Hope Valley Camping

We left the house on Thursday in the late afternoon (like 7:00 or so). Got to the campground just as it turned dark. First time setting up the trailer with a flashlight in my mouth. Oh, I have a light that fits on my ball cap, but it's been so long since I used it, the battery was dead thus the old "flashlight in the mouth trick".

We were expecting Katherine's daughter and her boyfriend on Friday night so we headed up to Lower Blue Lake (Upper Blue and all access is closed for the year due to dam repair) for the day to do a little yakking.

Being a novice with a hard kayak, I was a little concerned about the wind blowing as it tends to whip across the lake in the afternoon, BUT not to worry.

We launched about Noon and were able to paddle around the lake with no problems.   

As I usually do, I sat in the middle of the lake and did a 360 taking pictures as I turned.

Still a little snow left 

If you double click on the picture above, the pile of snow on the left looks like a seal.

That's the dam 

So we called it a Friday and went back to camp to wait for Katherine's daughter. She got there just before dark and within about 15 minutes had her tent up and was ready for dinner. Her boyfriend didn't come with her. He had a close friend that was in the hospital that wasn't expected to live so he stayed in town. 

So Saturday morning we headed back up to the lake and the girls set out in the kayaks. 

Girls in yaks

Me, I walked over to the dam and sat in a lawn chair and tried to fish. Tried is the optimum word here. If you've fished off a dam, you know that the loss of tackle is a given. Well I lost tackle. Seems like I spent most of the time putting on new sinkers, hooks, and bait. Since I had the rods out of the water more than in the water, I obviously didn't catch anything.

Katherine's daughter took off Saturday night and we pulled out Sunday morning.

Fun kayaking. Fishing, not so much.