Sunday, July 19th -- My brother, our friend, and I drove that afternoon from Casper to Fort Collins. As usual, it took about 3-1/2 hours. And as usual, we stayed at the Hilton Hotel. After reaching the room, we relaxed for a while and, like the previous years, we once again went to dinner that afternoon with my brother's friend and his friend's wife. As we did in 2018 and 2019, we ate outside at a golf course. Because of Covid-19, we couldn't eat inside even if we wanted to because it was closed. (As was the case in many/most states.) Note: Wyoming's restaurants did not practice that safety technique because they didn't have an "excessive" Covid-19 problem. After dinner, we returned to the hotel, took it easy, and went to bed early in order to get up early. One thing that I did was to measure my weight before going on the trip. I had lost 15 lbs. since the previous year's trip. If I lost the same amount of weight that I usually loose during these trips -- 5 or 6 lbs., then I could have weighed below 180 lbs. At the end of this story, you'll find out if it happened. Monday, July 20th -- As a prelude to the trip, I had surgery on June 11th. (I don't want to disclose what type because it's somewhat embarrassing.) Related to it, my surgeon and the hospital pointed out that I needed to drink at least eight glasses of water per day in order for my system to return to normal. That was going to be difficult to do in this situation. But at least I drank enough to avoid getting altitude sickness. We got up around 3am. (Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well and woke up at 2:45.) We got our acts together and went to breakfast at the nearby Denny's. As usual. The waiter-manager filled up our water bottles and we took off. We arrived at the parking lot, not the regular trailhead, at 6:30am. After about twenty minutes, we began hiking. We reached the trailhead ... the regular parking spot ... after 1.3 miles. Because the ranch's gate was closed due to the Covid-19 situation, we had to hike the extra distance, making the total length 8.2 miles. At 11 o'clock, we arrived at the lake. We noticed that the trail was not maintained. For example, six trees had fallen either onto the trail or over it, they had not been removed, and we had to avoid them. One of them required us to crawl under the tree. This was also probably related to the Covid-19 situation and the forest rangers did not have enough personnel to take care of these types of situations. When we arrived at our favorite and regular campsite, there was a fire pit built in it. Again. And logs were configured into benches. As usual, we set up our tents first and then the three of us went to the creek behind the campsite and got water from it using our friend's filtering system. I experienced several head rushes while my brother and I were erecting his tent as I acclimated to the 10,000-foot elevation. Then, we immediately went fishing. hoping to visit some of our old, and make some new, friends. I fished in one of the round, doughnut- shaped boats instead of the "U-boat" that I usually paddled around in. The reason was because the bladder in the U-boat leaked and none of us were able to find a replacement bladder. Also, the leak was on a seam and it couldn't be patched. Nevertheless, the round boat should probably work fine. That day, I fished with my spin casting outfit and not my fly fishing outfit. As usual, my brother and our friend only fished with their fly fishing outfits. Our friend pointed out that the fish that we caught were all relatively large -- bigger than 12 inches. That's concerning because it indicates that the lake's population isn't getting replenished. When we finished fishing, I was examining my brother's utility knife. I was testing the sharpness of its saw and, sure enough, it poked me in two different spots. When that happened, I dropped it and it cut the ring finger on my other hand. My first finger that got poked bled for about 20 minutes. Wow! It ended up taking about two weeks to heal. Regarding the fishing, it wasn't great that day. Maybe it was because there was no rain with only scattered afternoon clouds. At 7:40, my brother and our friend went to bed. Being an astronomer, I went to bed much later. At 8:30. At 10:30, I woke up feeling cold. I discovered that my sleeping bag had "died". The filling within it had lost its capability to create or retain heat. So, I went to the bathroom, as it were (Wow, the sky was nice and dark!), got fully dressed, and went back to into the bag. (It worked out being fully clothed and that is what I did for the rest of the trip.) Among other objects, that I saw when I was outside, I saw Jupiter and Saturn. Very nice. Airplanes: 64 Hydration Quality: (Good and then bad) Temp -> High: 75, Low: 45 People: 0 Fish Caught -- 6 My brother: 2 Our Friend: 3 Me: 1 Tuesday, July 21st -- I woke up at 7:30. My brother pointed out that it is the same time that the sunlight strikes the top of our tent. At 8 o'clock, I got up. At 8:20, we ate breakfast. (Are you bored by the play-by-play? Well, it's a wonderful thing when you're at "the lake"!) At 8:50, my