Boating is neat

Butch in the bow

The flotilla

Just a nice photo


So, on Saturday we went boating on Twin Lakes. It started off as four, ended up as seven...five kayakers and Butch and I in my canoe. "Let's go fish for crappie!" Alright.

Well, I shall make this short as I am tired. The fishing was very poor and only one to catch anything was Sarah and she caught a rainbow...subsequently letting it go. After that, we investigated old, washed up docks, a shack for sale, and many valuables left on the shore. (We declined the urge to take them...coiled climbing rope, circular saws, hand tools, power equipment...obviously all left out in the weather for a while. It was weird.)

After three hours of floating around chatting, we called it a day.

TODAY, I woke up at 0600 and decided if I was going to go to Missoula, I'd probably better go early. So I left a little after 0700 and made it there by 1000. Good thing I left early. (Oh, by the way, I was going to pick up a Alumicraft I'm buying from my Dad.) Thing after thing happened in trying to get this effort organized. First of all, I didn't have a stinger, and on Easter Sunday, it was something just to find a store open that had what we needed. Luckily, the first try worked and now I'm set up to tow! The single biggest problem was that the safety chain hooks wouldn't pass through the holes in my hitch! By the end of the whole deal we were using a torch and a vice + sledge to bend the hooks so they'd pass through. Physical force won and we were good to go.

Never really having hauled a trailer before, I was pretty nervous to take this trailer and boat through Missoula, then on the interstate for a couple hours, then back it into the storage place at Butch's house. We took it for a test drive up Hwy 12 and I found the trailer would follow and turn with no problem at all. Turns out, I was able to back it into it's "spot" with no trouble at all...first try even!

I was going to take a picture, but I was pretty worn out from the 11 hour excursion that I just considered it a done deal and came home. I need to go put a cover on it soon, so perhaps tomorrow I shall put a photo or two up.

All in all, I'm extremely excited to be the (almost) new owner of this boat. Already I have dreams and plans for fishing and duck hunting. This summer will be a good one to learn to haul the trailer around, the ins and outs of maintenance, and familiarity with the motor. Not to mention exploring the lakes around CDA!

Piece of cake, ...right?