a walk isn't getting something done?  As we were walking on the road to get to the river, I ended up offing the coat and just walked in a flannel shirt.  It was beautiful.

There were tons of people out skiiing, walking, shoveling, snow-shoeing and playing.  After a while we got to the river, which I was very excited to see.  I was hoping that I might be able to glimpse some fish down in a pool but the river ended up being a 'big-river'.  In Wisconsin I'm used to small and calm streams where the riffles aren't too big or long and they widen out into pools that are decently small and able to be seen through.  Generally you can see fish in the holes or spook them out from under the banks, although seeing fish usually means you're not going to catch them (that is if you're in a position that you can see trout, you're probably too close to catch them).  Now that's the pattern for every river in history, at least rivers that trout are in.  There are riffles and eventually they tend to narrow or come to a corner where the crick then sort of washes out into a slower and deeper pool with a stronger current at the head (for the Richland Centerites, think of as you are driving over the bridge by the Community Center; right where the Pine River gets narrow and there are 'rapids' and then it broadens out into that pool where everybody fishes).  It's an endless cycle.  Now, Bø elva is a 'big-river' and runs pretty wide and straight and powerfully.  It was thus hard to see fish.  

A lot of the river looked like that, but then as we were making our way down I came acrossed a great looking hole along the edge of a cliff.  There was a narrower spot and then it opened up into a great looking spot:

I'm thinking about buying a cheap spinning rod and reel so that I can come down here soon and pull a spinner through and see what I can get.  There's supposed to be mostly trout (ørret) but also eel (ål) and I think whitefish (sik).

The hike was a good time, and mostly revolved around the river.  We followed a few paths not knowing where they were going, but everything ended up fine.  When we weren't on a path, the snow was over our knees and very hard to walk through.  Here's Chenoa trying to plow through it.

We took a break along the river at one point to drink some tea.  Heather is apparently amazing at packing random things that you might need on a hike, such as: extra gloves, socks, food, hot water and who knows what else.  The second picture from the top was taken from where we were taking our nice break, and it was a nice view.  You can see there's a sort of golden mist above the trees; this was the mist from the falls in the light of the sunset.  As were were taking our break we also observed a small bird that would fly up river and land somewhere in the middle and float downstream doing I know not what.  It was fun to watch at anyrate.  And that was mostly the only wildlife that we saw.  

The day really did feel like spring.  I woke up that morning and was sitting eating my breakfast when I could hear birds singing outside, so I cracked my window to be able to hear them better.  Also while I was sitting there I thought I heard what sounded like geese.  I'm not sure what kind they were, but they were large water-inclined fowl that were probably some sort of goose.  I'm convinced that winter can't last much longer, though the snow itself might be another story.  As soon as I get another nice warm day like yesterday I would like to try to get down to that hole and see if I can't pull a decent trout out of it.