brother and our friend started fishing. At 9:50, I started fishing. I took care of some "maintenance" issues beforehand such as treating my fly fishing line. That day, I fished with my fly fishing outfit and not my spin casting outfit. While fishing, I decided to try an experiment. Usually, I wear both thermal underwear and fleece pants under my waders. This time, I didn't wear fleece pants. My legs were slightly colder, but they weren't too uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I'm going to resume wearing the fleece pants. Speaking of what clothes to wear while paddling around in the belly boats (float tubes), people might be interested in the process to get ready to fish on one of the boats. For those of you so interested, here is the step-by-step process. In general, we put on -- 1) Two pairs of socks, one of them being wool 2) Thermal underwear -- on legs 3) Fleece pants 4) A long-sleeved shirt 5) A windbreaker (optional, eliminates getting sunburned) 6) A hat (that preferably covers a person's entire neck) 7) Waders 8) Wading boots (heavier) or sandals (lighter) 9) Flippers 10) Belly boat (actually, don't put it on but get into it) If you think about it, a good idea is to go to the bathroom prior to putting everything on. Imagine what's involved if a person has to go to the bathroom after putting everything on! Our friend both slept in late and napped during that day. During the day's 24-hour period, I calculated that he slept a total of over 16 hours. But I should give him some slack because he usually sleeps with a CPAP machine. By the way, when I count airplanes, approximately 9 out of 10 of them are commercial flights. The insects that I noticed, either on land or around the lake, included mosquitoes, brown Caddis flies, blue damsel flies (similar to dragon flies), small house flies (that bite), and tiny white flies (on the lake and about size 28 ... if you know fly fishing). That day, there were more scattered clouds and some haziness. My brother researched weather predictions and the chance of rain increased during the week. I took a break from fishing, got out of my belly boat, and spent some time at our old campsite on the opposite side of the lake from the entrance. While I was there, I met a man and his son. They were walking around the lake looking for a campsite that was big enough for their group of five people. I asked them if they had been to the lake before. They said that they had not. I informed them about the best spot, that was the next best one following the one that we took. They thanked me for the information and that's where they camped that night. Soon after getting back on the lake, an eagle flew over the lake. I was still on the far side of the lake from the entrance and saw it first. I yelled out to our friend, who was closest to me, "Hey, there's an eagle flying your way!" He and my brother spotted it and we all watched it fly to the other side of the lake and perch in a tree. Obviously, it was looking to catch a fish. After sitting there for about one minute, it flew away and left the lake. Awesome! We used the same strategy for meals that we had done during the past few trips. I ate instant cereals, granola bars, trail mix, and jerky. My brother and our friend ate meals in freeze dried packages. Later, I'll list some of the particular items that they ate. At 7:50, we all went to bed. Once again, our friend slept in my one-man tent and my brother and I slept in my brother's 3-man tent. Airplanes: 78 (We expected less than this many flights because they were supposed to be grounded due to the Covid-19 situation.) Temp -> High: 70, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: Mostly good that day People: 9 -- four day hikers and a family of five that was mentioned above Fish Caught -- 2 My brother: 1 Our Friend: 0 Me: 1 Wednesday, July 22nd -- I woke up at 7:15, got up at 7:45, and we ate breakfast at 8:00. It was a mostly uneventful day. Which is wonderful because it meant that all we did was fish. When I was paddling around the lake, I noticed that there was a lot of snow on the "snow field". I also noticed that, per usual, there were fewer mosquitoes before it rained and more after it rained. (Actually, it didn't rain that morning, but it would soon thereafter.) We saw two crows, which is unusual at that elevation, and we heard some "camp robbers" -- a bird that is similar to a crow. After lunch, our friend napped again. From 4pm to 5pm, there was a light, steady rain and the temperature dropped significantly. (We had gotten out of the lake when we saw some clouds coming ... from nearly all directions. (Talk about wind shears! So it rained after all.) Do you remember me pointing out the meals that my brother and our friend ate. Here are some of them -- (1) Burritos, (2) Lasagna, (3) Fusilli (whatever that is), (4) Chicken and dumplings, (5) Chili macaroni with beef, (6) "Kind" -- a type of snack bar, (7) Antelope jerky -- from an animal that our friend bagged, (8) Trail mix, and (9) Cookies. Lasagna during camping? Ha! Ha! That day, I got into "the lake mode". Simply put, I transitioned to an improved