As a guide, I find myself carefully studying the weather on a daily basis. Since I work outside, I am subject to the whims of Mother Nature. I begin my day with a cup of fresh coffee and the Weather Channel. When I stop by McDonalds for a quick breakfast, on my way to pick up clients, I note that the television there is always on the Weather Channel. During the day I use my IPhone weather apps to check on any weather updates or to track an incoming storm. My wife, Lori, is also a fly fishing guide and is more of a weather nut than I am. If she had her way, we would leave the Weather channel on all day and we would watch nothing else.
The reason that Lori and I tend to obsess about the weather is that we need to know how to dress. Over the twenty plus years that I have guided, I have only cancelled a handful of trips due to the weather. It takes a flood or an ice storm to keep me from working. Oppressive heat, bitter cold, rain, snow and sleet do not deter me from guiding, although I will wait out a lightning storm. When I was watching the forecast this week, I noted that we had a polar vortex headed our way and it was bringing some bitterly cold weather with it.
On my last guide trip, I had begun the day with cold temperatures but I had finished the day wearing a long sleeved t-shirt. The trick that day was to dress in layers and to shuck the layers as the temperature rose. The incoming polar vortex requires a bit more planning for my upcoming guide trips. The temperature will be much colder and there is no scheduled warm up later in the day. It is going to be frigid and stay that way. I had to go through my closet and locate some seriously warm gear that I had not used since last winter.
The first item that I located was my fleece lined blue jeans. I get these from L. L. Bean and they have become my favorite cold weather pants. I first discovered just how warm they were during the ice storm that we had a few years back, where we lost our power for six days. The only time I took them off was to wash them (yes, I slept in them). I find them to be very comfortable in the boat or when wading.
The next item I rounded up was my warmest down coat. I have a down sweater that I wear as a light jacket but this is the heavy duty and seriously warm coat. Down is light and possibly the best insulation there is. I always use it when it is bitterly cold and it has never failed me. To wear under my down jacket I pulled a couple of merino wool sweaters from our cedar chest. Merino wool is not itchy, can be machine washed and is warm even when wet.
To keep my feet warm, I got out my L.L. Bean insulated waterproof Maine hiking boots. They are roomy enough for me to wear heavy wool wading socks with them. I had already been wearing my heavy wool fingerless gloves but I added a pair of heavy fleece gloves with full fingers. My Simms Gore-Tex insulated extreme hat (think Elmer Phud) would keep my head warm and some disposable hand warmers would help warm me up after I tied on flies.
I now feel that I am ready to guide this week end. In case my clients are not as prepared, I will carry some extra gloves, a spare fleece jacket and a knit hat.
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