Thanksgiving

Lost my wireless conection again. Doing this the hard way by email.
Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.
Granny

Crazy wind in Spokane!

Hello everybody!  Yesterday we had some crazy weather.  It was so nuts that they shut down most of Spokane.  Normally, this type of event is due to severe rain or snow, but yesterday the cause was high wind.  At first I scoffed at such a concept "canceling classes because of wind?"  However, on the way home I realized why it was important to send folks home.  I actually saw what happens when a power line snaps.  I saw a flash of white/bluish light followed by a sparking end of a live wire shooting out orange colored sparks.  It was pretty scary, but I can say that the live end was not whipping around like you see in the movies.  We lost power briefly a few moments but no more than 10 minutes each time.  It was announced this morning that classes today at Gonzaga are cancelled, so I have the day to get caught up on stuff.  I went out for a brief walk this morning to check out the carnage.  All in all it wasn't that bad.  We live up near Whitworth University on the north end of Spokane.  If you ever have been to Whitworth, then you have seen all the trees on campus.  I think this makes the campus beautiful but on the other hand, if a wind storm hits then there will be a lot of downed trees.  

The pictures below are of the trees near the Whitworth campus area in our neighborhood.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Hello out there all y'all in the blogosphere.  I hadn't been on the blog in a while so I thought I'd send out a message to wish Grandma a Happy Birthday!  Things in Spokane are pretty routine, get up go to work, try to get some exercise, eat dinner, watch some TV hit the sack and repeat the same process for the next day.

I've been able to get some fun in though.  A couple of weeks ago the family converged on Pullman, WA/ Lewiston, ID for a football game.  We we going to watch Oregon State play Washington State and camp out at Hells Gate State park afterwards.  The game was a bit of a stinker in that the Beavers got their butts whooped.  However, it was pretty cool to get the family around a campfire to enjoy some roasted marshmallows.  Other than the Beavers getting killed the trip was awesome.   We had pretty good seats at the game.  We were able to find a place for all of us to camp.  Well, it wasn't really camping, we stayed in cabins but it was still a good time.

Other than that, not much is going on.  I think I'll spend the day watching some football on TV and getting caught up on some laundry.  I hope y'all have a fun and safe Halloween and Happy Birthday Grandma!

Hot???

Wow!  20 degrees above normal lows and highs.  We lucked out on the monsoon that came thru yesterday.  Went just south of us.  We got the smell of rain a winds but thank god not the hellish lightning that flashed continually for over an hour and a half. Nasty that one was. Must have flooded big time down there in Congress and on the desert. Won't know til we go down that way.  Damn news here is only about Pheonix area.

Happy Birthday to Jeannine.

Granny

Rain.

We had our first monsoon rains yesterday and today.  Lots of rain, but still here, and not washed down the street. Hotter than the hubs of hell here.  rain didn't cool things down any.  Just made things muggier.
Granny

Floatin' and fishin'

Last week I went up to visit with the folks to do some F&F.  Dad and I took a trip up to Middle Thompson for a little blueback fishing.  We didn't do too shabby, we came back with enough kokanee to make it worthwhile to fire up the smoker.  During our lunch break I was fiddling with my camera and accidentally took this picture.  It's not centered but I think it is pretty cool.

After fishing for bluebacks (or silvers as folks here in Washington call them) we went for a float on the Bull River.  We didn't do any fishing, we were just soaking in the sunshine and floating for the heck of it.  The pictures below are some that I snapped during our floating adventure.

I thought it would be fun to take some video of the gnarly section of the river downstream from my folks house.  

Below is a section just downstream (~30 meters) from my folks house.  

The last sections are one big video that I spliced into smaller portions.  Normally I don't take 8+ min. videos.  It seems like editing, exporting and uploading 2 to 3 minute videos is just more time efficient than doing a single video that is 8 minutes long.  I should put this to a test and time it to see what the temporal difference is, but I'm lazy.  It seems like the last time I tried to upload a long video to YouTube it took 4 hours.  These five videos uploaded in ~20 minutes.  Anyway, I digress, I typically only turn on the record button for a bit then shut it off.  I then splice together the segments that i like.

