RasJane and her three children (our grandchildren) came to visit because our friends, Mason and Ria Van de Laarshott, are visiting from The Netherlands. Her husband drove over from Newberg the next day. That dirty word "work" prevented him from leaving a day earlier and he had to be back by Monday. RasJane spent six weeks with the Mason and Ria and their two, now adult sons, the summer following her senior year in high school. I taught for one year with Mason when he taught at Fruitland High School on the Fullbright Teacher Exchange. His wife Ria is a really fun gal and they both fit in so well with our family. They have been to visit us three times since their year in Fruitland, but we have yet to go to visit them. Something about the weak dollar and I assume that The Netherlands compensates their teachers a whole lot better than Idaho compensates their teachers. Since Idaho ranks something like 47th in the nation in teacher compensation, my assumption is probably correct. We had a wonderful Friday night dinner of roasted chicken in the Dutch Ovens. Our friends from The Netherlands had never heard of these Dutch Ovens. We thought that was hilarious that the Dutch don't know of our much beloved Dutch Ovens. How could the West have been won without Dutch Ovens? Both our children's families were here at one time and with the Van de Laarshott's, we had a super visit and good time. Gabriel and Lauren play very well together, but sometimes they thought the ten month old Elija was a pest. See picture at top of blog for an earlier picture of Lauren and Gabriel playing on Memorial Day Weekend. Mason, who takes professional quality pictures, must have taken a hundred pictures of our family gathering last week. I am hoping that he will send us some of his pictures.
RasJane and boys have spent some extra days with us. We have lazed about the pool and enjoyed playing with the boys.
I took M to the mountains yesterday. We drove to McCall and then out Lick Creek Road for about 45 minutes to the Hum Lake/Duck Lake Trail Head. Duck Lake (http://picturesofcascade.com/picturesoflakes.php/?idnum=29&mode=1) is about a one and one-half mile hike over a gently climbing trail. Very gentle. Brook Trout live in the lake and it is planted with cutthroat, but we only caught brook trout. The lake is popular with out-of-state people who want to experience a hike into a mountain lake and do some fishing. It is also popular with families who have young children. While M and I were fishing, we counted 18 people. That is a lot for a mountain lake. Reminds me of the Uinta Mountains in Utah. (http://www.utahwild.com/mountains/uintas/) M caught six brookies. We actually landed one and while trying to get the camera out, the fish flipped and flopped and broke the 8 tippet leader. Got the fly. Fortunately, I had tied two others exactly the same--size 18 hook. We had to use such a fine leader because the fish get so much fishing pressure that they are super wary. The other fish M got to shore or close to, but lost them because he does not quite have enough experience to continuously keep the slack out of the line and I only tie flies with barbless hooks. Using barbless hooks makes it difficutl for a beginner to land fish, but barbless hooks can be freed from a beginner fisherman's fingers easily and since I don't keep any mountain lake fish unless I eat them shoreside, barbless is the only way to go.
The brook trout are a beautiful fish in a few Idaho mountain lakes around McCall. They are rarely found larger than 8 inches and often have large heads indicating that they are stunted-- too many fish and not enough feed. Idaho F and G is experimenting with a means of ridding some of the lakes of the Eastern Brook Trout (not native to Idaho) by introducing 1250 6-9" Tiger-Muskies to 8 mountain lakes. My guess is that the theory being the Tiger-Muskies will eat all of the Eastern Brook Trout in the lake, then die out for a lack of feed. These fish cannot reproduce. I hope they don't end up down stream. I know that in Upper Hazard Lake it is possible for them to go down stream which could ultimately place them in the Salmon River drainage possibly reeking havoc among the young salmon and steehead smolts. I hope that does not happen.
Papa Coyote needs to go and take M on a trip to Indian Valley and the scene of our last elk kill. I need to look for rib spreaders that we lost in a foot of snow while cleaning the elk and Gramma and Momma need a break from us bad guys.
Yeeeeeeeeoooooooooowww
2 comments:
Looks like a fun outing indeed. Unfortunately my two grandchildren live in Colorado 800 miles from here so we don't have lots of opportunties for hikes. Incidently Killebrew was and still remains one of the truly class acts. One of my favorites.
troutbirder
Our three grandsons live 400 miles away which is much better than 800 miles away, but still, 400 miles is a long way to travel, so we feel fortunate every time we get to visit with our daughter's family. The blog that my daughter writes and my blog really helps to keep in touch. Now my son who is the computer guru with Hewlett-Packard does not keep a blog. So what is with that? Reminds me of the story of the shoe repairman's kids' shoes. His wife is pretty good about communicating, though, and we can see them more often since they are just 75 miles away.
Enjoyed your post about Mammoth Hot Springs. I feel so fortunate to live in Idaho and have the beautiful mountains so close by.
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