Purple Sand and High Water

Last weekend we headed down to the St. Joe in order to a.) capitalize on one of Sarah's few three-day weekends and b.) Get away from the Ironman turmoil. 

There was a forecast of thunderstorms and showers, but we figured we had a big tent, a hay tarp, and a buncha rope...so we should be good.  At the crack of noon on Friday, we were off!  Headed to Moon pass, over to Avery, then up the road to one of our favorite camps.  Pretty uneventful as there was really no one up there and we had our choice of camping spots anyways.  But we got set up, made some dinner, and called it a night. 


Living area



Sleeping quarters


The next morning I got up early and found myself down at the rivers edge, panning out some purple garnet sand.  It was a gorgeous bluebird morning and entirely pleasant to squat down on the sand and pan for "purple gold!" 

I got fairly good at it by the time I had gone through about three panfuls, but I still couldn't get all the "normal" sand out.  Trying to figure that out as we speak. 


I'm just intrigued



Not too bad!

 

Okay, it tasted better than it looks!


After a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and morels (all mixed together of course) we decided to head back down to Avery to get Sarah some supplies and poke around the little store down there.  It took us a little longer than expected, but it was a pleasant drive.  After we got back, I loaded up the saw and went on a fishing / wood gathering trip.  After climbing a steep cutbank to cut a suspended log, chunk it up, and get it loaded...I passed countless bleached lodgepole logs sitting right on the side of the road.  *sigh*  I guess I like making things just thaaat much more difficult.

That brought me to a dandy hole that I've personally never fished.  There was a very light hatch going on at the time, so of course I tried a dry fly.  That didn't work (I suspect because everyone who was up there fishing probably hit that hole countless times throughout the day.)  I decided to try something unthinkable!  I went to....a nymph!  I had ONE bead head prince nymph and after a double-roll cast, was able to get it out in the honey hole.  I got a serious bite right away and hauled back...breaking off my only "good" nymph.  After that I threw in some other nymphs with no luck.  Hmmm, switching to a "Mickey Finn" that a friend tied for me finally got me back into them!  The first cast got another huge hit and this time broke my leader off!  Sonuva!  Okay, new leader, new Mickey Finn...another hit, set the hook geeeeentllllyyy.  Finally!  Fish on!  Then...I decided to maneuver a long release of that 12-inch cutthroat.  Yep.  I DECIDED to release it five feet from me.  Right.

But, I wasn't skunked and by that time it was six o'clock so I decided to head back to camp and just take it easy.


Common sight.  Drying gear



Nice camp

 

I tried.  Just a little breeze made focusing difficult.

Then somehow it was Sunday morning.  We had a leisurely breakfast, packed up camp (the worst part of all camping trips), and made our way back into the thick of things.  We arrived in CDA at 1630, which was basically the time when most of the Iron men / women folk were finishing their run.  There was just people a noise everywhere...the last couple blocks of the run went a single block from our place.  Cowbells, traffic, screaming, loudspeaker blaring " So and so!  You.  Are.  An.  IRONMAN!"  Over and over and over.  But, we unpacked and just hunkered in the house for the rest of the night.

Overall it was a good weekend, but I know we both could have used more time.  A week sounds pretty nice doesn't it?  Hmmm.

Oh, at one point we decided to mess around and take family photos.  Here's what came out of that.  Some just NEED the sequence to be funny!

Dark but cute (Oh, Lucca had surgery a couple weeks ago.  She's better now!)

Not sure what THAT is about

 

Time for "serious" photos



Wait for it



Look at Lucca's face!!  "I have to live with these people."




Aww



Yep



I love this because it was originally ME messing with Lucca!

Sarah!  Leave her alone!

Geez, look at those arms!  Loosen your grip at least!  Hahaha!

 


Lucca!  Fix your lip.  Sarah's looking pretty native in this photo...



Beautiful night



Not bad....

What the hell?

Hahahha!



After that, I caught the sun setting!  Gorgeous!



