Just a few quick links I've forgotten to post in the past:
Here's a link to some converted home movies:
Link
Here's an interesting map that almost shows all of Donley lake, including topography. It also contains bathymetry for Manitou and others, but unfortunately not of Manitumeig or Donley.
Link
Be sure to use the zoom buttons near the bottom of the map to see more detail.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
We had a fairly hectic week last week, and managed to relax for most of the weekend. Wabtec had a user conference for the product I'm responsible for, so I had to dust off my public speaking skills on Thursday. I made it through the process without pissing the customers off, so that's a victory of sorts.
Kristen and I have been ramping up our running in preparation for our race at the end of October. On Saturday morning we ran 13 miles. We both felt better afterwards than we remember feeling last year, so we're hopeful we're in better shape this year.
Sunday I headed over to Nate's to check out his new set of tools that we're planning on using on the treehouse. I also put in an order for the hardware that I know we'll need in a few weeks to start building walls and a roof.
Sunday night / Monday morning we had some pretty good thunderstorms and hail for this part of the country. It made the trip into work pretty exciting.
The big western art show went on this last weekend in Cody. Becky flew in for the deal, I'm excited to see her full report on her blog...
Kristen and I have been ramping up our running in preparation for our race at the end of October. On Saturday morning we ran 13 miles. We both felt better afterwards than we remember feeling last year, so we're hopeful we're in better shape this year.
Sunday I headed over to Nate's to check out his new set of tools that we're planning on using on the treehouse. I also put in an order for the hardware that I know we'll need in a few weeks to start building walls and a roof.
Sunday night / Monday morning we had some pretty good thunderstorms and hail for this part of the country. It made the trip into work pretty exciting.
The big western art show went on this last weekend in Cody. Becky flew in for the deal, I'm excited to see her full report on her blog...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Kristen and I headed to Grand Junction this weekend for our annual "Tour of the Vineyards" bicycle ride. We took off right after work on Friday, and arrived at Grand Junction around 11 pm.
We found Katie and Jordan's place after a few wrong turns, and resisted the urge to stay up later watching cable. Our nephew Rocco had grown quite a bit, and was quite the handful. The next morning we rose early, and enjoyed a quick breakfast before heading out to Palisade for the ride.
The ride was fun, as always. Brandy, one of Katie's friends was along for the first time. She may or may not have been physically ill at the top of the first big hill of the ride. Luckily the rest of the 25 miles is fairly flat or downhill, so we all made it to the finish line a few hours later. Not a single flat tire this year, which is a first, I believe.
After the ride we re-drove the course, stopping at all the wineries to do some wine tasting and buying. Kristen and I ended up with nearly two cases of wine, that should last us a while!
The rest of the day was filled with eating, relaxing, and drinking wine. Not a bad deal. We played trivial pursuit for a few hours in the evening before calling it a day.
The ride back to Boulder the next day was fairly uneventful. West-bound I-70 was closed near Vail, which was slowing the east bound traffic a bit. We made it home to find two lonely cats and stormy weather. We skipped our run, hoping that the bike ride would kinda count for it, and prepared for the upcoming work week.
We found Katie and Jordan's place after a few wrong turns, and resisted the urge to stay up later watching cable. Our nephew Rocco had grown quite a bit, and was quite the handful. The next morning we rose early, and enjoyed a quick breakfast before heading out to Palisade for the ride.
The ride was fun, as always. Brandy, one of Katie's friends was along for the first time. She may or may not have been physically ill at the top of the first big hill of the ride. Luckily the rest of the 25 miles is fairly flat or downhill, so we all made it to the finish line a few hours later. Not a single flat tire this year, which is a first, I believe.
After the ride we re-drove the course, stopping at all the wineries to do some wine tasting and buying. Kristen and I ended up with nearly two cases of wine, that should last us a while!
The rest of the day was filled with eating, relaxing, and drinking wine. Not a bad deal. We played trivial pursuit for a few hours in the evening before calling it a day.
The ride back to Boulder the next day was fairly uneventful. West-bound I-70 was closed near Vail, which was slowing the east bound traffic a bit. We made it home to find two lonely cats and stormy weather. We skipped our run, hoping that the bike ride would kinda count for it, and prepared for the upcoming work week.
