Hello,

Well it’s that time again and like already outlined in the 2016 fish opener I take my boys to the lake for their mothers birthday. It gives mom time to enjoy herself and well I don’t mind fishing and camping so it works out quite well.

This year my wife will be staying home and her twin sister will spend time with her allowing her to reconnect, which is needed as my wife is an identical twin. They say when in the womb there is a bond established and continues throughout their lives. So I believe they will be quite pleased with some sis time.

This year we will also have my father attend, which will be nice allowing my boys to have a deeper connection with my father their grandfather.

So without further adu like most trips it starts with loading up the truck and hitching the camper up and loading up supplies. 

After a four hour drive we arrived and set up camp and it turned out to be a wonderful day, in the picture you can see the lake in the background and the wonderful clouds spotting the horizon. Once we set up I the super planner started in with the schedule. I As  I hate improve type camping. I like to have a plan down to say the hour. First order of business would be lunch scheduled in Mammoth Mountain, as I knew of an awesome pizza joint and typically when dad is in charge of cooking aka eating out I only plan for two meals breakfast and dinner. Mammoth is only a short twenty five mile round trip.

So while at lunch I let the boys know whats going on as I never typically let them know until it’s time. This keeps them wondering and allows the trip to be exciting. So after lunch we would head up the mountain and get some epic views and ride a gondola for the first time.

Next Grandpaw, well he was distracted I guess….lol

The boys had fun throwing snow balls and such while we mosied up to the main lodge. I purchased tickets for the ride at an astonishing price of $130.00 for five people, guess this will be a one time experience.

Did I mention it was cold and it would get colder as roes up, also the altitude would become an issue as the air becomes quite thin. Jacob was quite thrilled with the ride I would have to say though.

My obligatory selfie, did I mention I like selfies ….

Once we did make it to the top the views were well extraordinary. Grandpa refused to come out side, in protest me and the boys headed out to take it all in.

The next photo was taken at the observatory window, it highlights the epic amount of snow California has received. I don’t believe it has snowed this much since 2011, it’s amazing that God can end a drought in only four months which has plagued the west for many years.

Once this was done we returned to Lake Crowley via the scenic route, as it winds and twists through the mountains and drops you out on highway 395 about fifteen miles north of the Mammoth exit. It increased our drive time but we all truly enjoyed the ride so it was well worth the extra time and gas. Upon our return to our campsite we then lit a fire and started our first s’mores session., as this will be a nightly ritual for the duration of the trip. Yep thats right way too much sugar making memories every night.

The next day, Friday we awoke and well just hung out. This day is reserved for exploring and such. However this trip we would attempt to blow up a watermelon a task we were unable to achieve last year no matter how many rubber bands. Ahh but dad did his research this year and purchased the correct type of rubber bands and after several hundred or so we achieved perfection. Watermelon explosion, I wish I could upload the video of the event as it was truly epic which Jacob taking the brunt of the explosion. The result is a huge ball of rubber bands and well a very tasty watermelon.

I did however keep the adventure going as before dinner we headed to Keoughs Hot spring pool with grandpa. A must do if you visit Bishop and heck it was only a quick 25 mile drive south of the lake and all, they have a full size pool along with a hot soaking pool.

This is when I realized I had not obtained more gas in Bishop before heading up to the lake, there had been a heavy head wind up to the lake in addition to this we were much heaver (total wight towing) so on our way back the truck notified me I had only nine miles left in the tank. It was twelve to Bishop would we make it?

It turns out Toyota has built in a buffer or the electronics are not correct as we drove the truck with a zero mileage left displaying on the dash. I guess we will never know but it was nerve racking as something so simple could have put quite a wrench into the plan. We had a great time soaking and I got to spend some quality time with my dad talking and such.

After about three hours at the pool we then headed back to Bishop and went to one of my favorite restaurants El-Polo Loco. In my home town we don’t have one and I love the citrus marinated chicken. After this we returned to camp and had our nightly dose of fire and s’mores then off to bed  as tomorrow was going to be the big opener.

I had rented a pontoon this year as last year my elbow was in super pain after renting an aluminum john boat, it is the kind where people are constantly trying not to fall or rock the boat. The end result was a very painful elbow, thus the pontoon would be nice with a steering wheel and all room to stand and walk.  So there we are all ready to go it was a chilly morning and we were all bundled up. It would turn out that Grandpa was not feeling well so he took this picture with the boys and wished us luck before heading back home.

One thing everyone should know is that this lake is busy on opener there are many boats on the water and even more on shore all in the hunt for the big one. It would turn out to be a very nice day on the lake the water was smooth and the mountains were bright. So we began our trolling, I found it very relaxing while Joseph was like dad, ‘How are we going to catch a fish if the boat is moving’ I chuckled and before you knew it Jacob would land the first fish of the day.

Jacob would turn out to be the catcher-man of the day landing two fish. While Joseph landed one, they were not the biggest but by the smiles on the boys faces there were well adjusted.

After a long day on the lake we went back to the camper and took some naps and generally took a break until dinner. The next day we would strike again, while Isaac and myself were hoping to land a fish, Isaac would be the first on Sunday to become a catcher-man then I while Jacob and Joseph would also land a few more. By about eleven am this day however the wind would end up picking up and I was developing a headache that would not stop. So I made the decision to dock the boat and have the boys hang out while I made a run to Mammoth for some burn cream and Tylenol. Yep mom would never make these silly mistakes like dad does, as my nose was very burnt while dad made sure the boys lubed up I seem to forget. So upon my return we motored the boat into a cove and dropped lines, no one caught any fish but we told all sorts of silly jokes and had a wonderful time just talking silly with my boys.

 

I must say at this point Joseph became a cool-aid man, as we had taken two boxes of drinks and this little boy but them down like no other. The funny part was he had to excessively pee on the boat and became acquainted with the bottle method as Crowley is a fresh water lake which feeds drinking water to Los Angles. The is when we realized he had drank over 14 cool-aids…that little bugger.

Our last day at the lake we choose to just chill out and explore the area as we were done fishing and I just wanted to sleep in and relax for the entire morning. So the boys decided to make the bait shop their home as it has Wi-Fi and they were up to this point not allowed to have electronic devices while we were, well disconnecting from the world. I was feeling cold from the several nights at the lake at this point so we all took a vote and then went back to the hot springs and then dinner in Bishop again, this is when dad received a well deserved beer.

The next day we packed up and headed back to the house to share our bounty of fish with mother. We once again all decided next year we will catch even more fish. Until next time.

aCSguy