I'll start off by saying Enlightened is one tough chick!! If I was half as allergic to bees as her, I don't think I'd go outside much. She doesn't even bat an eye when we take backcountry excursions, though after today I'll be re-thinking things.
Yesterday we uneventfully floated twelve miles of uninhabited river we've been dying to explore. Today we were supposed to float another long section of a different river with friends, until they backed out at the last second. As a backup plan, we hit some flats on the Columbia for carp and other warmwaters. We rowed our pontoons out, dropped anchors and tied them off. We started stalking the flats, mimicking the blue herons sharing the shallows. I immediately got into "******* snook", 4-5 pounders that put up impressive fights. We saw carp activity further toward shore, and began targeting those fish. We split up so as not to spook each others fish. I'm not sure how much later in the time vacuum that is sightfishing, but I heard a commotion, and thinking either enlightened fell down or hooked a carp, a looked over my shoulder to see her staring back at me with a look of pure terror on her face. "I just got stung!!". I was there when the doctor told her never to get an hour away from a hospital during bee season. She carries two epi pens just to keep her alive long enough to get her there, if we're close enough. We quickly made our way go the boats and started rowing the three hundred yards back to our vehicle. We were almost back when the first signs of anaphylaxis shock began to show. She usually has a half-hour, but it hadn't been ten minutes!!! Not good! I drug the boats into the bushes, and tossed over a thousand bucks worth of fly gear into the bushes. I loaded her up and hauled ass. Enlightened began puking and going into convulsions as I put the four wheel drive to the test. I knew shit was bad when she croaked "call 911!". I happened to get cell coverage long enough to relay to dispatch go have an ambulance meet me on155 and the circumstances before the call was lost. With emergency flashers blaring I hit speeds of over ninety, passing everything in sight. We met the the ambulance not far from town and performed a super quick chinese firedrill. They rushed Enlightened in and did their thing. I was scared shitless, though being fully warned. I'll be much more cautious in the future about how far in the boondocks we get and where we camp. I couldn't imagine being so deathly allergic to something so common place and have no fear of going into the backcountry. Thank God for epi pens!! Enlightened is fine now and resting, though I know she'll fell like she was hit by a truck tomorrow.
Photo of "******* snook" if you were wondering.
Yesterday we uneventfully floated twelve miles of uninhabited river we've been dying to explore. Today we were supposed to float another long section of a different river with friends, until they backed out at the last second. As a backup plan, we hit some flats on the Columbia for carp and other warmwaters. We rowed our pontoons out, dropped anchors and tied them off. We started stalking the flats, mimicking the blue herons sharing the shallows. I immediately got into "******* snook", 4-5 pounders that put up impressive fights. We saw carp activity further toward shore, and began targeting those fish. We split up so as not to spook each others fish. I'm not sure how much later in the time vacuum that is sightfishing, but I heard a commotion, and thinking either enlightened fell down or hooked a carp, a looked over my shoulder to see her staring back at me with a look of pure terror on her face. "I just got stung!!". I was there when the doctor told her never to get an hour away from a hospital during bee season. She carries two epi pens just to keep her alive long enough to get her there, if we're close enough. We quickly made our way go the boats and started rowing the three hundred yards back to our vehicle. We were almost back when the first signs of anaphylaxis shock began to show. She usually has a half-hour, but it hadn't been ten minutes!!! Not good! I drug the boats into the bushes, and tossed over a thousand bucks worth of fly gear into the bushes. I loaded her up and hauled ass. Enlightened began puking and going into convulsions as I put the four wheel drive to the test. I knew shit was bad when she croaked "call 911!". I happened to get cell coverage long enough to relay to dispatch go have an ambulance meet me on155 and the circumstances before the call was lost. With emergency flashers blaring I hit speeds of over ninety, passing everything in sight. We met the the ambulance not far from town and performed a super quick chinese firedrill. They rushed Enlightened in and did their thing. I was scared shitless, though being fully warned. I'll be much more cautious in the future about how far in the boondocks we get and where we camp. I couldn't imagine being so deathly allergic to something so common place and have no fear of going into the backcountry. Thank God for epi pens!! Enlightened is fine now and resting, though I know she'll fell like she was hit by a truck tomorrow.
Photo of "******* snook" if you were wondering.