Fox Lake campground – Doug Rutherford

July 2, 2016July 2, 2016

Back to Fox Lake

Wednesday, June 22/2016

It took a while to actually get going. I had been aiming to head out at about 4 PM but things just took too long to get ready and packed and it was a bit after 5 before we headed out. I was worried about getting a decent spot at Fox Lake. We went back to Fox since friends have a cabin right next to the campground and we don’t get to see them often enough.

The drive was rather uneventful, other than Furball not settling down very well and meowing constantly. He really doesn’t like his carrier much. Darcy tends to climb in and fall asleep as soon and the camper starts moving. He did eventually settle into it, or just come to accept his fate as inevitable, after about 20 minutes.

We arrived to find the campground almost full. There were three spots left… a double site and a single right on the turn lane next to the boat ramp. The two at the double would be fine if you only had to level something short like a camper, but a 24’ motorhome is something else. We took the less attractive site, which also required a few attempts to get levelled out as well. I need a better levelling system.

I was surprised to see it as full as it was, but there was a group of large Class A motorhome travelling together, along with a very nice couple who parked their trailer crosswise across a double to take both sites. We aren’t fond of sharing two close sites with someone you don’t know, but it was the best choice had it been available.

I loaded the boat, since I was in a rush to determine how the repairs went. They weren’t much… just a cleaning of the fuel system and new plugs. They figured the gas had gone over. I changed the fuel in the tank. However,with setting up, and the long day, I was in no mood to go out in the boat. I cooked dinner and had a beer to make myself officially camping. After dinner, I was just too tired to go out so left my discoveries to be made for the next day.

We had finally got most of the setting up and unpacking done after a rather rushed job of leaving by about 10 PM. By that point, the promised thundershowers for last evening were obviously not coming and it was 21 degrees. The sun was out and it was a beautiful evening. We took the cats out for a stroll around the site on their leads. Then, I sat down on my new camp chair with a glass of wine, when along comes our friends with the cabin. We had a great visit and will probably head over to their place tomorrow evening. They brought their small dog, who was reasonably friendly towards the cats on the other side of the camper door. Furball was slightly less upset than Darcy. She wanted nothing to do with him.

The cats did settle for a bit overnight, but when the ravens woke at about 5 AM, there was a different story. They went from window to window trying to see what all the commotion is. Eventually, when the ravens gave up, so did they and they want back to sleep for a few hours.

Thursday, June 23/16

We did finally get up around 9 AM and I made breakfast. I got the chance to try my new Polaris generator, which is incredibly quiet compared to the other one. It didn’t seem to add too much of a load to run either the toaster or the microwave when I wanted to reheat my bacon. So far, I’m rather impressed, although it took a week longer than promised.

It’s rated as quieter than a Honda but is a few pounds heavier. And, it was on sale for $200 off the listed price, and the price on the ticket was the same as charged, unlike Honda’s adding more than $200 to the price with fees not on the price tag. That was almost $500 more than the one I went to Honda to see, which is still showing as on sale on their website even though the model is discontinued and no dealers in Canada apparently have it. Suffice to say, I really don’t like Honda’s somewhat unscrupulous practices and don’t see myself buying any of their products in the future.

After breakfast, Clara and the cats opted for nap time while I opted for fishing. I spent about 90 minutes trolling with no luck. There were fish on the finder but they were down rather deep and probably not feeding at the time. I’ll go out again later and try again.

It did start to cloud over by early afternoon. There’s no way to get the forecast out here but the last one we saw did call for sunny with cloudy periods for today.

We spent the afternoon lazily. I eventually decided to put on supper. This was our hot dog night, since you need one simple camping thing on a trip. After that, I thought some fishing was in order. Big surprise. The motor was acting up exactly the way it was on the last trip. In short, the guess of bad gas wasn’t right. Now, I have no boat and I have to take it back to the shop. And, since we came out with the boat and camper, I have no way to bring it back without going back in altogether. I am not happy.