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Monday, September 10, 2007
Whew! Finally done with the Canada postings.
Things have been quiet around here since the trip. We've been doing a lot of running, trying to make up for lost training during the vacation. We're both solidly back into the groove of work, which doesn't seem so bad (at least from my perspective) after all the time off.
The Indiana trip is coming up soon, I'm trying to get my brain to think about the tree house a bit, but so far I haven't spent much time on it. I am looking forward to having a few friends hang out at the farm and help with the project. It'll be interesting to see how everyone gets along. Swimmingly, I'm sure.
Things have been quiet around here since the trip. We've been doing a lot of running, trying to make up for lost training during the vacation. We're both solidly back into the groove of work, which doesn't seem so bad (at least from my perspective) after all the time off.
The Indiana trip is coming up soon, I'm trying to get my brain to think about the tree house a bit, but so far I haven't spent much time on it. I am looking forward to having a few friends hang out at the farm and help with the project. It'll be interesting to see how everyone gets along. Swimmingly, I'm sure.
Canada Report 4:
Becky and Jason got up early to finish packing. We rounded up as much trash as we could for them to take out. Jason and I were momentarily possessed by the spirit of Godzilla while we smashed cans.
The plane showed up on time, around 10:00 am. Milly got excited and ran around barking for a bit. All their stuff fit easily into the Cessna, and they were off.
The weather started clouding up after they'd departed. The wind picked up as well, although it continued to fight tradition, blowing east to west.
We ate a big lunch, then headed out for some fishing. Kristen caught a 4 pound northern on her glow-jig, but other than that we had no luck. The wind really continued to pick up, it was a fight to keep the boat pointed in the right direction, even under power.
We napped, then decided on an early dinner so that we could fish as the sun was going down. Cooked up some pork chops, rice, and potatoes.
We headed out for more fishing, but had no luck. The shifter handle on the 25 hp motor broke. Upon further inspection, it'd been broken before, but patched up.
During the night the wind continued to build. We woke up at some point and closed a few windows. It was pitch black outside, but we could see flashes of light occasionally. We debated over whether it was northern lights or lightening, and settled on lightening, since it felt stormy.
We fell back to sleep, but were awakened by some amazing thunder a few hours later. We don't get thunder like that in Colorado. It was shaking the cabin, making the windows rattle in their frames. Waves of rain hammered the cabin in between lightening strikes. I started to wonder if Dad had left the lightening rods installed when he put on the new roof...
We survived the night. The boats filled up with water pretty significantly, the big boat on Donley was only about 2 inches out of the water when I got in to bail it out. Next time I'll pull the boat out of the water if it starts to rain like that.
Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, trying to use up all the extra food we had. At some point we started whispering to one another instead of talking. It was quiet with only the two of us up there, whispering back and forth.
We went down to Manitumeig to bail out that boat and to do some fishing. Kristen caught a bass, a walleye, and a northern all on the same spoon.
Afterwards, I started making a new shifter out of a broken hammer handle. We briefly considered cutting down a large dead tree near the cabin, but decided it was too late in the trip for such a big project. We had Mac & Cheese for lunch.
We headed out for another fishing trip, this time on Donley. We were really hauling them in, including a really nice bass and a 4.5 pound northern. We headed back as the sun was going down.
We had chili for dinner. During the meal on the porch, something smacked into the screen. A few moments later we could see something crawling up the screen that looked like a mouse. Upon further investigation we realized it was a bat. We weren't sure if he was eating mosquitoes off the screen, or looking for a roost.
We had an interesting 1/2 sunset. One half of the horizon had a beautiful sunset, the other was filled with storm clouds. We were hoping that the sunny side of the horizon would win out by morning.
Wednesday morning started out nice and clear, and with no wind. It was our first day to close up camp, so after a healthy breakfast of cereal, fruit, and something resembling yogurt, we started on our list. The weather was a nice change of pace from two years ago, where the vast majority of work was done in the rain.
By 10:00 AM we had blasted through a good portion of the list, so we decided to take a break. The weather was amazing, easily the nicest day in camp of the trip. We read on the dock, and sunbathed a bit. We stayed out long enough to both get sun burned a little. We saw a grouse near the outhouse. Very chicken-like, it even sounded like one.