level of calmness, observed things that I would not typically notice such as the beautiful mountain scenery, listened to the various noises of nature, etc. Going to "the lake" is truly therapeutic. Wow, I love this place! I named the day "Picture Day". I spent the first part of the day walking around the lake, taking pictures, and fishing. It was fun, but it was sad. The sad part was due to the additional number of trees that had died since the previous year. Apparently, the insects that had been killing the Lodgepole pine trees were now killing the furs. You can see for yourself if you look at photographs on the 'Pictures' page related to this trip. And it should be more noticeable if you compare similar photos from the previous three years' comparable photos. I visited the old campsite again, this time taking pictures of it. It's still struggling to recuperate from decades of use. (Including use by my dad, my brother, and me.) But it's improving. Maybe I'll help it along next year by taking a small shovel, turning over some of the hard packed dirt, and planting some grass seed. What do you think? "You've got too much time on your hands." Isn't it great to have that? Potential entertainment value -- Have you seen the movie 'Yesterday' from 2018 that was based upon The Beatles' music? I did and it inspired me to learn more about them. Also, it made me think about how many songs that they created. This was unfortunate for my brother and my friend because several times during this trip, I would say "I remember another song that they wrote." I appreciate that they didn't get upset with me for doing it again and again and again. If you've never seen the movie, and you are at least slightly interested in their music, I believe that you will enjoy watching it. (No, I'm not selflessly and shamelessly promoting it and getting royalties from it.) The clouds were thin that day. Maybe we weren't going to have significant rain this week after all. That day, I did spin casting in the morning and fly fishing in the afternoon. And I didn't catch any fish that day. I hooked one on a large black-and-white daredevil while fishing from my belly boat, but I didn't land it. However, I saw it when it was about ten feet from the boat and two feet below the water's surface. It was fairly big -- at least 17 inches long. When I walked around the lake, I noticed three very small campsites. At least, I think that they were campsites. The reason is because they both had "STOVES ONLY" signs in front of them. Both our campsite and the second best campsite have the same signs. That means that there are five campsites at the lake. Also, my brother noticed what appeared to be another campsite about 50 yards before entering the lake area. If it is indeed a campsite, then there are six of them. At 7:15, my brother hit the bed. At 7:45, our friend and I followed him. Into our own beds. I woke up that night (again) to urinate. Wow, the sky was beautifully dark! Again. I slept better for two reasons. One was that I wore clothes again. Two was that, as always when camping out and sleeping in a sleeping, I get accustomed to the different sleeping style. When my brother and his girlfriend went on their trip to the lake during the previous week, they couldn't start the stove on the third day out of 5-day trip. As a result, they couldn't cook anything and ended up leaving the lake one day early. (No way!) Well, if they had packed enough snack-type foods with them such as granola bars or trail mix, then they could have stayed at the lake another day. So, the stove needs to be tested prior to trips. Note: Prior to the trip with my brother, our friend, and I, my brother and I fixed the stove. We discovered that a filter needed to be replaced. It is the tiniest thing that you ever saw, about 1/16th on an inch in diameter. If it doesn't work in the future and the filter is the reason, then we might simply discard the filter and take our chances. Airplanes: 43 (Note: Rain interfered with noticing other planes.) Temp -> High: 70, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: Very bad that day People: 0 Fish Caught -- 4 My brother: 2 Our Friend: 2 Me: 0 Thursday, July 23rd -- Guess what we did? I woke up at 7:50, I got up at 8:15, and we ate breakfast at 8:35. One thing that I noticed is that the atmosphere didn't seem to be as dry. Usually, I had to use eye drops and lip balm. I don't know what was the reason, but I enjoyed it. That morning was warmer than the previous few mornings. I don't remember if there were clouds. If so, that would explain it since clouds help to keep warm air from "escaping". It was a good thing that I brought my extra battery for my smart phone. (Note: I had a Samsung Galaxy 5 phone. It wasn't the latest and greatest, but it was the last version of the phone where the battery could be easily replaced.) The first battery ran out of power, so I replaced it with the extra battery. And it had enough power to last until we returned to Casper the next afternoon. My brother measured the lake's water temperature. He said that it was 60 degrees. I asked him "Isn't 60 degrees much