Denizens of the North Olympic Peninsula, beware.
What happens this weekend could possibly be the best set of events to grace your existence in your entire life.
The Seattle Seahawks could win the NFC Championship and go on to the Super Bowl.
The rivers of the Peninsula could be flowing like a fishing Shangri-La.
The precious powder of Hurricane Ridge could be groomed perfectly to the delight of the skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing faithful.
Yes, it could be a convergence of wants and fantasy of an almost disastrous proportion, a volcano of temptation that could explode all over the Pacific Northwest and spill into the rest of America like a river of delight.
Rivers are coming back into shape in what could be the best weekend of steelhead fishing all season.
Hurricane Ridge will be open to all of its activities.
Hurricane Ridge
The snow has come and Craig Hofer and the rest of his crew have finally been able to prepare the intermediate and bunny slopes for skiing faithful across the North Olympic Peninsula.
Hurricane Ridge Public Development Authority Director Susan McCabe said that everything — minus the Poma lift — is ready to roll this weekend.
With 76 inches of accumulation reported by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche center (www.nwac.us/mtnweather.htm) it is likely the snow is here to stay.
All of that includes the Hurricane Ridge snow bus, the intermediate and bunny rope tows and the ski school which will be open for business at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The bus is scheduled to pick up passengers at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
Cost is $5 per person.
Those wishing to ride the bus are not obligated to ski and are encouraged to show up at least 15 minutes before departure.
The bus will return to Vern Burton from the Ridge at 4:15 p.m.
“We always make sure that everybody has a ride down,”‘ McCabe said.
The ski school will start its six-session classes this weekend as well.
The two sessions are start at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
Fee for the class is $75 per person, which does not include lift tickets.
All-day lift tickets are $8 for the bunny slope and $16 for the intermediate.
Skis can be rented at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor’s Center.
Snowboards can only be rented at North by Northwest at 902 S. Lincoln St. in Port Angeles,
Other activities on the Ridge include the daily snowshoe walks which start at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, cross country skiing, sledding and tubing.
For up-to-date information, contact the Hurricane Ridge weather and road conditions hotline at 360-565-3131.
Fishing outlook
The rains have finally subsided — kind of — and with it steelhead fishing is starting to finally become viable on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Peninsula rivers are getting back into shape after a four-week hiatus, and if the weather keeps it up there’s a good possibility that the fishing will be tremendous this weekend.
“I think there’s going to be some good fishing this weekend,” Bob Aunsapch at Swain’s General Store in Port Angeles (360-452-2357) said.
From the looks of the charts at http://waterdata.usgs.gov /wanwis/current?type=flow, the Calawah, Lyre and Hoko are starting to round into shape.
Bryan Menkel at Swain’s Outdoor in Sequim (360-6816561) said the Calawah is usually the most productive when it’s near 500 to 1,000 CFS, which it could hit in the next few days.
Menkel highly recommends checking the stream flow Web site before heading out to the banks.
“People just don’t use it enough,” Menkal said. “It’s really a very valuable fishing tool.”
With the forecast calling for cool temperatures in the mountains and a small amount of precipitation, rivers are likely to continue dropping.
“They just came down to where they are fishable yesterday,” West End river guide Randy Lato (360-374-2052) said.
“I don’t know how much rain we’re going to get tonight, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough to blow them [the rivers] out.”
Yes, things are finally looking up for the hatchery steelhead season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Bogachiel Hatchery staffer Matt Heil said that there are still some steelhead — approximately 500 at the hatchery as of Thursday –showing up at the hatchery, but it looks like the run is starting to hit its downturn.
The good news is that this usually spells the beginning of the native steelhead run — and the natives are typically larger and harder to catch.
Unless you want to go plunking with a Spin-n-Glo and bait on the Hoh and Elwha — traditionally the last rivers to get into shape — the Calawah, Sol Duc, Hoko and Lyre are probably the best rivers to hit this weekend., Aunspach said.
Aunspach recommended fishing the seams and banks in the river with bright-colored corkies and yarn with a little bit of roe.
Menkal, however, didn’t quite share the same optimism as some of his contemporaries about the prospects of this weekend’s fishing.
“My best advice for Sunday is watch the Seahawks game and tie leaders,” Menkal said.