We had lunch, and then knocked another 10 items off the shutdown list. We then headed out for some late afternoon fishing. I installed the new shifter on the motor, which made navigating a bit easier. The wind had eventually picked up, today blowing a more typical west to east direction. We had good luck, a 2.5 pound bass was the best of the bunch. Kristen practiced her rowing a bit.
We had another round of pork chops for dinner, trying desperately to use all the meat up that we had in the freezer. We both felt a bit strange from the sun burn, so it was a quiet dinner, and early to bed.
We got up early again on Friday to try to get a jump on the remaining items on the list. Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, and we ate ourselves silly. We started on the list, then took a break around 11.
We took our last fishing trip catching a few small northern and a few nice bass. With a tear in our eye we eventually turned back toward the cabin.
We cooked an early dinner, then hustled afterwards to finish up the last few items on the list. We signed the guest book, and got the main cabin shut completely down right at nightfall.
All we have left is to shutdown the hill house. We set an alarm the best we could for an early rise, and headed to bed.
The plane showed up about half an hour late, which seemed typical. It gave us a chance to double check everything, and be fairly certain we didn't miss anything.
I was sure we had too much luggage and garbage to fit in the Cessna, but it all fit without too much trouble. It was fairly cloudy, but the ride out was smooth.
We paid our bills (or Kristen did, I'd left one credit card at home, the other had been blocked due to suspicious Canadian spending), and headed west toward Winnipeg.
We made good time, and had an amazingly easy time crossing the border. We suspect this was partially due to a very suspicious looking Indian guy trying to walk through the line of cars to talk to the border patrol. Kristen mumbled something like "Just don't let him detonate his briefcase near us". The guard talking to us was very interested in what the guy was doing, and didn't give us any trouble.
We drove to Sisseton South Dakota, and found a Super 8 to stay in. We gorged ourselves on pizza, and enjoyed at least one shower a piece, and then settled in to the clean sheets.
After sleeping in and driving most of the day, we gave Nono a call around 3:30 from Wall Drug. She was excited to hear from us, and before too long we were showing her the 400+ photos from the trip. She had very vivid memories of staying in the lake house and being terrified by the loons, not knowing what they were.
We took her out to Red Lobster. She really liked the shrimp scampi, Mom wasn't kidding. We only got slightly lost heading the the restaurant, I certainly don't remember my way around Rapid too well. We visited a bit longer after lunch, then went our separate ways.
We stayed at another nice hotel near the mall. We had a few drinks at the hotel bar, which was having a Karaoke night. It was fun to people watch somewhere other than Boulder.
Sunday morning we headed out of town toward Boulder. I felt like I was coming down with something, so Kristen did most of the driving. It was an uneventful day of driving, and before we knew it we were back home with the cats. Zack was so excited that he started drooling profusely, which we hadn't seen before. He didn't stop meowing for about two days. It's good to be home!
Becky and Jason got up early to finish packing. We rounded up as much trash as we could for them to take out. Jason and I were momentarily possessed by the spirit of Godzilla while we smashed cans.
The plane showed up on time, around 10:00 am. Milly got excited and ran around barking for a bit. All their stuff fit easily into the Cessna, and they were off.
 |  |
The weather started clouding up after they'd departed. The wind picked up as well, although it continued to fight tradition, blowing east to west.
We ate a big lunch, then headed out for some fishing. Kristen caught a 4 pound northern on her glow-jig, but other than that we had no luck. The wind really continued to pick up, it was a fight to keep the boat pointed in the right direction, even under power.
We napped, then decided on an early dinner so that we could fish as the sun was going down. Cooked up some pork chops, rice, and potatoes.
We headed out for more fishing, but had no luck. The shifter handle on the 25 hp motor broke. Upon further inspection, it'd been broken before, but patched up.
During the night the wind continued to build. We woke up at some point and closed a few windows. It was pitch black outside, but we could see flashes of light occasionally. We debated over whether it was northern lights or lightening, and settled on lightening, since it felt stormy.
We fell back to sleep, but were awakened by some amazing thunder a few hours later. We don't get thunder like that in Colorado. It was shaking the cabin, making the windows rattle in their frames. Waves of rain hammered the cabin in between lightening strikes. I started to wonder if Dad had left the lightening rods installed when he put on the new roof...
