An Inspired Fall Float
Posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009
Late October brings the peak of foliage season, cold nights and the last few days of fishing season. To squeeze in one more day on the river, I got in touch with an old friend, Rick Estes, a fishing guide here in New Hampshire and Maine. A few years back Rick retired from life as a Fish and Game officer, which is how I got to know him. His job with Fish and Game was to coordinate the search and rescue operations in the White Mountains. So we’ve spent a few nights out in the cold winter together carrying broken hikers off Mount Washington. Now Rick spends his winters tying flies and preparing for spring fishing, and sprucing up his drift boat for another season on the Androscoggin River.
I was lucky enough to catch Rick on the last week he was drifting the upper Androscoggin, during prime late fall fishing, and a nice stretch of New England autumn weather. I’ve waded a large part of this stretch of river, but to drift it on a boat is like night and day. The morning we meet up to launch the boat I noticed Rick was sporting a pair of Cloudveil wading pants. Being somewhat connected to this whole Cloudveil “thing,” I was curious to get an outsider’s view of the company. So as we rolled down the river I started to pick his brain on his wading pants, and the story came out something like this.
Hey Rick, how are those pants working out for ya? “They’re perfect for in the boat; I used to jump in and out with shorts and sandals, but it got way too cold, especially this time of year. The zipper fly makes life a lot easier after a few cups of coffee, instead of wrestling with chest waders.” Rick, I haven’t seen those around in this area; how did you find those? “Well, with all the rock snot and other invasive species heading our way, the camp I guide for thought we should have waders for the Upper Magalloway and Androscoggin River for guests. That way there’s no chance of someone bringing rock snot here.”
So Rick called a few big-name wader manufacturers – you know the ones that charge tons of money for the label. Each reply was sorry, can’t help. Turning to his friends in the climbing world, Rick got turned onto the Cloudveil guy that reps to some of the local shops. After a few quick phone calls Rick got in touch with the Cloudveil guys in Wyoming, and they offered to provide him a full line of sizes at a really good price. “It’s great to see how those guys were willing to help us out, particularly nowadays.”
Sure, there’s some value to having waders out there with the Cloudveil logo, but the big difference is that someone all the way over in Wyoming cared to help out a small guide service and lodge with a huge problem we all are facing. It’s no big cardboard check presented at a press conference; it’s just a quiet gesture that will go a long way to help protect a legendary watershed from the onslaught of rock snot and other invasions.
Thanks to the network of inspired employees, reps and customers for making this happen, and a big thanks to Rick for getting me out on the river and catching a few rainbows, and brookies before the end of the season!
Joe Klementovich is an Inspired Mountain Ambassador and photographer who lives in North Conway, N.H. Check out KlementovichPhoto.com to see more of his work.
