A day with good friends in the outdoors is always a great day! Last Friday we, Victor Fejeran, his son, Zack and I had the opportunity to share the beautiful landscape of the Tiller Ranger District with Victor's long time friend, Frank Kotowiski Of Los Angeles. Frank was on Vacation and had the desire to hike into one of our remote trout lakes and try out his luck.

After some research prior to Frank's arrival, Victor had chose Fish Lake as our destination. The lake itself is located several miles up-stream of Tiller following the South Umpqua River. We started out at about 10am from Winston on what we thought was going to be an easy trip. Following I-5 to Canyonville we all shared some trivia of the South Umpqua to our guest. Being from a big city, Kotowiski was captivated with the countryside. Fejeran explained the best is yet to come.

We passed through Canyonville at about 10:45. Again Kotowiski was fascinated. "In L.A. we don't get to see little towns like this. This is GREAT!"

There we turned east on Hwy 227 towards Tiller. Our guest was more thrilled after spotting some wild turkeys and several small groups of deer. We had explained that we were still following the same river and that our next stop would be the Ranger Station at Tiller to obtain a detailed hiking map then to South Umpqua Falls. Here is where we all got a little hasty.

After acquiring the hiking map we the host of this trip also became mesmerized with the beautiful fall scenery and missed our turn towards the falls. This is absolutely a wonderful time to visit the Cascade Mountain Range. The autumn colors offer us all opportunities of fantastic views around every bend in the road. So we all didn't mind much the extra 30 minuets we spent going down the wrong road. We simply made the correction and back on track we were.

We arrived at South Umpqua Falls well after 12 noon. Fejeran explained to us the historical and cultural significant the area has to the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe. Kotowiski of Los Angeles was more intrigued.

We arrived at the Beaver Swamp Trail head at about 2pm. The trail down hill to Fish Lake from that point is just less than 2 miles long. As for the weather we could not have been blessed with a nicer day, cool dry clear and sunny. We grabbed our gear and down the trail we went. The trail was a bit on the steep side, we had a feeling it would be a chore climbing back out. However the breath taking scenery of cathedral tall timber and the ferns trail side was so overwhelming the thought of being tired never crossed our mind. We arrived at the lake at about 3pm, another scenic moment. Fish Lake is down in a valley totally surrounded by timber, the sun starting to set, casting shadows on the west bank. The water blue as was the clear sky.

As for fishing we should have departed from home at about 5am. Fish lake is stocked with Trout by horseback. We rigged up Kotowiski with a light spinning outfit and a silver blade spinner attached to his line. We coached him on what to do and how to count down his lure before winding it in. "Bite-bite I feel a bite," he hollered! Before long, "FISH ON!" With only less than an hour to fish our guest was able to hook 3 and land 1. "You guys… this was way COOL! Down in Southern California you can never do what we've done today," he said. "Thank you very much."

On the trek back up to the trail head Victor and I got a bit winded but that too, was OK. We took our time catching our breath with multiple brief stops. We landed at the trail head about 8 minuets behind the others. There Kotowiski and Fejeran's son welcomed us with some bottled water. Kotowiski said, "Thank you again for the day out! This was truly an American Adventure!"

We the citizens of Douglas County truly have natural beauty all around us. Some times we overlook that part of our lives. I would encourage all of us to take part in a day out like the story written here. Go ahead, invite other family members, an old friend or two or take some kids out. Watch there faces as they discover new things outside of city limits such as our guest did. It will just make you feel good.