River Day 03/28/2011

Even though half of the regulars for River Day couldn't make it this week, the holiday was still celebrated. Ted and I enjoyed a laid back evening this time around.

The weather turned nice in the afternoon and we had clear blue skies. The temp was in the mid 40's before the sun started setting, but dropped quickly after that. We had a nice fire going, but nothing too extreme this week.

I was encouraged by Jay catching his first fish of the season last week and was confident that they would be biting. I had a line in the water for at least three hours and never had the first bite! Oh well, it's always a waiting game this time of year; one week nothing, and the next you catch something on nearly every cast.

Everything is really starting get green along the river and it looks like the yard at the camp could already stand a mowing. Won't be long now.

Sorry, no pictures this week. I took a camera with me but never took it out of the case.

River Day 03/21/2011

Ok, I know, this is a late post. One week late to be exact. The bright side is, it's just in time for this week's River Day Celebration!

Tim, Jay, and I made it down this week and we all spent a good part of the evening fishing. No one caught anything but we were optimistic. The bait store at the top of the hill had helgrammites and Jay picked up a dozen and brought them down. (As a side note, Jay went back down to the river a couple of days later and caught the first fish of the season.)

There is still a good bit of debris laying around from the earlier flooding, so we had plenty of stuff to burn. Several of the trees along the river were already budding and the grass is starting to "green up".

Although the focus was on fishing instead of the fire this week, we still had the best one on the river!

River Day 03/14/2011

Mother Nature caused us to postpone last week's River Day celebration by way of flooding on the river. After almost a year to the day, the river again left its banks and flooded the camp where we normally get together for National River Day. As you can tell from the photos, there was some damage left behind, as well as a lot of debris, but the aftermath wasn't nearly as devastating as last years flood. The newly restored building still stands!

We got into a couple of "projects" this week, so there are a few pictures and videos this week. Those that made it down were Ted, Tim, Jay and I.

Tim brought down a simple balsa wood glider and a few rocket engines. I'm sure this was one of his finest "what if we..." moments. After a few alterations to the plane, we attached a rocket engine to it and then used Jay's launch pad to try to get the plane airborne. It really was a great theory (on paper, but not in practice). The plane survived the first launch, but not so much the second. After the glider disintegrated on the 2nd attempt, we used Tim's last engine taped to a bamboo stick like a huge bottle-rocket. Now that was a flight!

The next project was burning Tim's discarded Christmas tree from 2010 (notice how all these ideas this week were Tim's?). Well, maybe more of an adventure than a project. I'm pretty sure after this that I'll never have a live tree in my house again. I don't know if the picture or videos do this carnage justice or not, but the flames off this tree had to hit 30 feet in about 30 seconds.

If we didn't have the best fire on the river, we definitely had the highest.

Temps were nice this week, low 40's, with a little rain for most of the evening. I tried fishing for a while with no luck, but I don't think it will be long now.

Sorry for taking so long to get this posted.

River Day 02/28/2011

We had another night of mild temperatures this week, but the weather wasn't nice by any means. It stayed in the mid 50's, still unusual for the end of February, but we had heavy rain and fog for most of the evening. It rained hard enough to keep us (just Tim and I this week) in the building for all but the last 45 minutes or so.

Sitting in a tin building, with a tin roof, with constant rain, sounded a lot like being on a firing range. You don't realize how loud you're talking until you get back outside. I'm pretty sure I'll hear that noise in my sleep tonight.

Not too much going on this evening, just a nice, peaceful break. Because of all the rain today, the river level was slowly coming up, but it only rose 4 inches or so while we were there. Hopefully, there won't be a repeat of the flooding that occurred close to this time last year.

Oh, by the way, if we'd actually had a fire tonight, I'm confident it would have been the best one on the river.

River Day 02/21/2011

After a two week hiatus, Jay and I were able to go down to the river this week; everyone else was either working or otherwise MIA.

You'd never guess we were still in the middle of winter with the weather we've had over the last few days, and Monday was no exception. We had a couple of instances of light rain, but the temperature stayed around 60 the whole evening. It was kind of nice getting to wear light weight jackets again and not have to bundle up like Eskimos. All of us have enjoyed the winter weather at the river this year(I think), but when it starts warming up like this, then you're in spring-mode and ready for the cold and snow to be gone.

We both took advantage of the break and tried fishing on an off for most of the evening. The water level was down a bit for this time of year, and unlike the air, hasn't warmed up much yet. We gave it a good try, but still came up empty handed. I'm sure another three weeks or so will change that, and trying's always fun.

Not too much activity around the camp this week. We saw a couple of the local guys, but everyone and everything was quiet. We even kept the fire down to a respectable level this week, but as I'm sure you've guessed by now, it was still the best one on the river!

River Day 02/07/11

We might still be in the middle of winter, but we had nice, mild weather at the river this week. Temps were in the low 40's and the rain that was forecast held off until the end of the night. Jay, Ted and I (Mark) were able to make it down.

Jay tried fishing for a while (twice), but we're still a few weeks early. Oh well, you can't catch anything if you don't cast.

I forgot to mention it last week (or take a photo) but we've added to the furniture around the fire; kind of a rustic easy chair. Who knows how long it will last, but for now it's pretty comfy.

We had a quiet evening; nothing much going on around the camp. Even though it was warm, we still had a great fire going; probably the best one on the river. So we're giving a special thanks to this week's sponsor: the Ohio State Pallet company (see the label in the photo).

River Day 01/31/2011

With the warmer temps and longer days, it won't be too long until spring. And that means fishing "season" is also right around the corner. Jay and I decided to get head-start and both bought our licenses earlier today. I think the goal was to get our money's worth by being legal for every month. Whatever the reason, I (Mark) tried to fish a little. I didn't spend much time at it, and didn't get any bites, but at least I can say I fished in January.

We were a little surprised that the river wasn't any higher than it was this week. All of the snow that we've had over the last several weeks has all but melted away, and the ground is saturated. If you check the pictures on this blog from this time last year, we were preparing for a flood. The level now is actually a little lower than "normal" for this time.

As always it was a great night at the river; Ted and Tim were also down this week.

And I'm pretty sure we had the best fire on the river.