Around 6:30, the wind began to come up out of the north. I don’t see it being bad, since the wind is still quite warm. As you can see in the picture, there are no white caps, but there are a few clouds. I’m thinking rain by morning.

A little rain is OK. It will bring down the dust at the camp site.

So, my new plan is to deal with the boat. Since it can troll, I’m going to have to make do with trolling not too far from the campground. I don’t mind too much, since these are probably best fishing spots anyway. And, I will have to stay close since, if it does break down, I don’t want to paddle too far.

A bit after 11 PM, I cleaned up the inside of the camper and started to get things settled. We turned in about 11:45.

Friday, June 24/16

We finally got going a bit after 9. The cats seemed somewhat less stressed by the exuberance of waking ravens Although there was a bit of wanting to sit on your chest to see out your window when the caws began.

We had a nice breakfast and I went for a walk around the campground. Then , I figured I’d check if the boat was happier or not. I trolled about 750m down from the campground and came back the same distance. After a few passes in front of the campground, I figured it was time to open her up. It ran fine at full throttle for about 1000m, but then started surging a bit at the highest throttle setting. It was okay at about ¾ throttle. Maybe it need more cleaner run through it. (Add something about the cleaner). It trolls fine so I’m not without a method of fishing.

After that, I popped over to visit Kelly and Nita. I’d given her a copy of a play script to look at and get an opinion on. She liked it, by the way, especially the twist. We gabbed for over and hour and then I headed back to sit for a while. It was time to enjoy the little table with drink holder I got for Father’s Day. Camping is very strenuous.

It was when I was doing the mushrooms for the steak when I discovered that I had taken out the cooking sherry it had not packed it. We had steaks but with mushrooms sautéed without sherry. Blasphemy. Camping IS strenuous.

I have had the opportunity to observe one of my biggest peeves over camping here. I do understand why it happens, and I have done it myself. That is the practice of coming early to claim a site, leaving something in the campsite, and then coming out Friday evening. As a result, trying to head out to a relatively popular campsite means you get to turn around an head back home. The problem has expanded in scope.

We came out Wednesday and there were 3 sites left. The one we took was unattractive, but at least we got one. However, of the 50-odd sites, almost all were taken but less than half were occupied. I peaked a bit, and it became obvious that what many people are doing is coming out on Sunday afternoon after people have left for the weekend and setting up their trailer, or a tent, or a boat trailer, or simply a few chairs, filling out a slip, saying they’re staying 7 nights, and coming out the following Friday evening. Further, there were two areas where there were 3 or 4 sites next to each other held with matching chairs. With a yearly permit, it is easy enough for one person to go out and book a large number of sites, just by everyone involved giving him or her their permit number.

The rules do state that, if you are not on a site for 48 hours, it is supposed to be “abandoned.” But, it’s quite an issue to enforce that regulation, and I have talked to park officers about it on occasion. It’s getting so that, if you don’t want crowds and are on vacation, heading out to camp during the week on a Monday may mean you may not get a spot, or not a very good one. I think it’s time that the legal minds at YTG set down some new, and enforceable, regulations.

The wind did come up a bit out of the northwest, but that didn’t last more than an hour. However, it certainly made things dusty for a while. Little dust devils blew across the boat launch, impressing the cats to no end. It became obvious that there was no more fishing for me tonight, since there was no indication that the weather was going to settle down or get worse. So, I settled the boat for the night, bringing in the portable fish finder and safety gear, checked my lines, and put a campfire in. I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to having a fire. Since it’s traditional, and important, we made s’mores, and I did obey the adage of knowing your limit and only eating two. More than that is more than I’m good for now, but I did also roast a few marshmallows by themselves as well.

