River Day 04/11/2011

Another great spring-time night at the river this week! Jay, Ted and I made it down to enjoy the warm weather and company.

Despite some pretty strong winds early on, the temperature was in the upper 70's. Jay broke out the shorts for the occasion. It's really just nice not having to bundle up like an Eskimo. The water level was pretty high this week from heavy rains over the weekend, but we were still able to fish some (Jay and I anyway). The water line was about half way up the yard at the camp, but it was receding while we were there. There's always good stuff to feed to the fire when that happens. The photo of Jay shows him holding one of the two fish that was caught; one by him, one by me, both suckers (the fish, not us). Oh well, they still count.

We haven't had dinner at the river for a while, so I decided to bring down some dogs. Since the grill hasn't made it down yet for the summer, we cooked them the old fashioned way - over the fire on the pitchfork! Hot dogs just don't get any better than that.

We might not have had the biggest fire on the river this week...but it was the best one to cook on.

Looks like a helgramite race, doesn't it?

River Day 04/04/2011

This is my second post in less than a month that is exactly one week late - the bright side is that it's just in time for this week's River Day! Sorry for the delayed post.

Ted, Jay, Tim and I made it down this week to enjoy the river. Despite the overcast, and later rain, we had nice, mild temperatures. Jackets weren't even needed this week (not that that prevented us from having the best fire on the river).

Jay, Tim and I fished for most of the evening, but Jay was the only one of us that had any luck. He caught a nice sized small mouth bass fairly early on. I was the first to leave this week, so as far as I know that was the only catch.

All in all the evening was nice and quiet; just a relaxing evening at the river. It's nice seeing everything starting to turn green. I think everyone is looking forward to the warmer days.

Celebrating Monday on Tuesday!! 3/29/11

So Jay and I (Tim) were unable to make it down to the river on Monday..... so obviously the next best thing was to celebrate the tradition on Tuesday when the opportunity presented itself....(Well what would you do??) Ted was also able to come down with us, so he got two Mondays in a row! A rare treat indeed.... The weather was similar to Monday, maybe a little nicer, but for this time of year in late March these snow flurries and colder temperatures have GOT to go!! Jay and I fished the entire time mainly staying at the usual spot, but also walked down the river a little way to try some different locations...... nope, we didn't catch a thing....didn't even get a bite. Oh well, it was just great to be out there trying. We could see where Ted had really cleaned up the area from the recent floods, so you can see by the picture he was getting some well deserved rest! We did have a visitor this evening, Mitch one of the Park Service Rangers stopped be to see what we were up to. Had some nice conversation with him, discussed fishing, fires and some of his challenges as a Park Ranger in the area. (you know, the usual Park Ranger jibber jabber). But anyway, it was a nice visit and the first time I had met Mitch. I've heard the other guys talk about him often but have never met him. And yes by the way.... Mitch did inform us that we DID have the best fire on the river! All in all it was a great night, very relaxing.......

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.