Canyonwren Travels

The Wild Ones

2012-02-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

The phone rang on Thursday and it was Tom Husby, "How much do you like football?" "I like to watch the commercials." I replied. "Wanna go down and fish the Clearwater Sunday?" He said. "Yup." I replied. "Ok, we'll leave Saturday at 5:30 PM." He said. "Ok, see you then." (click)

With the trip all confirmed I talked to Linda and asked it it was alright to go. Notice I asked after it was confirmed. If she said "no" (which she wouldn't) then I would break into tears and start the groveling. Basically all Linda did was ask a myriad of questions about the who, what, when where and why's of the trip. I repeated Tom's and my conversation (see above) verbatim and explained that in man talk, that is all that was needed to be said. The rest of the plans would follow a sequence that has been played over and over for a million years, when the hunter gatherers rendezvoused to lay siege upon the wild.

On Friday we drove out to John and Loretta Sutherland's house to have dinner and see their new basement remodel project. They did a beautiful job of finishing their basement off with a gorgeous bedroom and a killer bathroom. The shower and tub are definitely well though out. Great space, lighting that is adjustable and practical, and tile work that accentuates the beautiful outdoor theme that runs throughout the house.

We ate pizza and talked all evening. Getting together like this just makes me ask why we don't do it more often?

On Saturday we did our weekend shopping early. We had our jobs done, lunch ate and were home by about 12:30 PM. I had been planning to smoke a tri-tip and chicken to see how it turned out, so I prepared it by putting Alex's Rub of Love on it to absorb for a while. While the meat preped I finished a project on the truck.

The truck project consisted of the replacement of the running lights on the top of the cab. Before we bought the rig someone must have hit a low lid with the lights because they all had scratches and cracks in them. When the light bulbs burned out I would have to replace the bulb and seal all the crack in each light housing. I bought a new real cool set of LED lights with smoked plastic housings and did an expert job of installing them. Yes, expert! In fact I only burned myself on the soldering iron twice! Very little of the silicone sealant got on my cloths or my hair, so I consider it a expert job.

Once I finished the truck I put the meats into the smoker and trained Linda on how to extract the finished product when it reached the allotted smoker time. Due to the set back of shopping on Saturday morning I could not be available to pull the smoked meat, because I would be in Uniontown preparing for the fishing trip.

Tom and I left at 5:30 PM exactly and drove to Uniontown where we met Tyler and Mark. Arriving about 8:00 PM we watched fishing DVDs and talked about where we would fish in the morning. We went to be about 9:30 PM and that is all I will say about that. (Ask me later about the bed and if I got any rest that evening.)

5:30 AM all the alarms sounded and we stumbled down to eat oatmeal, drink coffee and load up the truck. We were at the river by about 7:30 AM and began fishing as soon as we got all our waders and winter coats on. Mark his the first fish in the AM but it jumped and got off. Our hopes were high at that point.

The day progressed and I caught the next fish but it broke off. I examined my line and it looks like I tied a bad knot so the first miss was on me.

We fished hard. Tyler was relentless and I don't think he took a break all day. Tom was his usual machine and kept slashing the water with only a few stops to rest. Mark and I took our time and enjoyed the sun. We fished and rested, fished and talked, made trips to the truck for water and food, a fishing combination that we prefer.

At the end of the day, here is how the score card read. Mark hooked the first one that got off, Tom worked on perfecting his casts but was skunked by the steelhead. Tyler hooked three and landed two and was able to keep on hatchery fish. I finished the day by catching one wild steelhead, hooking and loosening two others. The final fish I caught made it almost into the net, but ran and broke off at the last second. It was identified as a hatchery fish, so it made us a bit frustrated. Hatchery fish are always kept and smoked when ever possible. They taste amazing!

We drove home from the river to Uniontown and then headed up to Coeur d'Alene. I tried my best to keep Tom company but lost the battle just before Plummer. He continued alone for a while and I came back just outside home base. I think I could have made it if I had slept a little Saturday night!

¿Dónde le gustaría a comer esta noche?

2012-01-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

Pedro's Tacos

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with some greatfriends. You know you are getting older when you hear the special of the night,but you miss the price. I did just that and wound up with an exquisite meal thatcost us $32 dollars. LOL Our entire tabfor dinner last night came to just over $63, and when we were driving home allwe could think about is that we could have eaten the same exact meal for justover $25 in Melaque at one of the gringo restaurants.

El Buen Gusto condiments.

In all actuality our normal dinner while on vacation came toabout $11. If we ate at Ayala a daily lunch special is 32.00 pesosand with drink we would probably spend about $4.50 including tip. It is hard to compare the meals down inMelaque to the food that we buy in good old Idaho. Prices are higher and we probably get a tadbit more served up on the plate up here, but we also get quite a bit more overindulgence in the area of extras.

Tacos el Pastor El Buen Gusto.

Melaque food isbasic. Very good, but it is not overlygarnished. If you order tacos, you gettacos. No cheese, no sour cream and no pile of re-fried beans. On occasion youwill get a half cup of rice, and a small ladle full of re-fried beans, but mostof the time it is the taco meat, wrapped in two tortillas with beans, salsa,and hot sauces served on the table. Youfix ‘em the way you like ‘em!

When I write about our meal experiences, I have found that everyonewho reads the blog really likes the photos of the food. To appease all you south of the border foodfanatics, here is a photo extravaganza of the foods of the Costalegre!

Shrimp pozole @ Flor Morena.

Queso enchiladas El Buen Gusto.

Wet burrito San Miguel Hacienda.

Shrimp fajitas!

Pollo en moll verde @ Ayala 30.00!

Sopes @ San Miguel Hacienda.

Bisteck a la Mexicana @ Ayala 30.00!

Molcajeta from Alcatraz.

Linda's favorite food group!

Dinner at Larry & Maggie's.

Chicken enchilada El Buen Gusto

Sopes @ El Buen Gusto.

Huevos with bacon @ Ayala 30.00!

Hey, Where Can You Surf?

2011-12-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

Our time in Melaque went very fast, so fast that I oftenthought I should be posting more about the different experiences we had but Ididn’t have the time to sit down and type them up. We were going and doing, butthe doing was all part of a normal day. It didn’t feel like I needed to explain thosehappenings.

Now that I am home and thinking about some of the thingsthat happened in our normal days, I realize that a normal day in Mexico wouldnot be looked upon as a normal day up here.

Take for example, Caroline trying to set up a surf trip forChris. As I remember it she started the project via a website called TomZap.This site is the main bulletin board for the region around Melaque andBarra. She posted that Chris would bedown visiting and wanted to surf. Inreply Caroline received tips that if she went to the Surf Bar and asked for Benji,he could possibly help.

Linda and Claudio at Bigote's

We all walk down to the Surf Bar located on Taco Row on thesecond floor of one of the buildings. The bar always has loud music pouring down upon Taco Row and usuallythere is someone standing on the street trying to steer people up into theestablishment by offering two or three for one shots of tequila. To get to the bar you have to enter a flowershop and turn left, walk down a hall and up some stairs. No wonder they havesomeone on the street selling the good times.

Caroline disappears down the hall and up the stairs and in afew minutes she reappears following ayoung fellow who leads us down the blockand we end up at San Miguel Hacienda where we have to wait while he goes in andgets Benji. Benji says that he can setthe surf trip up but he needs to talk to Lupi and that we should come back thenext night and meet Lupi at the Razteca Tatoo parlor.

The next night after drinks at Bigotie’s , Caroline leads arag tag group of half drunk Americans consisting of Linda, Don, Holly, Chrisand myself down to the Razteca on Taco Row. We walk in and are greeted by and young girl and we ask if “Lupi“ wasthere. We wait as she goes into the backroom. While she is getting Lupi we tryto look inconspicuous by scoping out the various tattoo offerings on thewalls. People walking past must havethought we were all going for a group tat to commemorate our drunken night inMexico.

Lupi appears from the back and takes us all behind the doorto a dark back room where his tattoo table sits next to a computer. He shows us video clips of surf breaks and wetalk about what type of surfing Chris was looking for. After fifteen minutes,by the glow of the computer screen, the deal was struck and Lupi told Chris tomeet him at 7:30 am the next day and they would surf. We all walked across the street and had tacosat Pedro’s.

If you were to watch this on TV, the plot would follow thesame sequence of events, but you would probably find the group of Americansbeing led into the dark heart of the drug world. In Melaque we were passed from surfer to anothersurf buddy working hard to help find a board and allow a fellow surfer from theUS, add another break to his list of accomplishments. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and inthe end Chris got a chance to surf in Mexico.

Whale Video

2011-12-29T13:50:00.001-08:00

Just A Few Photos

2011-12-29T07:48:00.001-08:00

The Past Two Days

2011-12-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

Tourists flock to the beach in Melaque for the holidays.

She is the center of my universe.

No horses riding bikes allowed!

Linda prepares to transport.

I know the sunset photos are remarkable, They have not been touched. Some times I take the pictures into Picasa and do a little tweaking by turning up the saturation, but this time I didn't do anything. It was a sunset to remember.

So Little To Do, So Little Time

2011-12-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

We are in our pattern down here. We wake up about 7 AM, Linda goes out and runs, I either go fish from the beach or have my coffee and wake up. If we have some small adventure planned we get ready for that. Once the morning routine is complete we take some time to read before we play volleyball.

Volleyball is usually about an hour and the games are a lot of fun. Once the competition is over, everyone chats, and we then go back to the house and lay out in the sun. This is the hotter part of the day and it can be filled with reading, sleeping, eating or sometimes walking down town.

We gather and talk in the late afternoon and sometimes play volleyball. It is at this time a location for dinner is discussed and meeting times are set. About every other day we play cribbage with Larry and Maggie in the hours before sunset, then we all walk down to the beach to watch the big yellow ball fall into the water.

Everyone breaks up for an hour of cleaning and changing into their dinner attire. Then it is off to one of the many eating establishments for drinks and food. We have the usual wonderful meal and when we are stuffed and content, we walk down town for our dessert.

The plaza usually has a multitude of things going on and the people watching is outstanding. We end our outing with a walk home, stopping for groceries or the occasional baked goods.

Bedtime is about 9:30 PM or 10-ish. Everyone has come to their own method of achieving sleep. Some nights are better than others depending upon what festival is in progress, or what day of the week it is, who's brother is having a birthday, who is getting married, who's quince anos it is or who went to the tiangue and bought fireworks. Some nights are real loud, other nights are normal, but yo seldom get a quiet night like we have back home.

We have syncopated with the Melaque rhythm and are enjoying our little break. Some might think it is too mundane for them, there is a night life and exciting adventures if you prefer that pace. We like the slow laid back way of life down here.

Pesca

2011-12-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

Don watches a whale as we motor our to fish.

Caught a Chula, it's a keeper.

This whale was resting on the surface.

Smile Chula!

Fish eyes.

Dorado eye.

Jerry cleans the two fish.

The Colima Trip

2011-12-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

The Farmers Market in Colima.

On the streets of Colima, A Poncho!

Nogueras Ecological Park & Museum.

Garden view near the sugar production area.

A beautiful view!

Looking back up from the beautiful view.

Pottery and brick used to build the walls.

Interesting use of materials.

Note the buttress and the various repairs to the wall.

Linda, Bill and agave. Ouch!

Ahhh, coffee!

Lunch at the end of the trip.

Jardin in Comala.

Just a Fun Day!

2011-12-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

Ride that spicy mutton!

Don and Caroline arrived today, Sunday, and so we have a big dinner over at Larry and Maggie's. It was a wonderful meal of chicken with all the fixings. We provided a fruit salad and Linda wore her metal she received at the 10K. Everyone that finished the race received a metal, but we haven't told Linda that. She will probably wear the darn thing the rest of the time we are down here. Hope she can make it through customs, it will set of the metal detectors if she gets close. (Just kidding about the award, she only slept with it and now she has put it away. LOL)

It was a bit hard for her to sleep with her award. I kept hitting her in the nose.

We walked down town after dinner, Teri and Bill stayed home as Bill was not feeling well. The plaza was filled with people, more than we have ever run into before. It was the second day of the Festival de Melaque and the nightly entertainment was a famous jazz fusion group. They had a flute, violin, bass, two guitars , drums and congas. Everything was electrified and loud. The crowd loved them.

We walked over and watched the kids riding a small bull simulator. It was actually a mutton simulator and the kids loved it. I took some photos of one of the kids. He hung on for dear life, no expression, just a look of determination. I thought he was spinning so much that he might throw up, but once he was tossed his dad picked him up and off they went to another ride. What a hoot!

Don and Caroline were very tired so we walked back and everyone went to bed.

In the morning Don called over the fence and we were off fishing. We had a bit of a late start, but we fished for a couple hours. No fish were landed, but we talked about our past adventures and had a great morning.

Festival de Melaque 10K

2011-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

This 10K was 6.58 miles, still a bit long.

Lind hitting her stride on the main street.

Breakfast with the Burchs.

Huevos rancheros with bacon, $3.20.

This ain't no Kentucky Fried.

Linda heading to the finish line.

Mickey Mouse, I don't think he ran the entire race.

Best runner in the entire race.

Of Parades and Performances

2011-12-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

Mermaids on a float in the Festival de Melaque Parade.

Horses a part of any parade.

This could be a long time ago.

The Brazilian band from Froy's on stage!

Last Night

2011-12-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Burchs have settled in so yesterday we walked into Barra and shopped, ate lunch and exercised our right to say "No gracias!" It is the one phrase that you use over and over. I usually shake my head, and my hand to emphasize that I really mean no.

We rode the bus back and everyone did a bit of nothing until sunset. What can I say about sunset. At this particular time the town is shut down waiting for the night and the cooler breezes that follow. There is little to do because the days heat had permeated everything.It is a time of little action, one of those inbetween times.

Our friends next door make a pilgrimage out onto the beach each night with their beach towels, binoculars, drinks and snacks; sitting in the same lineup waiting for the big ball of orange-yellow light to fall between the rocks that mark the entrance to the bahía. We join them and sit, talking quietly. Larry tells a joke, we discuss the days activities and watch the dogs walk by.

Once the sun goes down, someone will usually clap and we all sit quietly enjoying the stunning red glow.

When we were down town a few days ago Sr. Froy invited us to join the festivities at his restaurant this evening and we all thought that would be a great idea. We sauntered down to his beach establishment where the air was filled with delightful music. We grabbed the last table in the place and settled in. The group playing consisted of a female lead singer, a guitar player, and two percussionists. The sound was completely Brazilian, mixing slow rhythmic love songs with fast paced festive numbers. During the second set we actually recognized one of the tunes "The Girl From Ipanema". It was sung well, in the Briazilian Spanish language which made it a truly enchanting song.

