The Great Fishing Adventure - Part 5 Time To Catch Some More Fish, Eh?

We came to fish, and fishing is what we did. The schedule was usually get up and fish, come in for breakfast as a group, fish some more, have lunch on your own whenever you wanted, and then come in for supper as a group, then fish more until the bugs drove you into the cabin for the night.

I'm a chronic "get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom" sort of person. Trying not to go into into too many details, it was interesting, getting up in pitch blackness, going outside to do the business while swatting mosquitoes and then trying to get back in bed without disturbing anyone else. During the middle of the week, someone got the bright idea to use an empty milk jug which was then emptied the next day. Worked great, but one night we almost had too many boys using the "facilities" and we just about overflowed the capacity. The last person to use it got a shock at how heavy it had gotten in the night and was scared it would overflow. Not being able to see what you were doing was sort of a disadvantage.

Here's a few pictures of our surroundings. It's a different landscape than what I'm used to. There is very little topsoil, everything was extremely rocky. You had just a little grass sprouting up amidst moss, lichens, and an abundance of trees. I still couldn't figure out how the trees grew so well. I have no idea where they would take root. I would imagine it wouldn't take much of a wind to knock them down.

The main building is our cabin, inside the door was a porch area, then another door took you into the combination living, dining and kitchen area, then a hallway led you to the bedrooms and shower room. The small building on the right was split down the middle into a storage area for nets and life jackets, and a fish cleaning area. You can see some of the solar panels for the lights on top of the fish cleaning building.

Here's our commode. This was located a considerable distance from the cabin so as not to be bothered by the odor. This was another reason why it was best to do your business before it got dark. You did not want to be stumbling around these woods without being able to see. This was one nice result of the cabin not having any guests for a week prior to our arrival. Combined with the 5 days of nonstop rain, it didn't smell too bad. At least at first. By the end of the week, I was very much looking forward to getting back to flush toilets.

This is one of the bedrooms. Not mine, I might add. I was rooming with uncle Rick and we are both neat freaks. Our beds were made every morning and clothing and towels hung up. The other tenants not so much.

Here's another shot showing some of the rocky terrain. You saw a similar view pretty much wherever you looked.

On this day we noticed a bald eagle following us around. It was there the whole week. We looked forward to looking up and seeing it perched in a tree or soaring around the lake. They are magnificent birds. We also saw some river otters one day. My absolute favorite animal. I had never had the opportunity to see one in the wild and I got to see two of them when I was there. They seem to be an animal that truly believes life is to be enjoyed. They always look like they are having so much fun whatever they are doing. Alas, we didn't get any pictures of them. I tried with my measly cell phone, but without a zoom, they were too small to even see in the picture.

How about some more fishing pictures? Here's John Allen, studying one that was destined to be cleaned and fried.

Of course, I have to include yours truly. Out of all the pictures from this trip, this one is my favorite. If a picture could capture the pure enjoyment I felt at being able to be in such a place with my family, this would be it. My whole week is wrapped up in that smile.

You would have to experience it to understand the adrenaline rush that occurs when you hook into one of these fish. They were by far the biggest I've ever caught in my life. By the weeks end I had probably landed about a dozen or so, on one day we were hitting them so often I lost count. Each time my heart would leap to my throat, and the rod tip would bend all the way to the water. I felt sure one of those times it would snap. Thankfully it never did.

This is the best shot I had of uncle Rick. According to him, he got the largest fish award in the group. However, I must add, he had no witnesses to this and his biggest fish just happened to be a mere half inch larger than mine which up until then was the record holder. It may be all in my head, but seems to me there was just something "fishy" about that. Ah well, I believe I did win the award for most fish caught.

Sorry John, somehow you managed to elude the camera this week. This is the only picture I got that didn't show you cleaning fish. I'm the one on the left in the boat with John, and then you have Rick and Gilligan, excuse me, Jeremy, in the 2nd boat. I had been fishing with dad that morning, but he had to go back and start breakfast, John was all by himself since John Allen was still sleeping so I hopped into his boat while my saintly father motored back to get the food going.

Have you ever seen a couple of more hard working guys? After breakfast more fishing was on the agenda. This is the epitome of relaxation. Feet up, half reclining, line in the water, shooting the breeze. There definitely needs to be more of these moments in my life. You don't get much better father-son time than sitting out on a lake in the middle of some very beautiful scenery.

After some more fishing it was time for supper. Man shall not live on fish alone. Tonight was steak night! Rick had ordered 8 10-oz strip steaks cut an inch thick. My oh my were they good. We grilled them outside and ate them with some more fried potatoes. Us cousins again brought up our disbelief at how good we were eating up there. Here we are enjoying this fine meal. Those steaks were amazing, tender and very delicious.

After supper, more fishing, with again lackluster success. So we called it another night. One more glorious day in a truly enjoyable vacation.