However, in this situation I dropped into the rapids and didn't really have the chance to mess with my camera until I exited the rapids.  I liked all the footage so I kept it all and created 4 separate segments in order of going downstream with each increment.

Whoa!

Look at this a while and it moves.

Weird, huh?

Granny

Nother day.

Finally had to get dressed so we could head into town while it is still cool. I guess it will stay cool all day today.  Thought maybe we might get some much needed rain but looks like it is going past us . South and headed NE.

The weather people say there has not been rain in June for years.  Well they got it last night and today down south of us.

Feeling better today.  Had a bit of vertigo yesterday so we didn't do the volunteer thing.  Don't know why, just happened.  Don't suppose it's because I might be getting old do you?  Speaking of old, At the family reunion, I will be the oldest Prescott there.  Some thing for me to think about., huh?

Granny

Still dreaming.

You could picture me in this house instead, but with the same setting as the last dream house.
I could handle either one.  Couldn't you?

Granny.

Dream.

Can you see me in a place like this?  Well I can dream can't I.   I think that line was in a song so long ago.
Saw this on line one day and thought it would be a great place to live. No houses near by. A good fishing stream down the path a ways. About 50 acres of pasture and woodlands.  A beef and a cow, chickens, a couple of piglets. and a nice orchard with a garden nearby.  Well I can dream can't I?

Granny

Another month almost gone.

Owl Clover.



This stuff grows all over the desert.  So pretty when it is in a huge bunch.  Turns the hills pink.  Also turns your sox pink when you walk in it.

It's Birthday time for Donna.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY,  Donna.

Granny

Let's try this again

My last post was weird and I think it got deleted when my computer locked up.  Hmmm... might be time for a call to the Geek Squad.  Anyway, here is another attempt at a post and hopefully this one sticks.  As you may have read in the previous post, Steph and I took a drive up to Great Grandpa Prescott's mining claim to do some trash clean up.

I erroneously thought that the trash heap that we cleaned up was Grandpa's.  It sounds like other folks started it and added to it as the years went on.  Well, that's all in the past and I'm sure whoever left their garbage up there didn't do it out of malicious intent.  I'm guessing they didn't see any harm in it and may have had plans to haul it out someday (but didn't get around to it).  I loved going to the cabin as a kid and seeing all the garbage in the heap next to the cabin kinda put a stain on those memories.  

I didn't want my family legacy to be one of leaving a bunch of junk behind so Steph and I went to work doing our best to remove the trash.  Below are a few pictures we took of our outing. 

I thought this giant tree with the root system exposed looked pretty cool.  Charlie Creek filled in the cavity from the tree well pretty good.

Right next to the outhouse there was a bunch of plastic that I pulled up.  I hope I got most of it.

The trash was spread all over but this was the main concentration of it.  I think somebody may have had intentions of gathering it up one day because the piles seem to be segregated into piles by type, i.e. steel can pile; broken glass pile; pieces of ceramic etc. etc.

This is a picture of that main trash area after we cleaned it up.  There were a few small pieces left but we got most of the big stuff.

When we were done there was 6 bags of garbage, 4 of which were recyclable, and a bed spring I couldn't smash into a bag.

Oooops.

I forwarded the message I got from Jake, but the pictures didn't post with it.  Hopefully Jake will repost this post with the pictures in it..

Re: [This and That] Amalgam post

The biggest portion of that garbage was left there by Suzanne the
summer she stayed up there with her kids.

