05/18/2010

More ticks than fish

There would have been a newer picture and a photo quiz from this past weekend, but my cheap camera did not have an SD card and my DSLR did not have its battery. Bella remains on the blog for another day.

The Minnesota Fishing Opener is the stuff of legends up here. Twenty years ago, I would not have been able to recite the dates when the trout (04/17) or walleye
(05/15) seasons start. Now I plan a long weekend and agonize over a menu for the Opener weekend. Usually scheduled on Mother’s Day weekend, this year the Opener was the week following Mother’s Day. Some years it rains, some years it snows. This Opener was dry and pleasant.

Nine guys ranging in age from early 20s to very late 40s made the trip this year. Six hours of driving time to cover just under 300 miles, then we gorged ourselves on steak late Friday night.
After a few adult beverages, we trodded into a clearing by the lake to watch stars around midnight. That might be the Big Dipper, or the Little Dipper.

Paddling across a small chain of lakes on Saturday, we saw eagles, loons, and beaver dams. After even more food on Saturday and Sunday, a few of us decided to hike along an old logging road that circles the lake. The difference in geography and geology between nothern and southeastern Minnesota is quite surprising. But like the constellations on Friday night, I could not identify the rocks we saw along the trail on Sunday afternoon. Marc and J2 kept checking for ticks, and I was surprised that no ticks had found me. Steve’s son Jon and I had a problem whenever someone yelled one of our names, so I (older) became J1 and Jon (younger) became J2.

You guys know I am friends to all critters. Russ, the caretaker of the YMCA camp, has a Golden Retriever. GR from Hell would approach our camp fire, then growlbark. Even after tossing him Ritz crackers with squeeze cheese, we would not gain his trust. Growlbark.

After packing up and hitting the road, we stopped near Brainard for dinner. That Brainard, from the Coen Brothers film Fargo. My calf started stinging after we were seated, and a tick crawled across my thumb. Holding out my hand as I raced to the restroom, another tick appeared on the same hand. After disrobing in the handicapped stall, another tick was found inside my jeans and the fourth tick was on a sock. Try the Diablo Burger at Grizzly’s. Maybe they will take over the former Timber Lodge in Rochester. The fifth tick surfaced while passing through Cannon Falls after nightfall.

The fishing? Caught one small Norton on Saturday, and another small one on Sunday morning. We call Northern Pike ‘Norton’. More ticks than fish.