Day Tray

Wednesday July, 11, 2007.

We rose from our slumber Wednesday around 0700. Sleepily everyone broke camp, packed up and ready for the trail, This was going to be our hardest day yet. We planned to hike approximately 6 miles gaining nearly 3000 ft. elevation to our final destination of Hodges Lake.

We hiked for a couple hours until we arrived at a small creek crossing where we stopped for breakfast (more oatmeal). In a half hour we were back on the trail marching onward. We pushed forward most of the morning stopping very little, we were finally getting accustomed to the altitude. By noon we had made the final push up the ridge containing Hodges Lake. We unloaded, had some trail mix lunch, and hit the water. Danny deemed this lake suitable to take the Kiddy Raft out for her maiden voyage. After a little trouble with the pump, Danny finally got the sucker inflated and pushed out onto the water with fly rod in hand. Meanwhile Rob was slaying decent sized cutthroats from the bank. He went four fish for five casts on his most trusted rooster tail. I had great luck on a neon orange stimmy dry fly. Danny caught several out in the open waters on his raft and got the largest-fish-of-the-day award on a ~14” cutthroat.

After nearly an hour of fishing, Rob had nature calling so he went to take one of his scenic constitutions. Nestled high on a cliff that over looked the beautiful Hodges Lake, Rob found a suitable rock and dropped trou. About this time, we noticed a young couple attempting a romantic afternoon on a rock opposite the lake of us. The pour couple, they had to put up with danny’s silly raft, my hooping and hollering, and now, Rob’s white ass as he delivered a fudge monkey. Needless to say they soon after relocated.

Some other high points at Hodges include taking our first mountain lake swim (FREEZING!!!) and Bear Gryllsing our first trout. [Bear Gryllsing is a technical term that refers to using anything other than modern weapons to violently kill or injure anything]. Later that night, a damn mule deer lurked in the shadows all night grazing around us. This worried us because we figured if the deer wasn’t afraid of campers, what the hell do the bears think? We had a delicious feast of trout, sat around the fire until 10-11ish and retired for the day. All and all, day 3 was ‘not to bad.’

You can find more pictures from Day 3 at: http://web.umr.edu/~dmwbnd