We survived the night. The boats filled up with water pretty significantly, the big boat on Donley was only about 2 inches out of the water when I got in to bail it out. Next time I'll pull the boat out of the water if it starts to rain like that.
Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, trying to use up all the extra food we had. At some point we started whispering to one another instead of talking. It was quiet with only the two of us up there, whispering back and forth.
We went down to Manitumeig to bail out that boat and to do some fishing. Kristen caught a bass, a walleye, and a northern all on the same spoon.
Afterwards, I started making a new shifter out of a broken hammer handle. We briefly considered cutting down a large dead tree near the cabin, but decided it was too late in the trip for such a big project. We had Mac & Cheese for lunch.
We headed out for another fishing trip, this time on Donley. We were really hauling them in, including a really nice bass and a 4.5 pound northern. We headed back as the sun was going down.
 |  |  |
We had chili for dinner. During the meal on the porch, something smacked into the screen. A few moments later we could see something crawling up the screen that looked like a mouse. Upon further investigation we realized it was a bat. We weren't sure if he was eating mosquitoes off the screen, or looking for a roost.
We had an interesting 1/2 sunset. One half of the horizon had a beautiful sunset, the other was filled with storm clouds. We were hoping that the sunny side of the horizon would win out by morning.
Wednesday morning started out nice and clear, and with no wind. It was our first day to close up camp, so after a healthy breakfast of cereal, fruit, and something resembling yogurt, we started on our list. The weather was a nice change of pace from two years ago, where the vast majority of work was done in the rain.
By 10:00 AM we had blasted through a good portion of the list, so we decided to take a break. The weather was amazing, easily the nicest day in camp of the trip. We read on the dock, and sunbathed a bit. We stayed out long enough to both get sun burned a little. We saw a grouse near the outhouse. Very chicken-like, it even sounded like one.
We had lunch, and then knocked another 10 items off the shutdown list. We then headed out for some late afternoon fishing. I installed the new shifter on the motor, which made navigating a bit easier. The wind had eventually picked up, today blowing a more typical west to east direction. We had good luck, a 2.5 pound bass was the best of the bunch. Kristen practiced her rowing a bit.
We had another round of pork chops for dinner, trying desperately to use all the meat up that we had in the freezer. We both felt a bit strange from the sun burn, so it was a quiet dinner, and early to bed.
We got up early again on Friday to try to get a jump on the remaining items on the list. Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, and we ate ourselves silly. We started on the list, then took a break around 11.
We took our last fishing trip catching a few small northern and a few nice bass. With a tear in our eye we eventually turned back toward the cabin.
 |  |
We cooked an early dinner, then hustled afterwards to finish up the last few items on the list. We signed the guest book, and got the main cabin shut completely down right at nightfall.
All we have left is to shutdown the hill house. We set an alarm the best we could for an early rise, and headed to bed.
The plane showed up about half an hour late, which seemed typical. It gave us a chance to double check everything, and be fairly certain we didn't miss anything.
I was sure we had too much luggage and garbage to fit in the Cessna, but it all fit without too much trouble. It was fairly cloudy, but the ride out was smooth.
We paid our bills (or Kristen did, I'd left one credit card at home, the other had been blocked due to suspicious Canadian spending), and headed west toward Winnipeg.
We made good time, and had an amazingly easy time crossing the border. We suspect this was partially due to a very suspicious looking Indian guy trying to walk through the line of cars to talk to the border patrol. Kristen mumbled something like "Just don't let him detonate his briefcase near us". The guard talking to us was very interested in what the guy was doing, and didn't give us any trouble.
We drove to Sisseton South Dakota, and found a Super 8 to stay in. We gorged ourselves on pizza, and enjoyed at least one shower a piece, and then settled in to the clean sheets.
After sleeping in and driving most of the day, we gave Nono a call around 3:30 from Wall Drug. She was excited to hear from us, and before too long we were showing her the 400+ photos from the trip. She had very vivid memories of staying in the lake house and being terrified by the loons, not knowing what they were.
We took her out to Red Lobster. She really liked the shrimp scampi, Mom wasn't kidding. We only got slightly lost heading the the restaurant, I certainly don't remember my way around Rapid too well. We visited a bit longer after lunch, then went our separate ways.
