From jumping off the dock,
to a May Fly hatch,
Bald Eagles soar by to feast on fish guts
as the dogs relax in the boats.
Caleb skims along the top of the water past the island
when he’s not out catching walleye for dinner
or a shore lunch.
Cabin projects fill the air,
it’s life at the lake!
We are at the cabin in Canada! We had a few long driving days to get from West Yellowstone to Sioux Narrows and after staying the night in Baudette, a border town, we crossed easily into Canada. We will be enjoying Lake of the Woods for a few weeks.
Caleb wanted to try out his early birthday present, a new kneeboard. He got up on the first try and cruised around the lake. He also got another early birthday present, a new fishing pole. On his first cast from the dock, he caught a bass!
But this picture is not a bass, he caught about a 24” Northern Pike! We don’t keep the bass or the pike for eating, so back to the water they go!
Why would this fish swimming picture be so important? It’s the elusive Musky and you have to prove it was there!
Chris managed to get him in the boat for better polaroid proof and he measured in at 37”. He also went back into the lake to get bigger for the next catch! With the sun shining and temps in the mid 70’s, we will be fishing,swimming, watching the bald eagles, and completing projects on the cabin!
We hitched up and traveled north to one of our favorite campgrounds, Baker’s Hole near West Yellowstone. Our ideal spot gives us a view of the Madison river out the picture window.
We stayed two nights so that we could travel into Yellowstone National Park for Father’s Day.
Our timing was perfect at the upper geyser basin where we watched Old Faithful erupt like clockwork.
We meandered along the boardwalk to admire the gorgeous colors of the hot spring pools.
The early summer flowers were also putting on quite a show.
Once we reached Castle geyser, it also was erupting! Pictures may be worth a 1000 words, but don’t portray sounds of roaring water, smell of sulfur and sight of water and vapor shooting into the air!
We saw few buffalo but this bachelor group decided the thermal basin was a good place for a rest.
We continued to follow the boardwalk down to Riverside geyser. It’s bubbling action spills into the river, indicating it is getting ready to erupt.
And just like the faucet was turned on, it started!
The tower of spray grew larger and larger.
Riverside geyser erupts on average for 22 minutes every 5.5 to 7.5 hours.
We then crossed the continental divide to the West Thumb geyser basin, which lies on the banks of Yellowstone Lake.
A day trip into Yellowstone National Park was a perfect way to spend Father’s Day!
We set off for a day of Geocaching on the trail and our first stop brought us to the “original” UTV- Flintstone style!
Caleb explores the contents of one of our finds as we ride along the area known as the “maze” due to all the mining roads.
Geocaching is like modern day hide and seek using points on a GPS.
Blending in with the red rocks, the Palmer’s Penstemon is in full bloom.
After several geocache finds, we rode down towards the infamous Big Rock Candy Mountain. The resort serves up great tasting BBQ which we enjoyed for dinner.
Another beautiful day in the Sevier river valley with highs in the upper 80’s!
A leisurely Sunday afternoon ride was in store for us! We headed east of Marysvale to join up with the Paiute 01.
We planned on a short ride up Dry Creek.
Caleb rode for 26 miles!
Once again the scenery was spectacular, from pines and rock formations to aspen groves and wildflowers.
Once we reached the Dry Creek Guard Station, Caleb decided we weren’t really going on a short ride since that was our 26 mile mark!
The guard station is part of Fishlake National Forest.
With a change of guard on the ATV, we decided to continue on to Manning Meadow Reservoir.
At 9500 feet, the breeze was crisp and the reservoir was full.
Of course with a different RZR driver at the wheel, some mandatory wildflower stops were in order.
We traveled back down the way we came, along the Paiute 01 to the Marysvale 02.
In the passenger seat, Caleb wondered, “Are we there yet?”
60 miles later we arrived back at our abode after a beautiful ride!
Saturday was Get Outdoors Day and the guys went to work on the Paiute trail. While Caleb heaved trees out of the woods by hand, Chris applied RZR power!
They worked with Jim, the camp owner, and other volunteers building up a fence around a meadow.
There are some areas of the Paiute trail that are limited to 50” machines, so Chris and Caleb hiked up, up, up to the snow!
Back at camp, the foxes come out to play in the evening! There are at least 7 and maybe 8 kits that are living in the culverts.
It seems they’ve gotten big enough to spread out, two to a culvert, while they wait for mama fox to bring back dinner.
We’ve put on close to 400 trail miles, discovering old mining cabins dating back to the late 1800’s.
The mines were primarily for silver and gold, but this mine was for Alunite.
The stone archway still stands, although the roof has since collapsed. We were treated to an “insider’s ride” by the camp owner, Jim.
Caleb has been riding about 40 miles a day up to 11,000 feet elevation and his Honda 250 has been working great!
We’ve extended our stay from one week to two and know that we will return to this beautiful area!