On 5/27/15, Virginia Hanks <sknah100@gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jake <jstoke@physics.utoledo.edu>
> Date: Wed, 27 May 2015 05:52:25 +0000
> Subject: [This and That] Amalgam post
> To: sknah100@gmail.com
>
> How's it going out there everybody. Hopefully your getting some good summer
> adventure in. We have to do something to bide our time until the snow flies
> again. This post is a collection of adventures. I didn't think each one
> warranted a post individually but together I think it is post-worthy.
>
>
>
> The first adventure was a kayak session up the Pack River which is just
> east of Sandpoint, ID on the north side of Lake Pend Oreille. The Pack
> River flows into Pend Oreille with a slack water delta (unlike the Bull
> River which rages into the Clark Fork). I wanted to explore the delta
> region and see how far I could paddle upstream before I got tired.
>
>
>
> I didn't make it nearly as far I had hoped. I guess I have more river to
> explore on a different outing. I took one channel up and floated back on
> another. I surprised a blue heron in the process. I wish I had the camera
> ready because seeing it take flight would have made for an awesome picture.
>
>
> The next adventure is a random road trip. I had a few hours to kill last
> week so I decided to drive over the state line to my native Idaho. I have
> had an urge to visit a place where my Dad and I used to get firewood back
> in the day. The best way I can describe this area is Beauty Bay Creek
> drainage. It is a small valley where the water runoff flows into Beauty Bay
> Creek which in turn flows into Beauty Bay of Coeur D' Alene Lake. This area
> is pretty interesting because you have pockets of cedar trees which provide
> a canopy. This canopy significantly reduces light intensity underneath and
> as a result there is not a lot of brush or small trees. It is also a lot
> cooler under the cedar canopy, so these areas are cool (literally and
> figuratively) places to hang out on hot summer days.
>
>
>
> At the top of the forest service road that runs along Beauty Bay Creek I
> took these last two pictures. This area was a huge clear cut when I was
> younger. The logging companies stripped out every tree and burned all the
> scrap wood (branches; stumps; trees too small for lumber). It was nice to
> see it green again. I'm not an advocate for clear cutting. From what I've
> read it is pretty environmentally disruptive to strip hillsides of giant
> sections of trees, only to extract one or two species and burn the rest.
> However, it does look like this section has recovered somewhat. The conifer
> biodiversity may not be what it was like before the clear cutting but at
> least it doesn't look like scorched earth.
>
>
> The last adventure on this post pertains to an area south of Emida, ID
> which is in the middle of nowhere. Stephanie and I were on a mission to
> correct some environmental misdeeds. We drove down to my great
> grandfather's mining claim to clean up some trash that he and probably
> quite a few of my relatives left on the claim. My Great Grandpa Prescott
> was "old school" meaning he grew up in the Great Depression and his
> priorities were more along the lines of 'surviving' more than caring for
> nature. I imagine in those days if you wanted to put food on the table,
> money came first and environmental awareness was way down on the list of
> day to day priorities.
>
> A few years ago I showed Steph the area where my Grandpa used to run a
> slurry through sluice boxes and pan the remains for pieces of gold. As I
> showed Steph the cement platform where my Grandpa built a cabin and the
> drainage where he used to run sediment through his sluice boxes, I was
> beaming with family pride. However, that pride was diminished somewhat when
> I noticed that my Grandfather must have used the a nearby area as his own
> private garbage dump. It was pretty bad, there was a lot of crap that he
> left behind. I thought that someday I'd go back and clean up his junk pile.
> Well, this past weekend Steph and I rolled up our shirt sleeves and did
> just that.
>
> I took a couple pictures of a big cedar that Charlie Creek washed out.
> Steph took a picture of me standing next to it to provide a sense of scale.
> Charlie Creek runs right near the edge of the mining claim.
>
>
>
> The structure on the right used to be an old out house. I don't have a
> problem with this because human waste breaks down and the wood it was made
> out of will probably be pretty much decomposed in a few decades. However,
> the plastic that I think my Grandfather stashed to make a "natural light"
> roof does not decompose and I pulled up a lot of it.
>
>
>
> There was garbage scattered all over, but this was the worst area by far. I
> wonder if my Grandfather had plans to 'pack it out' but didn't get to it
> before he died. I say this because the junk was kind of segregated into
> piles with steel cans in one pile and broken glass/ceramics in a different
> pile.
>
>
>
> This is what the area looked like after we cleaned it up. We didn't get
> everything. There were a lot of pieces that were less than a square
> centimeter that I didn't feel like sifting through. Also I think the
> depressed region was a garbage pit with trash buried to some unknown, but
> probably insane depth. I was exhausted by the end of the session and didn't
> feel like digging down 8 feet to extract buried trash.
>
>
>
> When we were done we pulled out 6 trash bags full of junk (and one bed
> spring I couldn't smash into a bag). Four of the bags were recyclable
> material. Rather than get down on my Grandpa, I'd like to think he was
> planning on pulling the junk out of the area but just didn't get around to
> it before he got too old. I'd like to think that if he were here today he
> would thank us for what we did. I knew him probably more than most people
> know a great grand parent. Heck, I've known quite a few people that didn't
> even know there grand parents let alone their great grand parents. My Great
> Grandpa "Bill" Prescott was a good man. For me he was an example of how
> hard work and a love of the outdoors can keep a person young. During the
> time my immediate family lived in Idaho I loved going to the "cabin" as we
> called it. It was even more fun when extended family came along for the
> fun. I remember watching my Great Grandfather when he was in his late
> seventies working the sluice boxes; cutting rounds with a chainsaw and then
> splitting those rounds with an axe. You could tell that spending time at
> the claim had a rejuvenating effect on him. I just wish he could have given
> some of that "life energy" back to the land by being a better steward of
> it. I hope that in a small way we gave back to the place that Bill loved
> and I personally enjoyed growing up.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Posted By Jake to This and That at 5/26/2015 10:52:00 PM
>

