Lake Dead Fish and Lake Slimy Egg

 

Back to these two lakes for the first time since I returned to the states.  My favorite route in was much more overgrown, I probably won't go that way ever again.  We opted to take a much longer route out to avoid brush crashing and wading in the dark.

Fishing was good.  I had never thought to fish here before, but that was the goal today.

I'm about to start doing a lot more hiking.  My daughter wants to get into good enough shape to go to Mildred Lakes again.  That is going to take some work.  We are both very out of shape.  We hope to motivate each other.

We will do more difficult hikes until we are in shape for Mildred.  We are also on fishing kick so we will be combining fishing with hiking as much as we can.

We both eat what we catch, we kill it fast and we don't use live bait.  We agree that catch and release fishing is cruel.  We also know that using live bait is cruel.  

Today we caught 6 rainbow trout between the two of us.  I also had a bite on a bass set up but never saw the fish to know if it was a bass.

We decided we did not want to get up early for the best morning fishing hours so we went for the evening.  We did not make it back to the car until midnight and the entire hike out was in the dark.

After this we will go for the morning fishing.  I did not feel safe driving that late, my body wanted to sleep.  Also on the way home my daughter was passed by a car driving in the wrong direction on the highway between Bremerton and Gorst!  I'm so glad she was not driving the left lane when that happened. 

I only brought my iPhone to take photos with and it is not playing nice with my PC today, so no pictures to share for now.

8 miles with 200 feet elevation gain and I am sore today.

Cloqualliam Hill

I think I will spell this different every time.  Wow, it's been a while since I made it out to hike but I have been doing a lot of fishing, real estate photography, kitchen remodeling and taking my kid to the doctor. More on that later. 

Back to the same old boring hill for me, I don't love it, but it is good exercise and I always get total solitude here even on 4th of July weekend.

I was hungry by the time I reached the top of the hill as I had skipped breakfast.  I did a time-lapse movie at my lunch spot.  I kind of want to do that at all my lunch breaks from now on.

Someone else has discovered my spot and left this behind

 

Not much happens in this movie but it is relaxing and gives you a good sense of the place and the season.

We recently figured out, with NO HELP from his doctors that my kid has Elhers Danlos Syndrome.  I've been working hard to get him diagnosed and he will soon have his dx.  It took two years to get in to see the genetics department at Seattle Children's Hospital. They concure that he probably has EDS but are running genetic tests to rule out other connective tissue disorders. 

My son probably has the hypermobile variety of EDS and a fairly severe case of it.  This explains we he struggled so much in school starting with head aches in second grade. It explains he sore joints, headaches, GI issues, photophobia, fatigue and bendiness. 

It is hard to get EDS diagnosed, is it rare or is it just rarely diagnosed?

Bass fishing

My first ever Bass!

 I've not been hiking a lot but I will get back to it day after tomorrow.  I'll be on a logging road for sure with 4th of July weekend here the trails will be crowded.  

Today I went bass fishing for the very first time and I went alone.  I watched some youtube videos to learn how to use a big rubber worm that I found in a trout stomach.  I used that worm along with a hook I found on the shore line.

Wow did I ever have some beginners luck!  Five casts in I caught my first bass and it was a monster.  Nearly 18 inches long!  I fished from the shore, I used 6 pound leader and a barbless hook.  So lucky to land this fish.  Next time I go out I will use a barbed hook and maybe stronger leader. 

This fish did not fight very much but it was only 20 feet out so not much room for it to fight before I hauled it to shore.