The great music however was the only good thing about the evening. It took over and hour to get our drinks and while we sat there we only saw two groups get their food. Froy was running his tail off doing his best to make every happy, but he had one bartender with one speed; two waiters who were so new they didn't really get the severity of their situation; and three cooks who looked like they worked at one speed only. We grew hungry and knew that Sr. Froy and under estimated the number of dinners attending his party so we gave up our table and walked to the main street where we ate dinner.

We landed at Roosters for our meal. This establishment had been around for many years. We have eaten there many times and in many locations. It is usually a breakfast-lunch establishment, but this was their third night of serving dinners and the staff was more that willing to please. Our waiter was a 17 year old young man who was originally from... wait for it... Utah. Yep, he was born in Utah and had followed his parents back down to Melaque to live. Being born in the US, his English was excellent and you could even hear a bit of the Northwest accent as he spoke. At this point everyone had drank their share so, of course, we were a very funny group. Our waiter kept up with us and bettered most of our jokes with a very dry sense of humor. We ate a wonderful meal and closed our evening with a walk to the square for some pastries from our favorite man on the corner.

Burchs, Barra and of Course Food!

2011-12-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

Bill, Teri, Linda and Beth take in the sunset.

Need I say anything!

Carne sopietas, and they were wonderful!

Bill's shrimp posole.

Linda's pollo enchiladas.

Bill and Teri on the walk to Barra.

New sculpture at the entrance to Barra.

Breakfast of champions!

Chilaqiles con huevos.

Our accountant paying the bill.

Soccer, it talked to me.

Results of hurricane Jova.

Sea Masters, the name is definitely a misnomer.

The beach in Barra amidst massive repair.

Testing The New Camera

2011-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

We purchased a new camera before we left and I have been trying to figure everything out. It has a video capture setting like most point-and-shoot's do, but it is quite different from our old Cannon. The video below is shot in the ultra slow motion setting. It will be fun, but it can only take 10 seconds worth of frames.

Our Day In Photos

2011-12-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Our daily volleyball next door.

My favorite player!

Spectators basking in the sun.

While others siesta I play Counter Strike.

This is for the folks back home.

Se Vende!

Can't get enough of these sunsets.

New Friends

2011-12-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

On Monday night, after a day of rest and recovery, weventured down to the ATM to extract some pesos. I sat on the curb and watched to slow wanderings of the tourists andlocals as they prepared for the evening shopping. When Linda and Beth came outof the bank and approached, so did a man and woman. The man said “Where are we?”, She said ”Isthis Melaque?”; we sat there for amoment trying to figure out if they were teasing or not. Once we realized they were serious everyonestarted laughing and introductions were made.

Main street Melaque, the spot where we met Don and Terri.

Not the best shot of our new friends, they look stunned.

Don and Terri are from Vancouver BC. They had taken the busfrom Puerto Vallarta to Melaque to stayfor a couple months. When they arrivedat the bus stop they didn’t know that this was their destination until Terrinoticed the nearby hotel and asked Don if it was the one where her sister wasgoing to stay. They exited the bus and walked directly up to the first nonMexican folks they saw. That was us. Withoutthinking they asked us where they were and thus received the crazy looks thatwe gave them.

We talked for quite some time and then met down at Bigote’sfor drinks. Linda and Beth imbibed intwo of the stiffest margaritas one could hope for and the evening got fired up. The drinks hit hard and we decided that weneeded some food so we grabbed our new friends and walked to Pedro’s fortacos. Enjoying stories we continued a classicnight of drinks, fun and food.

Don and Terri had noplans but needed to find a place to stay for the next couple months. We made arrangements to meet and exchangenames and suggestions of people they could contact to help find a room. With dinner over we walked into the plazawhere Don suddenly stopped and started talking to a guy that looked Mexican but was actuallyCanadian First Nation, and a friend Don had not seen in about 20 years. It took everyone by surprise to have Don walkup to this unknown man and start hugging and talking. It really is a smallworld.

After the plaza we returned to the main street where we metand parted ways. We hope they find agood spot and that we can get together again before we leave.

Sunset from Sr. Froy's.

Tuesday was a lazy day. We all walked into town and Linda registered for the Festival de Melaquefun race/run. They promised that therace will be an actual 10K, instead of the Mexican 10K that she ran lastyear. We called it a Mexican 10K becauseit was two miles longer than and actual 10K.

This year’s course will be better, yet probably a bitharder. She will not have to run up tothe top of the big hill this time and they are not running on the highway, butshe will have to run two miles on the beach sand. I prefer her not running on the highwaybecause the drivers down here are crazy. She would probably prefer to not run so long on the sand.

Then once we finished her registration we walked to the otherend of town where I contacted a hotel and made a deposit on a room for a fellowI have gotten to know on line. He isfrom Canada and he asked me to make the deposit so that he would have a roomwhen he comes down in February. Lindaand Beth did all the negotiations with the hotel owner to get the depositpaid. He only spoke Spanish and they dida great job of communicating.

We returned home and played volleyball next door. The volleyball crowd has grown so there isalways enough folks available to have some spirited games.

After naps we walkedinto town. While we walked a Mexicanfriend, Tito, came out to greet us. He was working his second job waitingtables at a restaurant. His first job asa waiter in the morning is at Sr. Froy’s. Last year Froy’s was located out on the highway, but Tito told us that ithad moved to the beach. He immediatelyleft his job and led us down three blocks to the beach and made sure that Froymet us at the door to his new restaurant.

It was another great homecoming. We sat on the beach and had drinks andwatched the sun set. We plan to havedinner this Thursday with Froy, he is having a special Mexican Christmas partythat night.

We walked to a restaurant called Alcatraz and had dinner andthen returned home and turned in, tired from a long day of relaxing.

Bigote's First Drinks

2011-12-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

North Melaque from our Plapa.

Our first visit to Bigote's.

My goal, one beer each night.

This is a kick ass drink!

Little do they know the this drink will be the evenings last.

Street tacos?

Market finds.

Breakfast the morning after Bigote's.

Mexico

2011-12-11T08:04:00.001-08:00

Los Palmas gang at the nightly ritual.

The traditional first sunset!

With anything you do that provides you enjoyment there is a time prior to the final event where you have to plan, stress, prepare, worry, wonder or expend energy. Whether it is preparing for a contest like a fun run/race or getting it all together to go hunting or fishing, you have a time before the event where you expend energy and when the event finally happens you are ready and in the end you release the built up stress to enter into your endeavor.

That's where I am today. The stress is gone and the realization of the fact that it is time to relax is hitting me.

Our home up north is in good hands. Kobi is probably loving the fact that he has someone else to bug that will actually put up with his little tricks. We miss him, but I doubt he even realizes we are gone, he has a new mission and is probably focused on that.

Last week as we packed and made ready, the folks at work kept asking why we go down to this little town every year. I thought about it last night as I listened to the waves from the ocean smash on the shore. My conclusion was this; we relax, in the warmth of 85 degree weather, in a small town where we have few worries. That about sums it up.

We arrived in time to hug our good friends and join them on the beach for the nightly sunset. We ate at Buen Guesto our traditional first nights meal and then went to the store for provisions. That was the extent of our first day. The plane flights down were rushed and crowded, but that part of the trip is over. I'm going out to sleep in the sun.

Pulled a Guy Out of the Water Today.

2011-12-04T17:03:00.001-08:00

Did you know that this weekend was the weekend of the Gene Fink Memorial Chinook Derby on Lake Coeur d'Alene? Well to tell you the truth I didn't know myself until I stopped into Black Sheep Sporting Goods and the checkout guy asked me if I was entering the big derby? I laughed and replied something like , "are you kidding?" grabbed my stuff and headed back to the college.

When I got back after my lunch shopping break I stopped by to visit the Outdoor Pursuits gang and when I mentioned the tournament to Jacob he got excited and said "Let's enter!" I laughed, but he was serious. We talked about it and decided that we could go out and fish without actually being in the tournament, that could satisfy our fishing desire without costing us the $20 entry fee.

So on Sunday at 9 am I picked Jacob up and we went to Higgen's Point and launched into our first not quite fish tournament experience. We motored down Lake Coeur d'Alene to just past Driftwood Point and dropped our down rigger balls to about 90 feet. I spent some time explaining the entire rigging process as Jacob watched.

The sun was out and the boat was warm, there was a bit of a wind out on the water, but it worked with us because we were going North, South on the Lake. We were geared up with small squid lures called Mexican Flags and were trying to find the fish that were said to be about 80 to 105 feet deep in the lake.

Keep in mind that this was my third time out fishing for Chinook and so far the biggest I had caught was 18 inches. For a Chinook to be a keeper it has to be over 20 inches, I have yet to find one of those critters. We worked our way down the lake until we noticed that everyone had turned around and headed North, then we did the same. We heard that there were about 80 participants entered in the tournament, to us it looked like about 20 boats in this part of the lake.

We chugged along at 1.7 knots and checked our equipment periodically, ate some snacks and drank a lot of coffee. Nothing hit so we talked about moving North and seeing if we could find something up there.

I made a few directional corrections and suddenly Jacob spotted something to our left towards shore. It looked like a boat with a cover on it tied to a buoy. It didn't make visual sense to us so we kept looking as I turned toward it. Jacob confirmed that it was a boat that had capsized and there was someone in the water.

Jacob said, "Big man in little PFD."

I turned the boat over to Jacob and he started driving towards the accident. I pulled up all the gear and got it stowed just in time. Another boat, a small open 14 footer had arrived and tossed the guy a PFD, but he was to small of a boat to get the guy out of the water. We came in and was able to grab the guy in the water and drag him out into our boat. Keep in mind that the water temperature was about 44 degrees and air temperature was somewhere around 35. The guy was very cold and extremely lucky.

Once we got him into the boat a third boat came up and tossed us a sleeping bag and a blanket. Jacob helped him get his clothes off and wrapped him in the blankets. I motored off to take him to Loff's Bay where we met the Sheriffs boat and a bunch of EMTS. Once at the dock everyone waited as he was checked out and given the OK by the emergency medical folks.

His story said that he had a bit of water in his little boat and he was turning down wind to get in position to bail it out. As soon as he made the turn, the waves came over his transom and within seconds he was sunk. All he could do was get out away from the boat so it didn't hit him. He said we thought he was in the water about 10 minutes before we plucked him out.

As he warmed up and all the paperwork was filed I talked to the Sheriff and found that he had been a student body vice president when he attended NIC. I remembered him well and we chatted about the college and how it had changed. Jacob was glad to meet him too, they work close to the Sheriff during the NIC adventure race so it is good to know the folks in the boats.

We were at the dock for maybe two hours and when the fellow was warm and ready everyone exited our boat and we went on our way. It was nice to have been available to help in a situation that could have been very bad. It was a good conclusion to a day with no fish, we drove home, loaded the boat and started telling our tail.

Can't Find the Big Ones

2011-11-30T18:31:00.001-08:00

Winter Lake Fishing?

2011-11-18T19:36:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up and looked at the weather and called Darren. We decided to go fishing on Lake Coeur d'Alene for the Salmon that live in the depth. It took me about an hour and a half to get the boat ready.

Darren arrived and we drove out to Higgins Point. We got ready to put the boat in and I noticed that the clip from the kicker gas line had popped off and drug all the way out from the house. It was broken and didn't work.

We drove to Black Sheep and I bought a new one. Back at Higgin's Point we backed the boat in and idled out on to the lake. Darren drove the boat and I set up the gear. We headed up the lake. On the way we were able to catch six fish. None of them keep-able. One was 18 inched and the rest were a bit smaller.

The weather got worse as we fished, but we were in the warm boat and having fun. I said we caught six fish, but I didn't mention that we only knew two of them were actually on. I found the others when I reeled in to check for seaweed. Hey, they didn't shake the rod!

We made our way back to the dock and there was about four inches of snow on the ramp. Darren went and got the truck but as he backed it up we noticed that the wheels on the trailer were frozen. Once we broke the wheels lose, Darren backed down and we loaded the boat. Pulling the boat out was a bit scary, it slipped a bit but Darren was able to get it out. The roads were awful, real bad, I mean we drove about 15 mph all the way home.

As we slowly made our way back to the house we laughed about how bad the weather was. Probably the only guys out fishing today. Did I say we caught six fish?

Hum, This Will Probably Never Happen Again!

2011-11-05T17:57:00.000-07:00

After work on Thursday jumped into the truck and drove down to Union Town where I met Tom and Mark at Jimbo's ranch. We arrived at about the same time and while Tom and Mark were fixing their dinner I watched a Steelhead video titled something about "Ghosts". The premiss was a bunch of guys travel way up into a river in Canada, helicopter in and then fly fish for Steelhead. They catch huge fish but comment on the way they can be laying there like ghosts, unseen and then boom they are on and so is the fight. It was a good video to set the mood for fishing Friday on the Clearwater. We hit the sack at about 9:30 PM with the alarm set for a 5 AM wake-up call.

We got some sleep and when the alarms sounded rolled out of bed for some coffee and oatmeal. It wasn't long before we were on our way down the Lewiston grade with our sights set for the Clearwater. Mark drove, Tom and I dozed.

We wound our way up river to Chimney Lawn (wink wink, nudge nudge) where we sat for about fifteen minutes waiting for the sun to lighten the paths to the river. Once thing started to be visible we grabbed our gear and attached the water. Tom and Mark were fly fishing with their spay rods and I had a couple spin casting rods set up. I fished with a plainer board and diver off the bank and at the same time I tossed a bobber and Jig set up.

We fished the morning away, Mark getting on good hit and Tom catching a small salmon, but no Stealhead. We ate lunch and then Tom suggested that we cross the river. We packed up and hit the road. A few minutes later we were hiking to their secret hole.

We gathered at the bank, Tom said that the high water had changed the area a bit, but it still looked real good to us. Mark walked up river, Tom took the down river stretch and I waded out at the middle. I had put a yellow jig with pink feathers on hoping that if there were fish in there, they wanted that selection.

I made my first cast and boom I had a fish on the second the jig hit the water. It came out of the water and shook it big head then slammed back down to the bottom and was gone. Wow, I couldn't believe how powerful it was! I reeled in and checked my setup, everything was good. I made my second cast and boom, another monster! This one I was a bit more prepared for and luck was with me because she was hooked. What a fight! She ran several times and made Tom work to get her in the net. The fish was a hatchery hen that weighed in at 11.8 lbs. It was 23 inches long and beautiful. I kept her and will be smoking the meat on Sunday.

The excitement was fantastic, I had a good rush of adrenalin going. That is what Steelheading is all about! I waded back out and made my third cast and again, boom! I had a third fish on! This one was a fighter and it headed right down river. I had good control of the rod, but when I was fussing with the last fish I must have bumped my drag a bit because it wasn't set right. I could feel that there was to much drag and as I reached to lessen it a touch the fish made a move and pulled straight away from me and snapped me off clean. Again a rush and this time a few foul words.

