Cabin: Day 4

7/04/10

The day started for me and my brother at 4:30 in the morning. We got ready and were out the door at 5. Driving by the field by the cabin, we saw that the elk from the night before were still there. As we got to Upper Lake Mary, there was an elk just off the side of the road. We turned around and drove by it slowly taking some pictures. It wasn't scared at all and just kept walking, eating and looking at us. As you can see the elk was a nice velvet. After taking some pictures we headed down a little further to a pull off to go fishing. The sun was still behind the trees and we began our day of fishing. The plan was to be done and back to the cabin by 10, hopefully with some fish.

As we began to fish, we noticed lots of flies of some sort flying around and little fish picking them off the top of the water. The small fish were probably perch and they were jumping at any fly that hit the water. On a few occasions we noticed a larger splash which may have been a pike grabbing itself a morning snack. Our hopes were high, seeing as there was plenty of food for the pike to be in the area. Pretty soon I had a small pike on my line and brought him in. Normally I wouldn't keep one as small as he was, seeing as he was probably under 2 lbs. But after fishing the day before, and that being the size of the fish we caught, we decided to keep it. Shortly after I had another fish that was slightly larger so I kept it. Just then we walked into the sunlight as the sun was slowly rising. The flies were ever more abundant in the light and the feeding fish just the same. The noise from the flies was as if a hive of bees was nearby. You could watch a fly keep bouncing off the water while several minnows followed in close pursuit. If the fly landed for too long it was a gone, followed by a small splash as the fish retreated. Just after that my brother caught one even larger than mine so he put it on his stringer. And just after that my brother pulled in another one even bigger and over 2 lbs. Then I caught another one but it was even smaller than our smallest so I let him go. So we had 5 fish before 8 and continued to fish and we arrived home before 10 like we had planned with a lovely addition to our 4th of July meal later that day.

After eating some brunch at the cabin, the whole lot of us took a hike to this burnt, dead tree. The plan was to push it over. After a couple hours of trying, mainly by a sole person's determined attempt, the tree was still standing. As this was going on, a few of us went around pushing down smaller burnt and dead trees. We had a very interesting experience in doing so, which it's story will be posted later. After all of this we headed home and had our 4th of July dinner.

After dinner my friend, brother and I went out to look for the geocache that we couldn't find the day before because it got too dark. There was also another one close by up on that hill that we wanted to find as well. We were able to drive half way up so it was a short hike to the spot and after looking for quite a while we were unable to locate it once again. Heading back to the truck we stopped by the second cache up on the hill. My friend found it giving a wild exclamation. We then headed back to the cabin, once again feeling defeated for not finding the geocache. I also realized I had lost my pen up there. Now there are two objects that seemed to be lost. 

Cabin: Day 3

07/03/10 

Once again my brother and I got up and left for another lake, Upper Lake Mary, at 7 in the morning to try to catch some fish for dinner. This time we made sure to bring food. We got out there and had 3 fish within the first hour. All about 2 lbs. We didn't want to keep anything that small because the week before that was the smallest size fish we had caught. So we would keep anything well over 2 lbs. After catching another fish the same size and letting it go we decided we should just keep the next one so we would have something to eat and then keep anything larger that we caught later. So we kept the next one I caught which was just over 2 lbs. After another 3 hours, we didn't catch any more fish but had just a few bites. We decided to call it a fishing day and look for some geocaches in the area. After fishing Lake Mary, we looked for two geocaches along the lakeside. We found one right away in a rock pile. There were many coins in there that were advertising for trackable geocoins so we took one with us. The next one we found had been there since 2001. At one point it was the 49^th oldest active geocache. So that made it exciting to find.

Next we checked out 8 more near and along Ashurst lake road. Five of them had already been found on the same day and after finding one we saw some more geocachers looking for the same one we had just been to. We went back to the two at Ashurst lake that our friends had looked for, but now we had a few more geocaches under our belt and had some more idea what to look for. So we found them both very quickly. Five of the geocaches were all from the same person in the same camo containers. In one at Ashurst lake there was a bouncy ball so we traded a fishing lure for it. After getting back to the cabin and eating some food, along with the one pike we kept, three of us decided to look for several geocaches that were near the cabin. On the short drive over to them, we saw 8 cow elk on the side of the road and then 3 deer before we reached them. Our friend had never heard of geocaching so he didn't know what to look for. My brother looked 30 feet away and saw a stump and said, “It's there!!” and ran over there, lifted the stump and there it was. My friend was shocked. “How did you know it was there!!” he yelled. Then we checked out another cache on the other side of the road. We found it fairly quickly and traded another lure for a small dinosaur toy. That way we could keep trading things by transferring them. The next one was .18 miles away straight up a mountain so we headed for it. Boy was that a hike. We describe the steepness as our toes against our shins and our chest a foot from the ground. After finally getting to the top it was getting to dark to see so we had to head back down the very steep hill, though fortunately we found the trail so it wasn't as steep. In the field right before the cabin we saw some elk grazing out in the field. It was getting dark and we could barely see them. So we took the spotlight and walked out into the field. Shining the light at them we saw more than 20 sets of eyes. They headed away from us into the tree line and we finally made it back.

