Book Review/The North Umpqua Chronicles
The North Umpqua Chronicles By BILL DUNCAN When you ask Patrick McRae of Glide why he subtitled his book “The North Umpqua Chronicles” as the secret diary of a year on the river, he will tell you because it was a secret diary until it was published. And, he credits the reason for publishing it to Peter Pyonquet, a fly fisherman friend from Grants Pass. Readers should thank Pyonquet because McRae’s poetic writing style is some of the best in print. This is not his first book. Earlier he published a novel, “The North Fork Redemption,” a fly-fishing love story in which he uses fishing destinations all over the Pacific Northwest in his plot, ending on the North Umpqua. His journal wasn’t that entirely secret among his fly fishing fraternity because he shared entries with friends. Pyonquet hounded him to publish his prose and readers will find that prose professionally written in a readable fashion, so well done that the reader can almost wade out into Deadline pool to cast for steelhead. Since he retired as a senior executive with Bonneville Power Administration in 2001, he has lived on the North Umpqua, one of the most revered steelhead streams in North America, a river made famous by another writer, Zane Grey. Perhaps it is the engineer in him that leads to his noting along with the date, the cfs (cubic feet per second) flow and water temperature of the river. For one so dedicated to fishing, this is valuable information. McRae starts his book with the “majesty of the North Umpqua” in which he describes its beginning “high in the cascades…the magnificent wild and scenic North Umpqua emerges full grown from the lava field aquifers that surround Crater Lake, a rugged river coursing through majestic corridors of old growth conifer and broadleaves, its bedrock channel polished smooth by eons of rushing water.” He continues: “For reasons that cannot be put in words, you know that it is the most beautiful river you have ever seen and deep within the rushing currents are the steelhead, finning their way into the fly water between Idleyld and Soda Springs – fresh run fish that rise aggressively to a fly.” Beginning with the cover, in which McRae in full fishing gear stands in the North Umpqua with the North Umpqua fishing legend, Frank Moore, the book is filled with mentions of Douglas County people to whom the river is sacred. McRae has many fishing partners, but none as important as his wife, Becky, who plays an important role in his story. Anyone who lives in Douglas County and for that matter, the Pacific Northwest, will delight in the beautiful prose about a river and the elusive steelhead that call their habitat and will enjoy this unique book for its descriptions. Currently, the book is on sale at Whileaway Books and Northwest Outdoors in Roseburg and the Blue Heron and Steamboat Inn in Glide. McRae said since his retirement in 200l, he has fished the North Umpqua almost daily. He said he averaged about 180 days per year, but sanity finally prevailed along with age and he has tapered off to about 130 days a year “because I quickly learned the steep, rugged banks of this beautiful river canyon will not only wear your body out, but your equipment as well.” In the epilog written by Bill Bakke of “The Native Fish Society,” McRae is said to have developed a “connection to the North Umpqua that impregnates every fiber of one’s being,” an apt description of a man who lives by the rhythm and mood of the swift waters of the Umpqua. In my lifetime I have caught but one steelhead. The fight it gave me, is a memory that will last a lifetime. The pages of McRae’s book brought back that sweet memory. (Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.0. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470) 
The Secret Diary of a Year on the River
By Patrick McRae
Self Published
Paperback $26.95
The News-Review