One of the things we really like about our
lifestyle is the number of great people you meet. Moving every week or so you
get the opportunity to meet people almost every week. Other times you get to
meet up again with people you met previously. Such is the case here at Pasha
Lake Cabins. The exception being is that we are stationary and the people are
coming to us. A stay at the resort is typically Saturday to Saturday so each
week a fresh batch of guests move in. I would say about ½ of the guests are
repeat customers while the other ½ are new so many times it is like seeing old
friends in addition to meeting new ones.
Speaking of old friends, we had our first
visitors from Wisconsin last week. My friend Doug and his son Brian stayed with
us while Barb was gone for a few days. Although I only got out fishing with
them once we absolutely slaughtered them! In our last post mentioned that I
could not wait to get out on Onaman Lake. I am happy to report that I got out
there twice last week on consecutive days. One day was with Doug and Brian
while the other trip was with some customers I had met up here last year Pat
and Duke. Between the two days I am guessing we boated 150+ walleyes with an
average size of 22”. The largest of the two days was 26”. We actually struggled
to catch our “keeper” fish under 18”.
Doug with a 23
We managed to get a few under 18"'s for eating
Duke with a 24
This guy popped out of the water for a close up
A pair of gull nesting on an island
One interesting thing happened when I was walking
the mile and a half trail back from the lake with Pat and Duke. I had seen some
fresh bear tracks on the walk back. How do I know they were fresh? They were
actually over the tracks that we had made on the way in so I knew they were
pretty fresh. I was in the lead and rounded a corner to see the bear about 50
yards in front of us on the trail. Pat and Duke stopped dead in their tracks
when they saw the bear. I kept walking to scare it off the trail and it just
stood up on its hind feet and stared at us. Eventually as I got closer it got
down on all fours and ran I don't know what really scared it off, me walking
towards it or Duke telling me to stop! It was actually quite humorous. We saw a
total of 7 bears that day on our drive to and from the lake including one
feeding on a road kill moose along the side of the road.
I also got out on Northwind Lake two times. Once
with Barb and once with a group I had met last year from southeast Wisconsin.
It was a little slow with the group I went out with but Barb and I had a stupid
good day. Although there are big walleyes in this lake it is known for its
numbers and the rare blue walleye I wrote about last year. However on this
outing we caught mostly big fish. Barb had the biggest with a 26, we had a 25,
a double of 24’s and numerous fish between 21 and 23. We decided that we were
not going to take pictures of anything under 24 and eventually moved to a
different area to try and find smaller fish to take home!
Daisy got to come too!
We doubled up on 24"'ers!
A 26"'er to top of the day
Barb’s trip to Minnesota was somewhat
productive. Her main goal in going down was to follow up on a lead she had on a
dog that we were interested in. For the past several months we have been
looking for a 3-5 year old female Golden Retriever and Barb had been talking to
a breeder in Minnesota about a 3 year old that she was willing to sell. So she
went down there to look at it and decided to buy it. Unfortunately after a day,
it became evident to Barb that this was not the dog for us and ended up
returning it. So…… our search continues…..
While she was down there she was able to visit
some friends and do some work. Also, the check engine light came on with a
message about the diesel exhaust fluid being low. The light stayed on even
after she filled it so she took it in to have it looked at. It ended up being a
couple of sensors to the tune of over $800 plus labor! Luckily, it was all
covered under our warranty and she was good to go. I am glad this happened
while she was in the states and not when we were pulling the rig down the
road..
Late May, early June bring a lot of changes to
the Ontario landscape the birch and poplar trees are budding, the grouse are
drumming and the mosquitos are humming. That’s right like an annual passage, mosquito-geddon
has arrived in Ontario. I am not talking a few annoying buggers that you can
swat away and ignore, I am talking hundreds on the mini vampires that swarm you
when you walk out the door. As a matter of fact I think they are conspiring
together to see how many it would take to actually lift you off the ground and
carry you away. Poor Daisy has learned some interesting new moves as she tries
to scratch some of her more sensitive areas that the mosquitoes seem to favor.
Two of my favorites are ones that I refer to as “the belly crawl” and the other
one I just call “the sit and spin”
Since these nasty little creatures seem to be
constantly on our minds this time of year I thought I would dedicate this blog
post to how we pest-proof our rig here in the north country in an attempt to
keep them out.Our first line of defense
for our rig is our screened house that attaches to our awning. Although it is
not totally bug-proof it significantly decrease the number that sneak in when we
open up the door. The next step in our exterior defense is to seal the slides.