Strange??

I got an email that Jake has posted to the blog, but when I looked, I can't see where it posted.

Am I just imagining this or what?

Another ho hum day.

I think that is part of my problem anyway.

Still in the doldrums down here.  Cool and cloudy.  If it would rain, I wish it would do it and get it over with.

Granny

Ooop's.

Here I was spouting off about my modem and what I meant was monitor.  Duh!

This and that.

Some kinda cool beetles of some kind.  They like the mint flowers that's for sure.
All kinds of bugs out doing their mint sipping.  Butterflies too.

Weird thing.  Hadn't heard from this guy who has a shitload of sapphires from all over the world, for almost 5 years, and out of the blue he e-mails me saying he is going to be in Montana in June, July and Aug. Seems he remembered Phillip said he would take him up to the Sweetwater Canyon area where we found the blue grey star sapphires in the pink matrix.  Hell this was the last year we were in Mt and he never showed up. Anyway he can meet with Dick Berg from Mt. Tech, and have him show him where they are.  I told Dick where we got the specimens and we gave him some for the college.
If you would like to see his web site and a lot of cool sapphires,  it's ...
www.corunduminium.com......

I mentioned a while back that the old Mitsubishi modem finally gave up the ghost.  Went to town today to get a few things and the concrete mix for the back porch Phillip is putting in, and stopped at the thrift store.  They had about a dozen flat screen ones, and since the old PC is a Gateway, I figured an HP modem would be ok.  Put it up on the counter for a bit while I did some more looking around.
Picked up a couple of thins and went up to check out and the modem was gone.  The new kid running the place took it back to the office to make sure it worked.  Said it was no good but he had one in the back that was better.  Wow he did and it works great.  It's a 21 inch IBM and cost me 5 bucks for it and all the other stuff I got. Makes me a happy dude.  Great thrift store.

Granny

Big rocks.

I was talking about rocks in the road on my last post.  Forgot to mention the last big one  I should have taken a picture of it but Phillip didn't want to stop going up the pass.