warmer than expected?" and he replied that it was the temperature at the surface. "Oh." He said that he wanted to measure the temperature at the bottom of the lake. I said that I would make something with some of my spin casting line and weights so that he could do it. And that event that will be covered later in this story. And it will be worth reading because it's a funny one. Perhaps it was "The Event of the Trip". We got more water. This time, we filled up the jug half way. My brother believed that it would be enough to last us for the rest of the trip -- 2 days including hiking back down the hill. Also, it's quite a bit of exercise using the filtration system because it requires a person to manually compress and release its lever to pump water through it and into a container -- in this case, our 5-gallon jug. By the way, I remember suggesting to my brother and our friend that we should use the 5-gallon jug that I had brought with me for a previous trip. And one or both of them said that it was too big. Hmmm. This was the first day that our friend didn't take a nap. My brother convinced him that our friend should fish as much as possible since it was our last day. Plus, we hadn't been catching very many fish. They dubbed it "Marathon Fishing Day". That day, I only did spin casting. As bad as the fly fishing was, I decided to fish below the surface. Unfortunately, it didn't make any difference. While fishing, I pointed out to my brother and our friend that I could hear either eagles or hawks in the trees that were "singing". We never determined what they were, but it was nice. Regarding the storm that arrived that night, it was cloudy all day long starting around 10:30 that morning. So, we suspected that we weren't going to stay dry ... as the weather forecasters predicted. So, here's the story about my brother measuring the temperature of the water at the bottom of the lake. I gave him the rig that I promised for him to do it. He went out on the lake in his belly boat. At one point while fishing, he stopped and dropped the line with the thermometer into the lake. While it was going down, a cutthroat trout hit the thermometer and broke the line. So -- (1) My brother didn't get the temperature of the water at the bottom of the lake, and (2) He lost his thermometer. Maybe worse than those two issues is the fact that the fishing had been so bad but my brother got a fish to hit a thermometer. Can I call that "a slap in the face"? You'll understand why later when you read about the total number of fish that we caught during the trip. That night, I asked my brother and our friend how many thermometers we should bring with us during the next trip in order to catch fish. Between about 6:45 and 7:45 that night, it rained. And it rained hard enough that it was the first time during the trip that we had to escape the rain by going into the tents. Also, it was somewhat concerning. The reason was because we were leaving the lake the next morning and we didn't want to have to hike in the rain. At least, in a hard rain. Fortunately, we got most of our things dried out -- especially the belly boats and waders -- and packed prior to the beginning of the rain. And since I went to bed so early, it was the only night that I needed to play solitaire in order to go to sleep. Airplanes: 51 Temp -> High: 65, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: It went from bad to good to bad. And worse. People: 0 Fish Caught -- 6 My brother: 1 Our Friend: 5 Me: 0 Friday, July 24th -- I hadn't planned on it, but I woke up at 5:15. I'm noticing a trend here. Whenever I'm going to travel, I wake up (too) early. Since it was so early, I didn't need to get up. (It's cold out there!) At 7:00, I got up, we ate breakfast at 8:20, and we finished packing. We took our now-typical "group photo" and we left the lake at 8:48. At 9:39, we reached "the junction" (1.2 miles, 59 minutes, 1.2 miles per hour). At 10:44, we reached the reservoir (2.6 miles, 65 minutes). And then I went for it. It had been a long time since I had hiked several miles without stopping. I ended up hiking the remaining 4.3 miles (Is that several miles?) to the car. I arrived at 12:07 (83 minutes, 55 miles per hour). I wonder how many of you will read this story thorough enough to catch this "estimate". (And hopefully laugh. So what was my speed?) At 12:07, my brother and our friend reached the original trailhead. At 12:40, my brother and our friend reached the car. I lapped 'em! Thanks to our friend for logging the times during our hike. When we were hiking separately back to the car, I crossed several groups and couples during our hike back down the hill. That makes sense since it was a Friday morning. But I wonder if they were aware of the 60% prediction for rain that day. And the sky looked ominous. The couples and groups came in waves of 4, 10, 8, 2, 2, 1, including 4 dogs for a total of, well, you can calculate it. Oh, and there were 13 cars at the parking lot. Airplanes: 16 Temp -> (unknown) Hydration Quality: Bad People: (several) Epilogue -- Totals -- Airplanes: 252 (72 more than 2019) People: 9 plus several Fish