Blake Island o'er nigh'er

Buddy Alex took Maddie and me on a fantastic overnighter to Blake Island State Park. I propose a family over nighter there next year. With everyone. It's a great spot: electricity, real bathrooms with hot showers, lots of camping options (on land overlooking water, on land - inland, on your boat tied to buoy or at the marina), little store, beer on tap.

And just a quick sail/boat ride from Seattle.

On the way to Seattle, Maddie and I stopped at Wanapum (Vantage) to go swimming.

And we stopped at Lake Easton to go swimming. 

Easton is a great lake. Nice and cold! And very clear. We'll stop there again for a quick dip.

Click for big.

At the Blake Island marina. That's Alex's boat there.

We took a walk. The island is tiny. In a little over an hour, we covered about half the island.

The wildlife is not very wild. They know no predators, so they're completely unafraid. Lots of raccoons too.

This is a cool little boat in camp site on the east side of the island. Primitive.

More walking. There's a lot of nettles on the island.

Alex took this pic.

Downtown Seattle, from Blake Island.

I'd like that boat. It's called a C-Dory. It's like the Westfalia of the water.

Alex. Good egg. Excellent host. Nice guy. Good friend.

Weekend

Camera dump from some trips to the river

... from the last month or so...

Kettle Crest Trail with buddy, Matt.

Don. Fishing at Renner Lake.

Rainbow.

Livy.

Maddie and Ethan.

Maddie at the Sandy Beach.

Jamie and Liza jammin'.

Alex navigating a tricky spot in the river.

Family Flotilla.

Chillin'.

Maddie and Micky.

Outdoor Kitchen v1.2.  It's way more useful when it placed in the center of the action. Alex brought amazingly yummy potatoes from his friend's farm in Montana. We had fried potato and egg breakfast for three days.

Approach to Pia Mission. The little dot on the bike is Z.

Meyhem.

Dunked.

This is the correct method.

Maddie is holding pepperoni. The dog is not interested in anything else on the planet.

Fred, Alex, John

Some cousins.

Our resident Osprey looking for breakfast

Perched across the street from our house Tue. morning

IC Beach

Renner Lake

Don and I went fishing at a very-hard-to-get-to alpine lake in Ferry County. 

We caught a bunch of Brook trout and German Browns. All small. But fun to catch.

Some river pics

Maddie and I went to check out the Sherman Creek Fish Hatchery yesterday. That was a bit of a let down. But this deprecated bridge on the way there was super cool. And kind of freaky. I should've taken a pic from the top to the creek way below. Google map location here.

We fished on Sherman Creek for an hour or so. We want to make sure we are skunked on every single water way in Ferry County. So far, so good!

Trout Lake. This was a favorite of my father's. He'd go up there with a buddy who had a little aluminum boat and an electric outboard. Without a boat, it's pretty hard to fish.

But, we found this floating log that provided an OK spot to get the little guys. I caught one small rainbow that we threw back. 

Snag Cove, Lake Roosevelt, Columbia River. We jumped off the dock and cooled off here.

The infamous Barstow Bridge. Great hole.

Clay harvesting expedition on the Kettle.

Patrick and Elissa visited for a day. 

Maddie walks on water. No biggie.