We stayed at another nice hotel near the mall. We had a few drinks at the hotel bar, which was having a Karaoke night. It was fun to people watch somewhere other than Boulder.
Sunday morning we headed out of town toward Boulder. I felt like I was coming down with something, so Kristen did most of the driving. It was an uneventful day of driving, and before we knew it we were back home with the cats. Zack was so excited that he started drooling profusely, which we hadn't seen before. He didn't stop meowing for about two days. It's good to be home!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Canada Report 3:
On Friday the weather settled down a bit. It was chilly, but the skies were mostly clear, and the wind had died down. We had pancakes for breakfast. We were supposed to have French toast, but we were nervous that our bread supply was running low.
The five us headed out for a long fishing trip afterwards. Fish was on the menu for dinner, so we kept a few nice bass that Kristen caught. I had figured out my knot tying mistakes, and started fishing with a Texas Rig. It seemed to work well.
We headed over to the camp site that had been occupied when we first got in. They didn't leave any trash, had cut up a few dead trees, and had an impressive fire pit. We decided we might want to try cooking something on their fire pit for dinner or lunch one day.
At one point during the outing, Milly jumped up on Becky's back as Becky looked over the edge of the boat. Before we knew it, Milly slipped off and splooshed right into the lake. After a few seconds of panicked doggy-paddling by Milly, we got her back in the boat. She didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
We headed back for lunch, then all took naps. At some point Jason took off in the canoe to find the Jonnar portage.
Afterwards Jason, Kristen, and I took off for some more fishing. Jason hooked a nice bass on it's side, so we kept him or her for dinner. Kristen caught a nice bass, but we released it, guessing we had enough for dinner.
We cooked up a huge dinner using the leftover walleye filets from a few nights ago, along with the fresh bass.
Saturday was another clear, calm, chilly day. We had cereal for breakfast, then headed off on dual adventures. Becky and Jason headed toward the logging road to tire out the dog and see if they could find a few lakes. Kristen and I headed to the small lake below the beaver dam on Manitumeig, where we had camped a few years before. The red dragonflies seemed to like my red plaid shirt.
When we found our camping spot, it was obvious that the water level had raised about 2 feet. The huge rock we had camped on was mostly under water, with our fire pit just a few inches from being submerged. Things had really grown up, making the area look a lot different.
We poked around the lake in the canoe, investigating a few beaver houses, and discovering some pitcher plants. We hiked over to the next lake, and generally enjoyed the weather.
On the way back across Manitumeig we caught a few walleye, including one fairly large specimen. Kristen caught a northern so small it slipped through the holes in the net, back into the water.
We got back to the cabin around 3:30. Kristen and I decided to take another dip in the lake. The water seemed much chillier than it had previously. Kristen really yelped when she got in. After shampooing up and getting out of the lake, I noticed Kristen had a leech on her foot. I pointed it out to her, which caused some panicked screaming and general flailing about. We convinced the leech to leave with some shampoo persuasion, and Kristen eventually settled down.
We decided to abort the plan of cooking Orbs(tm) over at the other campsite, and decided to cook them in our own firepit instead. They were very tasty, as always.
Sunday was Becky and Jason's last full day in camp. It was a bit windy, with the wind coming from the north, and blowing to the south. After a pancake breakfast, we again split up, this time with Jason and Becky taking Manitumeig, and we headed out on Donley.
Becky and Jason tried to find the impressive dam that Becky remembers vividly from her childhood, and I only faintly. They covered much of the shoreline of Manitumeig, but didn't have any luck.
Kristen and I fished like crazy on Donley. We caught a few really nice bass, then ran into a patch of northerns that slaughtered our Texas rigs. Kristen lost two lures due to broken lines (probably damaged by previous fish). She vowed to come back and wreak vengeance upon the northerns.
We all met up for lunch back at the cabin. Instead of eating there, we motored over to the campsite, and gave the spiffy firepit there a try. It was so large that we had a hard time building up sufficient coals to cook properly, but we eventually got the job done.
Kristen and I waded about in the shallow water, luckily there were no repeats of the leech incident. Since we were out of the wind, we spent a fair amount of time just taking in the sun.