Saturday, June 25/16

Today was a rather full day, with company coming and doing a bit of visiting. Katrina, Shawna, and Ryan came out along with a rented canoe. They went out twice, as did I in the boat. I did get a chance to take the boat on a bit of a run without any sign of a problem. It seems that it may just need a bit of engine cleaner run through this tank of gas. It finally took until today to use up the first tank of gas in the new generator. I am rather surprised at how little it holds considering it ran about 10 hours on the first tank. The small two gallon jerry can of gas I brought for it is only half empty after refilling the generator.

The generator is still in break in period, which means less than 50% load for the first 20 hours. The biggest thing I did with it is run the toaster (750 w) and the microwave (900 w) and of course, not at the same time. It seems to handle either with no issues, although the microwave is a bit more than half its working load, but I only ran it for 15 seconds to see how it would do.

The generator is quite quiet and I deliberately didn’t bring the generator house or the front cargo rack. This gives me far more space in the cargo hutch, since the Jenny house does take up a fair bit of room. For those curious, I brought the small jerry can of gas in the boat. The front cargo rack is still a necessity if I was going to need more gas than I was planning to use this weekend. Or, I could rig a better way of carrying gas cans in the boat and get a bike carrier for the front trailer hitch.

As you may have guessed, I didn’t fare so well on the fishing front. I did lose one this morning, and while it spit the hook before I saw it, it was probably a keeper biased on weight. However, now that I have a functional boat and am getting a system down, better fishing is probably just ahead. This is my mantra for this evening. And now, it’s time for a glass of wine and bed.

Sunday, June 26/16

We got up at a reasonable hour, again about 9 AM. After a quick breakfast and washing the dishes, we started putting the campsite to bed. It really didn’t take too long, with the longest job waiting for the generator to cool down enough to pack after running it to power the toaster for breakfast. We do like our creature comforts. After that, it was a quick 50 minute drive home. Furball did not cry as much this trip and may be slowly reacquainting himself with driving. I will look at some better way for him to travel and dog seat belt harnesses are the direction I’ve been leaning.

All told, it was a nice trip. The weather held well and the boat, with a few problems at the beginning, behaved itself rather well. I think Kusawa is the next trip. I’m really pleased with the new generator and do have a few projects to do with the boat. We did give away the old boat, but some things aren’t going with it. These include the nice Garmin fish finder, which I will install in the little boat. This calls for the addition of a 12-volt battery, but that should fit nicely under my seat so it shouldn’t be in the way. I also kept the marine radio, but on a boat this size, this may be overkill…

June 21, 2016

First trip of the year, 2016

I’m a bit late posting this, but there were a number of chores to do, such as getting the boat fixed, hunting for a new generator, and some general yard work. Now that that’s done, and I printed out the checklist to go camping this weekend, I should get around to dealing with this.

Friday, June 10, 2016

This is my first camping trip in almost a year. It started well but took a bit of an annoyance turn before the end of the day. The temperature has been quite warm today, with sunny weather. However, the boat does not seem very cooperative today. It doesn’t seem to want to run properly. Oh, well. That does allow for having a beer at a reasonable time, rather than having to wait until we came back from fishing and a boat ride or two.

I left just before noon to come out to Fox Lake. I had brought the motorhome out on Wednesday evening, hoping to have the boat ready to come out sooner. However, there were things to get done and I didn’t really get a chance to come until today. Clara did not come out, and she kept the cats, so the motorhome seems a lot emptier. I came out this morning with the boat and launched it when I arrived. I set up the boat, then set up the camper. There were a few things to do, such as make the bed and put the food away. I followed that with taking the boat out for a half hour. It trolled well, but didn’t seem to want to move too quickly. I got back to the dock, lifted the motor, and discovered the trolling plate didn’t want to come up. I fixed that, and then company arrived. Katrina and Ryan, along with Shawna, Hanna, and her parents came.

Katrina and I went out for a quick run after dinner time. However, now the boat didn’t want to run well at all. It’s a tossup between a dirty filter, a dying fuel pump, or bad gas. I will state categorically that the gas does have fuel stabilizer in it and has since late August.