Caught -- 18 My brother: 6 Our Friend: 10 Me: 2 (Killing it!) The result of me eating only granola bars and trail mix had its effect. I lost five pounds during the trip. Five more pounds and, as one of my friends told me, I'd be down to my fighting weight of 175 lbs. We need to test the stove prior to leaving on future trips. I need to make sure that I continue taking an extra battery for my smart phone. My brother and I never napped. That might be a first. We never saw any animals, such as rabbits or deer or moose, during the trip. We went on the trip in July hoping that the fishing would be better than it was in August during the past two years. It didn't make one difference. As a matter of fact, guess how many fish that we caught in August during 2019? My sleeping bag died. We couldn't print our fishing licenses because our friend's printer stopped working. We need to use a different strategy. On Wednesday and Thursday, there were the same number of people at the lake as the number of fish that I caught during those two days. Comet NEOWISE was in the sky during our trip, but I didn't get to see it because I/we went to bed too early. of Page Return to Picture Page.
Monday, July 20th -- As a prelude to the trip, I had surgery on June 11th. (I don't want to disclose what type because it's somewhat embarrassing.) Related to it, my surgeon and the hospital pointed out that I needed to drink at least eight glasses of water per day in order for my system to return to normal. That was going to be difficult to do in this situation. But at least I drank enough to avoid getting altitude sickness. We got up around 3am. (Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well and woke up at 2:45.) We got our acts together and went to breakfast at the nearby Denny's. As usual. The waiter-manager filled up our water bottles and we took off. We arrived at the parking lot, not the regular trailhead, at 6:30am. After about twenty minutes, we began hiking. We reached the trailhead ... the regular parking spot ... after 1.3 miles. Because the ranch's gate was closed due to the Covid-19 situation, we had to hike the extra distance, making the total length 8.2 miles. At 11 o'clock, we arrived at the lake. We noticed that the trail was not maintained. For example, six trees had fallen either onto the trail or over it, they had not been removed, and we had to avoid them. One of them required us to crawl under the tree. This was also probably related to the Covid-19 situation and the forest rangers did not have enough personnel to take care of these types of situations. When we arrived at our favorite and regular campsite, there was a fire pit built in it. Again. And logs were configured into benches. As usual, we set up our tents first and then the three of us went to the creek behind the campsite and got water from it using our friend's filtering system. I experienced several head rushes while my brother and I were erecting his tent as I acclimated to the 10,000-foot elevation. Then, we immediately went fishing. hoping to visit some of our old, and make some new, friends. I fished in one of the round, doughnut- shaped boats instead of the "U-boat" that I usually paddled around in. The reason was because the bladder in the U-boat leaked and none of us were able to find a replacement bladder. Also, the leak was on a seam and it couldn't be patched. Nevertheless, the round boat should probably work fine. That day, I fished with my spin casting outfit and not my fly fishing outfit. As usual, my brother and our friend only fished with their fly fishing outfits. Our friend pointed out that the fish that we caught were all relatively large -- bigger than 12 inches. That's concerning because it indicates that the lake's population isn't getting replenished. When we finished fishing, I was examining my brother's utility knife. I was testing the sharpness of its saw and, sure enough, it poked me in two different spots. When that happened, I dropped it and it cut the ring finger on my other hand. My first finger that got poked bled for about 20 minutes. Wow! It ended up taking about two weeks to heal. Regarding the fishing, it wasn't great that day. Maybe it was because there was no rain with only scattered afternoon clouds. At 7:40, my brother and our friend went to bed. Being an astronomer, I went to bed much later. At 8:30. At 10:30, I woke up feeling cold. I discovered that my sleeping bag had "died". The filling within it had lost its capability to create or retain heat. So, I went to the bathroom, as it were (Wow, the sky was nice and dark!), got fully dressed, and went back to into the bag. (It worked out being fully clothed and that is what I did for the rest of the trip.) Among other objects, that I saw when I was outside, I saw Jupiter and Saturn. Very nice. Airplanes: 64 Hydration Quality: (Good and then bad) Temp -> High: 75, Low: 45 People: 0 Fish Caught -- 6 My brother: 2 Our Friend: 3 Me: 1
