The OrangeRadish clan arrived early Saturday and secured a most spectacular camp site at Staircase. The Mumbles clan meandered down several hours later. The site was vast and had a natural jungle gym of downed trees of massive proportions and huge rocks. This was all the real entertainment needed by the Radish boys and Mum-belles. The four of them range from 11 down to 6 and all four played tirelessly together the entire time.
Daddy Radish announced upon our arrival that he had already caught the biggest fish in this part of the river, a nice 16" native cutthroat trout. You all can see if you can pry a picture out of Mr. Photography Wizard, I couldn't.
We set up the two full sized clan tents. Got the gals chatting and they really hit it off splendidly. This fact was noticed early, often and discussed while on the water and hiking trail at great length. There is little better, in my simple mind, than two guys that like to fish together AND their fishing widow wives get along immediately AND their children play together fantastic while treating everyone with the utomost respect. We shall be connecting the clans as often as feasible for our schedules and the three hour separation of our respective homes.
I had an absoultely stellar time with my family, my good friend and his family. Just freaking spectacular.
After setting up our 24 hour homestead, Jesse, his girl and Jeff showed up. I wadered up and off we went. No fishy love for us early, but we saw a nice bend in the Jesse rod. O-rad and I hiked up river a bit, found a few tempting places, but still no love. I told him I wanted to fish an area on the opposite side, so back down to the bridge we went, crossed over and hiked up. I pulled a gorgeous small native cutthroat of about 8-9" our of the spot I called from the other side of the river. Satisfied for this quick trip, back to the camp.
The other friends had to go, and the dads worked on fajita dinner while the ladies and groms enjoyed the late afternoon walk about camp. Once the fire was going well we knew the dinner would be coming together nicely and it did not disappoint. We made a dinner that Jerry D and Bitteroot would be proud of.
After a good meal it was back to the river in the waning daylight. No fishy love but I made a nice rescue of O's rod tip, bobbercator and bit of his leader after a bit of a snagup. What are friends for, right? I'll scale down a sheer rock and hanging log for ya pal, no worries. Thanks to my trusty Korkers and their studded Kling On soles I had all the traction I needed for the task.
Back to camp for some barley pops and chatting with the collective clan. Slowly the groms peeled off to bed, then the ladies, then the gents. The plan to get up early was cool on my part. I was up at 5, took a little walk to the facilities and then stomped around camp a bit. No company, back in the sleeping bag. I guess the Radish was up around 6 and I was out again. So much for early plans as we finally left camp just before 9 to fish for about an hour. No fishy love, but time for breakfast. This time Mr. Radish converted the cooler refrigerated leftovers from the night before into a fantastic scramble, just adding sausage and eggs. Again, just like Jerry D would have crafted, and it was a tremendous hit from those from 6 to...well a lot freaking older than six.
Cleaned up camp, broke down the haciendas and loaded up the rigs. Parked them at the parking area and off to the trail. We hiked up to the rapids, this is not a stretch I intend to float, not ever. It was amazing, Mr. PhotOrange took lots of killer images that he hopefully will send to my email address (first initial, middle initial, last name AT SYMBOL you know who DOT net)
Got home late, unpacked the rig, cleaned all the grime off of us all and most are out for the count. I'm tinkering with the blue Saturn raft for the next family outing planned in two weeks with the Ast clan. This weekend set our clan collaborating bar pretty damn high, looking forward to upping the mark as soon as possible. Life lived like this is a damn fine life indeed.