Once we made it back to camp, we resisted the urge to nap, and headed out for another fishing expedition. We had great luck near Sunset Island, and tried the reef near the Bay of Islands. It was too windy there, so we snuck back into the Bay of Islands to find calmer water.
We were having good luck catching small northerns and bass. Then Kristen hooked something that we could tell was huge. The fish was not having any problems pulling line off the reel. All of our eyes widened, and Jason mentioned something nervously about a "Nantucket sleigh ride". Sure enough, the fish Kristen had hooked started pulling the boat subtlety around the cove we were in.
Kristen calmly listened to all the great advice Jason and I were yelling at her, and with nerves of steel slowly brought the fish closer to the boat. At this point I just wanted to see what it was, regardless of whether we landed it or not.
I handed Jason the camera, and told him how to shoot video. The coloring is a bit messed up (I had munged up a few of the settings earlier), but you can get the idea.
The northern weighed 10.5 pounds on a brand new scale that we later verified as accurate. Kristen was using a tiny white jig with a glow-in-the-dark white tail as bait.
After taking a bunch of pictures, we released the mighty beast back into the murky waters, and tried fishing a bit more. Unfortunately everything we caught afterwards seemed a bit anti-climactic, so we headed back in. Jason cooked up some great buffalo chicken wraps for dinner. There was much conversation about huge fish for the remainder of the evening.
On Friday the weather settled down a bit. It was chilly, but the skies were mostly clear, and the wind had died down. We had pancakes for breakfast. We were supposed to have French toast, but we were nervous that our bread supply was running low.
The five us headed out for a long fishing trip afterwards. Fish was on the menu for dinner, so we kept a few nice bass that Kristen caught. I had figured out my knot tying mistakes, and started fishing with a Texas Rig. It seemed to work well.
We headed over to the camp site that had been occupied when we first got in. They didn't leave any trash, had cut up a few dead trees, and had an impressive fire pit. We decided we might want to try cooking something on their fire pit for dinner or lunch one day.
At one point during the outing, Milly jumped up on Becky's back as Becky looked over the edge of the boat. Before we knew it, Milly slipped off and splooshed right into the lake. After a few seconds of panicked doggy-paddling by Milly, we got her back in the boat. She didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
We headed back for lunch, then all took naps. At some point Jason took off in the canoe to find the Jonnar portage.
Afterwards Jason, Kristen, and I took off for some more fishing. Jason hooked a nice bass on it's side, so we kept him or her for dinner. Kristen caught a nice bass, but we released it, guessing we had enough for dinner.
We cooked up a huge dinner using the leftover walleye filets from a few nights ago, along with the fresh bass.
Saturday was another clear, calm, chilly day. We had cereal for breakfast, then headed off on dual adventures. Becky and Jason headed toward the logging road to tire out the dog and see if they could find a few lakes. Kristen and I headed to the small lake below the beaver dam on Manitumeig, where we had camped a few years before. The red dragonflies seemed to like my red plaid shirt.
When we found our camping spot, it was obvious that the water level had raised about 2 feet. The huge rock we had camped on was mostly under water, with our fire pit just a few inches from being submerged. Things had really grown up, making the area look a lot different.
We poked around the lake in the canoe, investigating a few beaver houses, and discovering some pitcher plants. We hiked over to the next lake, and generally enjoyed the weather.
On the way back across Manitumeig we caught a few walleye, including one fairly large specimen. Kristen caught a northern so small it slipped through the holes in the net, back into the water.
We got back to the cabin around 3:30. Kristen and I decided to take another dip in the lake. The water seemed much chillier than it had previously. Kristen really yelped when she got in. After shampooing up and getting out of the lake, I noticed Kristen had a leech on her foot. I pointed it out to her, which caused some panicked screaming and general flailing about. We convinced the leech to leave with some shampoo persuasion, and Kristen eventually settled down.
We decided to abort the plan of cooking Orbs(tm) over at the other campsite, and decided to cook them in our own firepit instead. They were very tasty, as always.
Sunday was Becky and Jason's last full day in camp. It was a bit windy, with the wind coming from the north, and blowing to the south. After a pancake breakfast, we again split up, this time with Jason and Becky taking Manitumeig, and we headed out on Donley.
Becky and Jason tried to find the impressive dam that Becky remembers vividly from her childhood, and I only faintly. They covered much of the shoreline of Manitumeig, but didn't have any luck.