 On the pass going down on the desert, there are two roads.  One going up and one coming down.  They wind their way a thousand and some feet up the mountainside, in a perfect 12 degree grade.  When you are down on the desert it looks like straight roads ,but in reality the roads go in and out of deep washes that have washed out of the mountain.  The mountain is just a big granite batholith that has eroded in many places to gigantic boulders. Many much larger than autos.  Last month when we were going down to do the laundry we came across where there as a big gash in the pavement and a large chunk of guard rail taken out. Figured must have been a hell of a wreck there.  Going down hill is one lane with a  with a lane width shoulder on the mountain side of the road.  Coming back up the road is two lane.  On our way up we find a huge boulder as big as the car setting in the outside lane up against the guard rail.  It had tumbled down the mountainside, hit the road above, rolled thru the guard rail down to the lower road. It hit hard there and rolled out to the edge.  They had to blast it to pieces to remove it.  Good thing it happened at night when no one was on the pass.

Granny

Ho hum.

That's the way it is now a days.  Too damn lazy to get off the machine and move the damn log or is it because his union says he can't because it isn't his job?   Almost every time we go up to Prescott or down to the desert we see rocks that have fallen off the hills onto the road way.  State trucks go past, cops go past, the only people who stop and move them are usually older folks.  I've made Phillip  stop and move some that are too far out into the road.  There is a good wide shoulder in most places to pull off.

On another note that isn't a gripe. Since I now have wireless connection, I visit a lot of different web sites. I ran across this one that is cool in a kooky way.  You need to take a look at this weired web site. Watch it all. Interesting to say the least.....   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoryHVyqueI

Granny

Remembering...

Do you remember where you were 35 years ago today??

Well Donna, Phillip and I were down at Blackwell Island, fishing. Sky started to get dark.  Looked like a bad storm was coming in so we decided to cut things short and head home.  Got back to the car just in time to here Dad on the radio. Said to get our butts home because Mt St-Helens blew its stack and mucho ash was on it's way.  Woke up the next day and things looked like we were in another world.  Remember??

Granny

Another day here in AZ.

Got up to another drizzly day.  Pits, but we need the rain bad.  Went to town to do a bit of shopping and ran into snow on the pass going into Prescott.  Top of the pass 6000 feet.   Snow as all along the sides of the road but the roadway itself was clear.  Some rocks had been dislodged as we wound  our way up the pass.  Lots of steep cuts thru the hills leaves cliffs at some of the bends in the road.
 Been raining off and on all morning but now it seems like it is going to steady rain the rest of the day.  Rain coming in off the ocean by way of lower CA. Don't know if the drought stricken area is getting any rain or not.

Wanted to take some people out arrowhead hunting but grass is growing too much now. They came over from CA. to visit his Brother in Phoenix.  Told them to contact us when they come over this winter.

Phillip wondering if all this rain is making the creek flow up in copper basin so he can go panning.  Rain lets up then it may be too hot.  Who knows.  Anyway he has been bust as all get out, trying to get the yard leveled out where the track hoe dug things up and tearing out the back porch. He wants to put in a new back porch with a ramp and a patio back there.  Had to dig a hell of a hole just to get all the old boards and concrete out of the way.  Any way he's got a good start.  He can't work out side today, so he's making orange banana bread.  As usual I'm sitting here pecking away on the puter.  I'm now able to get 4 and 5 bars on the wireless thanks to Bob who gave me a little wireless gadget that brings in the signal stronger.  Was able to download a couple new game from ...myrealgames.com... They have some good ones there. All full games and free. No nasties tagging along with the download.. Norton and Malwarebites clear them all the time.

Granny

How about this?  One thing a person could do with those old heads.  Took this off the internet.  Got to show it to Phillip.

Still colder than all get out.  Had heavy frost last night.  Good thing I haven't planted my new little apricot tree yet.  Tops of all the  paradise trees got frosted.  They are all around at the neighbors houses. Phillip transplanted a small one in the garden for shade.  It's history now.

