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As featured in the documentary, DamNation (Patagonia, 2014).
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 it, and Spencer’s eyes and mind became figurative hooks, enabling him to capture the stunning lives and behaviors of these charismatic wild creatures with an intimacy that has rarely been offered before.
A distillation of fourteen years of detailed observations, in this surprisingly engaging almanac, Spencer records a natural history teeming with fish, water, vegetation, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and amphibians, seasonal changes, and interesting events and stories. Spencer is a modern-day Thoreau, and the steelhead pool is his Walden Pond.
“A Temporary Refuge succeeds on multiple levels. It effectively documents regional wildlife and the perilous annual migration of the wild fish. It puts the interaction between man and nature into important context, and shows why the wild population is so important, even as hatcheries breed more and more salmon. And it’s also a meaningful memoir about a man and his dog who were devoted to helping protect part of our shared natural heritage, year after year.” —Foreword Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)
“Spencer is a keen observer of everything around him: plants, weather, trees, birds, lizards, even the few people that visit him and his dog Sis on their little fish perch. It’s a beautiful tour of his little slice of Oregon and an inspiration to simply find a quiet, pretty place to sit and watch.” —Adventure Journal
“One of the best outdoor books of the summer.” —Adventure Journal
“[A Temporary Refuge] is proof that personal observation, practiced with dedication and openness to wonder, can produce extraordinary insights.” —MidCurrent http://midcurrent.com/books/book-excerpt-a-temporary-refuge/
In the spirit of Thoreau, A Temporary Refuge will delight curious readers, and inspire and teach them why we should care about protecting not only the fish at Big Bend Pool, but all vulnerable creatures.
“There is more to dwell on in this book than in any other I have read about fly fishing. It’s not just about the way of the steelhead. It’s about an entire world of forest and stream teeming with life amid seasonal changes: fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals. …” High Country News