Thursday, July 14th -- My friend and I left his house at 3:45am. We arrived at the backpacking trailhead at 6:45. We started hiking at 7 o'clock and arrived at the lake at 10:45. During the day, my friend caught 8 fish and I caught 5. We used red-and-white daredevils, white hair's ears, rainbow trout streamers, Chernobyl ants, red ants, and black ants. (All were imitation flies except the daredevils. No living flies were hurt while fishing.) Also, I counted 39 airplanes flying over the lake. (It's so peaceful there!) During that afternoon, there were a couple of storms. The first one started at about 2:50 and lasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes. The second one started at about 5:10, lasted for over 2 hours, and included hail. (Refer to the picture on the other page that shows the hail.) Friday, July 15th -- My friend and I woke up at 7:30. It was a good day for fishing. My friend caught 20 and I caught 16. (We believe that it was due to storms passing by the lake all day long.) 54 airplanes passed overhead that day. My cousin surprised us by arriving at the lake at 9:50 that night. (He had to work that day but couldn't wait to get up there and so he left right after finishing work. Along the trail, there are two places where it crosses the stream. Because it was dark while he was hiking, he couldn't find the logs for the second crossing and waded through the stream. (When my friend and I hiked back down the hill on Monday, we discovered that Thursday night's storm had washed out the logs!) Other than us, three other people camped out at the lake that night. Saturday, July 16th -- While we were float tube/belly boat fishing in the morning, I saw a bald eagle flying overhead. I pointed it out to my friend and my cousin. I recognized the eagle sound from a previous year and we continued to hear them for the rest of the trip. I believe that we also heard baby eagles crying for food from their parents. During the day, approximately 14 people showed up during day trips to the lake. How disappointing! As you can imagine, I hoped that "my lake" would not be discovered, at least by TOO many people. It looks like my secret place's charm and location are being passed around. ;( A 30-minute storm passed through the valley at about 8:00pm. A man and his son stayed overnight at a campsite across the lake. That day, my friend caught 19 fish, I caught 8, and I don't know how many my cousin caught. I believe that 33 airplanes passed overhead that day, but I lost count. After sunset and the sky was nearly black, a cloud slowly passed by the North Star. It had the shape of an old man's face -- Squarish head, spots for the eyes and the nose, a crooked smile, hair, and a small beard. I pointed it out to my friend and my cousin, saying "Hi Dad!". Sunday, July 17th -- The wind started blowing before the sun rose and continued blowing until the late afternoon. It was too bad because my cousin left at about 3:30pm and it was his last chance to fish. In the early afternoon following a brief nap, my cousin opened the zipper of his tent to get out and heard a large animal run away. He guessed that it was either a deer or an elk. (Could it have been something larger and more dangerous?) By the end of the day, my friend caught 12 fish and I caught 7 (because of the poor weather conditions for fishing). There were approximately 33 airplanes that passed by. We had a VERY strange experience after my cousin left. Twice in about 10 minutes, we saw sprinkles striking the lake's surface. However, there were no clouds overhead that were large enough to create rain! It reminded me of the time approximately 20 years before when my father, brother, and I were fishing on the lake during the middle of July, a relatively small cloud (not big enough to fill half of the sky) passed overhead, it snowed, and the flakes evaporated about 50 feet above the water. Has anyone ever seen anything like that? Monday, July 18th -- For our last day, we decided to get up early and fish before the sunrise. My friend got up at about 5:40am and I was up soon thereafter. He got on the water in his belly boat and I fished from the shore. Unfortunately, the fish were not biting and neither of us caught any fish in those two hours. So, we returned to camp, packed everything up, and ate breakfast. Afterwards, we went fishing for the last time. Soon after that, my friend caught a fish. I kept fishing until he was done. I saw that he was ready to go, so I said "I'm going to try three more casts. First cast -- nothing. Second cast -- nothing. Third cast -- nothing, until the line got 20 feet away from me and then BANG!, a fish. Unbelievable! We both laughed and laughed about it, returned to camp, ate lunch, and hiked back down to his truck. Before leaving the lake, I said "Goodbye (lake name). I'll see you next year, Dad." of Page Return to Picture Page.
Friday, July 15th -- My friend and I woke up at 7:30. It was a good day for fishing. My friend caught 20 and I caught 16. (We believe that it was due to storms passing by the lake all day long.) 54 airplanes passed overhead that day. My cousin surprised us by arriving at the lake at 9:50 that night. (He had to work that day but couldn't wait to get up there and so he left right after finishing work. Along the trail, there are two places where it crosses the stream. Because it was dark while he was hiking, he couldn't find the logs for the second crossing and waded through the stream. (When my friend and I hiked back down the hill on Monday, we discovered that Thursday night's storm had washed out the logs!) Other than us, three other people camped out at the lake that night.
Saturday, July 16th -- While we were float tube/belly boat fishing in the morning, I saw a bald eagle flying overhead. I pointed it out to my friend and my cousin. I recognized the eagle sound from a previous year and we continued to hear them for the rest of the trip. I believe that we also heard baby eagles crying for food from their parents. During the day, approximately 14 people showed up during day trips to the lake. How disappointing! As you can imagine, I hoped that "my lake" would not be discovered, at least by TOO many people. It looks like my secret place's charm and location are being passed around. ;( A 30-minute storm passed through the valley at about 8:00pm. A man and his son stayed overnight at a campsite across the lake. That day, my friend caught 19 fish, I caught 8, and I don't know how many my cousin caught. I believe that 33 airplanes passed overhead that day, but I lost count. After sunset and the sky was nearly black, a cloud slowly passed by the North Star. It had the shape of an old man's face -- Squarish head, spots for the eyes and the nose, a crooked smile, hair, and a small beard. I pointed it out to my friend and my cousin, saying "Hi Dad!".
Sunday, July 17th -- The wind started blowing before the sun rose and continued blowing until the late afternoon. It was too bad because my cousin left at about 3:30pm and it was his last chance to fish. In the early afternoon following a brief nap, my cousin opened the zipper of his tent to get out and heard a large animal run away. He guessed that it was either a deer or an elk. (Could it have been something larger and more dangerous?) By the end of the day, my friend caught 12 fish and I caught 7 (because of the poor weather conditions for fishing). There were approximately 33 airplanes that passed by. We had a VERY strange experience after my cousin left. Twice in about 10 minutes, we saw sprinkles striking the lake's surface. However, there were no clouds overhead that were large enough to create rain! It reminded me of the time approximately 20 years before when my father, brother, and I were fishing on the lake during the middle of July, a relatively small cloud (not big enough to fill half of the sky) passed overhead, it snowed, and the flakes evaporated about 50 feet above the water. Has anyone ever seen anything like that?
Monday, July 18th -- For our last day, we decided to get up early and fish before the sunrise. My friend got up at about 5:40am and I was up soon thereafter. He got on the water in his belly boat and I fished from the shore. Unfortunately, the fish were not biting and neither of us caught any fish in those two hours. So, we returned to camp, packed everything up, and ate breakfast. Afterwards, we went fishing for the last time. Soon after that, my friend caught a fish. I kept fishing until he was done. I saw that he was ready to go, so I said "I'm going to try three more casts. First cast -- nothing. Second cast -- nothing. Third cast -- nothing, until the line got 20 feet away from me and then BANG!, a fish. Unbelievable! We both laughed and laughed about it, returned to camp, ate lunch, and hiked back down to his truck. Before leaving the lake, I said "Goodbye (lake name). I'll see you next year, Dad."