Granny

Here in AZ.

Well I can dream can't I?  Hop right on up there Mr. bear and kiss ole Obama's ass.


Cold and windy here today.  Was even cold down on the desert this am when we went down to do the laundry.

Phillip is busy putting some of that foam insulation stuff on the new hot water line going to the kitchen sink. As usual I'm sitting on my butt playing on the puter.  I started to  put captions on the photos we got.  Found out what a daunting task that turns out to be.  At the rate I'm going it will take 2 or 3 years to do them all.  We have over 3000 pictures on this puter.  She....it.

Granny

Another day in AZ.

Today was another day for volunteering.  There were 4 brand new cars and 1 new pickup in the parking lot . 4 of those rigs belong to mexies who barely speak English. Where in the hell do these people get the money for these new rigs and yet come to the senior center to get free food.  I'd be ashamed to drive here in a new car to get free food if I had the money to get rigs like that.  These are not seniors by the way.  Phillip brought a load of bread down to the senior center, from what was left over at the church but there was 6 boxes of it at the senior center already.  Lots of bread left over so I got a big pack of hotdog buns and a bag of kaiser rolls.  Got a few new red potatoes too.

About a month ago I planted an apricot seed and now my tree is about 6 inches tall.  Planted 4 peach seeds too but none came up.  The peaches they came from were probably picked too green. Not mature enough or something. Let the seeds dry all winter. Maybe one of them will still come up, who knows.

Did some more research on What Dad told me about his family. Found out George and Viola had 2 other children. a Charles and what I first thought was a girl, but seems it was  boy named of all thing Freda.  This was a 1910 census.  Freda was just a tiny baby then.  Wonder if this was a name misspelled by the census taker or if the boy was Fred A. Boyce. Was listed again in the 1920 census the same way.  Coincidence again? hmmm.

Was windier than all get out today.  Wonder that the phone line didn't go out again.

Getting close to my bedtime and Phillip just brought in a piece of applesauce cake with dried cranberries in in he made.  Looks and smells good. Got to go get some milk.

Until next time, Granny.

The plot thickens.

Phillp is out busting his butt whacking weeds while I set here on my butt playing puter. But at least I have started a mystery?? Anyway  when in the safe a few days ago, I came across a paper I wrote some notes on when I had the folks down here in AZ. I was talking to Dad about his family. As you know we have always suspected Dad changed his name somewhere along the line.  He was always telling us a bunch of bull so never knew what was the truth or not.  Well again, I decided to write down some of the names he told me.  He said he had aunts by the name of Estep and Blankenship.  Sisters names Helen and Mary.  Brother named Weldon. Grandparents named Boggs.  Mother name Viola Boggs. Cousins, Vergillia and Belva.  Best friend, Fred Boyce.
Here is where the plot begins to thicken.  I went on line and looked up Viola Boggs and lo and behold I come up with a Viola Boggs who was around the age Dad's Mother might have been, married to a George W. Boyce.  Following me yet?  Any way they had 2 sons I can find, one named Howard William Boyce born 1903. and Amos L. Boyce  born 1906 in Page W. Va.    Hummm I'm thinking.
Going further I find The Mother of Viola Boggs, was Lucinda J. Estep... The plot gets a bit thicker here now.  Seems the Boyce brothers were both married but either of them could have just ran out of their wives and headed west to hunt for gold. They could have done it and still panned for gold in Ca. the went up to Utah and met Mom.

Maybe...Who knows for sure?

Granny

I'm here.

Well i got wireless for a bit so trying to make a post if I can.

Fighting back after the flooding last summer and fall.

Got all the mud, or at least the most of it cleaned out of the shed.

We finally have a good new waterline in. Deep enough we hope so the monsoons won't take it out.

Got the septic tank taken care of although there may be a problem yet with the drain field. Works a bit too slow.

