Month: May 2015

LaPine State Park, OR – Tuesday May 19. 2015

Tuesday we moved farther south, LaPine State Park just south of Bend.
Site 76

When I want to register I looked at the posted list of reserved sites. A Diana Sorens had reserved 14 sites for the night.   They started at site 77 which is just across the street from us.  There were two guys (in site 77) in a large hunter’s tent setting by an outside fire enjoying themselves.   What we found out was these two guys had come out the day before as the advance crew for three 5th grade classes from Amity public schools.  Two small school bus and one large bus drove up about 15 minutes after we had camp set up.  This was the first day of a 3 day outdoor camping adventure for these kids, all 75 of them.  Plus adults it reached 90 people.   Two of the teaches came over and filled us in on there trip.  They do this rather than going to paid camp like the 6th graders do from Enumclaw.

The other day I commented on the price for a campsite at Maryhill State Park $45.00 a night for water, sewer and electricity.   As a comparison our site at LaPine has water, sewer and electricity for $26.00 a night.  I will not comment on why difference in cost other than it is not the quality of site or location.

 

Maryhill State Park – Sunday May 17, 2015

Left home at 11:00 arrived at 3:50.
In site 41 to the tune of $45.00 a night.
We do have a site right on the Columbia River and it is 79 degrees.  
 This is from the edge of our site.

 And Hank is enjoying the sun.  The original plan was to move to Bend, Oregon tomorrow.  The weather forecast for here is 80 Monday and 77 Tuesday whereas Bend is going to be 60 – 64.  Think we are staying here.

We are on our way to OH Ridge Campground on June Lake in eastern California for the Memorial Weekend with Richard and Vicki.  We will than go someplace for a couple of weeks returning home before Father’s Day.

Here are Friday’s fish. 

Home: Friday May 8, 2015 – Retirement is Great

Retirement is Great, I have achieved another one of those Life’s triumphs.

This is the largest lowland lake trout I have ever caught.  It is 15+ inches and weighs just over a pound and a half.  The glass cutting board is 11 inches across.   It was fun to catch but I was sure worried it might get off before I could get it in the boat.

Great day of fishing, more trout for the smoker.

Ok, I’ve added more pictures.

 

Home: Sunday – May 3, 2015 Smoked Trout

Tanya is moving to Poulsbo so she gave me her BBQ.  My goal was to figure out how to use it to smoke the trout I have been catching.   I was not able to figure out how to get smoke and be able to cook the fish at a low temperature.   I solved by fish smoking challenge with a Masterbuilt Pro.
I spent Saturday putting it together and getting it seasoned.  In the evening I learned to fillet trout and put they in a brine I learned about at Bradley Smoker’s website.  After filleting 10 trout I started to figure out the process.  One of the key elements of filleting small trout is to sharpen the knife between each fish.
By the way here is Friday catch, looks a lot like Wednesday and Thursday.
Here is the smoker getting ready to smoke fish.
75 minutes we have smoked trout.
And yes it is good.
Here is lunch: