Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Bank's Lake Trip 2007 - part one

Thursday evening our Fishin' Club held it's monthly meeting and as MrC is "The Prez" we had to attend. After the meeting we decided to leave for eastern Washington that night, so we loaded the few remaining things in the RV and headed out at 10pm.
The drive was fairly uneventful, MrC doing the driving and my task was keeping a sharp eye out for those stupid deer which like to jump out in front of moving vehicles.

We were somewhere between Twisp and Pateros when I yelled "WOW! look at that" I was so startled I could not say the words MOUNTAIN LION. Yes, a HUGE mountain lion jumped up over the guard rail, and in three bounds was across the road just feet in front of the RV's grill, up the bank, and out of sight on the other side of the road. You can imagine our absolute surprise and delight to witness such an event. How many times in your lives have you seen a mountain lion in the wild? and, so close

Remember click on the pictures to enlarge.


We had no sooner launched our boat, set up the RV in our camping site, than MrC was tying lures on the fishing lines, loading all the gear in the boat and we motored out on the calm water for our first fishing expedition.







The fishin' Club reserves all the campsites along the lake every year. It is the best location, and convenient to be able to tie the boats up right in front of our campsites, and of course we have the best view of the lake.






The launch facilities are superb as is the camp store. You can find any kind of fishing gear for this lake, and all the information you could possibly need right here. Dave, who works in the store is a wealth of fishing information and if you follow his advise you are sure to bring home many fish.






Two couples rented a "party barge" and were seen to have a fun time fishing the lake. Don't know how much partying was going on, we were too busy fishing in other parts of the lake to pay attention. *grin*





The utter peace and quiet in the inlets is so calming after the hectic everyday life back home. This particular day was very calm, the water mirrored the surrounding trees, vegetation, and the sky above. Birds of all kinds called and sang interrupted only by the
plop of our lures hitting the water.
Ahhh! life is good.







The gentle breeze which comes and goes, wafts the perfume from one of the trees, which has white fluffy blossoms, all around. A very pleasant light fragrance.
At first I thought it was the wild roses I was smelling, but in several of the other bays there were no roses, only the white blossoms which I have not been able to discover the name of as yet.








Caleb has visitors in the tree he had climbed. Sadie, the smaller dog, and Haley scrambled up the trunk to sit with Caleb.
I managed to grab my camera in time to catch the pooches before they got down. Such a cute picture of boy with dogs.











Of course what is a camping trip without a hot dog roast and toasted marshmallows for dessert.
MrC is an expert when it come to toasting marshmallows to just the right shade of brown and gooyeness, and inhaling them right off the end of the toasting stick (a well seasoned branch off one of our plum trees)











We enjoyed watching two families of geese swim by as we munched on our hot dogs.
The parent geese were very busy keeping the 15 or so goslings close by and out of harms way.








MrC with a huge bass on. Look at the bend in the rod, just how large is that fish anyway?












The bass was a good size so was the piece of branch the fish had managed to get the line tangled up with.
No wonder MrC had quite a time reeling him in.









At one point in time, MrC was having trouble with his fishing reel, so we pulled up to the rocky shoreline where I held onto a overhanging tree branch to stop us drifting, while MrC worked on the reel.
I am fascinated by nature and my eyes are forever searching out interesting things to see.
As I gripped the tree branch I took notice of the tree growing on this rocky outcrop. Look how the roots have grown down into the cracks, It makes you wonder how the tree survives with seemingly no nourishment, but obviously there is enough food for it to grow.

MrC has more on the outing HERE




That is all for today, come back tomorrow for part two.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fantastic place Keewee

helen

Anonymous said...

Sounds like such a great time.. and such lovely photos. I can't imagine seeing a true live mountain lion. How exciting. Good thing you were safe.