Phillip worked his butt off leveling off the front yard where it was torn up bu the trackhoe. Going to plant flowers out there since most of the cactus are gone.

Phillip still has to put the water line back to the back yard.  It won't have to be but a foot deep so he can do it by hand.

Phillip want's to put in a back step with a ramp with railing to replace the old porch that took a beating in the flooding. I can't step up those high steps, especially with out a hand rail.  Going to put in a patio too out there.  And  new steps to the rock shop.  Maybe all will be in by the end of July if the monsoons don't change our plans.

Been down to the river where we go a lot. Sure don't look like it used to.  So much of it changed due to the flooding but it is coming back.  Lots of trees went down  but the willows got bent over bad and are beginning to straighten back somewhat.  But the best thing is, they have fixed the road and no more 6 miles of washboard beating the hell out of the rig.

Want to post while I can, I hope Granny

Backlog of adventures

I haven't posted much to the blog in a while but I have had some 'post worthy' adventures recently so I thought I would do one big long winded post.  So if you hate long winded posts, you've been warned, this is a long one.

Two weekends ago I mentioned to Steph that it would be fun to take a trip into British Columbia and explore the area north of us.  I didn't get the vibe that she was gung ho on this idea so I figured we probably wouldn't do it.  She surprised a few days later when she said "let's pack up our clothes and hit the road!"  Since I need very little prompting to go out on a road trip adventure, I was ready in about 10 minutes.  We didn't bring much, just a change of clothes in the event this long day trip turned into an overnighter. 

It was kind of cool how it worked out.  We had two options.  The first option would have been a long road trip (but no overnight stay) where we went into Canada north of Metaline Falls, Washington and cut over on 'provincial highway?' 3 over to Creston, Canada.  The other option was to drive up to Nelson, BC and then take the free ferry across Kootenay Lake.  

When we stopped for lunch in Metaline Falls, Steph shocked me again by suggesting that we do an 'overnighter' and take the ferry across the lake.  I reminded her that after we left Nelson, I couldn't guarantee the quality of lodging as we would be going through some of the tiniest communities in B.C.  She said "let's go for it."  So with a smile I plotted a course for Salmo and onto Nelson.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.   

This is a picture looking across the lake from the ferry on the west side.

Cars are loaded up ready to float over to the east side of the lake.


The last three pictures are of mountains surrounding the lake.

As a kid I liked floating around in my rubber raft.  I would probably still be content to float around  on the rubber raft if it weren't for my Dad and his canoe.  Once you have paddled in a canoe and felt the feeling of gliding through water 10 times faster than a rubber raft with half the effort, it is hard to go back.  Plus, in a rubber raft you can take a painful shot to the tailbone if your in fast moving water and you hienny makes contact with a shallow rock.  In a canoe you'll bounce around a bit but you won't take an "up the spine" shot.  Well, a canoe is a bit unfeasible for me because I would probably spend 90% of the time in it by myself, which would suck on windy days.  I figured a better option would be to get a kayak.  I can get exercise paddling around and do not need to spend money on gasoline or engine maintenance.  I don't have to license it and I don't need a trailer.  I have taken the kayak out a couple of times to get used to it but I wanted to see how well I could fish out of it.

Yesterday I took a day off from "end of the semester madness" (last minute grading and final exam writing, etc) and drove up to Bead Lake to see how well the kayak worked as a fishing vessel.  I have to say the day was a '10'.  Well, actually more like a 9.5 because I didn't bring home any fish for supper.  But it still was a pretty awesome day.

Bead Lake is north of Newport, WA.  I drive this way to visit my folks and I've always been curious to see what is off of the "main route."  Yesterday, I took one of those turn offs to see where it went.

This is the kind of lake I like to paddle on.  It's big enough to sustain a healthy fish population without stocking, but small enough that you will not have hordes of motor boat enthusiasts.  Actually, if you wanted to launch a big motor boat on this lake, you would have to get wet because the boat ramp does not have a dock.  So pretty much any motor boat on the lake would be operated by someone who has waterfront property.