Tuesday, July 21st -- I woke up at 7:30. My brother pointed out that it is the same time that the sunlight strikes the top of our tent. At 8 o'clock, I got up. At 8:20, we ate breakfast. (Are you bored by the play-by-play? Well, it's a wonderful thing when you're at "the lake"!) At 8:50, my brother and our friend started fishing. At 9:50, I started fishing. I took care of some "maintenance" issues beforehand such as treating my fly fishing line. That day, I fished with my fly fishing outfit and not my spin casting outfit. While fishing, I decided to try an experiment. Usually, I wear both thermal underwear and fleece pants under my waders. This time, I didn't wear fleece pants. My legs were slightly colder, but they weren't too uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I'm going to resume wearing the fleece pants. Speaking of what clothes to wear while paddling around in the belly boats (float tubes), people might be interested in the process to get ready to fish on one of the boats. For those of you so interested, here is the step-by-step process. In general, we put on -- 1) Two pairs of socks, one of them being wool 2) Thermal underwear -- on legs 3) Fleece pants 4) A long-sleeved shirt 5) A windbreaker (optional, eliminates getting sunburned) 6) A hat (that preferably covers a person's entire neck) 7) Waders 8) Wading boots (heavier) or sandals (lighter) 9) Flippers 10) Belly boat (actually, don't put it on but get into it) If you think about it, a good idea is to go to the bathroom prior to putting everything on. Imagine what's involved if a person has to go to the bathroom after putting everything on! Our friend both slept in late and napped during that day. During the day's 24-hour period, I calculated that he slept a total of over 16 hours. But I should give him some slack because he usually sleeps with a CPAP machine. By the way, when I count airplanes, approximately 9 out of 10 of them are commercial flights. The insects that I noticed, either on land or around the lake, included mosquitoes, brown Caddis flies, blue damsel flies (similar to dragon flies), small house flies (that bite), and tiny white flies (on the lake and about size 28 ... if you know fly fishing). That day, there were more scattered clouds and some haziness. My brother researched weather predictions and the chance of rain increased during the week. I took a break from fishing, got out of my belly boat, and spent some time at our old campsite on the opposite side of the lake from the entrance. While I was there, I met a man and his son. They were walking around the lake looking for a campsite that was big enough for their group of five people. I asked them if they had been to the lake before. They said that they had not. I informed them about the best spot, that was the next best one following the one that we took. They thanked me for the information and that's where they camped that night. Soon after getting back on the lake, an eagle flew over the lake. I was still on the far side of the lake from the entrance and saw it first. I yelled out to our friend, who was closest to me, "Hey, there's an eagle flying your way!" He and my brother spotted it and we all watched it fly to the other side of the lake and perch in a tree. Obviously, it was looking to catch a fish. After sitting there for about one minute, it flew away and left the lake. Awesome! We used the same strategy for meals that we had done during the past few trips. I ate instant cereals, granola bars, trail mix, and jerky. My brother and our friend ate meals in freeze dried packages. Later, I'll list some of the particular items that they ate. At 7:50, we all went to bed. Once again, our friend slept in my one-man tent and my brother and I slept in my brother's 3-man tent. Airplanes: 78 (We expected less than this many flights because they were supposed to be grounded due to the Covid-19 situation.) Temp -> High: 70, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: Mostly good that day People: 9 -- four day hikers and a family of five that was mentioned above Fish Caught -- 2 My brother: 1 Our Friend: 0 Me: 1
Wednesday, July 22nd -- I woke up at 7:15, got up at 7:45, and we ate breakfast at 8:00. It was a mostly uneventful day. Which is wonderful because it meant that all we did was fish. When I was paddling around the lake, I noticed that there was a lot of snow on the "snow field". I also noticed that, per usual, there were fewer mosquitoes before it rained and more after it rained. (Actually, it didn't rain that morning, but it would soon thereafter.) We saw two crows, which is unusual at that elevation, and we heard some "camp robbers" -- a bird that is similar to a crow. After lunch, our friend napped again. From 4pm to 5pm, there was a light, steady rain and the temperature dropped significantly. (We had gotten out of the lake when we saw some clouds coming ... from nearly all directions. (Talk about wind shears! So it rained after all.) Do you remember me pointing out the meals that my brother and our friend ate. Here are some of them -- (1) Burritos, (2) Lasagna, (3) Fusilli (whatever that is), (4) Chicken and dumplings, (5) Chili macaroni with beef, (6) "Kind" -- a type of snack bar, (7) Antelope jerky -- from an animal that our friend bagged, (8) Trail mix, and (9) Cookies. Lasagna