I have yet to see a slide that is totally bug proof. There are a couple of small
spots on ours that you can actually see outside. To close these up we use blue
painters tape on the inside and out to plug up these entry points. I have even
taped a few of the slider windows as there is a little gap between the window
and the screen that they might be sneaking in from.
Screen house to keep the bugs out and LED lights along the ground to keep the mice out.
The corners where the rubber meets is where the gaps are
Next up are the fogger and mosquito coils.
Although we don’t use them daily, we will use them when things get out of
control in the screen house. Although both are effective I actually think the
coils work a little better than the fogger.
Even with all this we end up with dozens of
invaders each day and on days when we are in and out a lot I would not be
surprised if there 50+in the rig at a
given time. Our main defense inside a battery operated zapper shaped like a
tennis racket. There is a weird sense of satisfaction when you see the spark as
another one spirals to the ground. On really bad days it is not unheard of to
vacate the trailer all together and I will hit it inside with the fogger. (Kids
do not try this at home). Last but certainly not least is the box fan in our
bedroom. After Barb does her final assault with the zapper before bed we run
for the bedroom, shut the door and turn on the box fan which blows on our heads
to keep them off while we sleep.
Part of our pest control arsenal!
Mosquitoes are not the only invaders since we
arrived. Some of the local mice have decided that it is a lot drier and warmer
in our trailer than the abode they have been living. In an attempt to keep them
out I have sealed all the access points I can with expanding spray foam. We
also use Fresh Cab in the belly and in some of the access to the ceiling. I really don't know how effective it is but it allegedly has a smell that mice cannot tolerate. Since
using it I have not heard one running in the ceiling panels and the mouse trap
in the belly has been empty. I recently installed LED lights around the base of the trailer as well. I have read in some forums that the mice do not like to cross these. Inside the rig we have a couple of mouse traps and
glue pads tucked away in the back of cabinets where they tend to travel. The
glue pads have worked better than the traps but a word of caution….. check the
traps frequently but if you forget for a few days and catch one the smell will
remind you!
Despite all this fun, we have managed to get out
fishing and exploring a few times. Fishing has been a little slow due constant
rainy and ever changing weather but we have managed to get a few fish each
outing. Only a couple of pictures as we have been keeping the camera in the
waterproof case.
Barb sport'in her new hat on warm day
Trolling for pike
Sport'in her new hat on a not so warm day
Nothing like a 23" walleye to start the day!
Last week one of the best walleye lakes in the
area opened up. Onaman Lake is a premier walleye lake in the area and is only
accessible by air or a mile and a half walk. However resort owners with boats
on the lake are allowed to use a 4 wheeler to get their equipment in before the
season opens. Chad had yet to get his motors in so I volunteered to help him
the day before the season opens. I cannot wait to get in to fish it!
I think we overloaded her!
Barb recently discovered the most effective way
to get away from them….. she left for Minnesota for a few days to visit a
friend and follow up on an exciting project she has been working on. More
details on that in our next post!
But first, a stop in Minnesota to visit friends
and family, get some work done on the 4 wheeler and pick up the canoe. We
“mooch-docked” in the cul-de-sac in front of my brother Bob’s house again. It
is a great place to spend a few days as there is no one else within ½ mile of
his house.
Our mooch-docking site
Although, there never seems to be enough time to see everyone you
want to see or do everything you want to do, we gave it our best shot! We saw
lots of friends and was able to get together with a couple of my brothers and
sisters. We had dinner at two of our favorite places; ribs at The Thirsty Otter
in Balsam Lake and pizza at JJs’ outside of Milltown. On our way to JJ’s we
stopped at a bar Milltown (surprise surprise) in to see our favorite bartender
at Wise Guys. Julie has been a friend of ours for several years and we always
try to stop in and see her on our way through.
Julie, a good friend and great bartender!
We were also able to get together with the Anderson
clan for a cookout, it is always great to see them. They were nice enough to
store our canoe and a few other things for the past couple of months and we
left them with their promise to visit us in Arizona this winter! We are going
to hold you guys to it!
On our last day in the area my brother Bob and I
got out fishing on Green Lake. It has been many a year since I have been out on
this lake but thanks to Bob’s awesome guiding we were able to pick up quite a
few bass and crappies!