I trudged back up on the bank and sat down to re-rig my gear. Tom and Mark reminded me that I had just hooked three fish one three casts, catching one. Amazing is all I could think. I waded back out and made one of the worst casts ever. I must have been a bit overwhelmed. I reeled in and made another cast and boom, another hit! This one was off as fast as it hit, but that was four fish in five casts.

We fished for the rest of the afternoon but my catching was done. At one point I slipped and filled my waders a bit. I stayed warm the rest of the day, but I think I need some new wading boots.

I wasn't the only one catching fish. Mark and Tom hooked their shared. We had a great four hours of fishing in the channel. The ghosts were there but not hitting. We loaded up and drove back to Union Town where we unloaded and split up for the drive home.

365 Days

2011-11-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

Rent - Seasons of Love

525600 min. = 1 year
16819200 min. = 32 years

Is that right?

Today, one year from now, I will be retired from my job at NIC. At that point I will have worked 33 years or 16819200 minutes. It doesn't seem possible or actually doesn't seem that long. Have I loved every minute of it? Yes! Has it been hard this last year? Yes! Was it always the best job ever? No, There were five years of frustrations and lies. Did it change and become good again? Yes. Would I do it all again? Definitely.

Ya Caught Em, You Smoke Em

2011-10-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Today is fish smoking day at the Bennett's house. I was given a Little Chief Smoker by John Sutherland and today I learn to smoke Blue Back/Kokanee!

Smoking fish and meats and the recipes that go into creating the finished product can be like finding two snowflakes alike, there are so many possibilities and secret family recipes that it would take forever to look at them all. I searched and talked until I was confused.

Everyone has their own opinion on how to smoke fish. What do you do when there is such a wide variety of ways to prepare and smoke meats? I went to a couple different sources that I believe would give me good information. Mark the Steelhead man and Jim Headley, via Alex. I have tasted both their results and when I compared their production processes they were about the same. Once I made the decision to go with their methods, I consulted Darren who smoked fish years ago and we agreed that the recipes I would follow are solid performers so I proceeded.

The brining processes go as follows (remember you don't know where you heard this and the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of these actions): Marks Super Secret Brine - 1.5 gallons water, 2 cups dark brown sugar, 1 cup pickling salt. Mix, taste, adjust; brine for six to eight hours. Jim and Alex's Magic Smoking Technique - Cover fish inside and out with brown sugar and salt, let set for about eight hours.

For my first attempt I chose Mark's and followed his advice as best I could. Both smoking techniques call for a light smoke, like Alder, Apple Wood or Cherry Wood. I chose Alder. They call for smoking the fish six to eight hours and so that is what I planned.

You can see the progress in the photos, and I will continue the post as the entire process unfolds.

Friday I purchased a digital meat thermometer from Cabella's and so I can get a temperature reading any time I want to. You can see the thermometer in the photo of the smoker. When the smoker is heated up with no cover on it the inside temperature was reading about 135 degrees. When you put the cover over the smoker the temperature climbs up to about 165 degrees and was riding about 170 degrees when the smoke was being put on.

The smoke is applied by putting the Alder chips in the little smoke pan and they proceed to burn causing the smoke to permeate the fish or meat. It take two pans of chips/smoke to complete the process. Man, I sound like I know what I am doing!

The weekend is over and so is the smoking. I was able to smoke 24 Kokanee in two sessions. As this was happening I got to thinking about how I would manage all the smoked fish when I was finished with the project and so after a great deal of thought I went to Costco and bought a food saver. Now i can package the fish and freeze them without the worries of freezer burn.

In the end I gave a bunch of the fish away. I guess it will be good trading material for the future. I will eat the fish, Linda won't, but it will be great to have some available to use for parties and gatherings as appetizers. My ultimate plan will be to catch Salmon, Steelhead and Kokanee, smoke them and then keep our friends happy with the results. That does mean I have to be able to catch the fish first, but that's another project.

Limited Out

2011-10-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

As I passed Michale D's I hoped that the wind on the lake would be manageable. The sun was shimmering bright and there was not a bit of wind, the lake was glass! I picked up the phone and called Darren. "Hey, what are you doing? Wanna go fishing?" He answered immediately and said that he would meet me as soon as he could get in town.

I put the boat in at Higgin's point and made my way back up to Booth's Park where I was to pick up Darren. He called when he reached Silver Beach. I had my line out and was making my way to the beach and caught my first fish. I figured I would get the first one in the boat before Darren got on board because last time he out fished me.

After Darren arrived we fished from Booth's Park over into Bennett Bay and back. We looped around the lake and kept busy the whole afternoon either catching fish or missing fish. We had a great time fishing in beautiful weather, we limited out with 30 Kokanee. This will probably be the last time we will fish for these fish, they are getting the hooked jaw, growing darker, and turning a bit red. We'll have to hit them again next season, the good thing is that I have about 40 of them to smoke in our Little Chief.

Fishing Good, Catching Bad.

2011-10-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Linda had a three day weekend and I had a day coming for the weekend I spent on the ASNIC retreat so we drove down to Pine Bar to do a little fishing and mostly relaxing. We camped in the BLM campground and had a relatively nice spot. We set up in the dark on Thursday night after we drove down. It was around 10 PM when we got to bed, we were both pooped.

Had to take a photo of the camper and Tom's drift boat.

Tom, Sarah and Mark arrived in the morning and set up their little trailer down in a spot overlooking the water. When we arrived in the dark we tried to fit into that spot, but we couldn't get the camper leveled. I walked down to the river and set up my planer boards started the quest for steelhead.

Relax, no fish were harmed that day. It started off a bit rainy and then by the afternoon it had cleared off. We cooked dinner and then walked down to the lower camp where we sat around the campfire and shared stories.

In the morning Linda took the dog and ran and I went down to the water and set up my two rods with plainer boards and divers. The sun came out and I sat and fished. I moved up and down the river selecting spots and not catching anything. It was fun but would have been funner if I caught something.

Sarahs warming by the fire.

At about 3 pm I went back to the camper and we got things ready for dinner. Our dinners for both nights were Dutch oven meals that I hadn't tried. First night was a chicken corn tortilla casserole. For a first time meal it turned out fantastic! I highly recommend it and will give you the recipe if you request it. The second meal was scalloped potatoes and weenies which was OK the first night, but was great as leftovers.

On Saturday we fished the bank in the morning and then fished from Tom's drift boat in the afternoon. We put in at Pine Bar and pulled off at American Bar. The weather was beautiful but the fishing was not good. We didn't catch anything but had fun throwing flys and bobbers.

Kobi fell asleep sitting up.

Cooking in the fire pit.

Moon rise over the Lower Salmon.

Gotta Love Fall Camping.

2011-10-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

Morning fire, one of Linda's favorite things.

Ear rubs, Kobi's favorite thing.

The family portrait.

Ear rubs again.

Hornets nest at Flat Creek.

Another nest near Teddy Creek,

Ever wonder why we camp?

Linda's Saturday morning breakfast.

Morning eye openers, coffee and tea.

Evening in the camper.

FIRE, I bring you FIRE!

Thought this was a cool picture.

My favorites!

Kobi ya got to love him.

Getting sleepy.

Dog eyes.

Tepee Creek Revisited

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dennis sent me a bunch of photos from our trip up the Coeur d'Alene river into the Tepee Creek area. Looking back is always fun.

Bridget & Dean, student and teacher.

Small creek fishing, da best!

Don't move! 10, 9, 8, 7...

Dennis took a million night photos around the fire.

Leaded Line?

2011-09-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Gotta love fishing!

Fishing, why is it such a complex sport? Darren had his leaded line out four colors with maggots, I had one line out 80 ft. with 1 oz of weight on and my second line was down 20 ft., both with corn. We were trolling at 1.4 knots. Then I changed it up and went with maggots and started catching on the weighted line. Darren kept catching them on his leaded line, but I couldn't quite figure out how deep he was. Both of us had a bunch of hits and lots of those hits translated into fish to the boat close enough to see them or out of the water and off the hook. I caught some more on the weighted set up, so I change off the down rigger to a second weighted set up. Darren kept hitting fish but he was three colors back. What the heck? The wind made it a bit difficult, we would get the fish right to the boat and they would come out of the water and bounce off the motor or gunnel and be gone.

These are the ones that didn't evade us.

That's the fun of fishing for Kokanee. You move slowly through the water, try and figure out what depth the fish are, what they are hitting on and then, because of their soft mouths, you gently try to get them in the boat. We were able to boat about 19 in the time we had on the water. Not bad, but boy if we had been able to catch every one we had on the hook, we would have limited out easily.

Like I said we fought some gusty winds all day. The sun was out and there were times when the lake was smooth, but the majority of the time the wind ruled. But what can you say, fishing is good no matter if the catching is a bit off.

I think I will get me another rod and set it up with leaded line. No wonder guys that fish have 20 or more rods. I've only got six snag units and five fly fishing rigs. A man has got to be ready!

Weekend Up The River

2011-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

We packed up the camper and when Linda walked out the door at Fernan, Kobi and I were there to pick he up. We drove down to Huckleberry Campground on the St. Joe and set up camp for the weekend.

We had a quick dinner on Friday night and played a game of cribbage. We were both very tired after the week and by 8:30 PM we were ready to hit the sack.

Saturday Linda got up and ran with Kobi and I puttered around and when they got back we had a great breakfast. After eating and cleaning up I got my fishing gear together and headed out to hook some cutthroat. I fished the riffle by the campground and caught six fish. Three good sized ones and three a bit smaller but nice fish. I walked down river and fished several runs. I was using a Squalla with a Stone Fly dropper. At the end of a run I changed my rig to a Stimulator with a Beadhead Hare's Ear Nymph. About three casts later I hooked a big one on the nymph. The Cut was over 18 inches and had a hooked jaw, it looked amazing! I turned hig loose and headed back to the camper.

We cooked a Dutch oven dinner of calzone and crumb cake. Both dishes came out great and we ate and played cribbage till time for bed. Next morning Lind got up and we noticed that the trailer folks next door had left. There at their camp spot was a box of wood. Linda ran over and grabbed it. She immediately started a morning fire. Morning fires are one of Linda's favorite camping things. She sits, drinks her hot chocolate and reads. She could stay there forever!

We packed up and were home by 12:30 PM, when we hit Coeur d'Alene we went to Fred Meyer and grabbed our weekly groceries. The trip was a wonderful get away and we really enjoyed everything about it. Next time I may remember to bring the camera so I have some photos to post.

Just Another Day In Paradise

2011-09-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up, had our coffee, packed a lunch and walked out to the Jeep for a drive to the top of Red Horse Mountain. We had heard that there was a real good view from there and we hoped to see some game as an added bonus. Just as we were about to leave our neighbor knocked on the door and said "There is a moose just down the street!" We grabbed the camera and ran out to the front yard. There he was, walking right in front of our house. He hung around for a while and browsed on the neighborhood greens. Then he must have got thirsty and he wandered toward the river.

Linda and I loaded Kobi in the Jeep and we drove out to Beauty Bay and up the forest service road #453, the same on we followed less than a month ago. Then when we hit the saddle we turned left on to road #430 which led south east and once we found the road to the top of Red Horse Mountain we cranked the Jeep in low and climbed to the top at 4398 ft. We took some pictures and then came back down where we turned right and proceeded to follow forest service road #614. We dropped off the ridge on road #539 that came out on the Kaillarney Lake road.

We drove over to the Coeur d'Alene River and let Kobi jump into the water. That dog will jump off anything for a stick or a ball. Once he was wet we drove to the Rose Lake trail head for the Trail of the Coeur d"Alene's Bike Trail where had lunch.

With lunch over we drove back to Coeur d'Alene and Linda did some shopping down town. Kobi and I sat
on the street and watched the comings and goings of the down town crowd. We drove home and put things away, we both laughed about driving all that way through the mountains and saw the moose in our front yard. Yes, we do live in paradise.

Continuing on through the weekend I got up early on Saturday morning and went out fishing for Blueback on Lake Coeur d'Alene. I hitched the boat up to the Jeep and drove out to Booth Park where I launched. I fished for about five hours, caught some Blueback and one small bass. I worked on getting familiar with the down riggers. By the end of my session I got so that I could get everything set and down to the depth I wanted with out a single snag.

All Abuzz

2011-08-29T06:11:00.000-07:00

Going fishing?

They came from all over; Coeur d’Alene, Moscow, Post Fallsand Kendrick. Independence Creek on theupper arms of the Coeur d’Alene River was the final gathering place and thestart of another fun filled weekend. Raina & Dean, Bridget & Dennis met up and had breakfast Thursdaymorning at a café in Rose Lake. Theycaravanned up the river and found a spot in the campground at IndependenceCreek.

I went to work and then left for an appointment, after thatwe headed over Fernan Saddle and dropped into Tepee Creek drainage. We arrived just in time to enjoy some drinksand a wonderful meal. The hornets werereal bad, but everyone tried to ignore them. Once the sun went down the hornets went to bed, unfortunately we were sotired everyone hit the sack early.

To the new camp site!

The next morning Raina and Dean went for a hike up theIndependence Creek trail. I startedfishing up river and Bridget and Dennis fished downstream. I hit some good fish. The big ones were sitting under cut banks,but I drew them out using stonefly nymphs. I fished about two miles upriver and hiked back via the trail above theriver.

When I arrived back in camp the place was a buzz, pardon thepun, and everyone was packing up and moving to a new campsite. The hornets had gotten the best of us andwhile the gang was out on a bike ride they found a wonderful campsite down onTepee Creek.

Wine in the box, glass on the box.

We made the move in record time. Once there, everyone relaxed and had awonderful weekend. We spent most of ourdays fishing, riding bikes or sitting in the river cooling off. Bridget and Dennis were able to relax Fridayand Saturday evenings because they cooked a wonderful beer brauts meal on thenight we arrived. Raina and Deanprepared the second dinner, an exquisite meal of salmon, corn and salad. On the final night Linda and I made fajitas.

To plastic cups that change color! So easily entertained.

Saturday, Bridget and I had a little fly fishinglesson. The topic was nymph fishing andthe correct use of a dropper fly. We worked on tying the dropper on and then wefloated some bugs over a slow section. Afterthat we moved down stream and fished some faster sections. Bridget was gettingthe hang of it but got a bit of a knot in her line, so she headed back tocamp. I continued down Tepee Creek towhere Independence Creek joined together. I caught quite a few big cuts and had a real great time.

Each night the drinks flowed and the stories were told. Dennis took lots of night photos using thecampfire as his light. It was great to get together with these friends and wedecided that this would be an annual summer event. I am already looking forward to our futuregatherings.