Cabin: Day 2

7/02/10 

My brother and I wanted to fish Ashurst lake which was near the cabin. So we went out around 9 and walked around the entire lake fishing as we went. Right off the bat we realized we forgot to pack any food. There was a geocache right near the water so we tried to find it but had no luck so we continued fishing. --Geocaches are hidden containers around the world that people hide and post the GPS coordinates online so others can find them. It's like a huge treasure hunt. Once you find them you can tell stories about them online. There are more than 1,000,000 geocaches hidden all around the world-- After a little while with no bites, I said if we caught any pike we should trade it to some campers for some food. The goal, however, was to bring some fish home so we could eat them that night. My brother said, “What would they think if we came home and they asked if we caught anything and we said yeah...but we traded it for this granola bar....and it was good!!” Anyway, we kept fishing. We came into a very shallow cove with lots of weeds. After fishing it for a little bit and my brother getting caught on several rocks, I said it was too shallow and we should move on. But he threw in his line so I did as well. Then a 5 lb pike grabbed my lure, came to the top so I could see its back, and then spit it out!! Trying several other lures gave no other response from the fish. At the end of the cove a small pike the size of a 5 inch Rapala darted at my lure and then back down.

By this time we were getting pretty hungry. Then my brother found an unopened granola bar on the ground. It was the best Oats 'n' Honey bar ever. Then shortly after eating I had another 5 lb pike grab my line, and after coming to the top, spit it out once again!. Soon after that we were back on the other side but still down a ways from the truck. A truck drove by on the lake road with kids waving at us. It was our friends. They brought us food! We ate our fill of PB&J and some cookies and then continued fishing. We sent them out to find the two geocahces near the lake but they returned with no success either. Then I started getting lots of bites from small pike all under a pound and a half. I had one bite twice and then pulled it just out of the water before it spit it out and fell back in. Then I finally caught one after it bit twice as well. It was 8 inches long. Shortly after that, after a few more bites, I had another fish--an 11 inch pike. Then my brother saw a 5 lb pike surface and dive back down, seeing the entire body come to the top. But once again we couldn't get it to bite. Sadly this ended our day of fishing and we headed back to the cabin to have some blow gun competitions.

24

The following is the account of me and my brother over a 24 hour period of fishing.

1600 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After a two and a half hour drive up to Flagstaff, we stopped at Walmart for some nightcrawlers to use as bait. A man in the parking lot asked if we have seventeen cents to help him buy some JB weld to use on his motor because he had an oil leak. I was looking for my wallet as the man was telling us a story of a large pike he once caught at Upper Lake Mary. Then out of nowhere the rain began to fall...hard. The man ran back to his truck as I found my wallet had been in my brother's pocket. As I ran toward the store, I grabbed a bunch of change out of my wallet and gave it to the man, who was very grateful. After I had gotten the worms and forgotten to get the Storm Live Crapppie lures for fishing, I returned to the car to find the rain had subsided. Burger King gave us a quick meal before heading out to the lake.

1700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We arrived at the lake and got our raft blown up and everything ready and took it down the short hike to the lake. We filled up the raft with too much stuff and headed out toward a cove across the lake that we liked before. After rowing for a few moments we realized the cove had some fishermen in a boat in it already. So we threw anchor and started to fish.

1800 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After several minutes of nothing, my brother put two worms on his other pole and lowered it below the boat near the bottom of the lake. Shortly after he reeled in a baby perch. He decided to leave it on the hook to use as bait for a larger pike while still having the second worm on as well.

After seeing this might be the way to fish right then, I put two worms on my second pole and lowered it down. After a very short time my pole bent way down and I grabbed it and started fighting. Realizing I had only 4 lb line on this pole I made sure to fight gently. Was it a large perch or a pike. As soon as this thought came into my mind I saw the pike come near the top and get tangled with our anchor line. We netted the fish, got everything untangled, and put it on the stringer. We tried this method, while always fishing with our other poles using lures, for hours with no success.

