Kayaking Trow Lake

Lorraine and I had planned to go up to the property this weekend, but some things were trying to get in our way. Septic issues and a Derecho event at home and residuals from that were giving us some challenges.

Life is like dominoes; one event leads to another leads to another and so on. So it was with the Derecho event, leading to the resulting 4-day power outage, leading to generator challenges, leading to an electrical issue in the Jay Feather.

We wanted to be able to stay in the camper. We bought it from our friend, Keith, but had not really been able to use it in its full capacity yet this year. Prior critter damage had curtailed our usage on the Fourth-of-July weekend, and without the 12-volt system working, we would be without refrigeration or water...... only a place to sleep.

I was able to locate the issue on Friday around lunchtime, when we would have been departing. So we decided to go for it and were on the road by mid-afternoon and arriving shortly after dinnertime. Enough time to set up and have a small (very small) fire. It was dry, and fire danger was an issue. Storms started rolling in around 10:00 PM, so we hit the hay, so to say.

Well, the dryness in the area was solved Friday night, where we experienced thunderstorms and much rain for the entire night. Where the water was low on Friday night, it was going at near-perfect (kayak-speaking) conditions on Saturday morning. Of course with the runoff still raising the water, it would not be wise to jump in to kayak Hall's Creek.

We cooked up some breakfast and then did some trimming and cleaning on the fire lane. This was starting to get pretty overgrown, and with the rain the night before we did not need to worry as much about fire. If we don't burn as we clean up, we end up with big brush piles that are nearly impossible to get rid of. So it is better if we can burn what we cut, and we were able to get the "camper parking" portion cleaned up pretty well.

Later in the morning we went up to kayak Trow Lake. This was my second time doing this, and I just love that little lake. There are small coves and interesting shore structure with very few homes. We kayaked our way up to the point where it becomes Hall's Creek again, but a downed tree kept us from paddling further upstream. I would like to paddle all the way up to Oakwood Lake 45 in Merrillan some time, but that was not going to be today.

I did a little fishing, and caught a Northern Pike that was about 20" long. It put up a great fight and was a blast. Fish were really moving; you could see them when you came upon them, sometimes ten or more fish moving at the same time. I was just "sort-of" fishing and not trying real hard..... but the Northern was fun. I think the fish were on due to all of the run-off coming down the two branches of Hall's Creek that meet up at the north end of Trow Lake. Maybe that is a smorgasbord for them.

We hunkered down under some pine trees in that same cove for nearly an hour while it rained, but it was a nice and calming time. Floating in your kayak while a gentle rain shower occurs. You are in the wilderness, with nobody around. Peace. Does it get any better than that?

We finally made our way back to the parking lot, loaded up the kayaks and headed back to the property. We spent the remainder of our time doing more cleanup of the fire lane. I also did some pruning on the walking trail from the fire lane back to the clearing. Good fried chicken and potato salad from Hansen's was our supper, and we continued to do more cleanup until dark.

Then we had a problem. The 12V system was nearly gone. We had to conserve our power so the fridge could use it. While the refrigerator runs off of propane, it needs 12V for the control panel, and it won't run without that. Needless to say, we lost some food from the fridge by the time we arrived at home, but I knew what the issue was and I will chalk this up to another camper lesson..... make sure your battery is fully charged when you leave home, because your truck will maintain the charge, but not fully charge, the battery.

We had a nice time, accomplished some work, and arrived home safely. That is a good trip.