Yum!

Salmon on the grill.

It's called Jacob's Slurry.

Breaking camp!

Quick Over Night Trip

2011-08-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a school leadership program that took me over to the Clarkfork River. We rafted the Alberton Gorge on Saturday and then returned. Everything went great. I wish Linda could have been there with us. I was a bit nervous because of the new knee. When can I stop calling it new? It was one year exactly on Saturday that I was released from the hospital after the replacement surgery. The overnighter was fun but I was beat by the time I got home. Guess at 57 I can't expect to be able to go out parting like I did in my youth. Instead I took some ibuprofen and hit the sack.

River Time

2011-08-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

I have discovered over the years that it is much harder to blog the events of river trips than the adventures we have while on the road with the camper. We are not able to sit down each night and pluck away at the computer noting the happenings of the day. On this trip I tried to keep notes each evening using a little spiral bound notebook and pen that I kept in a small dry bag. Even with this system I found it hard to get myself to sit down after dinner and write. Also keep in mind that when I write, most of the time I can’t read my own handwriting.

As I sit here at home and transcribe my scribbling another important hurdle that makes the writing about river trips harder has been discovered. My memory is not as crisp as it used to be! With all this as background, here are the notes from our Lower Salmon River trip as I recall them almost a week after the adventure began.

We spent three rather aggressive days getting the river cat and all the gear out of our cluttered garage and storage port. I would love to be able to keep everything together by area of interest, fishing with fishing, rafting with rafting, and biking with biking; but we have so little space to work with that it all runs together and by the time we need the equipment it is one big yard sale on the north side of the Bennett ranch.

To get the boat ready I had to move the fishing boat out into the street, then pull the cat and trailer out of the back yard storage area. That was a job because I had to move the neighbor’s huge snow blower, our bikes, the small Bill’s Bag fishing cat, and numerous gardening tools out first. Once the cat was free, I dragged it to the car wash and sprayed the year’s dust and dirt off.

I returned from the boat wash and unhitched the cat, hitched the fishing boat and backed it into place beside the house. Then I re-hitched the cat and moved it back into the space in front of the fishing boat so we could load it with river gear. I accomplished all this using the Jeep and the only thing I damaged was the right front plastic fender that I caught on the bush by the edge of the driveway. That’s a story for another day.

Ask Ben about his Iced Beer Method someday.

Once we were all loaded, Sherma and Ben Higgs came over and we loaded their boat onto ours. They pulled the boats on our trailer over to their house and then the next morning we pulled their trailer back over to their house. We parked the Jeep and trailer and loaded into their truck and were off.

The trip down included one stop in Moscow at Northwest River Supply. The Higgs bought Paco Pads and Linda bought some shorts that were on the sale rack. Back on the road we made it to Whitebird in no time where we dropped off the check for the shuttle and left them a set of keys. On the way down to the put in we got to witness something none of us had ever seen. A mother raccoon and her three little raccoon babies scampered across the road in front of us. It was so funny. They looked just like a bunch of cartoon critters bouncing and stumbling across the pavement.

At the put in we unloaded and launched the boats. We floated down about 8.6 miles to a beach around Demon’s Drop. We ate dinner and were sitting on the beach when we saw a pigeon being pursued by a Peregrine falcon. The pigeon did all it could to avoid the inevitable but the falcon matched each maneuver and before long the prey tired and the falcon’s death grip took it down. We watched the entire match and when it was over the falcon sat down on the far side of the river. Immediately after setting down a huge hawk dropped down from the hillside and pushed the falcon off its dinner. The falcon flew away as the hawk enjoyed a peaceful meal.

It was a great beach camp. We saw the bird chase, a river otter swam by and when Linda was using the restroom a hummin bird flew within five inches of her face and tried to get nectar out of the wishy washy sprinkle head. The next day we packed up and floated down below Whitehouse Bar and camped between Harm’s Hole and Bodacious Bounce rapids covering about 18 miles. We had a great evening and everyone turned in early watching the stars that were not washed out by the full moon.

Just a little rattler that we found in camp.

Mon says jump, baby jumps!

We ran the big rapids, Snow Hole and China, without problems and made our way down to a beach with some locust trees that provided shade. It was just below Skeleton Creek and after the sun set and we were eating dinner, five deer came out and crossed just behind camp. It was the second group of deer we were able to watch today. The first group of five was in the water at Eagle Creek. That group included two baby deer, one of which launched itself into the river as we passed. It looked to us like mom was giving swimming lessons and the little one wanted to show her it had learned what she was teaching.

Next day we floated through the Blue Canyon leaving the Salmon River joining the Snake. We were able to make it about a mile down river when the afternoon upriver wind hit and slowed our progress immensely. We made some mileage but it was hard and both Ben and I were getting very tired. Just above Jim Creek we met some folks from Canada who were sitting on the beach waiting out the wind. One of them introduced himself as Rick Green from Red Mountain and we talked for quite some time about boating and the area around his home. When the wind died they packed up and pushed on down river. We set up camp and settled in.

This beach was not the best. In fact it was the dirtiest beach of the entire trip and maybe the worst I have ever seen. I blame it all on the jet boaters and here is my reasoning. The past four nights have been spent on beaches located on the Lower Salmon that jet boaters cannot reach because of the rapids that stop their upriver progress. The beaches on the Salmon have the same amount of nightly use, but the people using them are mainly rafters who carry and use their toilets and trash bags. They have a very different ethical view about keeping the beaches clean and pristine.

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles)

Superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Long-horned and Leaf Beetles)

Family Cerambycidae (Longhorned Beetles)

Subfamily Cerambycinae

Tribe Rosaliini

Genus Rosalia

Just in case you were wondering!

Jet boaters are required to follow the same rules as rafters, but there ethics are very different. They don’t care about the beaches or the river like rafters do. They are on the water to go fast, play loud music and party. They are all required to carry a toilet, but they would rather use the beaches as their bathroom rather than using their toilets and having to dispose of the crap when they get back to town.

The stark difference in the cleanliness of the two river beaches tells me that this is true. Why would rafters who have used their toilet and trash stop using them just because they are now on the Snake? They wouldn’t, but the jet boaters are a different breed and the beaches consistently show this.

We slept well and got up very early on Sunday to beat the upriver wind on our row out. It was an easy end to our trip. The take out was uneventful despite a guy who cut in front of us on the left boat launch forcing us to use the right one and then carry our gear extra distance. Not all rafters are perfect and follow proper etiquette.

We drove to Lewiston and stopped for lunch at the Main Street Café. It was a great meal and topped off our adventure nicely. The river was beautiful as usual our trip had very few hitches and it was a great end to our summer break.

Rubber rattle snake found at Coon Hollow.

Fish Weekend!

2011-07-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

4 AM: Coffee? Check. Jacket? Check! Down riggers? Check! Coffee? Coffee? Coffee?

I cannot say enough about getting an early start on any given day. I love the early morning chill that hits you when you are getting everything into the boat. I think I especially like the time that I have to myself before your fishing partner(s) arrive and pick you up. Coffee on the steps of the camper or on the front porch steps, it doesn’t get any better than that!

Alex and I hit the water early to try and catch the wily Lake Coeur d’Alene Salmon. It was also the first time I used my downriggers and I wanted to make sure I didn’t drop them down and anchor myself to the lake bottom.

We put in at Booth Park and then headed over to Hudson Point where we fished a triangle route for a few hours. Everything went well with the equipment, a few minor snags, none on the lake bottom and not a fish snagged either. Part of our plan was to fish for Kokanee if we didn’t catch salmon so at about 10:30 AM we switched our rigging and started boating some fish. We had a super morning and caught some fish for the smoker, so I thing all went very well.

I arrived home about noon and Linda and I were on the road for St. Regis Montana by 1:15 PM. Ben and Sherma Higgs went over to a camp area below the 14 ½ mile fishing access on Thursday afternoon and we were meeting them there so that we could float and fish on Saturday.

We arrived about 3:30 PM, set up the camper and sat down to rest. 4 AM is way too early to be getting up fishing and then driving. Ben and Sherma floated the 14 ½ mile stretch and were back to camp at about 5:30 PM.

We fixed dinner and ate. I was beat so I hit the sack at 9:00 PM. Linda and the Higgs stayed up and talked.

The next morning Ben and I were on the river by about 9:30 AM launching at the St. Regis fishing launch. The water was running high and was a little murky. Bright sun in the morning hampered our attempts, but by the afternoon we were hitting fish. We both caught a few medium sized bows, Ben hooking a few more then me. I caught two real nice bows, one hog in the Big Eddie.

Another thing happened while we were fishing. We saw a bear! This is the second time Ben and I have fish together and both times we have come across bears along the river bank. If you read the post about fishing the Cd'A River we saw one there and then this time Ben spotted on on the left bank splashing in the water. It was real hot and I bet he just couldn't resist a cold dip.

Back in camp we fixed dinner and cleaned up. Linda said that she and Sherma had spent some time exploring in the Jeep while we were on the river. I was glad to hear that.

We drove home Sunday and cleaned everything up. We are ready to go again, can’t wait and I know I’ll be sure to bring the coffee.

Final Photos, Phew!

2011-07-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Fish are in my blood!

Linda in front of the museum in Westport.

Yes, Linda is cooking.

Buddies enjoying the end of the day.

A Bit More of Our Trip

2011-07-24T09:38:00.000-07:00


This is the jacuzzi we loaded up in Cd'A.

Let's go! Ruby and Dean, quite the pair.

"There will be a test at the end of the day."

Ruby Beach photo opportunity.

The travelers.

Ruby on Ruby Beach.

Next, the worlds biggest string ball!!!

Yes it is a big one.

Lake Quinault Lodge

Linda loves this place.

The rich and famous.

Quite embarrassing.

...and we married them.

Elk near Don and Caroline's house.

Fish Report!

2011-07-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Up at 5:00 AM and to the boat by 6:00 AM, it was fishing day. The reports were not that good from yesterday, the fleet had struggled to catch their limits. A limit is two fish, two Coho or one Chinook and one Coho. They fish Sunday through Thursday for salmon, and then Friday and Saturday it is bottom fish only. Today was our only day for salmon. We got to the boat and everything was ready. Don’s deckhand, Norby, had arrived early and had everything ready to roll. The weather was not the best. During the night the wind had come up and the ocean was a bit unsettled.

Don takes Sachi over the "BAR".

Hang on Bugger!!!

Caroline and Norby inspect the catch.
King salmon were generally caught deeper then the Coho, and they fought quite a bit harder. Caroline can tell the difference in the two fish by the way they act when caught. Kings tend to shake their heads a bit more then the Coho.

Two Kings and some Coho.
We would fish a drift, usually working down wind through birds feeding on the water. Birds tell you where the bait fish are and the salmon are usually feeding on the anchovies that make up the bait ball. We probably averaged two fish on per drift and we usually had three or four hits during that same time. In the end we boated seven fish two of which were Kings. If I had to estimate how many we had one and lost I would say we lost about ten. There were many reasons for losing the fish,mostly they just shook off. Also we probably boated about five native fish that had to be returned to the ocean.

Caroline cleans the catch.

We were back to the port by about 2:00 PM with our catch. We didn’t limit out, but that was OK. We have more than enough fish for big fish feed at home.

We got home and cleaned up, and then Don and I went into town and picked up pizza. We took a Jacuzzi stuffed ourselves with pizza and then went to bed. The movement of the boat continued on into the night, we finally drifted off to sleep.

Can't Raft, Let's Drive!

2011-07-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Drive, Drive, Drive; I don’t know what it is going to be like traveling after we no longer have the commitment of work, but right now it’s drive, drive, drive! We left Post Falls at about 6:45 AM and made great time getting into Westport at about 2 PM. We stopped in Ellensburg for diesel and a little lunch, which we ate in the truck on the move, and that, was our only stop.

When we arrived Don met us and we got the camper set up. Once that was done we drove down to the docks and launched Sachi (Happiness) and motored around the pier where we filled her tanks with 100 gallons of diesel fuel. It is a beautiful boat and I can tell it makes Don very HAPPY.

We didn’t do much but as we watched and experienced the Westport fishing port it became apparent that Don is one of the fishing families with deep roots. Every one of the deck hands, boat captains and general dock workers stopped by and complemented Don on his new boat. They all stopped to chat exchanging fish reports or little bits of the daily life in the fish lane.

We arrived back at the house and were greeted by Caroline and Ruby, their Springer Spaniel. Kobi and Ruby got along right off and we spent the evening watching them play. Caroline made a wonderful meal of King Salmon, caught yesterday, with all the fixings. By the time we finished the meal we were ready for bed. Don stated that in this house 9:00 PM is bed time! We are beginning to feel right at home!

At 6:30 AM Linda’s alarm went off so we rolled out of bed, I made coffee and Linda did her Yoga stretches on the floor. After about a half hour we made our way out of the camper where Linda joined Caroline and the dogs for a drive and lone run/walk on the beach. Don and I went down to the boat and started some projects that needed to be taken care of before the weekend.

Don tore apart the head and I put the life jackets into plastic bags and then stowed them below deck. When I finished that Don handed me the circulating pump for the head and I broke it down so that we could replace the impeller. This took about 45 minutes and while I did the disassembling, Don went to the marine store and bought a bunch of parts. Once this was all complete I put the pump back together and Don reinstalled it. It leaked! So Don took it apart again and Linda and I left.

We drove back to the house and I showered. Once I got all the mess off and shaved we took Don’s truck drove north to Ocean Shores. We explored a bit and had a real normal lunch of deep fried food. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Sharkey’s, a novelty store. I had a hard time keeping Linda from buying everything. They had velvet paintings, Sweatshirts with seagulls on them in florescent colors, and post cards that when you moved them the ocean creatures moved like they were alive. So Cool! I dragged Linda out and we went down the street and had some homemade ice cream.

I'm Your Huckleberry

2011-07-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

Once and a while you just get cranky and there is really no reason, you just don’t feel like yourself. This happened leading into this weekend and it made me a bit depressed, and somewhat irritable. What better remedy for the “bite your head off blues” then to get away from town with good friends, and that is what we did.

Happy Hour, a little wine and margaritas.

Huckleberry Campground is a BLM pay campground located on the St. Joe River just above Calder, Idaho. The Upchurche’s towed their Arctic Fox trailer up the river and we followed them and secured two sights next to each other. The weather was beautiful and the campground was very nice. Our home base was the perfect remedy for the Mr. Grouchy flu.

Fish on!!!