With a kayak though, you can put the back end on land and the nose in the water and the you can step in without getting soaked.  After few shoves with the paddle, you're on the water, no dock required.

I spent most of the morning exploring the bottom right "thumb" of the lake and that is where I had a few bites but I couldn't get them in the boat.  The weather was perfect, it wasn't too hot and nor was it too cold.  For the first 4 hours on the lake I was the only boat on the water.  There was a little bit of wind but it wasn't too insane.

Here are a few pictures of Bead Lake

After exploring the southeastern branch of the lake and paddled over to the middle branch.  The fishing over there sucked but it was the more scenic and interesting with a lot of little coves to explore.  I was cruising up the west side of the middle branch and decided to stop for a snack and stretch break in the cove about half way up the branch that points to the northwest.  I was going to stop on the north side of the cove so that I could enjoy the south facing beach sunshine.  However, something on the south side of the cove caught my attention.  It looked like a building but I didn't recall seeing a road on the map that accessed that part of the lake.  Otherwise I would put in there away from the private houses which are near the public boat ramp.

I paddled up close to the shore but I still couldn't get a good look at the structure because it was shrouded by bunch of cedar trees and some brush.  I'm a sucker for old cabins, houses, mines, barns, etc.  I guess I like to imagine what these structures were like when they were first built; who built them; how long was it used; did any significant events take place at that location.  Maybe I watched too many Scooby Doo episodes when I was a kid.  This structure interested me because it was tucked away from the main part of the lake with no road access, this would mean it would probably was some kind of vacation property.

I didn't see any "NO Trespassing" signs, I also didn't see any fencing so I figured it was fair game to poke around.  In more recent times it looks like folks have used this area as a "boat in" campsite.

This place is hidden pretty well, from the water (in this picture to the right) there is a thick wall of cedars and shoreline brush.  I looked on google maps and you can't really see it from above either.  After I got on shore I felt better about snooping around someone's vacation property because this hasn't been used as a shelter in a long time as evidenced by the tree on the roof and holes in the wall.

It looks like whoever used this place had quite the setup, wood stove, kitchen area with shelving, two sets of bunk beds and some other random stuff.  I didn't want to step inside because I didn't want to run a rusty nail through the bottom of my shoe.

As I walked around the structure I noticed some wiring that suggested this cabin had electricity at some point.  That was a head scratcher, how the heck to they get electricity out on this side of the lake?  I guess that it is possible that they could have tapped into a nearby transmission line but that just seemed weird to bring in electrical power without also having a road coming into the area.  It's possible but I didn't think very probable.

At this point I was in "full exploratory" mode and walked around trying to find the road that helped facilitate bringing in power lines.  I didn't find a road but I did find evidence that solved my question. It looks like the folks brought in their own fuel and ran a generator for their electrical power.  However, in the process of finding the answer to a question, more questions pop up.  I was thinking why the hell do you need electrical power at a cabin anyway?  You can use propane lanterns for light and you can cook food on the wood stove.  Maybe they wanted to stay out at the lake for a while and wanted to keep food cold in a small refrigerator.  Then again, how peaceful can a lake trip be if you have a noisy generator running just so you can have eggs and sausage for breakfast?  I think I could 'rough it on dried food' for a while to have a tranquil experience.  Maybe they needed electricity for entertainment.  I think battery powered radios have been around for a while, I don't think that was the case.  Did they want to watch television?  It could have been a simple case of "if I can do something, I will do it just for the sake of proving that it can be done."  Who knows, during the cold war craze people went nuts on the whole "self sufficient personal bomb shelter" trend, who knows maybe somebody applied this enthusiasm toward the building of a lake cabin.

I was out of the water by about 6 P.M. and my shoulders, wrists and arms were sore but it was totally worth it to float the whole day on a lake I had never been to before