Fishing beyond the road – Central Oregon’s Crescent creek

Some places just ask to be explored. Be it the small headwaters of a stream or a remote stretch of a creek far from any roads. Todays adventure is the later of the two. For years I have heard my father talk about the canyon area of crescent creek, and the fish that he would catch. This was my day for a solo adventure of fishing and hiking. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

For every trip I take like this I always have a checklist of things to bring with me. For anyone hiking remote areas you should always have a backup plan for emergency. The main three to always focus on are shelter, water, and food. And always in that order. There is no need to buy the fancy expensive hiking ones. But even something as simple as a life straw can mean the difference of being stranded and waiting for help and waiting for help and having any type of intestinal issues from drinking unpurified water.

Hydro backpack: https://amzn.to/3fc1nsO
Emergency Tent: https://amzn.to/3zYak13 This is a nice cheap and light emergency one
Garmin GPS watch: https://amzn.to/3rGMTX4 I use this on all hikes. It has a track back feature in case you ever get lost
Some type of emergency food even if it is only a couple granola bars
Water filter: https://amzn.to/2Vo0hmD or life straw: https://amzn.to/2UYmNmA

Crescent creek is a tributary of the little Deschutes river that flows through an assortment of meadows, canyons, and old growth pine trees. The area I am hiking through is part of the national wild and scenic rivers system. There are three species of trout that call this section of creek home. The native rainbow trout, and the two non-native brook and brown trout. From what I have seen the section of river from Highway 58 down to bridge by Crescent creek campground is primarily just rainbow trout.

Such a beautiful spot. I broke out my fly pole for this section of stream. It has been a long time since I have used it and really I should do more of it.

For the first half of my hike and fishing trip all was peaceful and relaxing. The first two mile of the stream is through a meandering stream bordered by willow and alders. After the first half mile or so all trace of people disappears and you either have to create your own trail or just walk through the water. For walking in any stream in Central Oregon I recommend tennis shoes and not any type of water sandals. Most of the streams have pumice and other lava rocks in them and if they get under a strap you will get blisters and cuts from them. I know this from experience sadly. About halfway through the meadow I was changing lures and a family of river otters came out of the grass about 10 feet from me. Once they saw me it was constant hissing from them until they swam upstream. Cute to see but I am glad they didn’t come out closer to me.

Near where the otters popped out of the grass. Wish I could have gotten a good picture of them before they swam off.

And now for the canyon part of the hike. Looking in from the edge of the meadow area looked nice and peaceful with a few rapids in view. Oh, this was so deceptive and so not peaceful. For the first 100 yards I caught a dozen fish or more and thought it was great. And then the rocks got bigger and were nearly impossible to go from one to another safely. No big deal I can just walk the edge around to each fishing hole. Nope that was not a good idea. The sides of the canyon are nearly strait up and the entire hillside has soft sandy dirt. On the positive side it is beautiful with old growth ponderosa pines growing. With the steep sides and no cell service my first thought was that if I fell and broke something that it would take days to find me. And then as I was going over a fallen tree, I saw what looked like dried blood on branches and across the log. What kind of hell did I get myself into? About 50 feet after seeing the blood I found a pile of fairly fresh black bear droppings. At least that gave me an idea of where the blood was from. Possibly a deer that was wounded by the bear.

I loved the beauty of this area, but with all the swift water, Rocks and heavy brush this area is extremely difficult to fish. The areas I could get to the water had plenty of small fish at least.

Finishing up the canyon and getting to an old road was such a great feeling. I don’t think I have been that tired in a long time. This was a beautiful hike but really it is a hike for the young. I am glad I did it once in my life. But this is the one and only time I will ever hike through the canyon.

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