We spent our time exploring the area and fishing as much as possible. We would load up the truck with our fishing gear, a couple chairs, and our lunches and then we would drive some place. We never really had a direction or a destination in mind, we would just drive and when we got hungry we would eat. Usually we would also fish a bit after lunch. One of our first drives took us up Big Creek to a campground located about six miles up the stream. Darren was spin casting while I tossed some flies. Big Creek as not as big as it sounded and I was less than successful when it came to catching fish on this stretch. Darren caught one real nice cutthroat which he landed and released. About all I could did was get some minnows to strike at the bugs I had on, but all the big guys didn’t even look at what I was presenting.

Meet Lucy, she was our guide but who
always seemed to be recalculating!

We went back to camp and had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Darren kept a good fire going into the night and we all sat around talking. About 9:00 PM Kobi started looking at the truck. We have noticed that Kobi goes to his crate at 9:00 PM when we are at home, and he is real good at heading to bed around that time when we are camping. I think he takes after me in that respect. Whenever I am rafting, camping or at home, when 9:00 PM rolls around I start looking over my shoulder at the tent, camper or bedroom. Our son Kobi is the same way.

Lucy led us to Big Creek where we fished
and ate lunch.

We got up early and Linda, Kobi and I went down to Calder where I let the two runners out for their morning run. On the way down we saw a doe and fawn in a grass field. Their heads were the only things we could see as they ran down towards the river. I let my two passengers out and then continued on up river for six miles. I watched for game but didn’t see any and when I reached the three mile point, I stopped and let them catch up. Once they were with me, I took Kobi and we drove out to the six mile mark. Linda came along and joined us and we returned to camp via the main road.

Bug on the run.

I fixed breakfast and then we loaded up the truck and headed up river past Avery to Tin Can Flats. Darren and I fished along the river at the various stops we made. I caught some nice cutthroat on stimulator patterns. We ate lunch and explored the town of Avery, which took all of five minutes. We found a couple Geo Caches along the way; Darren stumbled on to one when he walked up a trail head to see where it headed. There were several graves at this site. I will check and see if the cache Darren found gives us some further information. The cache was hidden just off the trail and Darren found it when he was checking out the graves and the cache was under a stump but most of the camouflage had fallen away. The drive back was uneventful.

This BM is for Al Dee. We were able to find several
Geo Caches while we were out.

At 5:00 PM we met over at the Upchurche’s for evening drinks and to watch the camp fill for the weekend. Darren was using his new, old, Dutch oven to prepare a meatloaf that Marcy had prepared. They made the main course and placed it in the Dutch with potatoes, carrots and red peppers. We sat and talked, listening to XM radio. They had it on a classic rock station and we all were trying to identify the various artists as the songs played. When the meatloaf was pronounced done, we dug in and ate till we couldn’t eat any more. As the sun set, we let the food settle and watched Kobi start looking toward the camper. Yes, it was ten after 9:00 PM his dog clock was right on. I put him away for the night and returned to find that Marcy had made some sorbet. What a great evening ender! Strawberry sorbet eaten while Led Zeppelin played softly in the background, it doesn’t get any better.

We slept well and at 6:30 AM Linda woke up and we loaded up and headed up river for her run. It was a short one so we crossed the river at The Greeks and went up the old train grade. There were some Geo Caches located along our path so I found one and got frustrated with the second. The one I couldn’t find was located somewhere in a gravel pit. I hate caches where they lead you into a rock slide or a pit and then hide the mini cache under one of seventeen bazillion rocks. It doesn’t take me long to give up on those. Linda caught up to me and we drove back to camp where we met Darren and Marcy.

Darren and I loaded up the Jeep for a road trip and left the ladies behind. We drove up to Marble Creek and followed the exact path the Linda and I had driven several years back when we stayed in one of the Marble Creek camps. The road took us up to an area where the Lines Creek Memorial Trail was located. We parked the Jeep and hiked the three mile trail. It was a very nice easy hike and I wanted to do it so that I could show my nephew, Kenyon, and his dad, Al Dee, the photos of the locomotive. Darren and I were amazed at how much work was done, most of it by hand or horse, to make this logging project go. Marble Creek has a rich history with logging and mining as the focus points. There is a great interpretive museum and visitor at the start of the Marble Creek road.

Darren approaches one of the old trestles.

This if the Locomotive that the
guide (above) talked about.

From the trail we drove up to the top of Hobo Pass and dropped back down the Marble Creek drainage. To complete the reenactment of Linda’s and my past exploration we drove into the Hobo Cedar Grove and took a quick walk around. The trees there are amazing, but there were so many trees that had had the tops blown out of them. This damage looked very recent and I know that it had not happened the last time we visited.

Our drive back was fast and dusty. We arrived back in camp and were greeted by the ladies and Kobi. We told the stories of the day and then retired to the showers to wash the dust and dirt off.

Linda and I made the last dinner of the trip. We went with pasta and red sauce with turkey sausage, mushrooms, red peppers and onions. We served it with salad and garlic bread and for desert we had popsicles. We watched a deer grazing up the hill across the St. Joe River. The sounds of James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Sir Elton John playing softly in the background. It was so relaxing, except for Kobi and his dog gone stick! Just another scene from the laid back adventures of Canyonwren.

The Wrong Mt. Top

2011-07-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

Our new home?

Linda, Kobi and I took a Jeep drive to the top of Coeur d'Alene Mountain today. We packed a lunch and drove past the Beauty Bay Campground. At the final split in the road we chose the left Jeep trail and ended up at the top of the mountain. Little bit of a let down though, all we could see were trees. We did find and old pump house or something like that. I told Linda we were going to sell everything and homestead up there. She rolled her eyes and shook the keys at me.

Blue Creek Bay, Lake Coeur d'Alene

Backtracking we went back to the split and continued on past a camp ground that included a pit toilet. We finally dropped down on the Bunco Road, headed back north and drove home. I need to explore that area a bit more, or possibly take the time to ask Jon and Jacob where the got their panoramic view of the lake and all. Oh well I have ventured out into the back country many time without a map or even any idea where I was going. This time I had a map, GPS and Linda my faithful guide. Kobi kept his head in my lap, I don't even think he cared where we were.

View Coeur d'Alene Mt. Jeep Drive in a larger map

You Can Always Learn...

2011-07-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Sunset at Arrow Point

Checking out the new stuff available for blogging with Blogger. I am always interested in what new features they come up with.

The Fireworks!

2011-07-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is a bit long, but the fireworks were fantastic and we were just about right under them. We poached a dock at the Discovery Marina at Gozzer. What a kick!

On The 4th Of July

2011-07-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

Celebrating in style!

Cooking dinner on Reel Time.

Loretta enjoying the day.

"I think I'll have another!"

Life doesn't get any better then this!

Gozzer fireworks barge get in place.

Just Before the 4th

2011-07-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend our tour of the best campsites of CanyonwrenTravels took us up the Coeur d’Alene River to one of our favorite sites, TeddyCreek. This fine little site sits justten yards off the river in a grassy wonderland that you have to drop down aslight hill to enter. This slightelevation difference hides the site from the river road and anyone who drivesin to one of several other camp sites.

The adventure started early on in the week when we visitedBen and Sherma Higgs for dinner at their house to plan an upcoming river tripdown the Lower Salmon. We worked out our trip plans and the conversation turnedto the fact that we both were just returning from camping weekends and that weall wanted to get back out as soon as possible. It was at that moment that ideas were planted and the details started tosprout. We would take our two campersand go up camping and fishing somewhere on the Coeur d’Alene River. As the strategy developed, Ben said he wouldtake his boat and we could drift fish the waters of the river. Then we talked about the time when everyonecould leave to find a camp. I was the only one who is not a teacher, so I wasalso the only one who had to work. Itwas decided that Linda would adventure out of her comfort zone and drive thetruck, with camper, up to find a camp. She would be following Ben and Sherma intheir truck and camper so it should be an easy solo adventure.

Wednesday came and the camper train left town at about 1:30PM. From the stories I gathered aroundour first campfire after I joined the party, everything went just fine on thetrip up and the Teddy Creek camp was a great find. After a rough day at theoffice on Thursday, I loaded some final items into the Jeep and drove up theriver watching for paper plates with D-NO written on them. These plates would guide me to the locationof camp.

At the area where the road splits at Shoshone Creek I sloweddown and looked to see if there was a plate there. If they were camped up at our camp spot onShoshone, there would be my first marker plate and I would turn right at thispoint. Seeing no plates I drove on andspotted my first marker at the bridge just before Teddy Creek campground and Iknew I was home for the weekend.

I arrived to a flurry of barking dogs and a toasting ofdrinks; Happy Hour was well in progress. We talked about how hard my day had been and I praised Linda on gettingthe camper up and into our spot, then Ben and I went fishing. We fished until almost dark and came home toLinda and Sherma eating dinner. Theycouldn’t wait any longer. I admit thatwe sort of got carried away, but we were fishing!

We sat around the fire and I actually made it past 9:30 PMbefore I went to bed. Linda followed abit later. We slept like two bugs in arug.

Friday morning Linda got up and ran and Kobi and I met heras she ran back toward the camp. Kobiran beside me on the bike and we helped Linda finish her morning run. We returned to camp and I fixed breakfast.After that everything turned to getting ready to float the river and catch somefish.

Once we gathered everything we owned fish gear wise and putit into the boat, we drove up to Big Hank and launched. Sherma drove the truck and trailer back tocamp while Linda road shotgun. Our questwas to catch as many cutthroat trout as humanly possible. Ben’s boat was set up nicely and rowed verywell through some very thin water.

We had been on the water about ten minutes when Ben spotteda cow moose looking at us from the right bank. She was knee deep in back water and very unconcerned about ourpresents. As I glanced at the moose, outof the corner of my eye, I caught movement down river. We turned, looked and focused in on somethingswimming across the current about 300 yards down river. As we floated closer and as the animal cameto the left bank, we could tell that it was a black bear. In less than fifteen minutes of river time wehad spotted two critters that everyone looks for when they are out in this drainage,but most rarely see.

We drifted down river catching fish and talking. The fish were not big fish, but there wereplenty of smaller ones that kept the adventure interesting. At about 6:00 PM we arrived at camp and tiedup the boat. Linda and Sherma were intheir chairs when we arrived. The dogsgreeted us with a chorus of barks, we were happy to be home.

The evening fire burned hot, dinner was warm andfilling. Linda and I had hotdogs and potatosalad. Ben and Sherma had Chicken CaesarSalad. We all topped the meal off withcookies from Costco. I was able to stayup a bit longer; I think I made it to about 9:30 PM. I am quite a night owl you know.

We slept well and in the morning Linda got up and ran whileKobi and I goofed around camp. Ben and Igathered our gear and made ready for “Fishing the Coeur d’Alene, Part 2”. Weate breakfast and by 10:00 AM the four of us were ready to do our part in thefishing adventure. Ben and I set out inthe boat, while Linda and Sherma took the truck down to Shoshone Creek wherethey left it for our shuttle. They tooktheir bikes and road back the 8.5 miles to Teddy Creek.

Ben and I once again caught a lot of fish, most small, butwe did hit a few real nice ones. Theriver was busy and every camp was filled to over flowing. Something about the four wheelers, loudmusic, in the woods, with guns and beer mentality that is very different fromwhen we were younger. We basically didall the same stuff, but without the four wheelers and guns. I think we were alittle more courteous to others and the environment. I know we drank a lot of beer back then, butI hope we never offended any one.

At our take out we met three folks that were just putting onthe river to fish the evening hatch. They moved their gear and let us take our boat out. We talked fishing,bugs of the day and dropped a few names. Most of it was your basic fly fishing man stuff, kind of like dogspeeing on a spot trying to claim ownership. We arrived back at our camp at about 5:30 PM, our float took us aboutseven hours. That was about as long as Ineed to be out on the river in a day.

Sherma and Ben provided a great dinner of elk burgers, Saladand Rice a roni. We sat around the fire andtalked fishing. How many times can youreenact the catching of a big fish? Wewere able to keep the lies coming until about 10:00 PM.

Sunday morning we all were pretty slow in getting up. Both camper crews had decided to pack up andbeat the big rush down river, which would take place on Monday the 4^thof July. We cleaned camp and goteverything loaded into our vehicles. Thedrive home was uneventful, Kobi slept, I drove the truck and Linda led the wayin the Jeep.

Camping at Bell Bay

2011-06-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

When the pioneers were heading west they would send outscouts to blaze the trail and find the best areas in which their group couldset up camp. In the modern sense of theword our scouts did the same thing. Johnand Loretta Sutherland loaded up their camper and Scout, their dog, and drovedown to Bell Bay on Thursday and established our camp for the weekend. In doing so the Sutherlands base camp,infamous #14, was claimed for the party of truck campers.

Linda and I were able to leave Coeur d’Alene early Fridaymorning after loading the gear in the camper, attaching the boat and making sure we hadeverything you could possibly want with us. Our game plan was developed and we had talked it through, I would driveus down to Harrison and unload the boat then Linda would drive over to Bell Baywith the truck and trailer. In the meantime I would drive the boat quickly over to the docks at Bell Bay and then walkup and then park the trailer and camper for the weekend. Everything went flawless! The only minor glitch happened when Ifinished up putting through the no wake zone and I hit the throttle. I made theclassic beginner boaters mistake, I looked up over the windshield and immediatelylost my hat! I circled round and pickedup the hat with my fish net and was off.

Linda proceeded to Bell Bay campground where John andLoretta were camped. The Sutherlands metme at the dock and we tied up the boat. By that time Linda had arrived and weall worked to get me backed into our spot and get the trailer off and in itsweekend resting place. Once all that wascomplete we had some lunch and settled in for the weekend.

After lunch John and I headed for the boat and we went outfishing. We motored down towardsHarrison fishing for Kokanee as we went. We picked up a few but we came to theconclusion that we were going a wee bit too fast. I started the kicker, but it was not runningvery well. John confirmed that he feltit needed adjusting so we shut it down and headed for Thompson Lake. I have an appointment on Tuesday to get themotor checked so I wasn’t disappointed; I kind of figured it needed someattention. We fished the afternoonaway. John caught a nice small mouth,but I haven’t fished enough to be able to get into the lake and massacre thefish. That will come with more time on the water and a lot more experience.

As it got a bit later in the day we headed home where theladies were sitting in the sun and reading. We ate dinner that evening and sat around the campfire, John and I talkingabout fishing, my boat and our next adventure Linda and Loretta rolling theireyes and smiling.

Saturday Linda got up and went for her usual morningrun. She ran south on the road leadingto Harrison. When she was about halfwayto her “out” distance she spotted something just off the road in the woods. She said “My first thought was that it was anemu, and then as I looked longer it looked more like an elk or moose!” She said it turned and ran and when thathappened she was able to rule out Emu. Withthis announcement we all started laughing. We were all wondering how she could mix up an elk or moose with and emu.

