Friday evening I met Jared, his wife Jamie, and his dad Wayne up at the Albion Basin to go backpacking. I’d kind of gone nuts and got a new tent because I didn’t have a good one for backpacking. While I was at it, the boy scout motto, long dormant, flared up and I ended up with a decent first aid kit, new sleeping pad, headlamp and various other items I thought I might need.
We got up to the parking lot and headed out just after 6:00 p.m. for the pass between Sugarloaf and Devils Castle. We had a lot of fun along the way joking about the out-of-shape city dwellers attempting to scale mountains. Surprisingly, I was almost able to keep up, despite carrying all that unacustomed gear and on a swollen ankle that probably should have kept me from going. Around sunset we made the saddle and were rewarded with quite a view. Unfortunately this view included a line of lightning laced storm coming right towards us from the Timpanoges side. We debated the situation for a few minutes and decided that it was probably wiser to not camp on the peak in a lightning storm, a solution not often reached if you watch the local news often enough. So after a few blessed minutes of packlessness we hitched back up and started for lower ground. We made it back down in less than a third of the time it took us to make the ascent with the judicious use of flashlights.
By the time I got to the bottom my ankle had really had it. I didn’t notice till we turned around and started up the road at the campsites, but decided I’d probably not be able to make the same trip up the next morning, even with leaving most of my kit at the campsite. If there had been someplace to camp readily available, I’d have probably endured the weather just to give all my new toys a try and stuck it out, but I knew I couldn’t go farther, so I bailed and came back. I was sitting back in my chair by 10:30, so it was quite the adventure.
I did have my gps with me but I can’t seem to locate the cord that connects it to the computer, but when I find it or get the new one I’ll have to update this entry for statistical content. I also hope to get a little video, or some pictures from Jared to add too.

Well, I tried to get the kayak out again yesterday, but the weather didn’t cooperate so I just took the kayak for a ride. I had thought it was a great idea to head up to the Uintahs, but evidently so did about another hundred-thousand people. Just before we got to Washington Lake we saw the remains of a really bad car wreck with one car upside down and another that looked like it had been hit head on at high speed. I’ve looked at the news and havn’t seen any reports, but I can’t imagine everyone survived it.
When we got to Washington it was wall to wall people in the campgrounds, so we backtracked to Trial Lake and the shore was lined with people fishing. It had been really hot when we were loading up the truck but by the time we got to the lake it was pretty cold and windy. We hiked around across the dam and just down from the cabin where I always fish when I go to trial and just left the kayak in the truck. I was dressed for warm wet kayaking and not for rain, but it wasn’t too bad. We did get rained on a bit, but not bad enough that I wanted to get my jacket out of the truck.
We took chance along, but the lightning was really scaring him, so he kept trying to climb under Kirk every time there was any thunder.
Kirk caught the first fish on some powerbait, but it wasn’t quite big enough to keep so he let it go. I was having a good time laughing at the little fingerlings trying to take my hooks that were bigger than their mouthes every time my line came within a couple feet of the shore. I ended up hooking a couple tiny fish with flies. I landed a really pretty brook trout that had some really funky markings, and one rainbow that was… er not so pretty

A couple more pictires of the lake…

Well, I finally got out on the water with the kayak today. I still need to name her, but havn’t come up with anything good yet. We had decided to go to huntington reservoir to do a little fishing and get a taste of what I’m going to need to do to get better. I guess I need to work out some on shoulders because I’m pretty tight tonight after just a couple hours on the water. It was worth it, though, I shouldn’t have waited so long to get into this. I kept telling Kirk that it was so much better than sitting here in front of the computer. I struck out across to the opposite side and came back and decided that purist philosophy aside, the rudder is a valuable addition, without it I have quite a time getting turned around. I’d read that this kayak was a really stable one, and I only had a few bobbles at the start where I almost took on water, but I’ve found out that I can’t turn my head to look behind me without almost capsising.
This was the first fishing trip I’ve ever gone on where I forgot my fishing pole. I had everything out before kirk got up, and it took some finding, as I havn’t been fishing in over a year. I laid everything out on my bed and started getting the car loaded up. When I finally got the kayak and everything in, I hadn’t realized that I’d left the fishing pole leaning against my bed. Kirk caught one little fish and let it go, but I wasn’t too disappointed that I didn’t get to fish, I had enough fun just fooling around.
When I was getting the kayak loaded up I had put a tiedown around the kayak and was tightening up one of the tiedowns and it came loose and I got hit in the bridge of the nose with the metal clamp. I have a pretty good cut, and it is really sore, so I guess I’ll get a good scar out of it. I tried to take a picture of it, but man, I’m looking old, so I’m not posting it.
After a few hours out the clouds started looking really threatening and the thunder started to roll, so we headed back to the beach. While we were trying to decide if we should wait it out, or see if it looked like it was going to get serious, it suddenly got serious. It started to pour rain and we started getting everything packed up. While I was tieing down the Kayak the rain got really cold and turned to hail. We got drenched within a few minutes to where my shirt wouldn’t hold more water.
Kirk wants to try to go up to the Uintahs and maybe fish Washington Lake or Trial next saturday. I may try to go up to somewhere close during the week, but I’m not sure how easy it will be to get the kayak in and out of the car. I may have to build some sort of assistance device this week. I also need to come up with an anchor device, and probably create one for kirk’s pontoon boat too.