Okay, so check this out.  I rotated this picture 90 degrees the wrong way in Microsoft Office.  Blogger is rotating them 90 degrees when I load them!  So this one turned out correct.  WTF?  Lucca chillin Sunday morning. 
Update:  I just went through and fixed ALL the wonky photos.  Think I figured out the trick!  Finally!

Testing worked!  Rotate 90 degrees clockwise, blogger will rotate 90 counterclockwise.  I had trouble with these two earlier, but NOW it's funnier!

hahahhaaa!

Year of the Morel

Whoof!  This is the fifth time I've tried to post these photos!  Blogger has definitely become more "buggy" in the recent months.  And...I found out it doesn't like my newer camera since it doesn't save the formatting.  But, when I go to my older camera, it saves the formatting...what gives?  Must be a setting somewhere, all that means is that you'll have to crink your neck a little bit on the first set of photos.

So, enough time has gone by that I want to make this a photo post.  Actually, not much happened on the two morel outings to my homeland in the Clearwater...except picking a buncha mushrooms.  There were some rather large wildfires down there last year and while they were still smoking, I already had a plan to go down there, cross the river, and pick away!  The first trip was with Butch and we came out with a good score.  Skipping Memorial Day, I went back down on a solo trip the following weekend.  Let me tell you, it was all about production on that trip.  I left the house at 0630 on Friday and had camp set up, was two miles in, and was picking by 1100!  The next morning found me up at 0630 and on the trail by 0700, doing the same thing.

When Butch and I were down there I had him drop me off at the bridge one afternoon and found a dandy spot, one that was so good it made us get up at 0500 and pick until about 1030 the day we were to return home. 

Crossing one of the many downfalls on the "trail" in

I'm always intrigued by the ones growing in holes



A perfect morel

Alright, the game here is to see how many mushrooms you can find.  I counted while I was there and there ARE eight in there...




This was a fantastic flat!



Kinda look like little turds don't they?

Okay, the results of the first trip, with out cheating.  The photo some of you may have seen on Facebook that Sarah posted was this cooler...but with some water in the bottom.

Ooh, I found a GROVE of monsters...must have been a perfect environment next to the spring that everyone else who'd been in there must have missed!  That big dude on top was one of maybe 10 I found like that.

I had too many for my drying racks, so just spread them on a tarp...worked well as long as it was hot out.



Did I mention it rained on us pretty good?  All my gear drying...



Second trip, Friday night.  I found a makeshift table at another camp and poached it.  It became my cleaning / sorting table.

 

What I came out with the first day



Of course.  Oh, but pay attention to the colors.  Seriously, depending on where they were growing, they were greenish, pink, white (no kidding), and your classic yellow / brown.

  

The country I spent my days in

Pretty ain't it?

I've never eaten a coral mushroom.  I need to try that sometime.  Sure are interesting though.

I find this photo captivating

Growing under a log and in thick blowdown was a good place to look for "overlooked" mushrooms

The second day's terrace where I walked in countless circles, staring at the ground

Watching for falling snags?

My view from the photo-shoot site

I actually found this morel while walking back and forth from my camera!

Two days of production picking!  Discalimer:  To anyone interested, no, these are not for sale...that would be commercial-ish, which would be illegal without a commercial permit.

Happy tent next to Waw'aalamnime Creek

Drying the second trip's spoils.  I didn't have even CLOSE to enough room, so I used two tarps that time (plus the drying racks)

Tarp two

Pleasant end

Overall I came out of the first trip with two gallon ziplocks (dried.)  I don't even know what I got out of the second trip yet, they're all dried and hanging in a mesh bag in the shed.  However, it looks like they'll make another three or four gallons (plus?) dried.  Let's just say I think I'm done picking morels this year.  Oh, after the most recent trip and eating a lot of morels every night...I made some for Sarah when I got home.  I had one or two and said, "Nope, those are yours...I'm kinda mushroomed out."

It was a good run, but I'm ready for a nice, relaxed camping trip to just hang out...take photos, and fish.