John and I went out trolling for Kokanee and Chinook salmon.I did the Kokanee thing; John tried for the big guys. Once again it was clearthat we needed the kicker motor. We had hitsand caught fish when we were trolling into the wind, downwind we were a bit toofast for those little guys. About 1 PMwe called it quits and came into get some lunch.

While we were out Beth dropped in for a visit and a chanceto catch some sun at our magnificent view lot. John and I arrived to find thethree ladies lounging in the sun drinking margaritas. Everyone sat around telling stories andenjoying the day. Linda recounted theEmu encounter for Beth’s behalf and someone asked Linda if she was sure it wasand emu and not and ostrich. Linda didn’t really know the difference so BethGoogled up EmuVs Ostrich and we all learned much more then we want to about the twoflightless birds.

As the afternoon grew shorter Beth had to leave and make herway back to Post Falls. Just a fewminutes later Linda got a text message from Beth. She said she had spotted an emoose along theroad into town. It confirmed that Linda had come across a moose that morning asshe ran.

Linda and I loaded Kobi up into the boat and we took a slowcruise down the lake. It was Linda’ssecond time in the boat and Kobi’s first so we went slow and let both getaccustomed to the boats sounds and movements. We were only out about an hour; both of my guests did quite well in theboat. Kobi was a bit nervous when we hithigher speeds. Linda was a great helpwhen it came to docking the boat.

Again, at the end of the evening we all sat around thecampfire until all the wood was burned. It was a beautiful evening and by 9:30 PM we were all ready for bed.

Sunday we got up and everyone put their gear away. John andLoretta left Bell Bay first, we followed close behind. I drove the boat over to Harrison and Lindamet me there with the camper and trailer. We loaded the boat with no problems and drove back to Post Falls. The entire trip back was spent planning outnext outing.

Smoke Em If You Got Em!

2011-06-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to do a little kokanee fishing on Lake Coeur d'Alene today.

Dragging Sculpins

2011-06-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Went fishing with Tom and Mark on Sunday. We floated the lower section of the Coeur d'Alene River, Junk Yard Put-in to Cataldo Boat launch. Had a great day of fishing and a good day of catching. I hit nine Cuts, they were all fifteen inches or better. We fished down deep and most were caught before the sun came out.

We spotted a moose in the ponds near the Mission. It was a young bull that wasn't quite comfortable when I got out to take he photo with my phone.

Great Weekend - No Photos

2011-06-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

We packed up the camper and drove up Alder Creek to John and Loretta Sutherland's place and spent the weekend. Ok it sounds a bit different but there was a Friday after work gathering and we wanted to attend. We also wanted to go camping. Therefore we combined the two and attended the party while camping! Problem solved.

The set-up of the camper went very fast since we were on a gravel pad next to the creek and the barn. It was a great spot with lots of sun. We grabbed our chairs and walked up the hill to the house. As the first to arrive we sat and talked and enjoyed the day. Everyone arrived and we had a dinner you wouldn't believe. I wanted to get some shots of the folks and the food but I had forgotten the camera down the hill in the camper. I wasn't going to trudge down and back up just for pictures so the blog is empty.

Saturday we sat around in the sun and read. Loretta visited us with Scout and after John finished mowing the grass he joined us and we enjoyed the afternoon. Linda and I ate dinner in our camper and then walked up the hill and watched some TV.

Sunday we got up and drove home and then I packed up the boat and Mike Wassmuth came over and we went fishing on Hayden Lake. I took the camera, but because Mike caught all the fish, I didn't take any pictures. That will teach him!

Our Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Weekend and the weatherman said it was going to rain. Nothing new there, we usually are out in the camper with a down pour pounding on the roof.

This weekend is Coeur d’Alene Half Marathon weekend, so we are staying home. Linda has been training for her first Half, and she is way ready for this weekend to be over.

Saturday morning I loaded up The Boat and Ryan Edwards came over, we hitched it up and took it out to Hayden Lake for a little fishing. Everything went real well for us. The wind died and the sun actually came out as we tossed lines hoping to catch some bass or crappie. The fishing was real slow and we had only caught a couple bass by about noon. Two good old boys motored by us and hooked up on a pike, so we rigged up the pike plugs and started trolling for the big uglies. Within about ten minutes I hit a 24 inch monster, it fought pretty hard and as we lifted it into the back of the boat it shook loose and bounced around finding its way back into the lake. We moved on and about fifteen minutes later we hooked another one. It was much smaller and we were able to get it on board and released without a fumble.

We fished on enjoying the sun. One o’clock rolled around and the Minkota electric motor started running down, so we switched to the kicker and trolled on. At about 2 pm I was watching the fish finder and it blinked once and shut down. Hummmmm that was a bit strange. Then I sort of noticed that the steering was getting a little bit lethargic, but I wasn’t concerned. Then at about 2:45 pm I shut the kicker down and went to fire up the big motor and nothing! The battery would not turn it over. Using the kicker and the fish finder had run the juice out of the battery. Well actually, going fishing twice using the kicker and the fish finder ran the battery down. I remembered that when Mike Anderson and I fished, we didn’t use the big motor either.

Linda checking out the finish line!

We fired up the kicker and chugged home. When we arrived at the dock I remembered that we could not lift the big motor without power so Ryan and I had to get the boat on the trailer and hope that it didn’t drag the bottom of the engine as we pulled out. We were lucky and the boat came out without getting close to the cement launch ramp. Once again I learned a lesson about my new boat. We had a great time and as soon as we got the boat back into its resting place next to the garage, I plug it into the battery charger for a good nights rest.

Sunday morning came very early. Linda woke me at 4:30 am so that we could arrive at the race start by 6 am. Wow, I hope other support teams got to sleep in a bit later than I did! We arrived at Riverstone where the race began and Linda immediately went to the restrooms. This continued right up until the race started at 7:30 am. I followed her around talking to numerous folks as she obsessed about whether to wear her tights or run in her bare legs. With less than a minute until the start, she ripped off her tights and went with the naked leg look. I packed the rejected uniform away, gave her a kiss and walked to a place where I could watch the start of the mayhem.

Two hours of running makes you thirsty, hungry, and bored.

Once the massive crowd moved out, I walked over to the near road and was able to find Linda and take a picture before she disappeared for the next 12 miles of fun. I immediately turned and walked directly to the nearby Starbucks, where I was herded into a line and allowed to buy a coffee and egg muffin type thing. I popped out the front door of the coffee shop took a right and found a table in the sun. Linda was projecting a finish some time about two hours and twenty five minutes and I had used up about twenty five of that to get my breakfast. With two hours ahead, I settled in and opened my book.

After about an hour I made my way back to the Jeep and picked up my chair. Caring the chair and Linda’s gear bag I found a spot where I could sit and watch the crowds walk back and forth in front of the race participants, it was sort of like watching Frogger without anyone getting killed.

She is happy now!

At about 2 hours into the race I started looking for Linda. She had projected a finish around 2 hours and 25 minutes, so my attention turned to the faces of the runners. At 2 hours 10 minutes Linda appeared, ran past and turned the corner to the finish line. She was well ahead of her goal time and I was pretty excited. I picked up my gear and walked towards the race end and met her about half way there. She was excited and a bit tired. We walked back to the Jeep and found our way back home.

We ended Sunday by getting together with John and Loretta Sutherland and going across the lake to have dinner at Eddies at Arrow Point. e had a great time, the meal was very expensive and just so, so. They have changed their menu and upped the prices. Lowest thing on the dinner menu was $15, I had a $17 pot roast plate that was good but not worth the bucks. We really enjoyed the evening and d the boat ride. Mostly we enjoyed sitting at the dock in the boat just talking. The weather looks like it is holding for the better. Tomorrow could be another great day!

********************************

Quick Update

2011-05-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Let's see, where do I start, went fishing Sunday with Mike Andersen. We launched at Hayden Lake's Sportsman access. Fished about three hours and caught a nice mess of crappie. On the way home we noticed that the turn signals on the right side of the camper and boat were out. I got everything put away by about 11 pm and hit the sack.

Yesterday, Monday, I moved the boat and camper to their parking spots next to the garage. After that I started out checking the turn signal issue. The truck lights were ok but the right signals and breaks on both the camper and the boat were out. I called Mike Wassmuth, my technical advisor, and he suggested checking for a bulb blown out. I quickly checked the camper turn signal bulb and it was good. We thought that maybe they were wired in a series and when one was out it affected both.

I moved into the truck and found the fuse box. Did you know that they fuse almost everything in a Dodge truck! I pulled a few fuses and found on that was gone. Raced to the auto part store and bought some new fuses. Sped back and replaced the old one. Lights on! No blood, no shocks, and no swear words!

Getting Familiar

2011-05-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the opportunity to go fishing in the new boat all by myself. When I had my bass boat, I went fishing solo most of the time, but that was about 17 years ago and my bass boat was nowhere near as deluxe as this boat. I figured I would be a bit rusty and really didn’t want anyone to see me goof up with the boat.

It all started at about 7:30am, I gathered up all my gear and placed it in the boat. I ate breakfast and made myself up a couple of Deano-McMuffins, some hot water for coffee and grabbed some fruit, no bananas, and headed out the door. The first adventure came when I had to back the truck with the camper up and hitch the boat up. I have a secret way of making sure I don’t run into stuff when I back up. I walk to the back, measure the distance using my feet, and then I get into the truck and spit on the ground right where I can see it. Then I step off the distance back from the spit mark and spit again. I get back into the truck and slowly back up until the back spit mark is directly down from where I am sitting. I stopped and put the break on, jumped out and sure enough I was right over the ball of the hitch. It works almost every time. Oh yes, you can use rocks or sticks if you don’t want to spit.

I drove out to Higgins’s Point and backed the boat down the ramp to the water. There was a real nice fellow there and we talked about fishing, his retirement, his boat and the fact that this was my solo fishing trip. Everything went very well with my launch and I didn’t have any problems getting the boat in and tied to the dock. I took my time getting everything ready to fish, the sun was out and there was not a bit of wind.

Once I was ready I motored out to the middle of the lake and set the rods up with lures. I used the kicker motor and pulled the gear about 10’ off the bank as I scooted along at about 1.7 mph to 2.3 mph. Not super fast and that was good because I had to get used to the troll-eze steering system. I cruised into Blue Creek Bay and caught my first Smallmouth Bass. I thought there would be a lot more panic when I hit a fish, but I just put the boat in neutral and reeled the monster in. I caught another fish a bit later and of course I lost the biggest one of the day because I didn’t set the hook enough. I stayed in the bay for an hour or so and then tooled out and along the bank into Wolf Lodge Bay. I didn’t catch anything there, but it was real good practice because the wind had come up and I had to learn how it affected the boat.

The wind brought darker clouds and it started to rain so I took the gear down and zoomed on back to the dock. My first solo docking went was smoother then I thought it would. I figured the wind would push me all over the place but it didn’t. Once I docked a real nice sheriff walked down and inspected my boat. She was fun to talk to and I let her know that it was my first time pulling the boat out and that it was ok for her to laugh when I fell into the lake. She offered to help, but I said I had to learn to do it myself so she walked up and sat in her car waiting to come save me. Everything went smooth as silk. The only problem was that when the trailer is in the water deep enough for the boat to be pulled up easy, the camper hangs out enough that it forces you into the water to get onto the trailer to hook the boat on. I got my feet wet but there was no way to avoid it. I’ll pick up a pair of hip waders and that will solve that problem.

I drove on home, cleaned out the boat and put everything away. Kobi and I cleaned the fish which gave me four nice fillets. After I buried the fish guts in my garden, I took the fish and made a late lunch of fish tacos and a cream soda. It really doesn’t get much better than that, wouldn’t you say!

First Fish

2011-05-07T21:37:00.001-07:00

Went fishing with Alex today and the boat was super. John Sutherland gave me a auto steering device for my kicker. Last week I installed the troll eze, a hydrolic steering device. We used it all morning and it worked great.

We fished all morning and caught one fish, but it was my first and a good sized one.

Linda's Bloomsday Results

2011-05-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

Results for Bloomsday 2011

Linda R Bennett

Finish Time: 1:07:35

Overall Place: 5,696 out of 50,611

Ran with a pace of 9:03 per mile

The average pace for 52-year-olds was 15:03

Placed 72nd among 756 people the same age

Placed 55th among 730 people from Post Falls, ID

Placed 535th among 5,436 people from Idaho

Placed 10th among 66 people with the same last name

Placed 1,714th among 30,568 females

Placed 14th out of 479 among 52-year-old females

Placed 82nd out of 2,278 people in your age group

Bug On The Water

2011-04-25T05:58:00.001-07:00

Sort of "Spring" Dash

2011-04-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again, you know, the time when hordes of runners hit the streets for fun runs, and duathalons. Today we set out for the heart of Coeur d'Alene so that Linda could run in the Coeur d'Alene Spring Dash. It was a bit cold and windy for the run but a big crown turned out to run.

Linda did very well and was happy with her results. It was fun for me because I know so many people who attend.

When Linda hit the road I walked up to Java and grabbed a Bowl of Soul with a muffin. I sat outside in the hit and miss sun and enjoyed my morning.

When Linda finished I got a photo and then we did our shopping and drove home. I piddled around the place all day doing odd jobs that I have been putting off waiting for the rain to stop. It was cold, and I only had about five minutes of snow so it was fun getting the hands dirty.

It Rains In Oregon - Part 2

2011-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

In Oregon, Tuesdays are days for rain. That’s what we figured when we drove up the coast to Cannon Beach and Seaside. Our weather has been what we expected, cloudy with intermittent showers. This Tuesday it was showers with intermittent down pours. We walked the streets of the two little towns and looked in the numerous shops at practically the same junk. Ocean tacky was the trinket d’ jour. Every kind of plastic, seashell covered knick knack you could imagine, most with a lone seagull sitting on them. We even saw a life-sized Elvis sitting in one store. The only thing missing was the 3-D winking Jesus. I guess we are not south enough for that one.

Our lunch was the hit of the day. We had pizza pie by the slice at Pizza a’Fetta in Cannon Beach. They serve the pizza by the slice or the pie and say they were rated in the top 50 pizza eateries in the United States, back in 1998. Linda had pepperoni and I had a meat special and both were about as good as it gets. We shared a four cheese slice that was up to par with the same product at Capone’s. It was good food and we were able to sit and eat while the skies doused the earth with sheets of rain.

We returned to the camper and did our nightly routine of walking the dog, drying off, eating, cards and then bed. We did however do something different this evening. I put Kobi into the crate and before I went to bed visited him. He seemed so sad and cold that I went back into the camper and Linda and I put down towels to cover the floor. Then I brought him into the camper where we were. This was breaking one of our first rules of the camper, but we all three slept better for it.

