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Goose Lake State Park, Lakeview, OR – Wednesday May 20, 2015

The weather is cool in the mid 60’s with a snow level about 1500 feet above where we are camped.

This is site 41.

Did an on line chat with DISH TV this afternoon and they changed our location so I can watch the season end of Survivor.  We can not get ABC, NBC or CBS because DISH and the three networks will not let us see the network stations over satellite unless you are at our home address (FCC makes the networks provide DISH with the feed).   One of the challenges is I have to have a specific address to get the feed and most state parks do not make there street address available.  I got on Zillow and found a house just down the road which is for sale and used their address.
We had some rain today and may have more tomorrow.
Interesting things about Goose Lake, 10 miles wide, 29 miles long, average depth 8 feet, deepest point 24 feet.

 

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:

 

Home: Thursday – April 30, 2015 – Lake Wilderness

This morning was another day of fishing.  Today I did have the use of my electric motor so I didn’t get near as much exercise.
But I did cover a lot of the lake.  I caught the first four in about 45 minutes (got to the lake around 8:00 a.m., I don’t wear a watch since I retired so I don’t always know what time it is) and then didn’t land the last one until after 11:00 a.m.

I caught the largest one last.  The largest one weighed 3/4 of a pound and all five weighed 2.5 pounds.  I hope to smoke these and Friday’s catch this weekend.

InReach tracking says I traveled 2.73 miles today on the lake and 2.89 miles yesterday.

Home: Wednesday – April 29, 2015 – Retirement Goal Achieved

One of my retirement goals was to start doing some lowland lakes trout fishing.  Today was my first day out on Lake Wilderness.  I got to the lake a little after 7:00 a.m. and had my five trout by 11:15 a.m.
They range from 8 to 12 inches.
This is an aerial view of the lake’s location.

Here is a road map view of the lake’s location.

In 1976 Dad and I built two boats for fishing and sailing.  My boat has been in the garage since probably 1979 or so.  We moved to Enumclaw in 1977 and Tanya was born in 1979, I don’t think I have used this boat since Tanya was born.
My boat is the yellow one sitting in the lake.
Here are a couple of pictures of truck I recently purchased and by fishing/sail boat.  It has actually taken a while to get the boat cleaned and to rebuild the trailer.  It needed new tires, lights and hitch coupler.
It was a good day and I’ll be out again tomorrow morning.  Tanya is giving me her BBQ now that she is moving to Poulsbo and I think I have figured out how to use it to smoke trout.

 

Fort Flagler – Thursday April 16, 2015

It is a beautiful day at Fort Flagler

Sunny and warm for April, we will be here at least through the weekend and maybe for a week or so.  We have site 115 which is a front row seat to the northern opening of Puget Sound.

By the way it is first day back to work for the lovely Mrs. Tanya Garcia our son-in-law Mike Garcia doesn’t return to work until Monday.  They are both wonderful people.