After supper, we gathered for a camp fire and had a few beers, watching it not get really dark. I went down to the dock to get a few pictures, and came back for a last cup of tea before going to bed. I read for a bit and slipped out to get some pictures about 11:30. By that point, it was time for bed. It was 21 degrees most of the day and quite sunny. It was one of those days where the sunscreen didn’t get too far from your hand.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

I didn’t actually wake up until 10 AM, after a nice sleep. The weather wasn’t so bad when I got up, although it wasn’t really shorts weather at that point. The temperature was only 16 degrees, less than it was went I went to bed last night at about midnight.

The wind blew throughout the day, primarily from the southeast. It was windy enough that I didn’t feel like I would have out the boat in. This, by the way, is what I’m telling myself to make the fact the boat isn’t working seem better…

We basically all hang around today. Ryan was going to a party in town so he went back to Whitehorse this morning. I had a nap, since it was just a lazy day at the campground. People found things to do, Katrina and I went for a walk, etc. I did drop over to some friends’ cabin, but they weren’t home. Oh, well.

The evening plan was just sit around the campfire, read, and do very little. I find camping is one of the few times I really get to just sit and read. Maybe, when I retire, it should be a big camping trip.

After barbecuing some chicken skewers for a nice dinner, the weather changed. The sun came out and the wind died. It seemed like a good idea to load the boat now, rather than see what tomorrow weather is would be. It can be a bit of an issue when the wind is pushing against the side of the boat when you’re trying to load it on the trailer. It went rather quickly, and Katrina and I put the travel cover on it and got it ready to pull home tomorrow. Now, time for a nice glass of wine and to sit around the campfire. Camping is so strenuous.

I did go for another walk around the campground and then, back to sitting around the fire. It did get up to 18 degrees at one point, but had fallen to 15 by 9:30. At that point, it was time for me to go back to the camper, get a cup of tea and a snack, and then read a bit before bed.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

My last morning. I got up relatively early and packed up the camper. It’s annoying that the boat didn’t work, but it is the first trip of the year and things usually need tweaking. I guess I do need to take the boat in this week and look at my wish list item, a much quieter generator…

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015

Fox Lake trip

Camping resumes.

June 10

The second camping trip of the year commences! Again, we headed to Fox Lake for a bit of “out of town” and a bit of fishing if the weather was to work out. It would be a bit of a broken trip, since I had to come back into town on Friday. To do this, my daughter drove out with Clara’s truck so I could come back in.

Our first day was a lazy one. I drove out in the motorhome with the cats. We tried a new experiment with bringing them in separate carriers. This was not a successful as I would have liked, since the soul rending meowing from Furball made it hard to concentrate on the road. However, we did make it to the lake without incident.

campsite image — Our site for the weekend.

We spent most of the day setting up, since we brought far more stuff with us this time. Eventually, we settled down to sleep, with the cats settling for the upper bunk, at first. Darcy did show up several times for a head bump and to make sure my beard was appropriately groomed. Clara’s cheeks apparently needed washing on several occasions through the night. She did finally head back up to the upper bunk and fell asleep with on her sooky blanket with her stuffy. She may be Daddy’s Little Panther, but she’s Daddy’s little baby, too.

June 11

Day 2 was a lazy day. I didn’t bring the boat out since the forecast was quite windy for Wednesday and Thursday, and I thought I would wait to bring the boat Friday. It was gusty most of the day and so far, I haven’t had the awning up except for a few hours today.

We used the occasion to have a lazy day. Several naps were the high point of Thursday, since the joy pf camping is saying, “Screw it, I’m going to read or lay down for a while.” Even the cats jumped into the schedule with full abandon.

I have noticed we seem to be using more water than budgeted. This may take some consideration. We had a late supper, and eventually settled down to sleep. Yes, this did involve some more beard grooming, but this has become a nightly ritual.