Kristen and I fished like crazy on Donley. We caught a few really nice bass, then ran into a patch of northerns that slaughtered our Texas rigs. Kristen lost two lures due to broken lines (probably damaged by previous fish). She vowed to come back and wreak vengeance upon the northerns.
We all met up for lunch back at the cabin. Instead of eating there, we motored over to the campsite, and gave the spiffy firepit there a try. It was so large that we had a hard time building up sufficient coals to cook properly, but we eventually got the job done.
Kristen and I waded about in the shallow water, luckily there were no repeats of the leech incident. Since we were out of the wind, we spent a fair amount of time just taking in the sun.
Once we made it back to camp, we resisted the urge to nap, and headed out for another fishing expedition. We had great luck near Sunset Island, and tried the reef near the Bay of Islands. It was too windy there, so we snuck back into the Bay of Islands to find calmer water.
We were having good luck catching small northerns and bass. Then Kristen hooked something that we could tell was huge. The fish was not having any problems pulling line off the reel. All of our eyes widened, and Jason mentioned something nervously about a "Nantucket sleigh ride". Sure enough, the fish Kristen had hooked started pulling the boat subtlety around the cove we were in.
Kristen calmly listened to all the great advice Jason and I were yelling at her, and with nerves of steel slowly brought the fish closer to the boat. At this point I just wanted to see what it was, regardless of whether we landed it or not.
I handed Jason the camera, and told him how to shoot video. The coloring is a bit messed up (I had munged up a few of the settings earlier), but you can get the idea.
The northern weighed 10.5 pounds on a brand new scale that we later verified as accurate. Kristen was using a tiny white jig with a glow-in-the-dark white tail as bait.
 |  |
After taking a bunch of pictures, we released the mighty beast back into the murky waters, and tried fishing a bit more. Unfortunately everything we caught afterwards seemed a bit anti-climactic, so we headed back in. Jason cooked up some great buffalo chicken wraps for dinner. There was much conversation about huge fish for the remainder of the evening.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Canada Report 2:
On Tuesday morning we had some great apple pancakes for breakfast. There wasn't a blueberry to be found, so we settled for sliced apples. The wind was really howling, white caps were making it well into the bay.
A fish carcass had floated down to near the bridge. Two gulls started fighting over it near the sauna, which caused quite a ruckus. The campers finally exited the lake, leaving via the logging road.
The four of us (counting Milly) did a bit of adventuring around the dam. We had fun jumping from rock to rock and looking in the shallow water, although Milly wasn't feeling too brave. The wind was blowing hard enough that a large amount of foam was building up near the damn. When the wind would gust, it'd blow a bit of foam into the air.
Later, I decided it was time for a bath, so I jumped in. The water was definitely chilly, but it didn't take too long to get used to it. I swam out behind gull rock, having fun in the white caps. A little later in the day I convinced Kristen to get in with me, she did her first real swimming in camp.
I poked around in the dungeon and found an old mirror up there that had a bunch of signatures on it. The only dates I could make out were on the back, with a year of 1955.
For dinner I cooked Kabobs on the fire. Without any skewers I had to wire together some of the toasting grills. It worked out better than I expected.
When Wednesday rolled around, the wind had died considerably, but the skies had become overcast. It was drizzling pretty good by the time we got out of bed. We had a quick bite of cereal for breakfast, then Kristen spearheaded a fishing trip, hoping that the fish would be more active in the rainy weather. Jason stayed in camp to prepare for Becky's arrival.
We headed over to near where the campers had been. We both caught a small northern or two. We tried bass rock, but had no luck. We headed back toward the cabin, knowing Becky's plane was due at any time. I caught a large 4 pound northern behind Sunset Island, right as Becky's plane landed. We could hear Milly's excited barking for quite a while.
Becky had managed to pick up the necessary groceries and lug in all our extra gear. We got everything put away, and then Milly started acting ill. She tried laying down in the dark corners of the cabin, and eventually went outside and laid down under the cabin, drooling. About 10 minutes later she popped out like nothing had happened, and went back into normal Milly mode.
After lunch we headed to Manitumeig for some adventuring. Becky covered it well in her blog entry. I'll only add that Jason's comment about having a good "layer" of gas caused a good amount of mirth afterwards. Future outings usually started with us asking how the layer of gas was looking before we departed the dock.
