A Temporary Refuge: Fourteen Seasons with Wild Summer Steelhead

During his first summer, Spencer built a sheltered viewing platform, a place to sit with Sis and his notebook, and observe the denizens of the pool for months, and, finally, years on end. Shortly before setting up camp during his first season, Spencer cut the points off the hooks of all his steelhead flies, freeing himself to see more deeply the beauty of his surroundings.

As the predatory urge faded, a kind of blindness went with...