In the morning we packed up and took the Jeep south to Lincoln City. Weather reports said that it was going to be windy but the rain might break up a bit so we could see the coast as we went. We got to Lincoln City and noticed the wind was up and we were still traveling in a steady down pour. There is an outlet mall at the south end of town so we went there and did some shopping. Linda bought some Under Armor stuff and I got two pants and a shirt for $50 at the Columbia store. It was a fun break from the rain.

Back in the Jeep we spotted a Thai food restaurant which started us craving Thai food for lunch. We drove through Lincoln City and spotted a second eatery, but returned to the original place because it had more cars in front of it. What a find!!! The place was quiet and well kept. We were seated by the window and a very nice lady, probably an owner, took our order. She insisted that we try two different plates of food, so we ordered Pad Thai and Almond Chicken. Linda ordered tea and was given some wonderful choices, explained in great detail with a pride that made us feel like we were the only ones in the place. When the tea arrived the delicate sent of lavender and other spices filled the air around us. We both could have just sat there breathing in the scent; we drank the hot tea and were once again amazed at the qualities it possessed.

Our food came very promptly and it looked as good as everything smelled. The Almond Chicken was something else, the flavor was amazing. Our Pad Thai was great too, I would have liked a bit more hot, but we had ordered on the cautious side and only had it spiced to a two out of five. I had a four once that about killed me, so we went a bit weak on this one. The meal was right up there with the pizza we had yesterday. I would put it a bit higher on the good food scale, but once again a great meal.

Back at the camper we played cribbage and got things organized to leave the next morning. Walking the dog was difficult because the rain and wind on the beach were so bad that you could only walk with the wind. Each time that I was out walking the dog I noticed one very telling tale, only people with dogs were out walking the beach. What does that tell you about the mental state of dog owners? I finished my walk and since I was soaked I put away the four chairs that we never sat in and the bikes we never got a chance to ride. I want you to know that we did not use the bikes because of the heavy rain, no other reason. I had watched the morning news and had heard that Portland had set a new 20 year record for consecutive rain days of rain. Tomorrow would be #30. I hung my wet cloths and we ate dinner, cleaned up the camper and went to bed.

We were out of camp by 9 am and heading north for Cannon Beach where we would make the turn to wind our way to Portland, The Dalles and then on up to Palouse Falls State Park. It was raining hard as we left, I had a run in with the dump station, pinched my thumb but got everything cleared out and put away. When we reached Hood River, our lunch stop, I noticed I failed to put the lid back on the camper dump. It was gone so we will have to buy a new one, the old one victim to the distraction of pinching my thumb back at Nehalem Bay.

We entered Hood River and drove up the hills and found a free parking spot. It wasn’t as easy as that sounds. Most of downtown Hood River is pay to park areas and I happened to turn up a road that was so steep that I actually thought we might not be able to pull the slope. The diesel easily chugged up and over the crest but we were very vertically exposed for about fifty yards. We parked, got Kobi out and walked down into town to find a place to get some food. The main street is an eclectic mix of shops, cafes, extreme sports centers and pubs. We chose a pub because both cafés had dogs tied up in front of them and we needed a place where Kobi could sit outside as we ate. The lady inside was very nice and explained what was available but she also made a suggestion that we try the place down the block because they had a picnic table outside where we could sit with the dog and eat. Linda talked to her for a bit while I went and used the restroom and then we took her suggestion, thanked her and headed down the block to Trillium. As we walked it dawned on us that it was not raining, we both laughed.

The waitress at Trillium greeted us with a smile. She was a Golden owner. We sat at a table outside the door, out of the wind, on the street; a great people watching spot where Kobi could curl up under our legs. I ordered a BLT and Linda had a Greek sandwich made with humus, feta chicken, cucumbers and red onions. Is your mouth watering yet? It was a great meal and we really enjoyed watching Hood River go by.

We walked to the truck and drove to a park where we could walk Kobi. Once he was walked we loaded up and drove up through the Tri Cities to the turn off to Connell and made our way down to Palouse Falls State Park.

The park is out in the middle of rolling sage scrub land. You descend into the park via a steep gravel road. Once in the park there is a turn around that creates a “J”, the camp sites are located in the middle of the “J”. We were a bit puzzled as to where to park so Linda ran up to the camp host Neal, and got some help. Neal suggested that we set up for the night in the overflow parking lot up behind his place. It turned out to be a perfect spot away from everything. We set up the camper and then went for a long walk taking pictures of the falls and talking about how queasy it mad our stomachs to look down the face of the rocks into the muddy river. We kept Kobi on lead whenever we were anywhere near the drop offs. There were marmots everywhere and we just knew if we let Kobi run free, he would chase a marmot over the cliff. I have watched him chase squirrels on Tubbs Hill where he ran off the rocks into the water. Chasing here could be fatal so Kobi was on a tight lead.

It Rains In Oregon

2011-04-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our driving time yesterday was 9 hours 3 minutes and we covered 517 miles. Our average speed was 57.1 mph. It was a long day of driving but we did make it to the coast and to a campsite at Beverly Beach State Park. The day turned out to be a very good driving day. We drove down to the Tri-Cities under partly cloudy skies. When we hit the Columbia River we turned west and drove along the north side of the river facing very little wind.

We stopped at the Stonehenge Memorial and let Kobi out to run while we took some photos and a much needed break. When we loaded back up we immediately crossed the river to Biggs and caught the freeway into Portland area from there. As we drove through The Dalles, we debated whether to stop at one of the campgrounds at about 3 pm, or continue on to the coast and hope that we could find a place to stay for the next two nights. Linda made a couple phone calls and found out that there were some spots available, but we were three or four hours away and it could be a little bit of a gamble to get one.

We tossed the dice and drove on. One of our rules of the road is to make sure we fill the truck with diesel whenever it gets down to just below half a tank. We filled up in the Tri-Cities and then we started thinking about it just outside of Portland. We spotted a sign around Brooks and pulled off the freeway. I wheeled across traffic and turned into the station and then we saw the lines!!! Cars and trucks were backed up everywhere! We looked at each other and Linda said, “Oh, we’re in Oregon and you can’t pump your own fuel.” They had two guys out trying to fill about 14 vehicles at a time and it looked like they were refusing to run or panic. I was stuck. With the camper, pulling the Jeep, we could only find a slot with diesel and settle in and wait.

Once we were in line, Linda took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and also grab us a couple SUBWAY sandwiches. By the time she returned I was being filled and it gave me time to munch down the sandwich. It took me about a minute to accomplish that because I was starved. We both finished off everything as we wound our way through the traffic mess and back onto the highway.

We wound our way past Salem and through Corvallis on down to the coast at Newport. We got to Beverly Beach and pulled up to the Ranger’s Office. Linda registered us and we found our site. The only thing we had energy to do after our set up was to walk Kobi, pet him a bit and go to bed.

The next morning we ate breakfast and packed up the Jeep for the day. We had set up a rendezvous with Linda’s sister and her family at the Hatfield Marine Science Center sometime around 11:30 am. We were a bit early when we pulled into Newport, where the science center is located, so we drove out to the jetty and walked on our first Oregon beach of the trip. After we played in the sand and rain, we drove over to meet the family. They were inside the center when we arrived and it was great to see everyone again. The kids are growing so fast it is amazing. Linda was beaming; I can tell she misses everyone.

We spent a little over an hour looking at the exhibits that Oregon State University has provided. The kids were real good and it was fun to watch them interact with the exhibits. It was about 1:30 pm and everyone was getting hungry.

We loaded up and drove to old town Newport where we planned on eating. Old town was packed! There were people everywhere. I guess that when the rain stops everyone does their best to get up and out. Linda wanted clam chowder; she kept saying it with a New England accent. Then she would smile and laugh. She must have said it a hundred times; I stopped laughing at about twenty. We got a table overlooking the bay at Mo’s Annex. The food was good, Linda got her chowder and I had fish tacos.

Full of sea food we walked around town looking at the sights. Al Dee lead us to a couple of geocaches which were located close to some good views of the Newport Bridge. Once we found the caches and took the view photos it was time for the family to head home. I could tell Linda didn’t like saying good bye, but we quickly climbed in the Jeep and worked our way back home. We ate dinner, played cards and went to bed. It was a great day of family and actually some sun.

Early in the morning the new inverter let out a low beep. I turned it off and looked in the operational manual for an explanation of the noise. A low beep meant that that 12 volt input was low. I noted that and then within the hour I noticed that the refrigerator had a fault indicator, a “C”, in its LED panel. I looked this up and it said that there was low 12 volt power supply. I had to think about what this meant! I figured that either the batteries were bad or something was not letting them charge. Earlier I had repaired our sound system by replacing a fuse that must have went when the inverter burned out. I figured that we needed to get things fixed, but didn’t know the best scenario to get the problem repaired. We got ready for the day and as we used the bathroom and the fan, the power was drawn way down. I figured it must be the batteries.

I pulled the batteries and loaded them into the Jeep. We stopped at the camp host and asked where we should go to get the batteries checked. Our only choice was to drive to Tillamook, 25 mile south. We went to an RV place and the repairman checked the batteries. They were still good. We talked through the system and possible reasons for the power drain. At first he said that it probably was the fuses and those were about $130 each. I about passed out. I once again explained that we had TC with a Charge Wizard inverter. That changed everything; he thought we were talking about one of the huge motor homes.

He went through all the possibilities again and said it was most likely two 30 amp fuses located on the Charge Wizard. Off we drove back to our camper. Within a minute I located the two fuses. Pulling them out took a bit due to the confined quarters, but I was able to struggle through the fix. Once they were out I knew that this was the problem and I replace them with good fuses. I put everything back together, loaded the batteries back into their compartment and connected all the power back up. What do you know, everything worked. All appliances were back to normal and within a few hours the batteries were functioning normally. I learned quite a bit about our camper and that was good. We found that when we spiked our power that one day and fried the inverter, we also took out three fuses that did not show up until the power in the batteries got very low. The experience was very frustrating and took about four hours of our day, but now I know exactly where things are and how better to diagnose future problems.

We loaded into the Jeep and drove into Manzanita, did some tourist shopping and had a snack. We found out that the Lady Zags were still playing in the tournament and then returned for a long walk on the beach. Both Linda and I were beat after our anxious morning of repairs. We ate and went to bed.

And Not A Scratch on Her...

2011-03-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the sun was out and all I did was walk around the House fidgeting. I wanted so bad to get the new boat in the water, but I missed the blue sky window of opportunity and it was all my fault. Today the morning was beautiful so I called Fitz up and we headed out to the boat launch at Higgins Point.

There was very little wind for my first launch and that made me feel real confident. We took our time and checked, double checked everything. The launch went flawless and as she sat quietly next to the dock, I took the boat up to the parking lot, paid my $5 launch fee and came back with my can of champagne. To be honest, I used a can of Guinness to christen the boat. Before you go crazy and say I goofed, hear me out. (1) I have never been a fan of champagne, even when I drank. (2) When I drank I loved Guinness. (3) I felt that it would not feel right to splatter champagne all over the front of the boat, but a good beer, that is another story. (4) I can grantee you that we will never have champagne on this boat, so why not spill something that will probably be spilled in fun and friendship for years to come.

With all that taken care of we motored out on the lake and gave the girl a good spin. We ran the big motor up to speed and played with the trim. Then we stopped and started the trolling motor up and ran it for a bit. I played briefly with the fish finder and then we returned to the dock, where I made the perfect landing. We double checked everything as we were at the dock, then I went up and brought the trailer back. We loaded it in very little time, tied it down and drove home. No rips, raps or flips. I love the new girl and can't wait to get Linda on board to see her in action.

Welcome to Your New Home

2011-03-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

We spent Saturday afternoon at Tobler Marina getting the thousand info books and a few lessons about our new boat. I am pretty excited and a bit anxious about the whole deal. I have wanted a boat for fishing since I sold my bass boat. Don't get me wrong, I did not feel I made a mistake selling the flat bottomed craft to get money to buy my cataraft. Our cat has taken us some amazing places and I love that boat. I did however wish I could have kept the fishing boat and purchased the cat. I love to be on the water; lake, river, or ocean. This new boat has been my dream and now she sits in the driveway, it's hard to get my head believing that it's a done deal.

We need to name her. I haven't given it much thought, but Last night Linda reminded me that she will need a name. Any suggestions?

My First NHL Experience

2011-03-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Blackhawk tickets, can you believe that? Heather’s cousin works for an investment firm and his group had three tickets available in their private box, yes, private box. On Wednesday evening we attended the Region 14 reception, ate coconut shrimp, pizza, ate calamari, then walked out, grabbed a cab and drove to the United Center. If you know Chicago at all you know that the Bulls NBA team and the Blackhawks NHL team share this facility.

Frozen in the cold air outside the center is a bronze statue of the great Michael Jordan. You can’t help stopping and standing. Jordan soaring above, for a moment I forgot about the icy cold wind cutting into our faces. The crowd pushed us into entry # four and the excitement started escalating.

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup last year and it is apparent by the huge crowd that they are expected to do well again. They had won three straight and everyone expected them to be able to hold off the Calgary Flames tonight. This would be my first professional hockey game and only my second professional sporting event ever. I went to see a Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field once.

Our seats were amazing! They were located just above corner ice in the visitors end. I think that would be considered visitor ice because they were on offence during the first and third period in front of us. But with free tickets, a plush seat, free drinks and hockey less than 30 yards away, who cares which ice you are looking at!
The entire evening was a loud spectacle of flashing lights, music, and the combined noise of 40,000 hockey fans. From the singing of the Star Spangled Banner to the first face off the sound level was incredible.

When the Blackhawks scored their first goal the place erupted. Three long blasts sounded from what sounded like a shift change horn, roared followed by a united singing of a song that everyone joined. You would have to experience it to believe the feeling. I took video with my camera, but it does not do the experience justice.

The Blackhawks won the game 5 to 3 which added to the excitement. It is still hard to think that we lucked into this, or should I say that Heather’s cousin so generously provided us with this experience.

Chinatown and More

2011-03-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

The next day the conference was broke up into blocks and we were able to take the afternoon and ride the red line down south to Chinatown to explore and grab lunch. Heather put me in charge of getting us there and I held up my end and we were able to get there without the outcome that we faced yesterday on the trip back from the Sears Tower.

Heather asked a sales clerk where we should eat lunch and she said “ta tipple quan”. She asked what color the sign was and was told to look for green and yellow. We walked down to the street and looked around. We both spotted the place at the same time. Before us stood a big yellow and green sign stating “The Triple Crown.”

