After going through the spring uncertain if I would be able to have an active summer due to a pretty bad knee/femur injury; I've been feeling pretty good. I had done some decent workouts, and was feeling reasonably confident I'd be able to take the 10 year old daughter up to my favorite backcountry lake.
It's roughly 6 miles in with an elevation gain of 2000 feet, so it's not a crushing hike, but strenuous enough to make it interesting for an old banged up chunk of coal and a little girl. As has been the case every single weekend in June, the forecast was some rain on Friday with weather starting to clear up starting Saturday. I decided "to hell with the rain, we're going for it!"
The hike in was okay. My knee was pretty pissed off but I was making it. We cleared the steepest section of the trail and we were both pretty tired an miserable. That's when the sleet started. We walked through sleet and wind for about the last mile, made camp, made dinner, and then pretty much got in the tent for a pretty cold night.
We got up in the morning and it was cold. Cold and windy. We bundled up and went outside to sample the fishing, which was absolutely fantastic for really nice fat brook trout.
My daughter is a fishing fiend, and she spent a lot of time with a spin rod and a panther martin, absolutely crushing it. I was doing well with a 3 wt with the OPST commando sinking line and a bright orange bugger. At one point she lost a spinner, so I went back to camp to get another one. She starting hooting and hollering and I looked up and she had grabbed my 3 WT and proceeded to get the best fish of the trip on the first cast. As you can guess, I was a very proud father. It was a perfect birthday present.
She went in the tent when it started snowing sideways. I stayed out and fished until I couldn't feel my fingers. The cold lasted pretty much all day. We had some firneds show up on Saturday, and had a nice time, but the cold has us in our tents at dark.
The weather finally started to cooperate Sunday. We spent all day fishing, very successfully, in intermittent wind and clouds, but mostly it was a much nicer day than previous days. We hiked out Sunday night and headed home.
According to the daughter she caught 25 brook trout. I don't know many I managed, but it was quite a few. This was the best backcountry fishing experience of my life, and I just love seeing my daughter have so much fun fishing and in nature.
It's roughly 6 miles in with an elevation gain of 2000 feet, so it's not a crushing hike, but strenuous enough to make it interesting for an old banged up chunk of coal and a little girl. As has been the case every single weekend in June, the forecast was some rain on Friday with weather starting to clear up starting Saturday. I decided "to hell with the rain, we're going for it!"
The hike in was okay. My knee was pretty pissed off but I was making it. We cleared the steepest section of the trail and we were both pretty tired an miserable. That's when the sleet started. We walked through sleet and wind for about the last mile, made camp, made dinner, and then pretty much got in the tent for a pretty cold night.
We got up in the morning and it was cold. Cold and windy. We bundled up and went outside to sample the fishing, which was absolutely fantastic for really nice fat brook trout.
My daughter is a fishing fiend, and she spent a lot of time with a spin rod and a panther martin, absolutely crushing it. I was doing well with a 3 wt with the OPST commando sinking line and a bright orange bugger. At one point she lost a spinner, so I went back to camp to get another one. She starting hooting and hollering and I looked up and she had grabbed my 3 WT and proceeded to get the best fish of the trip on the first cast. As you can guess, I was a very proud father. It was a perfect birthday present.
She went in the tent when it started snowing sideways. I stayed out and fished until I couldn't feel my fingers. The cold lasted pretty much all day. We had some firneds show up on Saturday, and had a nice time, but the cold has us in our tents at dark.
The weather finally started to cooperate Sunday. We spent all day fishing, very successfully, in intermittent wind and clouds, but mostly it was a much nicer day than previous days. We hiked out Sunday night and headed home.
According to the daughter she caught 25 brook trout. I don't know many I managed, but it was quite a few. This was the best backcountry fishing experience of my life, and I just love seeing my daughter have so much fun fishing and in nature.
