gezellig (Dutch) – cozy, in the sense of being with people;
with comfortable congeniality;
with the homey, relaxed feeling of being with people with whom one feels a sense of "belonging", of being in a welcoming, sheltering and tolerant place
That's a dutch word that I learned from a friend a few years ago and I think it fit the scene pretty well.
I believe it's pronounced "hezellik"
I got in friday evening... Didn't bother setting up and went to fish the run below the campsite. Caught a few sportsman club stocked brookies and a nice brown on slate drake parachutes (a good match for what looked like a large rusty spinner) and coffin flies.
Biked the canyon with a few guys the next day and Maurice showed me a thing or two about fishing pocket water. To be honest I was never too big on fishing water like that, but we caught a few fish right off the bat. It was certainly a learning experience, and it was all in a beautiful place. I ended up catching what I'm pretty sure was a wild brookie of about 9". We got drenched by a storm on the way out, and eventually headed back out to catch the drakes. They came late, but the fish began rising pretty well. The entire group basically lined a large run and we caught quite a few fish.
Tied some flies and chatted with many people that night and retired late again... that was a common theme.
Went out to lower pine/slate run with MattBoyer the next morning and did decent. Slate was low and gin clear so the only fish we saw were heading for cover from us. Caught a few in the thermal refuges at the mouths of tribs in the pine, to make for an acceptable outing. On the way up through slate, we ran into a large black bear... this lead us to crap our pants, but in the end it was a really neat experience. He scoped us out for a good five minutes.
I had a great time and I'd do it again any time. Just let me know when and where and I'm there.