Beetle Spins were the lure of the day!
Bob reeled this one in all by himself!
Later that day we picked up the 4 wheeler and
headed north! Ah, it is great to be in Canada….the moment we went through the
border crossing I felt a sense of joy just being here. Arriving, we got get up
and started getting our fishing gear ready. Our friends, the Masers, were here
again and we were anxious to get out fishing with them. We had some of the best
fishing of our lives with them on a remote walk-in lake last year and we were
anxious to see if they were there again this year. There are two boats on this
lake and they had reserved one of them, with luck we could get the other one
and we would be good to go! Good news, bad news, the other boat was available
but someone had plugged up the motor so I would have to carry a new one in.
It is about ½ mile walk into the lake with ½ of
that being in boggy terrain. I managed to get in with the motor without getting
too wet but Barb on the other hand……well she hit a couple of holes and went in
up to her thighs on more than one occasion!
OMG, it's a swamp creature!
The fishing was good, not as fast and furious as
it was last year but we did catch quite a few fish. You know you are spoiled
when you are complaining about not catching a fish every minute and are ONLY
catching one every 5 minutes or so. At one point Barb landed a nice 19” walleye
that was totally torn up from being attacked by a larger fish. I would LOVE to
see the fish that can even try to take down a 19” walleye!
The past couple days have been cold, rainy and
SNOWING!!!!! So we have just been hanging low getting things organized. We are
here all summer, no need to go out and freeze our @sses off, warmer days are
ahead!
I should have known better. After all, I have
more experience with bears than most people but here I found myself in a very
dangerous situation having just poked a hungry she-bear. It all started out
innocently enough. Barb and I had made it to Ditch Creek, our favorite
campground in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Our plan was to spend several
days here exploring the country. As I have mentioned in the past, one of the
goals of our RV adventure is to find the area where we would like to settle
down when we are ready. We don’t know if it will be 3 years from now, 5 years
or even 10 but we want to find the perfect spot for us when the time is right.
In the past 14 months we have traveled pretty much from coast to coast and as
of right now Wisconsin and the Black Hills area are at the top of our list.
Our plan was to pick a different area each of
the 4 days we were there and drive around to see which area appealed to us the
most. A day in the Hill City area, a day in the Custer area, a day in the Hot
Springs area and a day up north in the Spearfish/Deadwood area. Although all
within the Black Hills, they can be vastly different.We aren’t asking for too much……our picture
perfect location is 5-20 acres off a quite road in a meadow with a trout stream
flowing through it. The backside (and maybe one or two other sides) would abut
National Forest property meaning no one else could build there and we would
have all the hiking and hunting opportunity we would ever want. Evidently we are
not alone in this quest as we drove for 4 days and never found the ideal spot
that was for sale. We saw a lot of beautiful country, several ideal locations
but it either already had a house on it or was not for sale.
We loved the area around Spearfish/Deadwood but
it seemed to be the most expensive with property going for
$10,000-$20,000/acre, a little rich for our blood. The Hill City/Custer area is
equally as beautiful and a little more reasonable. The Hot Springs area was
quite different from the others. Although it still has a lot of pines, it is
more arid and desert-like with rocks and cactus being abundant. It was on the
Hot Springs day that I got myself in trouble. It started out innocently enough.
Barb and I had breakfast, studied the listings in the area, made our game plan
for the day, loaded Daisy and our maps into the Jeep and headed south to Hot
Springs about an hour south of where we were camped. I drove while Barb
navigated. The directions on the listings can be challenging and quite vague
and I could tell that we were both becoming a little more agitated as the
morning wore on. When Barb starts to get frustrated with me she will often say “Don’t
poke the bear” which her nice way of saying “watch it”. Around noon we passed a Dairy Queen. Now,
Dairy Queen is one of our favorites and I usually ask if we should stop when I
see one. So, I asked her if she wanted to stop. “I’m fine” she replied. So we
went on our way and looked at the last few listing struggling to find them and
they did not pan out....
Frustrated and tired we started our way back
north. Passing through town again I drove past Dairy Queen and kept going.
