So, this past weekend instead of riding my bicycle (which I guess I should be doing since I have the Death Ride coming up) I went fishing with my buddies for the annual boy’s weekend fishing trip – also known as the beer, cigar and darts fest….This trip actually started 23 years ago for Mike and I. After meeting at a mutual friend’s house for dinner, we found we both had kids the same age, both enjoyed fishing and both had wives that would allow us to go fishing for a weekend unsupervised…..
Over the past years the trip has been based in different fishing locations and included different people, but it’s always been at least Mike and I….about 5 or 7 years ago, Jack became one of the regulars and that’s when the darts became a part of the tradition. (before it was all about the fishing)
Jack is one of those guys that’s just naturally athletic. He’s good at every sport we play. Golf, basketball, horseshoes, and darts…..he used to dominate at darts….
You’ll notice I said “used to” because as of this past weekend, Mike is now the “mountain champion” of darts. Now, granted, we don’t play for money, there’s no official dart championship on the line and compared to people that really are good, we probably suck…..but that didn’t change the fact that Mike beat both Jack and I to take the championship this past weekend…..a title Jack is not at all happy about losing…. and Mike, being the quiet, non-competitive guy he is took it all very gracefully and without any taunting or gloating.....
In addition to the darts, there’s usually a good quantity of beer to be drunk, a nice selection of cigars to be smoked and usually lots of fish to be caught…..and this weekend was no different…we caught fish in Red lake from the kayaks, in Kirkwood lake from the kayaks, In Kirkwood lake from the shore and in Silver river while hiking…..I think its
safe to say there wasn’t any place the trout were safe from us this weekend…..
Of course, when you’re up at 7000ft in the early summer, the weather can be iffy….we’ve had years where it was 80+ degrees and years where it actually snowed on us….and although we didn’t get snow this year, we had sun, we had clouds, we had thunder and lighting and we even had rain…..big, fat heavy drops of rain that can soak you to the bone if you happen to be in a kayak in the middle of a lake….
The funny thing is I know this. I know that the weather in the sierras can be unpredictable. I know we can get rain…and yet, when I was packing, I looked at my gore-tex jacket and pants and specifically decided I didn’t need to bring them with me…..why I made that decision I’ll never know because I REALLY wanted my rain gear when I was sitting in the middle of the lake with my fleece plastered to me and my jeans soaking wet…..
Still though, you can’t beat the sierras for beauty…even in the rain....
In addition to the darts, there’s usually a good quantity of beer to be drunk, a nice selection of cigars to be smoked and usually lots of fish to be caught…..and this weekend was no different…we caught fish in Red lake from the kayaks, in Kirkwood lake from the kayaks, In Kirkwood lake from the shore and in Silver river while hiking…..I think its
safe to say there wasn’t any place the trout were safe from us this weekend….. Of course, when you’re up at 7000ft in the early summer, the weather can be iffy….we’ve had years where it was 80+ degrees and years where it actually snowed on us….and although we didn’t get snow this year, we had sun, we had clouds, we had thunder and lighting and we even had rain…..big, fat heavy drops of rain that can soak you to the bone if you happen to be in a kayak in the middle of a lake….
The funny thing is I know this. I know that the weather in the sierras can be unpredictable. I know we can get rain…and yet, when I was packing, I looked at my gore-tex jacket and pants and specifically decided I didn’t need to bring them with me…..why I made that decision I’ll never know because I REALLY wanted my rain gear when I was sitting in the middle of the lake with my fleece plastered to me and my jeans soaking wet…..
Still though, you can’t beat the sierras for beauty…even in the rain....
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