Our evening dinner was another experience. We joined our friends from PCC and Lane and walked about six blocks to a hot dog joint. This place had some of the best hotdogs and sausages I have even tasted. We gorged on dogs and onion rings. Obviously I will not be losing weight on this trip

Exploring Chicago

2011-02-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Right now I am sitting in the lobby of the Marriott located on the Magnificent Mile. For a large hotel, in a big city,they sure have slow Internet access. We arrived Sunday afternoon via the subway transit system. It was my first time on that type of public transit, can you believe that? I have been on the MAX in Portland and the Seattle Light-Rail system, but never on an actual subway. We traveled without mishap or any delays changing from subway to bus and finally landing on the Magnificent Mile.

I’ll step back a bit. Heather, Chloe, and I are on a bit of an adventure to the ACUI National Conference. This conference is the big one for Union professionals and is the second one I have ever attended. It’s Heather’s first big professional Union conference, and Chloe is a student who won a scholarship to this event. The fact that she had the scholarship helped us to justify the travel.

We flew out of Spokane, to Seattle and then on to Chicago. The flights were uneventful and during the long flight I was able to watch the movie “Inception“.

We landed at O’Hare and proceeded to the Blue Line, the L as they call it. It cost each of us $4.00 to take the subway, a taxi would have been about $40.00. We had one transfer from the L to a bus that took us directly to the heart of the Magnificent Mile.

We checked into our hotel and then met up with Heather’s Aunt, Uncle and Cousin who took us out to dinner at Gino’s East. We ordered Chicago deep dish sausage pizza. Very disappointing in my view, if this is the best of Chicago man we are in trouble.

We had some time before we had to check into the conference so we put on our walking shoes and headed South to see if we could find the Bean, a famous sculpture in Millennium Park.

As the story goes, the Cloud Gate sculpture was privately-funded piece that cost $23 million and was placed in the center of the park unfinished to meet the celebration of the parks opening. At first everyone hated it. It was nothing but a huge chrome blob and no one could believe that it was purchased with their money. Then they started to visit it. The reflection of the city in the Bean draws you closer and then you see yourself, the people around you and all the smiles it brings. The city began to fall in love with it and now it is one of the ”don’t miss” points of interest in Chicago. We played in the reflection and took pictures.

Continuing on we headed north to find the Lake. We knew it was about five blocks away and could catch a glimpse here and there, but we could not get to it. The freeway blocked our path so we turned east and followed some signs to the Navy Pier. Within about four blocks we were once again blocked, so we backtracked a bit and ended up grabbing a taxi which transported us to the front gate of the Navy Pier.

At the pier we walked out to the end and took pictures of the lake and surrounding panoramas of the city. We explored the interior of the pier facilities and looked through a stained glass museum as we walked. Once through the building and back on the street we were able to make our way back to the hotel. Our first big exploration a huge success.

Conference wise this is a very big one with about 1000 professionals and students in attendance. The first day was programmed with numerous breaks and down times where folks could explore. While most of the folks attending the conference were walking around looking for food, Heather and I grabbed a taxi and went to the Sears Tower to take the elevators up to the 110th floor. The Sears Tower is now known as The Willis Tower, but people in Chicago won't ever use the new name.

If you have never been up in a skyscraper, let alone the skyscraper that lead the tallest building war for so many years, you have to take the time and spend the $17 to get to the observatory and see Chicago like it should be taken in.

We had a blue sky day with a little haze covering the distant landscape. At the observatory level they have added four glass window boxes that allow you to walk outside the original building and look straight down to the street below. It is a real hart stopper to step out onto that see through glass floor. With the four boxes you can step out and take pictures of each other, so of course I had to coax Heather out onto the glass for some shots. We spent about an hour up in the tower and headed back.

To get back to the hotel we chose to take the subway, again for the adventure. We walked down to the Blue Line of the L and road the train to the Loop area, and then changed over to the Green Line and road to the exchange for the Red Line. That sounds easy, but it actually was not. We spent about 45 minutes on the train and platforms and only made it 3 blocks! We could have walked faster! Finally after several trains, some walking and a few very nice folks helping us out, we made it back to the motel.

Is it Sixteen Years?

2011-02-20T13:41:00.000-08:00

Another year and yet another Hill's Resort gathering has passed, but the memories and photos will now live on in our blogs, photo galleries and hazy memories. It was another great year with abundant food and lots of laughs. The weather was superior with sunshine each day. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend.

It all started Friday with a clear sky drive up to Priest Lake. Linda and I left early enough to get up to the cabin before folks arrived. We like to get the wood in and a fire started so that the place is warm when the rest of the crowd gathers.

We unpacked the truck and as Linda was putting things away, I filled the wood rack. Raina and Dean arrived just as Linda was starting the fire which signaled the start of laughing and of course drinking.

Bridget and Dennis had been in contact and we knew that they would show up sometime between our arrival and the end of the weekend. They were on Hill time and no one can ever predict their actual appearance time.

The fire was going strong when the phone rang signaling that Bridget and Dennis were either lost or had actually found their way to the resort and couldn't remember which cabin we always stay in. It turned out to be the latter and within minutes they appeared at the door.

With the cabin warm and everyone present we settled in picking up where we left off last year, laughing and teasing each other. Bridget set upon the task of preparing dinner as the rest of the grouped drank margaritas, wine and a couple beers.

The dinner was outrageous! She fixed a Greek salad and some other Greek type main dish that centered around shrimp that we tossed over rice. We ate facossa bread with the meal and when we were all finished she brought out the most gorgeous home made apple pie any of us had ever seen. This pie was beyond belief. Thick light brown crust covering layer upon layer of apples baked so nicely that they still were just a wee bit firm when bitten. Then to top it off they added vanilla ice cream, we were in hog heaven.

After we licked our plates clean, Bridget broke out one of her new games. I am not sure what it was called, but it was based on identifying shapes on cards that, when put together, fulfilled a set of criteria that Bridget had interpreted and written on four, very small and delicately fashioned paper towel pieces. These intricate criteria sheets became the focus of much of our teasing for the rest of our stay during the weekend. It was so Bridget.

We played several rounds of the game and each time a sequence of cards was produced, Bridget would make sure that the three cards met her set of rules, matching each paper rule sheet to the cards every time they were displayed. This went on until everyone was exhausted and we all wandered off to bed.

Saturday morning arrived with blue skies and cold sharp winds. We ate breakfast and then loaded up our snowshoes for a hike around the local golf course. We took two rigs and proceeded to circle the golf course several times looking for a place to park and embark on our trek. Finally we stopped on the side of the street, parked and donned our snowshoes, we walked the exterior of the golf course playing like children as we went. It was a very fun adventure.

We returned home and had a bit of free time before the Gonzaga basketball game. When tip off arrived we loaded into the rigs again and drove the three blocks to the restaurant and bar at the main lodge. The girls smuggled their margaritas and popcorn into the bar where we watched the Bulldogs smother the Dons in an exciting yet one sided game.

Once the game was over we drove the three blocks back to our cabin and settled down to have a great taco dinner provided by Raina and Dean. It was late by this time so we ate and teased Bridget until we were ready for bed.

Morning came quickly and everyone was eager to pack up and get on the road. Raina and Dean headed up to Bonners to visit Raina's family. Linda and I drove back to Post Falls where we unloaded and then reloaded the truck so that Linda could drive down to Moscow to visit her Mom and Dad. Bridget and Dennis were lounging in the cabin when we left, once again on Hill time.

We Finally Took the Big Step

2011-02-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

For the past couple years I have had a dream of getting a fishing boat. A boat that I can go out in and fish for pike and bass, a boat that I can take out on the lake and troll for lake trout and salmon. I looked at various models and contemplated my needs but it seemed that every time we got close to the big purchase, something came up that required that we postpone the event.

Last year Linda took a leave of absence from work and we practiced for our retirement. One income equaled our base pay and then we supplemented each month which gave us a good reading on our retirement. We had to wait.

So now that we are back to our usual situation we felt it was the time to make the dream come true. Fall came and we spotted a boat that I really liked. It fit all the criteria I had for the boat. Linda and I looked at it and actually went to Qdoba to talk it over and make a final decision. We decided that we couldn't finalize the deal until we replaced the roof on the house.

Last weekend we went to the Spokane boat show and looked at what was offered. There wasn't a great selection of fishing boats, very expensive and mostly to big. We returned disappointed. As we drove north of Coeur d'Alene to do some shopping I suggested to Linda that we head out to Tobler's Marina. Tobler's was having a sale, their own boat show.

We arrived and went into the show room. Boats were all over the place. Again, most were too big or too expensive. Our exploration lead us outside to the exact boat we were looking at in the fall.

The boat is a Crestliner Canadian 1650. It was fitted with a 60 hp Merc four stroke. We started the negotiations and began adding the extras that I felt made up my retirement boat. We added a Minn Kota motor for the front. A Merc 7 hp kicker for the back. Full canvas. Two electric downriggers and a fish finder.

Linda and I have always hated negotiations on vehicles, campers and anything you have to dicker on. This started out about the same as other deals. We got all the pricing and were talking about the additions when the manager of the place, Brent, came in to where we sat. Immediately Linda lit up and his smile widened. Turns out that they knew each other from the fitness center they had both attended. After a few minutes of talking, he took our order sheet and walked to his office. He returned and told us he had taken $489 off the price. That was very nice and it made our decision a little easier.

We had to think about the deal so we gave them a deposit to hold the boat and went home. Over the week I visited the boat twice, climbing all over it, talking about the pros and cons. On Saturday we went back out to finalize the deal. I had decided that this was the boat I wanted.

When we arrived, we met with Lois, their financial person. She explained that they reworked the offer and found that they had made a $250 mistake in our favor. We filled out the loan paperwork and then headed into town to wait for it to be accepted by the bank.

About two hours later we got the call that everything was ready, Lois also said that they found another little mistake. We met in the office and she explained they had made a $400 mistake on the rebate. So at this point we were $460 better then when we first walked in. It made us feel a bit better about the deal.

Lois went over all the paper work and showed us the work order for the shop. Linda stopped her and had a question. On this paperwork and the final sales papers, there was no mention of the Minn Kota. We showed her the paperwork that stated our first offer and it clearly showed the Minn Kota. So, she wrote it in without changing the bottom line. A free Minn Kota!

This made us feel a lot better about the price of the boat Of course I looked up the retail price on the web when we got home. Retail price for that motor was $689. Our deal now sat at $1300. We were feeling a lot better about our deal. All the dealings, mistakes and successes really was stressful. By the end of the day we were beat. It was all worth it in the end. I pick up my boat in a few weeks and then you will have to read about all my fishing trips. You might be the losers in this deal.

January - February Doldrums

2011-01-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

Just sitting in my old chair drinking hot coffee and eating oat meal for breakfast, we haven't done much since we got back from our trip. Traveling home was uneventful. No plane delays. No missed flights. I got my share of pat downs at the TSA areas, but I have got it through my head now that the searches are going to happen so let them have their fun.

Since we returned, the most asked question I have gotten from the people at work or who know we go to Mexico is "do you feel safe down there?" I hope our posts of the night life in Melaque answers that for our readers. I always reply "It's like walking around in Hayden Lake or Post Falls in the 60's."

We don't go places that look like we should not be there. We are never our with the drunk crowd late at night. We don't frequent large town party areas. We never walk the beaches at night. So we have never had any problems in Mexico.

I am a faith full reader of a on-line forum that deals with truck campers and their issues. It is called NATCOA (North American Truck Campers Owners Association). Lately they have been talking about Mexico and how dangerous it is to travel there. One of the posters is an avid Mexico traveler and outspoken member of the forum. He spends a lot of energy defending travel in Mexico saying that it is safe, but very few listen to him. I believe that the nay sayers are the ones who have never traveled down that way and get their opinions based on news about deaths in the Mexican drug wars or have heard from a friend of a friend who got in trouble across the border. They don't see the demographics of the mass deaths when the news focuses on them. Young Mexicans in their 20's, heavy into the drug industry. We are never anywhere near that demographic. Our demographic is Mexican families, taco vendors, rug makers, pool cleaners and house cleaners. These are the people that we have gotten to know and love.

I read the posts like looking at a bad accident. I can't help my self. Yes we have never driven down to Melaque, but our friends have and we listen to their stories of how wonderful the people are and how sad it is that tourism is down due to the economy. John and Loretta Sutherland recently traveled down to their place on Baha and had no problems on their trip. Larry and Maggie did the same, only down to Melaque.

I just think that traveling in Mexico is like traveling anywhere. You have to be careful, you don't put yourself in situations that you are not comfortable in, you stay out of big city areas where trouble might be, you don't frequent bars and nightclubs and walk home drunk late at night, you stay away from drug areas, and you keep to the places that local families go. Sounds like what you do in the big cities up in the United States doesn't it? I'm not saying that sh*# won't happen. It does and there is no stopping that, but minimize the possibilities and it may not happen to you.

Enough with the rant. I have to go walk the dog in the 20 degree weather of north Idaho.

The Eve of New Years Eve

2011-01-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Our family of friends gathered at Bigote's on the final night we were together to celebrate Don's 69th birthday. This small group has grown close over the years. It was great to celebrate, yet we all knew that within a day we would be back in our homes, not seeing each other for another year. This mixture made the night special. Don and Caroline created a wonderful dinner of coconut shrimp and we talked into the night.

The drinks and conversation prior to dinner covered many topics. All of our roots go back to the place where Don and Caroline are staying, La Paloma. We met Don and Caroline there in 2003 when we were drawn together by the parallels in our careers.

Grant and Jackie became friends with Don and Caroline who introduced them to us about two years ago. Though we are separated in our daily lives by many miles and in the case of Grant and Jackie, a country; we have many common interests and feel very comfortable together.

We have a lot to be thankful for: the trips to Melaque, the friends we have met, and the special friends we keep coming together with. It makes these trips special in many ways. We probably would not be drawn to return each year if we didn't have our friends meeting us in this small town.

I don't know how many necklaces that our three lovely companions have purchased from Gaston, but I think we keep him and his family in business for most of the year. He is a very good looking man, and his wife isn't hard on the eyes either. Our women gather around him and his artwork like flies to food on the 4th of July. They touch each necklaces and listen to the stories of where each stone was found. Gaston's descriptions, all spoken in an almost musical Argentinian accent. I think he sold most of his jewelry because of his looks, voice and stories. Grant, Don and I kidded constantly about how our significant others swooned over him.

Taco Row

2010-12-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

Fish Report :-(

2010-12-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

We caught six fish today. Two Jacks (That is what they call them, the Pompano is a different fish, so I was wrong there.) three Sierra and one ???? (can't remember that one but if you look at the first photo, that's it!) We did give it a hell of a try when we saw the birds and dolphins. What a cool day!

Heads up! There are birds everywhere!

2010-12-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

T'was the Night Before Fishing...

2010-12-28T16:04:00.000-08:00