Camping with the boys

Well, the Brough clan headed down to our favorite part of the world again for one last hurrah before we part ways for the summer. For a while, it didn't look like it was going to happen due to work schedule conflicts and military training...

Eli was INCREDIBLEY excited to go fishing - I think these pictures say it all. He helped his grandpa catch a fish, which got off the hook right before they got it in to shore. My dad was pretty quick however and he reached into the water and "slapped" the fish out onto the bank. Eli thought this was AMAZING and spent the next 5 minutes slapping the fish while my dad tried to clean it.


Here is Eli telling about Grandpa's fish - there is also a minor reference to a certain pine hen incident:


Eli spent a LONG time dipping his lure in the water while he stood on a big rock - here is his explanation of what he is doing:


Apart from the fish slapping, the other main interesting event of the night was a result of the fact that we only brought 4 jakes lures for 5 spinning rods. Carl lost the first one, and then my little brother Jed got his snagged. In the process of handing me his fishing pole so I could try to un-snag the lure, the top half of the pole came off and slid down the line into the water. It's one thing to lose a $1.00 lure, but quite another to lose the top half of an Ugly Stick, so we goaded Jed into stripping down to his boxers and swimming out to get his lure and pole.

Eli thought it was pretty amazing and funny that Jed went into the water - he laughed uncontrollably when Jed stated that he couldn't breathe and was experiencing heart failure (my son shows tendencies similar to his grandmother who ALSO laughs at the pain and discomfort of others). Jed retrieved the top half of the spinning rod, but gave up the search for the lure - however after my dad and I offered him money (a total of $15), he went in for another trip which was unsuccessful.


Here is some EXCELLENT footage of Jed suffering - enjoy (I know my sister Leesa will!):


We spent quite a bit of time on the 4 wheelers during the trip - Jed and I got "lost" on the way to Pine Creek resevoir and ran into some "light resistance" (pictured below)

Don't worry, it was nothing the AR-15, Remington 870, or Jed's Ruger 10/22 couldn't handle. We survived against all odds. As I like to say, the only good rock chuck/rabbit/coyote, etc... is a
dead... whatever. Also, we may or may not have hit a pine hen with our four wheeler... while it was up in a tree - I don't like to talk about it.

Eli stayed up until 11:00 PM the first night, waiting for his peach cobbler. He wolfed down a few bites before he finally asked to go to bed. He slept through a LOT of noise until about 8:30 the next morning when we had to wake him for breakfast.

The next day was a lot of fun - my dad took Eli to Pine Creek where Eli and his famed Spider Man pole caught 8 fish. In the mean time, the brothers (that includes our brother in law Carl) went for another ride on the ATV's - through Dark Valley and up the Cartwheel Trail toward prospector lake. The trail was reminiscent of "death row" on the Bair Gutsman only it was about a 1/2 mile long and vibrated our fillings out of our molars.

We tried to find a trail that looped around back toward our camp site at Cook Lake, but we ended up having to back track. Todd was able to dispatch a ravenous muskrat that was trying to bar us from crossing a stream - thankfully we survived and Todd racked up another kill.

Eli became so dirty at times that his grandpa had to remove his shirt and shake the dirt/dust from it throughout the day.

Due to time/vacation constraints, we were only able to spend two days down on the Boulder. We had a lot of fun and the grimy/dirty smile on Eli's face made the trip worth it to me.