1900...2000...2100...2200 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

The sun set creating a beautiful picture over the tree line. It began to get chilly so we started putting layers of clothes on. We set all four poles out; two with bobbers and worms, and two with anchovies and worms below the boat. The boat was starting to get a little flat so we pumped it up with the pump that we bring with us and I read a few chapters in Eragon using my head lamp. Once we were fully clothed in wool socks, thermal pants, sweater, jacket, beanie, face mask, and gloves, we tried to get comfortable, and would continue to try for the rest of the night. The raft we were in, with our tackle box, cooler, fishing poles, and backpack full of miscellaneous things we needed, left us less room than you could fit being in the fetal position. All night we were scrunched up, stretched out, cold, shifting, and waking up due to various body parts falling asleep from laying on them awkwardly. After a brief time of this kind of "sleep" (call it what you will), we decided to change the already changed plan. The plan for the weekend had been to visit with our church group who was camping up near the lake and then continue on to the lake. Then we would fish the night, all day Saturday, the night again, and then come home sometime on Sunday after some more fishing. We left late on Friday so we decided to go straight to fishing. At some point early in the night we decided if we didn't catch much in the morning before we went back to the car to eat breakfast and return our heavy clothing, we would leave that night after maybe trying Lower Lake Mary for some trout.

2300...0000...0100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Come 1:30 we woke up hoping that it would be much later. Unfortunately it wasn't. There was a full moon so it was very bright all night long. We had a small spotlight that we would use to look at our bobbers whenever we would wake up to check for any bites. I was looking at my bobber, which showed no sign of fish playing with my bait, when I heard a loud splash near the shore. I shined the light in that direction and saw two eyes glowing by the trees. Then I saw two large bodies coming up from the water back toward the trees. They were elk. At least three and they headed back into the forest. We went back to sleep.

0200...0300...0400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We woke up for the last time at 4 in the morning. The moon was falling over the trees and the light from the sun was soon filling the skies. It was very cold in the morning as we still had no more fish and began fishing with lures again, waiting for the sun to warm us up.

0500...0600...0700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

For the next few hours we fished back in the cove we wanted to fish the previous day. The only thing we caught was a tiny perch. I was bringing in a jerk bait and when I stopped reeling for a moment, my bait jerked. I thought it seemed a little delayed but I kept reeling it in. I brought it in and on the tip of the lure was a tiny perch the same size as my lure. --Back in that cove in the trees there is a Osprey nest. They have signs in the parking lot about this bird. It lives in this area during the summer and goes to South America during the winters--. We fished out the cove but caught nothing else. My brother got out and walked the edge of the cove. He saw some old bear tracks as well as the tracks from the elk that we had seen several hours earlier.

0800...0900 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

More boaters were out now and one entered the cove as we left it. We fished along the shoreline and eventually loaded our other poles with worms again and dropped them down. As we made our way slowly back across the lake fishing both methods as we went, we caught a few small perch. The wind began to pick up and we were pushed to the shore a few hundred yards from our car. So we began to fish from the boat while against the land. There were weeds everywhere but with our 20 and 30 lb threaded spiderwire line we could pull our lines through anything. We would fish one spot and then push ourselves along the shoreline with our oars and fish again.

1000...1100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

My brother got a bite and brought in a nice pike just larger than the one from the previous evening. We put it on the stringer as our hopes went up that we would not go home with just one fish. My brother got out of the boat and began fishing from the shore as I stayed in the boat fishing from just off the shore. Then I caught one. We could tell it was much larger than the other two and then shortly after that my brother caught another one just larger than his last. At this point we were excited for fishing more of the shore but are stomachs were yelling at us. We had only had a few snacks while out on the boat all night. We decided to pack everything up except the backpack with some of our fishing tackle, eat and then fish the shore till it was time to leave.

1200...1300...1400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After eating and packing up we went back down and fished the shore north of the truck. Very quickly my brother brought in another one. We had left the stringer with the four other fish back in the water near the truck so we got out another stringer for this one. It seemed to be about the same size as the other three, not including my larger one. We left that stringer there and kept moving. After a little bit I had a bite but nothing more. Then my brother brought in another one of the same size and while he was putting it on another stringer I caught an even larger one from the same spot. Then a little later I caught a small one that we let go and another keeper of almost the same size as the majority of our fish. We caught them all on either the Storm Live Crappie (the ones that I forgot to get at Walmart but we had only two of), and after the tails came off of those, the Storm Live Walleye. We tried other Rapalas and such but could only catch them on the Storm. And in fact the small perch caught on a jerk bait was also a Storm brand.

1500 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Then we headed back with the four. Three about the same size and one larger. We thought this was about the same as the four we had before but when we looked at them all together, the three newer ones were all bigger than the three previous ones and the new large one was bigger than the previous large one. Then we brought all of our 8 pike up to the truck and packed up the rest of our fishing stuff. The following are the pictures of the largest fish and then all of the fish together. The fish were 1 lb 15 oz, 2 lb 5 oz, 2 lb 10 oz, 2 lb 15 oz, 3 lbs, 3 lbs, 3 lb 11 oz, and 4 lb 6 oz.

And this concludes the story of our 24 hour adventure.