Eagle River WI

Sunday, August 28, 2016

We landed today. After three full days and a morning of driving we have made it the 1785 miles to Eagle River. Susan did ALL of the driving even though I was there for relief if she felt the need or desire. The weather was variable -- sunny at times, cloudy at times and a heavy rain on the last full day. But the rainbows were beautiful.

And the sunsets were stunning.

We get a lot of rain in Seattle, but without the sun -- so rainbows are few to none.

Even blurred the sunset is incredible. Thanks to the clouds.

At about 140 miles from our destination we found a place to spend the night. No easy feat in these lake resort towns with sky high prices. Coming upon the Casino -- we got the last room -- and that one had just opened up with a cancellation.

 

A haven in the night

 

Thank goodness

 

Free rewards for joining including $10 for the slots.

Susan seems to win whenever we do this (we have joined at least three casinos on our various travels) and did win $5 which almost paid for the two beers she had. I came out a clear winner of $1.50 to the good!

Finally a full night's sleep with no need to rise at an unreasonable hour as the drive to Eagle River was relatively short.

Checking out the outdoor shops and any fishing shops called for a stop before finding Trees for Tomorrow.

 

Interesting crosswalk marking in Eagle River

 

The crosswalks look similar to traffic circles

From the brochure information: Trees for Tomorrow (TFT) started in 1944 to help reforestation efforts in northern Wisconsin. Now that the reforestation has been completed, TFT has shifted more toward educating students, teachers and other adults about wise use of natural resources. TFT is an accredited Natural Resources Specialty school.

 

 

Got our room keys and name tags

 

Door "decs" just like Sarah did for us at WWU!!

Accommodations are sparse, but several steps up from fish camp!

 

We have electricity and the (indoor) facilities are a short walk down the hall

After social hour with snacks and drinks, we had dinner. THEN we had ice breaker time. I HATE ice breakers, and have learned that most people here hate them too. Fortunately we had only one and all got through it in good form.

A slide show and introduction to TFT followed our ice breaker fun. Our leader, Kim went over our schedule and told us what we would be doing for the week. There will be bicycling of course, but also we will have a canoe day, and apparently a walking in a bog adventure where we will wear these provided boots.

 

 

Off to (bunk) bed now ;'-)

 

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Farewell Fish Camp, Hello Open Road

After breakfast we all gathered for group photos -- of course we EACH had a camera that needed every photo, so it took a while.

 

Our part of the family

 

The whole group

Open road calls us now -- open until we get to Eagle River, Wisconsin. There we will trade in fishing rods for bicycles. Ten hours a day of driving for three days will get us there in time for check in at "Trees for Tomorrow" - our meeting and lodging place for a week.

Susan has commemorated my "helping" her fish:

 

 

Will have nothing to post about for a few days on these long driving days -- so, "see" you later.

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Fishing and...

When one is at Fish Camp, one must at least fish ... Or do fishing-like things.

There are lots of lakes to explore, some a short walk away, some a bit further, and a trail leads to them all.

 

First -- choose your lake and confer with Francesco about the details.

Susan would have liked to do all of these lakes, but fished four of them (three with me as a "helper").

 

Then get your gear and decide on your flies for the day

Susan ensures that Jeremy will not leave without the right fly or lure.

 

Then walk a trail to your lake

 

This log is very moss covered and slippery!

 

Then choose a boat

Each lake has a different number of boats (see the list above) and if "locked" you must not forget to get the key or -- walk back down that trail to get it.

 

Then load up everyone into that boat.

 

Get the boats launched with the correct people in the correct boat

 

Get any helpers assigned to their tasks

I don't fish, but I row!! I rowed Susan around for two days to fish in three different lakes. My other fishing like thing was to dip the net to bring in the landed fish. We landed five on this day, but one jumped out of the boat -- and that is no fish story!