We got back fairly late, and cooked a late dinner of steak, potatoes, and asparagus. It was around 11:30 by the time we headed to bed.
Thursday was clearer, but windier. This seemed to be the pattern for most of the trip. It was either still and overcast, or clear-ish and windy.
The wind kept us inside for most of the day. Becky and Kristen worked on the puzzle, Jason practiced tying knots, I read old magazines and napped. The lack of caffeinated soda was causing a lot of naps on my end, while the three others enjoyed their damn coffee all vacation long.
The four of us went on quick boat ride in Manitumeig. Kristen did a bit of fishing but we had absolutely no luck.
We grilled up some chicken for salads, it was nice change from the heavier dinners we'd been having. We roasted marshmallows, broke out some chocolate, and did a bit of reading. After several beers Jason and I were giggling over several of the ads in various magazines, our favorite being for inflatable underwear that would somehow help you "Slim down where you need it most."
On Tuesday morning we had some great apple pancakes for breakfast. There wasn't a blueberry to be found, so we settled for sliced apples. The wind was really howling, white caps were making it well into the bay.
A fish carcass had floated down to near the bridge. Two gulls started fighting over it near the sauna, which caused quite a ruckus. The campers finally exited the lake, leaving via the logging road.
The four of us (counting Milly) did a bit of adventuring around the dam. We had fun jumping from rock to rock and looking in the shallow water, although Milly wasn't feeling too brave. The wind was blowing hard enough that a large amount of foam was building up near the damn. When the wind would gust, it'd blow a bit of foam into the air.
Later, I decided it was time for a bath, so I jumped in. The water was definitely chilly, but it didn't take too long to get used to it. I swam out behind gull rock, having fun in the white caps. A little later in the day I convinced Kristen to get in with me, she did her first real swimming in camp.
I poked around in the dungeon and found an old mirror up there that had a bunch of signatures on it. The only dates I could make out were on the back, with a year of 1955.
 |  |
For dinner I cooked Kabobs on the fire. Without any skewers I had to wire together some of the toasting grills. It worked out better than I expected.
When Wednesday rolled around, the wind had died considerably, but the skies had become overcast. It was drizzling pretty good by the time we got out of bed. We had a quick bite of cereal for breakfast, then Kristen spearheaded a fishing trip, hoping that the fish would be more active in the rainy weather. Jason stayed in camp to prepare for Becky's arrival.
We headed over to near where the campers had been. We both caught a small northern or two. We tried bass rock, but had no luck. We headed back toward the cabin, knowing Becky's plane was due at any time. I caught a large 4 pound northern behind Sunset Island, right as Becky's plane landed. We could hear Milly's excited barking for quite a while.
Becky had managed to pick up the necessary groceries and lug in all our extra gear. We got everything put away, and then Milly started acting ill. She tried laying down in the dark corners of the cabin, and eventually went outside and laid down under the cabin, drooling. About 10 minutes later she popped out like nothing had happened, and went back into normal Milly mode.
After lunch we headed to Manitumeig for some adventuring. Becky covered it well in her blog entry. I'll only add that Jason's comment about having a good "layer" of gas caused a good amount of mirth afterwards. Future outings usually started with us asking how the layer of gas was looking before we departed the dock.
 |  |  |
We got back fairly late, and cooked a late dinner of steak, potatoes, and asparagus. It was around 11:30 by the time we headed to bed.
Thursday was clearer, but windier. This seemed to be the pattern for most of the trip. It was either still and overcast, or clear-ish and windy.
The wind kept us inside for most of the day. Becky and Kristen worked on the puzzle, Jason practiced tying knots, I read old magazines and napped. The lack of caffeinated soda was causing a lot of naps on my end, while the three others enjoyed their damn coffee all vacation long.
The four of us went on quick boat ride in Manitumeig. Kristen did a bit of fishing but we had absolutely no luck.
We grilled up some chicken for salads, it was nice change from the heavier dinners we'd been having. We roasted marshmallows, broke out some chocolate, and did a bit of reading. After several beers Jason and I were giggling over several of the ads in various magazines, our favorite being for inflatable underwear that would somehow help you "Slim down where you need it most."
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