June 12

We woke early, so I could go back into town, get my knee X-rayed, get the boat, and do a bit of shopping. It is obvious we are using way more water than I had hoped with the original plan of staying until Sunday. The grey and black tanks are also 2/3 full. We need to work on water management better. I did bring back another large water jug in case we run out. Filling the grey and black tanks is a small issue compared to having no water at all. Yes, it sounds a bit odd parked next to a lake but giardia is not my idea of a fun time.

Furball was pretty desolate on the way home, so I decided we should try putting them in a bigger, single carrier. We did that when I took them to the vet but they hissed and howled at each other and I figured Darcy was going to murder poor Furball in his carrier. The handle on the carrier broke, so we took it back and bought two single carriers. We put them in the bigger one and Darcy was hissing in less than five minutes. I think there’s no way I’m going to win on this so we’ll try using the bigger carrier for a while. They did drive to Whitehorse from Port Alberni in the same sized carrier so this shouldn’t be an issue.

We got back around supper time and it was quite windy, blowing hard from the north with thick white caps. I held off launching the boat until after supper when the weather turned rather calm. I had the boat tied to the dock and it was shortly after that the wind came up again, and again from the north. I took and potential plans of a late night fishing trip on dead calm water, like it was the previous night when we went to bed. I went back to the dock and checked my lines three times before going to bed. I did cheat and make sure I tied it bow into wind at the dock.

I will certainly say one thing. I’ve seen several different cloud formations this weekend. The clearing sky to the north at midnight this evening was a bit odd looking, for sure.

June 13

The wind was as bad or worse today. I checked my lines earlier in the morning and retied them. I managed to wear away some of the dock, the boat was bouncing so much. There seemed to be no indication it would die down anytime soon and I spent a fair amount of time thinking of hauling it out and taking it home, rather than waiting until the next day.

The wind at Fox Lake.

I did make one minor goof. We brought all of the cats’ leads home and in forgot to bring them back to the campsite with us. All there was left was a short leash in the truck. This meant you could only take one for a walk at a time, meaning there was much unhappiness from the one left behind. This ended as part of the windy weather, since neither one was out for long before crying to go back into the camper.

We did discover that friends whose cottage is next to the campsite were there for a bit and we dropped in after supper, and after I had pulled the boat. This was not an easy task, although the wind wasn’t the problem. Someone in their infinite wisdom parked their boat trailer in front of mine. I had to wiggle it out by hand and the language that may have accompanied the task was not for all audiences.

By the time the boat was fully put away and I put a fire in, the lake had calmed down considerably. I wasn’t totally surprised since it had to stop blowing eventually. But, it was after 10 PM and I wasn’t turning around and relaunching the boat, only to have to take it out again tomorrow morning anyway.

Suffice to say, the lake turned a little nicer, although not nice enough to justify throwing the boat back in…

sunset image — Midnight, looking south towards town.

June 14

We got up early today. We opted to skip breakfast (actually I skipped breakfast, since Clara got up earlier than I did), and got the two vehicles packed up to head back. We still need to figure out the organization of the camper a bit. This was done under the watchful eye of Furball who figured something was up. Darcy was too wound up to care until I put her in the camper for the drive home. Since Clara took the truck, I put the carrier in the passenger seat so they could see me while we were driving. This started with Darcy grooming Furball, followed by Darcy hissing and spitting at him 30 seconds later. I told them to settle down and, oddly enough it did. They were both asleep in two minutes and stayed that way most of the way home.

All in all, a nice weekend despite the lack of fishing. I’m sure I can find a chance to fix that situation in the near future…

September 2, 2014

Labour Day camping

Camping on Labour Day has become a family tradition in our household. This was a bit odd, in that I was the only one who went out this year.

I’ll admit, it was nice to get out at least one more time this year. At this point, our weather can go pretty “iffy” but I’m still holding out hope for more fall to come. Camping can be quite nice this time of year. There’s no bugs to speak of and the weather can be pleasant if you’re prepared for the odd nippy morning. And, with the leaves changing, particularly at higher elevations, the scenery is wonderful.