 

Enjoy the loons that follow along

Loons end up being a nuisance for fishermen. They hang around the boats and attack the fish that are brought to the boat. You must distract them in some way. If you have other fisher friends in boats near by, your buddy can beat on the side of their boat and the loons will go to them (supposedly). Since we caught no fish this day, we did not run into this problem ;'-)

 

This one continued to dive and lurk after us

 

Catch your fish and put them in your "creel"

 

Proudly carry your catch in your creel (burlap bag) back to your cabin

And so basically ends our adventure at Fisherman's Paradise!! All in all we each had a good time here -- some more than others, but that was expected. We will have another fantastic Uli dinner and some of us may choose one more evening of fishing. We will pack up some tonight for our departure and farewells in the morning. Then ------- that treacherous road back out to the world!

The others will head to their respective homes and Susan and I will do a marathon drive to Wisconsin to continue our "vacation" plans.

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Cast of Characters

Every Adventure has Characters;

 

John, the perpetrator of this Fisherman's Paradise adventure

John is a super-fly fishing enthusiast and has passed that on to his family.

 

Elaine, the perp's wife collaborates with Susan

To be fair, Susan played a rather large role in colluding with John for this adventure. She is more and more becoming a super-fly fishing enthusiast but has not been successful in passing that gene onto her family. She maintains hope with the Grands and so far it is looking like Lucy is the major hope, with Jaydon running close behind.

 

Wendy and Greg, parents of Brenna and Cayden

 

Brenna, 6 years old

 

Cayden, 3 years old

John, Elaine and Susan have maintained their friendship since the college days they shared together. Their children are close friends and the whole gang are more like family and so -- this "family" outing for 2016.

 

Jaydon (7 years old on 8/29) and Dad Jeremy advertise the latest in bug repellent.

 

Lucy, 4 years old demonstrates a perfect cast

 

Kaitlyn, 2 years old (almost) makes sure we don't forget the boat cushions

 

Sarah -- mom of Jaydon, Lucy and Kaitlyn

In the middle of all the fishing fun, we have a birthday to celebrate. Jaydon will have his 7th birthday on August 29th, but we will not be with him for that day and so, arranged to have a cake made for him while we are here all together. And what a cake it was!

 

Uli outdid our exprectations with the fish cake and Jaydon loved it.

 

Mom liked it too

I don't have a good photo of our hosts -- Uli and Francesco. These will have to do until I get better ones ;'-)

 

Uli, Chef extraordinaire

 

Francesco. Everything extraordinaire

Our meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) have been delicious and delightful. As I understand it, Uli is the "main" chef, F is her sous chef. As well, F does all things with the fish that anyone catches -- cleans them, debones them, cooks them, smokes them -- depending on one's wishes. He also regales us with a variety of stories during breakfast and dinner. Of course, they each and both do a lot of other things around the camp to maintain it in good repair as well as do upgrades and additions.

 

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More about MLFC

Monday, August 223.2016 on a brighter note ;'-)

After getting settled in, we wandered camp, some fished (and several actually caught), others read or googled, and soon it was time for dinner. Scrumptious meal prepared and served by our hosts.

Our cabin is one of about six of the original ones, and there are newer ones in the works. The lodge is also a newer building. The lodge is where we have our meals and spend time to read or get wifi connected. The upstairs is where our hosts live.

 

Aa foggy, misty morning over one of the new cabins. This one still under construction

 

The lodge in the morning mist

 

Jeremy doing his school stuff in the lodge with wifi

 

Where we get recharged

 

Where we eat

 

Where what we eat is prepared

A wet and misty morning "view" from the lodge deck

 

From the deck a bit later in the morning after the mist burned off

When one spends any extended time in the lodge, one forgets what it is like out in the fish camp world.

 

There are loons out there across the lake

In addition to the shower house, we have the outhouse accommodations

 

There's the fish cleaning station

 

A place to wash up after handling the fish

 

The place to gear up wth life jackets and fish nets, and to weigh your catch

All settled in now. But at some point the focus has to be on fishing -- huh? Corning up.

 

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