during camping? Ha! Ha! That day, I got into "the lake mode". Simply put, I transitioned to an improved level of calmness, observed things that I would not typically notice such as the beautiful mountain scenery, listened to the various noises of nature, etc. Going to "the lake" is truly therapeutic. Wow, I love this place! I named the day "Picture Day". I spent the first part of the day walking around the lake, taking pictures, and fishing. It was fun, but it was sad. The sad part was due to the additional number of trees that had died since the previous year. Apparently, the insects that had been killing the Lodgepole pine trees were now killing the furs. You can see for yourself if you look at photographs on the 'Pictures' page related to this trip. And it should be more noticeable if you compare similar photos from the previous three years' comparable photos. I visited the old campsite again, this time taking pictures of it. It's still struggling to recuperate from decades of use. (Including use by my dad, my brother, and me.) But it's improving. Maybe I'll help it along next year by taking a small shovel, turning over some of the hard packed dirt, and planting some grass seed. What do you think? "You've got too much time on your hands." Isn't it great to have that? Potential entertainment value -- Have you seen the movie 'Yesterday' from 2018 that was based upon The Beatles' music? I did and it inspired me to learn more about them. Also, it made me think about how many songs that they created. This was unfortunate for my brother and my friend because several times during this trip, I would say "I remember another song that they wrote." I appreciate that they didn't get upset with me for doing it again and again and again. If you've never seen the movie, and you are at least slightly interested in their music, I believe that you will enjoy watching it. (No, I'm not selflessly and shamelessly promoting it and getting royalties from it.) The clouds were thin that day. Maybe we weren't going to have significant rain this week after all. That day, I did spin casting in the morning and fly fishing in the afternoon. And I didn't catch any fish that day. I hooked one on a large black-and-white daredevil while fishing from my belly boat, but I didn't land it. However, I saw it when it was about ten feet from the boat and two feet below the water's surface. It was fairly big -- at least 17 inches long. When I walked around the lake, I noticed three very small campsites. At least, I think that they were campsites. The reason is because they both had "STOVES ONLY" signs in front of them. Both our campsite and the second best campsite have the same signs. That means that there are five campsites at the lake. Also, my brother noticed what appeared to be another campsite about 50 yards before entering the lake area. If it is indeed a campsite, then there are six of them. At 7:15, my brother hit the bed. At 7:45, our friend and I followed him. Into our own beds. I woke up that night (again) to urinate. Wow, the sky was beautifully dark! Again. I slept better for two reasons. One was that I wore clothes again. Two was that, as always when camping out and sleeping in a sleeping, I get accustomed to the different sleeping style. When my brother and his girlfriend went on their trip to the lake during the previous week, they couldn't start the stove on the third day out of 5-day trip. As a result, they couldn't cook anything and ended up leaving the lake one day early. (No way!) Well, if they had packed enough snack-type foods with them such as granola bars or trail mix, then they could have stayed at the lake another day. So, the stove needs to be tested prior to trips. Note: Prior to the trip with my brother, our friend, and I, my brother and I fixed the stove. We discovered that a filter needed to be replaced. It is the tiniest thing that you ever saw, about 1/16th on an inch in diameter. If it doesn't work in the future and the filter is the reason, then we might simply discard the filter and take our chances. Airplanes: 43 (Note: Rain interfered with noticing other planes.) Temp -> High: 70, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: Very bad that day People: 0 Fish Caught -- 4 My brother: 2 Our Friend: 2 Me: 0
Thursday, July 23rd -- Guess what we did? I woke up at 7:50, I got up at 8:15, and we ate breakfast at 8:35. One thing that I noticed is that the atmosphere didn't seem to be as dry. Usually, I had to use eye drops and lip balm. I don't know what was the reason, but I enjoyed it. That morning was warmer than the previous few mornings. I don't remember if there were clouds. If so, that would explain it since clouds help to keep warm air from "escaping". It was a good thing that I brought my extra battery for my smart phone. (Note: I had a Samsung Galaxy 5 phone. It wasn't the latest and greatest, but it was the last version of the phone where the battery could be easily replaced.) The first battery ran out of power, so I replaced it with the extra battery. And it had enough power to last until we returned to Casper the next afternoon. My brother measured