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.
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| Living area |
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| 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.
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| I'm just intrigued |
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| Not too bad! |
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| 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.
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| Common sight. Drying gear |
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| Nice camp |
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| 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!
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| Dark but cute (Oh, Lucca had surgery a couple weeks ago. She's better now!) |
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| Not sure what THAT is about |
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| Time for "serious" photos |
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| Wait for it |
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| Look at Lucca's face!! "I have to live with these people." |
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| Aww |
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| Yep |
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| I love this because it was originally ME messing with Lucca! |
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| Sarah! Leave her alone! |
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| Geez, look at those arms! Loosen your grip at least! Hahaha! |
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| Lucca! Fix your lip. Sarah's looking pretty native in this photo... |
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| Beautiful night |
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| Not bad.... |
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| What the hell? |
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| Hahahha! |
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| After that, I caught the sun setting! Gorgeous! |
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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! |
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| Testing worked! Rotate 90 degrees clockwise, blogger will rotate 90 counterclockwise. I had trouble with these two earlier, but NOW it's funnier! |
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| hahahhaaa! |
3 Comments:
You know that laugh you (meaning everyone - not you in particular) laugh when you are supposed to be falling asleep in a tent or a room full of people - the one where you are trying to be quiet but that just makes you laugh harder and your face hurts just a little bit? That's the kind of laughing I have been doing with this post. Thank you!
Fun pics, man! Looks like a good trip.
The egg scramble looks awesome!
Sarah has some awesome arms!
Glad Luca is doing better!
Z
Hey Tom! It is so fun to see your photos and read about your recent adventures...I was thinking of you and Sara the other day when Dustin, Nicole, her brother, and I were on a little mountain adventure of our own. iT brough back awesome memories of a previous epic trips wher eyou were invovled. :-) I hope you are doing well!!
Rachel
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