Thinking just a little bit ago (well, maybe two hours) she said she did not
want to stop so I did not ask her……big mistake! Next thing I knew I looked over
to the passenger seat and I was face to face with a frustrated, hungry, angry
she-bear! Being an experienced woodsman I have had some experience in handing
these situations but for those of you unfamiliar here are a few tips…..Never
and I mean never look an angry bear in the eye. Instead keep your head down and
slowly retreat to a safe distance until the threat has passed. Believe me, this
is not easy to day when the bear is in the car with you!
Other than this encounter, our trip from the
Oregon coast, back to SLC and off to the east has been very good. While in Salt
Lake we were able to spend Mother’s Day with the kids, something we have not
done in a long time! Kendall is really walking around now and sometimes
falling.
I also received the drone I ordered a few weeks
ago! It is really cool and a lot easier to fly than I thought. I did have one
scary moment when we were camping in Flaming Gorge. We had arrived at our favorite
boondocking spot in the area and I wanted to get an aerial view of the rig. It
was a little windy but nothing the drone could not handle so I went launched in
to get some footage. The drone has GPS satellites to help keep its location and not
fly off on its own. Well, as I was flying over the rig, it lost satellite reception
and the wind took it off over the lake! Before I got control of it again it was
a good ¼ of a mile over the lake and I could barely see it. I thought it was a
goner for sure! Luckily I got it back to dry ground. After that I put it away
for a while to let my nerves calm down. I did create a really short video below
which shows our last two campsites. Bear with me as I learn how to use it.......
Our site at Flaming Gorge
From Flaming Gorge we headed east spending a
night in Casper before we arrived in the Black Hills. All in all is has been a
good week but I have two more items to add to our “Never List”
Never fly the drone when it is too windy and
never poke a hungry bear!
It is said that “Home is where the heart is” and having been
born and raised in Northern California and Southern Oregon Barb is definitely
at home in this area. Over the past week and a half we have traveled from Salt
Lake City to Northern California, Southern Oregon and back again.
Arriving in Redding, California we set up at Redding RV Park
and headed into town to have dinner with her step mother Paula and step-sister
Julie. We had not seen Paula in just over a year and it had been quite a bit
longer since we had seen Julie. On the way there we drove past Barb’s Jr. High
School and the fire department she worked at as a teenager. We met Paula at her
work (which happens to be the same Farmers office Barb’s dad and Paula) used to work at
some 20 years ago. We had a great dinner visiting and catching up.
The site at Redding RV Park was nice but a little tight
The following morning we packed up and headed north into
Oregon to Bridgeview RV Park in Grants Pass where we visited Barb’s aunt Diana
and uncle Ron at their home along the Rogue River. They have a beautifully
maintained home built in the 1930’s which is right on the river.
Our site at Bridgeview RV Park in Grants Pass
Our site was right on the Rogue River
Our next visit was to Barb’s grandmother in Cave Junction.
At 94 she is a truly amazing woman who lives by herself. A truly amazing woman
who has led an amazing life. She gave birth to 4 children, has 8 grandchildren,
20 great grandchildren and 12 great great grandchildren. But what I find truly
amazing about this woman is her sharp mind and her ability to remember the
smallest of details. While we were visiting she recited the birthdates of all
her grandchildren and as well as many of her great and great great
grandchildren. She drove a pickup truck until about 6 months ago when she
parked it for the last time. “There are enough crazy people on the road, they
don’t need one more” she explained.
She told us stories of growing up in mining camps where her
mother was a cook and how she used to come off the mountains in a buckboard and
see all the buttercups blooming in the valley. Barb’s mother Carol died in 1977
at the age of 39 and grandma was amazed at how our daughter Jessica looked like
Carol. We spent several hours with her and really enjoyed our time.
We fail in the picture taking category for each of these visits but here is a picture of grandma from last year next to her pick up truck.
The following day we were off to Bastendorff Beach County
Park along the Oregon coast in the town of Charleston. Barb and I had spent some time here last year
and absolutely loved it! The park and campground are located on a bluff
overlooking the coast. When we pulled in the campground host pulled up in his
golf cart and said “That’s a big rig, what site do you have?” I told him and he
said “Why don’t you go up to the group area, there is no one up there and you
will have the place to yourself” So up we went and we had the entire place to
ourselves all week!
The entire place to ourselves!
Barb chill'in by the fire
Once you have been here there are several things you will never
forget; the waves themselves sound like a distant passing freight train,
constant subtle rumble in the distance, the beautiful hill country of the coast
and the distant sounds of the fog horns of the coastline are actually quite
comforting. Both will lull you to sleep at night if you leave your windows
open.
