Jeep camping

Thursday evening my 11 year old asked me if we could go jeep camping last weekend since my wife was working overtime and wouldnt be home much. so friday after i got back from fishing and she got home from school, we loaded up and took off. the drive was 3 hrs so we needed to get scootin if we were gonna do any fishing before dark. i had planned on us finding something close to where i wanted to fish. when we got to the turnoff for the lakes i wanted to fish the road past that was closed off cause off forest fires, so the sign said. well i wanted to camp in there and since we couldn't see any signs of fire we drove thru the signs. not to far past the road block is where i was hoping to camp but when we drove down there i didnt realize it was only a day area, no overnight camping. turned around and started driving out to the main road and here came the DNR aka fish cops with the lights on. after some questioning and an ID check he escorted us out. the closest place to camp was the next canyon over.  i didnt want to pay to camp but once we got into that canyon and up to that lake we drove thru the pay camp sites and headed right back out. to packed in there. we took a gamble on a dirt road that was just down the road from the pay to camp sites. the dirt road was only about maybe 150 yards but it had about 6 make shift camp spots along it. we took the farthest from the road and there was nobody else camping off the road so it ended up working out well for us but by the time we got there we only had about 40 minutes till dark so we just got a fire going and set up camp. the next morning after a little fire and some breakfast we closed down camp and drove over to the lakes i had wanted to fish but only fished for about a couple of hours. lakes were supper low and mossy. i did get a few on dries in the little feeder streams and alanna had a couple of chasers with a spinner so it was all good.

Streamers and browns...

....oh how i have missed thee. its just about that season again for me so Friday went out with Nate and got some practice in. we managed a few fish but after the 1st hour it kind of fizzled out. the fishing was hot until it wasnt but it was nice to get back into my normal routine of chucking meat at browns

A sunday drive

Hadnt fished with jake in about 3 years or so. he called me out of the blue to fish. we took a couple hour drive to some water that he had not fished before. the fishing was shit till about noon then it finally started to pick up. didnt turn out to be to bad of a day but still the worst that section has ever fished for me. it is what it is

Henry's Fork Trailhead

Headed back to the north slope to endure the longest hike i have done to date. got to the trailhead at 0630 and hiking by 0645. for the 1st 5 miles the trail stays in the woods before opening up into the valley. once it opens up it becomes absolutely gorgeous as you become surrounded by mountains. the views just become even more beautiful as you advance up the trail. the hike itself is a relatively easy one with just some minor undulations. i had planned on fishing 2 different lakes but i got so engulfed in the beauty and taking lots of photos doing some fishing in one of the streams that it took me double the time as what i had anticipated, well that and not paying close enough attention to my topo map and over shooting my lake by about a mile and a half. my bad. by the time i got to the 1st lake i wanted to fish (blanchard) i was wore out and my feet were killing me. i fished for about an hour and decided that i would skip the 2nd lake i wanted to fish and get the hell out of there as i was wore the hell out and my body was feeling it. as i was walking out my feet were really starting to hurt (wading boots are not good for long hikes) and with roughly 7 miles to go both my feet had developed sizeable blisters. it became excruciatingly slow after that and i didnt finally make it back to my jeep till about 830 pm. seriously the last few miles an old person with a walker couldve moved faster then i was. i have never had my lower body fail on me like that before. i over did myself but it was still worth it to go. the scenery was amazing and the cutties were small but gorgeous.well it seems that blogger has changed and it posted my photos in reverse order so the last photos are actually the 1st ones.