Fall fishing can be good, although this weekend was not spectacular. I went to Fox Lake, and despite the normal trend over the last few years for Fox to pick up after Discovery Day and Kusawa to tail off, the fishing was a bit sparse.

My choice off campground was based on more than fishing. I have found, over the past years that Fox Lake has become more of the family campground, while Kusawa Lake campground has become party central. Kusawa can be downright noisy through the night, and the YTG camp officers can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s not as bad as the government campground at Pine Lake, though…

I did get one lake trout: small, about 2 lbs. What struck me as odd this year is that the surface temperature of the lake is quite warm, 55° F throughout the entire weekend. I usually see it about 49° or 50° by this time in the fall. That probably explained why the fish were still down quite deep in the water column. Most of what I saw were hanging around clouds of bait fish in the 60 – 90′ range. Trying to get a line down that far, without snagging the bottom at the same time is not easy.

I had a few complications. My relatively new (bought late last year) Rapala trolling reel fell apart. The line counter quit earlier this year, and I hadn’t fixed it because you can’t even find a parts diagram online. The level wind crapped out this weekend.

Fortunately, my 20+ year old Penn was also in the boat. I did put it on my good rod and used it. Its one issue is that the clicker isn’t working, but I do have the online parts diagram from Penn and will check to see which one of two possible parts needs replacing. My 10 year old Penn 190 also needs a bit of repair, but both of these are off season repair plans. When winter comes, a little diversion that makes you think of spring coming is perfectly good, right?

The weather was a bit strange. It followed the progression of sunny, sun showers, cloudy with showers, just cloudy. Repeat as necessary. There was a slight interlude with a bit of hail with the sunshowers at one point while fishing Sunday afternoon.

I’m not ready to put either the camper or the boat away yet. The issue with the camper is freezing temperatures and when the local sani-dumps close up. I may fix that issue since I’m calling our plumber tomorrow to see about having a dump attached to the house sewer system. Putting the boat away usually doesn’t happen until some time in October. The Environment Department is planning to keep 10 campgrounds serviced until the end of September, and they usually are available without services until the end of October for the hardy.

I will say one thing about the fall. I’m not the biggest fan of what it portends in the future, but it is damn pretty…

May 24, 2014

Fox Lake trip, May 2014

Our first camping trip of the year.

Monday, May 19th

We started off intending to go to Fox Lake on the May long weekend, but things weren’t quite ready. Clara was tired. I was even more so. I tried to find the ambition to get the camper ready and repacked for the new season but just couldn’t get up for it. We did have company coming on Wednesday, the 14th, which would have been the best day to get out and get a spot at the lake. We did have to do a bit of work for that, including getting the guest room ready.

So, we decided to wait until the Monday to let the campground clear and give me a few days to get it ready. There are still some forgotten things, but we will probably survive it.

We hit the road about 3 PM, after getting gas and propane. With all of the trips we did last year, and having the tank refilled after the May long weekend last year, I was expecting the propane tank to take quite a bit to fill. Turns out, we burned $35 of propane last year. I was quite surprised and was expecting a larger amount. I guess things are more efficient with a new camper and newer appliances.

The campground was rather quiet. It did rain on the way out, although not hard. I did manage to get the camper levelled and lay under it to put up the stabilizer jacks without getting soaked. It did sprinkle much of the evening. However, by bedtime, we got quite a soaking rain.

I don’t have too many details on the temperature. I bought a wireless thermometer for the camper. I put batteries in it and put the sensor outdoors on the back deck. However, I couldn’t find the receiver to bring it camping. Hint: it was a bit chilly.

Tuesday, May 20th

By the time we got up, the rain had ended. It was cloudy most of the morning and early afternoon, but the sun came out by 2 o’clock. It was a lovely day in that regard, although temperatures were still quite cold and the furnace was on throughout the day.