While we were here we planned at least one activity each day.
Our first adventure was crabbing! It is a great and inexpensive way to spend a
day on the docks. Barb told me stories of how she, along with her mom, dad and
brother used to come to these very same docks and catch crab by the gunny sack
full. (Which is probably why there are not any left!). We set out 4 crab rings which
consists of a smaller ring on the bottom and a much larger ring on the top,
they are connected by fishnet. After securing your bait (chicken/fish) to the
bottom ring you drop the ring off the pier into the water. When the trap
settles on the bottom the entire trap lies flat and the crabs crawl on it to
eat the bait. After about 20 minutes you pull it up which extends the net
trapping the crabs! If you were lucky you would have 20+ crabs in the pot, if
you are unlucky a harbor seal or sea lion will dive down, steal your bait and
scatter your crab.
We started off well with lots of Dungeness Crab in each pull
which included a couple of keepers (males over 5 ¾ “ across the back) along
with some eater size Red Crabs. Unfortunately the seals and sea lions soon saw
all the activity on the dock and came over to investigate and started stealing
all our bait. They were relentless and just would not leave us alone! We caught
a few more after they showed up but nothing like earlier. In the end we had
about 15 crabs in the cooler, enough for a nice meal. We went crabbing again a
few days later but the mammals of the bay had our number from the first minute
and we got tired of feeding them in about an hour and left the docks crab-less.
We created a short 3 minute video of the crabbing and the sea lions......
The next morning it was clamming time! Clamming has to be
done at low tide so you can get out to the sand flats and dig for them. The
first thing you do is walk out in the flats and look for nickel sized holes in
the sand and stick your finger in it! If you feel something touch your finger
and move there is a clam there! Well not right there but 12-18” below there.
You see they have really long necks that they extend to the surface when
feeding. It is a very messy endeavor as you are down on your hands and knees
digging a fairly deep hole in search of these rascals. We did manage to catch
our limit and have a several meals of deep fried clam strips and a nice batch
of clam chowder!
I know there is one down there!
Got it!
Adventure #3 was a walk along a rocky shoreline during low
tide to see what creatures live in the tide pools. This was a new one to me but
Barb had done it many a time with her family when she was younger. I was
absolutely amazed by what lives in these small pools of water when the tide was
out! Sea Urchins which were a beautiful purple and bright green……. Were
everywhere. We took a ton of pictures trying to capture the beauty and color of
what we were seeing but just could not do it justice. Walked for about a mile
looking in the pools, taking pictures of waves crashing into the rock and
searching the rocks for sea glass……something I had never heard of before. Sea
glass is glass that has been discarded and broken up while at sea, washed
ashore and polished, smoothed and rounded by the sand. We actually found some
pretty cool and unique pieces! As we were taking a break sitting on a huge
piece of driftwood, I was looking out to sea and kept seeing a plume of water
shooting up in the distance. I kept staring at it and it was moving….whales! I
got out the binoculars and sure enough there were at least 2 what I think were
humpback whales swimming and surfacing out there. They were too far to even
attempt a picture but Barb and I got a good look at them through the
binoculars. Very cool, another first.
A Starfish and several Giant Green Anemones
Lots of Sea Urchins!
A closer look
Tidal pools.... those are mussels in the foreground and a lighthouse in the background
A closer shot of the lighthouse
Our final adventure in the area had us travel to nearby Coos
Bay where there were a couple of “Tall Ships” visiting the area. They are open every
day from 4-5pm for the public for walk on tours. Every day EXCEPT the day we
went! We did however, get to view them from the docks. They were really cool
ships, as you sat there looking at them you could not help but wonder what it
would have been like to sail on one of these ships back in the day. If fact, that
is really one of the cool things about this area….. the world is constantly
changing and moving so fast but you look at these ships, you look at the
coastline, you look at the rocks and reefs out in the sea and nothing has
changed in hundreds of years. It makes you realize how small and insignificant
we all are in the big scheme of things.
There are 3 guys working on the rigging.....see them?
We had a great time on the coast, I never tire of hearing
Barb’s tales of her family vacations here. She has lost her mother, her brother
and just over two years ago, her father. You could tell she was melancholy walking down the
beaches and remembering times past. But that is what our adventure is all
about, recalling memories of past adventures and creating new ones to remember
in the future.
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