the lake's water temperature. He said that it was 60 degrees. I asked him "Isn't 60 degrees much warmer than expected?" and he replied that it was the temperature at the surface. "Oh." He said that he wanted to measure the temperature at the bottom of the lake. I said that I would make something with some of my spin casting line and weights so that he could do it. And that event that will be covered later in this story. And it will be worth reading because it's a funny one. Perhaps it was "The Event of the Trip". We got more water. This time, we filled up the jug half way. My brother believed that it would be enough to last us for the rest of the trip -- 2 days including hiking back down the hill. Also, it's quite a bit of exercise using the filtration system because it requires a person to manually compress and release its lever to pump water through it and into a container -- in this case, our 5-gallon jug. By the way, I remember suggesting to my brother and our friend that we should use the 5-gallon jug that I had brought with me for a previous trip. And one or both of them said that it was too big. Hmmm. This was the first day that our friend didn't take a nap. My brother convinced him that our friend should fish as much as possible since it was our last day. Plus, we hadn't been catching very many fish. They dubbed it "Marathon Fishing Day". That day, I only did spin casting. As bad as the fly fishing was, I decided to fish below the surface. Unfortunately, it didn't make any difference. While fishing, I pointed out to my brother and our friend that I could hear either eagles or hawks in the trees that were "singing". We never determined what they were, but it was nice. Regarding the storm that arrived that night, it was cloudy all day long starting around 10:30 that morning. So, we suspected that we weren't going to stay dry ... as the weather forecasters predicted. So, here's the story about my brother measuring the temperature of the water at the bottom of the lake. I gave him the rig that I promised for him to do it. He went out on the lake in his belly boat. At one point while fishing, he stopped and dropped the line with the thermometer into the lake. While it was going down, a cutthroat trout hit the thermometer and broke the line. So -- (1) My brother didn't get the temperature of the water at the bottom of the lake, and (2) He lost his thermometer. Maybe worse than those two issues is the fact that the fishing had been so bad but my brother got a fish to hit a thermometer. Can I call that "a slap in the face"? You'll understand why later when you read about the total number of fish that we caught during the trip. That night, I asked my brother and our friend how many thermometers we should bring with us during the next trip in order to catch fish. Between about 6:45 and 7:45 that night, it rained. And it rained hard enough that it was the first time during the trip that we had to escape the rain by going into the tents. Also, it was somewhat concerning. The reason was because we were leaving the lake the next morning and we didn't want to have to hike in the rain. At least, in a hard rain. Fortunately, we got most of our things dried out -- especially the belly boats and waders -- and packed prior to the beginning of the rain. And since I went to bed so early, it was the only night that I needed to play solitaire in order to go to sleep. Airplanes: 51 Temp -> High: 65, Low: 50 Hydration Quality: It went from bad to good to bad. And worse. People: 0 Fish Caught -- 6 My brother: 1 Our Friend: 5 Me: 0
Friday, July 24th -- I hadn't planned on it, but I woke up at 5:15. I'm noticing a trend here. Whenever I'm going to travel, I wake up (too) early. Since it was so early, I didn't need to get up. (It's cold out there!) At 7:00, I got up, we ate breakfast at 8:20, and we finished packing. We took our now-typical "group photo" and we left the lake at 8:48. At 9:39, we reached "the junction" (1.2 miles, 59 minutes, 1.2 miles per hour). At 10:44, we reached the reservoir (2.6 miles, 65 minutes). And then I went for it. It had been a long time since I had hiked several miles without stopping. I ended up hiking the remaining 4.3 miles (Is that several miles?) to the car. I arrived at 12:07 (83 minutes, 55 miles per hour). I wonder how many of you will read this story thorough enough to catch this "estimate". (And hopefully laugh. So what was my speed?) At 12:07, my brother and our friend reached the original trailhead. At 12:40, my brother and our friend reached the car. I lapped 'em! Thanks to our friend for logging the times during our hike. When we were hiking separately back to the car, I crossed several groups and couples during our hike back down the hill. That makes sense since it was a Friday morning. But I wonder if they were aware of the 60% prediction for rain that day. And the sky looked ominous. The couples and groups came in waves of 4, 10, 8, 2, 2, 1, including 4 dogs for a total of, well, you can calculate it. Oh, and there were 13 cars at the parking lot. Airplanes: 16 Temp -> (unknown) Hydration Quality: Bad People: (several) Epilogue --