I really didn’t have much in store for plans for the day. I did get around to running the little generator twice to bring up the batteries a bit. The furnace does take its toll and the sun didn’t come out quick enough to bring them up a bit. I also needed to recharge the laptop a bit.

The repairs to the old generator seem to have worked. I do notice that I can’t run the microwave on it without blowing the breaker on the generator. This is not a huge issue, although it is nice to be able to reheat a cup of tea that has gone cold. The big generator has no problems with this, but the lighter weight (58 lbs. vs 120 lbs.) are a nice bonus and the little one is far quieter than the new one. Both, however, make too much noise for my liking. I do enjoy the convenience but don’t like the noise.

Generator image — The little generator in its little house.

One thing does become obvious though. With the furnace running and the cloudiness, neither the small generator or the solar panel can keep up with the battery draw. We had to turn the furnace off overnight and still had very little battery left.

The high point of the morning involves my benchmark for a nice camping trip. About 11 AM, there was much squawking and flying around of a flock of about a dozen birds. They were circling the campground and were too high up to see what they actually were. An hour later, I went for a walk around the campground and saw two floating on one of the few open areas of the lake. The loons are back, and I got a few nice pictures. I still haven’t heard them singing yet, though.

Wednesday, May 21st

We woke up and it was cold. It was probably below freezing overnight. There was 0.1% of the battery power left. At 7:30, even though it was still a bit early, I started the truck and ran it for an hour to get a bit of juice into the RV carriage batteries.

Mountain image — New fallen snow on the mountains.

I eventually discovered a light had been left on in the cargo compartments under the truck. Also, I looked in the battery compartment and the connections could use cleaning. This is a project for after we get home.

It clouded over today, and didn’t get very warm. However, the clouds should keep the heat in and mean that it won’t be as cold tonight as last night.

I made an interesting discovery. I found a campsite here that I had never noticed before. Once the lake opens and we come back, I’m going to try to get that one. We went for a walk around the campground and Clara likes the “new” spot, too.

Thursday, May 22nd

It was a bit warmer overnight. It obviously didn’t go below freezing, which was an improvement. We spent the morning getting the site packed up after breakfast and stowing some of the things in the camper. The first trip isn’t known for its packing efficiency. A short drive home and thus, endeth, the first camping trip of the year.

June 24, 2013

Coming back

I haven’t posted a lot lately, but this is due to us either being camping or getting ready for camping. We’ve made two trips since I last put something up on the blog.

We went back to Fox Lake for five days, although conditions were quite different. There was no more flooding, the weather was quite sunny, and there was no snow this time. We brought out the boat with the camper and I managed to get a few days of fishing in. I’ll admit, Fox Lake is not the world’s greatest place to fish for lake trout. However, I’m happy bobbing up in a down in a boat on a nice, peaceful lake, even when the fish are not cooperating.

I did get one fish, but it was quite small. It was of legal, but not moral, size. The fish was about 12″ long, and I prefer my “lakers” to be at least 16″ long before I keep them. After all, it is still a baby.

I was pleased to see that the flooded out campsites and roads had been repaired. It was a little rough, since some of the gravel in the sites wasn’t packed down as much as the old sites, but this opened another eight sites at the campground.

We were able to get a site just above the creek and you could see the little waterfall that’s about 20 yards upstream from the site. In the picture above, you can see our campfire and the little waterfall in the background.

As you can see, Clara is enjoying the bright sunlight in here zero gravity chair. She spent the time enjoying the campsite while I spent much of my time trolling for trout.

As mentioned, the weather was really nice. It was nice enough to go out in the boat in shorts. This had a bit of a down side, since I managed to sunburn my knees. I didn’t burn the upper parts of my legs, or the lowers. All that turned out crispy were my knees. For what it’s worth, it did look a lot worse than it actually was. They seemed warm for the first day but didn’t really end up hurting. I could have done far worse, I suppose.

