Author: harrylange

Cottonwood CG Navajo Dam, NM – Thursday September 12, 2019

Got this year’s fishing license and finally got out on the river at 2:00

The river flow is double the normal level for this time of year. That guy at the fly shop where I got my license said it is because of all the snow in Colorado last winter. That this water level should be good for fishing.

Got a fish on my first cast. I am using my new 3 weight 10 foot rod I bought for Euro nymphing. Then got a fish on my 3rd cast, ended the day with 25 to the net another 10+ fish on that got off. Truly an amazing day. 

Last winter Jean had seen a flying class advertised at Green River Community College which is two blocks from the big house.  One of the classes was scheduled on July 27 right after we returned from the spring fishing/birthday trip. It was a two part class one at the school and one a couple of days later on the Cedar River. During the river part of the class I actually caught a 10 inch trout.  Well that got me “hooked” and I bought an Orvis 10 foot 3 weight Recon rod. So far it has worked out really really well. 

My fish pictures are not the best in the world as a matter of fact many are really bad. When I take a fish picture my goal is to not have the fish out of the water for very long and remember I am holding a camera, flopping fish in a net and fly rod while standing in the river not wanting to drop any of the three.

Cottonwood CG Navajo Dam, NM – Wednesday September 11, 2019

On the road at 6:30

We had a stiff side wind for an hour then turned left and it turned into tail wind. The road surface was not level tipping the coach side to side most of the day, made for a long day of travel. 338 miles.

Stopped at Cummins in Farmington and got an appointment for 8:00 on Monday September 16 for their generator guy to look at the coach. The service manager said he would actually look at the generator at 8:00 to figure out what is wrong. It ran great at home after I changed the spark plugs but when we get up in the mountains it started acting up again. Runs on one cylinder and rich for 1 to 2 minutes before smoothing out and then runs good the rest of the time. 

Stopped at Walmart for grocery shopping and in Aztec for laundry. 

Got to Cottonwood Campground at 6:30, by the time I got the car unhooked, dumped and settled into site 5 it was 7:30. This is the same site we had last year.

Getting ready for 2 weeks of fishing.

Jacob Lake, AZ – Monday September 9, 2019

Nice sunny day so we went for a drive on some of the local mountain roads

This was the first time I used the Bluetooth function on my IPad and InReach. It works really well, I have the maps down loaded to my IPad and the InReach knows exactly where we are. I could follow where we were right on the IPad without internet.

Today was also Jack’s first day of preschool.

Wednesday we move to Cottonwood Campground at Navajo Dam and will be there until the 24th. Last year we did not have internet at the campground so may not up date this for a while.

Jacob Lake, AZ – Friday September 6, 2019

We drove the 45 miles out to the North Rim today.

This monitor was on the wall in the visitor’s center. I thought it gives a good example of the effect of altitude has on tempature. The distance across the Grand Canyon is 11 miles. The south rim is 3 miles from the river and the north rim is 7 miles from the river.

These are just a selection of the pictures I took during the day.

Jacob Lake, AZ – Thursday September 5, 2019

We are enjoying the cool weather here, notice this is heat map is at noon.

Got up to 75 a couple of times and then a short thunderstorm would cool things off. We are getting Phoenix network TV and they were really excited that it was going to be below 110 day.

On a sad note my first IPod finally died today. Since an iPod can/will only link to one computer this has been the one I use when traveling to listen to podcasts off my laptop.

Jacob Lake, AZ – Wednesday September 4, 2019

Today’s drive

We were up early, I wanted to get to Jacob Lake before it got hot and to get an open campsite. Arrived at 9:30 and got a large pull-though at the end of the Loop, site 12.

Have good open sky for satellite TV, sat radio and sun for solar panel. Also have great internet

There is an antenna here at the Hwy junction going into north Grand Canyon.

We are also at 8000 feet and the weather is perfect, 77 with a few thunder showers while it is over 100 at Lees Ferry, Zion and Monument Valley. We are going to stay here until the 11th when we have reservations for fishing at Cottonwood Campground at Navajo Dam, NM. It will be a 338 mile day to Cottonwood but the weather is much better here. I have been working on staying at 200-250 miles at day even when we traveling.

This map is the temperature map at 7:30 Wednesday evening, says we made the right call on where to stay.

Made the right call on the pickup battery. It was right at 12.5 volts Wednesday and Thursday morning ( writing this on Thursday 9/5). It is still had for me not to try and get the last usable mile out of every part.

Sand Hollow State Park, – St. George, Utah – Tuesday September 3, 2019

It is hot today 102 here and tomorrow 105 is the current forecast. The plan is to go to Lees Ferry / Marble Canyon for a couple of days than on to state park north of monument valley.

I think we may try to get into Jacob Lake FS Campground on the north side of the Grand Canyon. The elevation is 5000 plus. They always have some drop in sites and we will try for an open one.

Today’s drive 118 miles

In site 12, pull through on far side of the hill from the cell towers, did not get internet until sun was almost down.

We also got a new battery for the pickup. When we got here the battery voltage was 11.9. It is only 4 years old but I don’t want to take a chance. I put a voltage meter in the pickup so I would know if was having any voltage leaks. If the battery goes dead while it is in tow mode it has to go to a Ford dealership to reprogram the transmission. At 102 degrees in the shade I decided to go to Interstate Battery and have them put it in. When we got back to the Campground after running a bunch of errand the voltage was at 12.6 right where it belongs.

Cathedral Gorge State Park, NV – Wednesday August 28, 2019

Today’s drive 148 miles.

We are in site 3 for the holiday weekend. We have good cell/internet on this side of the park, last time we were here we stayed in site 13 and it was terrible. A sign on the water says we need to boil the water, they may have a contamination problem. Glad we travel with water, we still have 50 gallons and are good for a while.

We hav been here many times over the years. All the sites are non reservable so it is great for just stopping in mid week. We have set out several major storms. A couple of years ago I-15 was washed out south of St. George and all of I-15 traffic had to go by here for several days.

Weather forecast here

This is for Virgin River BLM Campground we were going to go too.

Bought two bags of potato chips at Costco in Bonney Lake and between this one and the one behind it they grew to the point where I had to open this one to get it out of the cabinet.