Tryin' the other side of the boat

This will be necessarily brief (time keeps on tickin' tickin' tickin' into the future ...). The weekend unfolded as follows:
Saturday
- Leave COOP parking lot at 7 AM.
- Travel (thank the Lord for GPS, 'cause  I think everyone in the truck forgot how to read a map!) to Caribou Falls Lodge via Rosenfeld, Morris, St Pierre, Mitchell, Steinbach, St. Anne, Hadashville, Falcon Lake, West Hawk, Minaki (well, we drove past the turnoff). 4 hours.
- Unload and settle into the cabins.

- Get the gear out and ready in the boats while we wait for lunch.
- Eat a fish fry lunch in the Lodge.

- Get into the boats and fish (I catch 8: 2 jacks, 5 Walleyes,  1 Whitefish). I get the hang of feeling the bottom and jigging.

- Head back to the lodge for supper (coleslaw, pork ribs, wild rice, cauliflower with cheese).
- 6 guys head out to fish for another 2 hours; 3 guys (including me) hang around and chat.
- Poker (Kevin wins, Curwin second, Rick third).
- Sleep ... sort of.

Sunday
- Up at 6:30 AM for coffee.
- Breakfast at 7 AM - a full bacon and eggs and hash browns and Red River cereal and toast affair.
- Fish from 8 to 12 (I catch 11: 5 jacks, 6 Walleyes) - we each keep to Walleyes for the shore lunch.

- Shore lunch. WOW! Beer battered fish, beans, cubed potatoes, corn, beer. CaRbOhYdRaTeS! (and a good thing too, what with all that wind and sun and sitting, while the guides did EVERYTHING! - Like I mean netting and unhooking the fish, rebaiting your hook, or retying your jig ... everything! Crazy!)

- Fish from 2 to 5:30 (I catch: 3 jacks, 4 Walleyes, for a grand total of 26 fish - probably the lowest catch of the weekend ... some guys caught 50 or more! The biggest jack - 31 inches (Jim); The biggest Walleye - 27 inches (Curwin)).
- Pack up.


- Supper at 6:30 PM - Salad (the first one of the weekend!), turkey, cranberry sauce (the birthday boy just loves the stuff), potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and New York cheese cake for dessert. Whew.
- Head out before 8 PM.
- 15 minutes out, come across a car in the ditch (you should have seen this ditch!). We stop. We advise. We push. We push some more. We get out the tow rope. The truck pulls. The car's out.
- We drive along with the car to the next community, to make sure they make it home.
- This adds close to an hour to the trip, but we are better people for it ... right!??
- Drive. Get home at just after 1 AM.
- Unload. Brush teeth.
- Pack for work in the morning.
- Sleeping by 2 ish.

Today
- Soccer practice at 7:15 AM.
- Still need to shave.
- Drink a fair amount of coffee.
- Feel the heat rising off of my sunburnt nose.
- Still manage to enjoy the day.
- Thanks kids. You are the best.

Ride in         Temp 11'C Wind S 5 ks
Ride home   Temp 22'C Wind SE 10 ks