We headed out to our favourite campground last Wednesday. This is Kusawa Lake, a little more than an hour west of Whitehorse (60° 35’N, 136° 9’W).

We left about 4 PM and it was almost the last trip we took. There is a turnoff from the Alaska Highway to the campground road. I signaled my left turn, started to slow down, and checked my side mirror. I learned the last part in the two Defense Driving courses I’ve taken (one in high school and one in the army). The car behind me was slowing down but the idiot behind him decided to pass both of us. He should have been able to see the turn signals so he probably knew exactly what they were doing, and did it anyway. I caught a bit of his facial expression and he seemed unhappy with what I screamed at him while waving a one-finger salute. If I didn’t have the motorhome and boat behind us, I may have followed him down and yelled at him at his first stop. I’ll admit, visions of a tire iron may also have crossed my mind. It was a dark blue Toyota or Subaru, by the way.

We spent five days at Kusawa, and in a trend, the fish weren’t biting much there either. I did catch two trout, one about 1½ lbs. and one about 2½ lbs. I froze these and will smoke them some time this week. The weather was hot, with temperatures in the high twenties, except for Thursday. There was a nice overcast and it only got up to 23°. It’s hard to argue with weather like this for a whole weekend, and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

There were three more things to the trip that were an annoyance. First, the neighbours on one side of us had the most whiny dog. He was constantly whining and the neighbours really didn’t seem interested in doing anything about it. On the other side, the other neighbour was a bit of a winner, too. There was someone who moved into the site Thursday afternoon and, before that, there was nothing at that site at all. A little later Thursday, this guy shows up and says he had that site and, basically, kicked the other people out of it. If you like trends, the people at the two sites on either side of us were together.

The third problem was the road itself. I have never seen the road in such rough shape. There are 11 km of washboard, and some of the dips in the washboard are three or four inches. It is one lane in a few places and there is no evidence the government has graded it this year. Before they fixed it almost 20 years ago, it was better than it was this week. And frankly, that annoys me since, for the last three years, you see the following sign at the beginning of the road…

September 4, 2012September 4, 2012

Another Labour Day weekend comes to an end

Another Labour Day weekend has ended, or at least, will have ended officially when I go to work this morning. This tends to mark the end of summer for us.

Frost image — Frost on the picnic table at Fox Lake campground, Yukon, Labour Day, 2012.

The weather has already started changing. It is windy, “fall-ish,” and there was frost on the picnic table at the campsite yesterday morning. This morning is quite windy and dark and the leaves are changing. In short, it seems that summer is truly over.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with Fall. The colours are vivid and make our stunning scenery even more attractive to just sit and enjoy. Fall fishing can be quite good, although dressing warmly is a necessity. The coho should be running so both fresh and salt water fishing are an option. And, the camper does have a furnace that is more than capable of heating the inside to a toast temperature for those late season nights, even if it is capable of sucking the battery dry quite quickly as well as it is capable of generating warmth. I’m not that worried since I bought a new generator last week and recharging is a relatively easy task.

We traditionally go camping on the Labour Day weekend. We missed out last year because I was still in the hospital following surgery, so getting out was an important point this year. Also, our summer was somewhat shortened by my heading out of town for an extended period following the death of my father and that was followed up by a bit more surgical repair work. We went to Fox Lake campground (N61º W14.6 135º 27.7′) on Friday evening and came back yesterday afternoon. I got some fishing in and the new boat has finally had a fish in it. I caught four lake trout, although two of them went back into the lake to get bigger. I’ll put them in brine before going to work this morning and will throw them on the smoker tonight after work. Smoked trout is a tasty treat.

But now, I must remember that Labour Day weekend is followed by labour. Classes officially start today, although I’ve actually had two courses running for the past two weeks. And, with the official start of classes, I must make the transition from wearing my belt knife to wearing a Blackberry in it’s place and thinking of classes rather than this…