Happy (mini) Trails to You...

The ongoing event of the week was getting Pam's 1970 Honda Mini-Trail 'motorcycle' resurrected after being in a storage locker for the last 7 years. It was not prepped for storage and the gas in the carburetor ended up eating through the cast metal float bowl during its storage. The whole fuel system was a mess. So, I tracked down a place on the Internet that specialized in parts and info on them and I got a brand new carb and headlight assembly from them. I had to remove the gas tank from inside the frame and clean it all out and replace all the fuel lines. Storm, a friend, helped me with it as I really have never messed with them and didn't know anything about them. Anyway, after a few trips to the local Honda dealer for a spark plug and various bits, it is now alive and well. It starts on the first kick and is really a hoot to putt around on. I have cruised DaHood a few times and its a fun little bike. I think it will even fit onto the back of the Jeep and can be taken camping. Pam has yet to ride it, as she has not been feeling good, but I am sure once she does, it will be well used...

I have been trying to fix the broken water fountain in the front of the house. The corner of the bottom of it broke by freezing with some water in it. I got this special hardening putty from Home Depot and have put it on twice now. The first time didn't harden as it guess it was too thick in some spots. So, I filled the bottom hole up with sand and reapplied the special hardening putty and it didn't harden again - but was close, so I put another thinner layer on top and will see if that does it. If not, I am not sure what to do next. I have had the sprinklers turned off during the last two days to try and get it fixed and will do in the lawn shortly if this doesn't work soon...

Sunday, the church was having their water baptism and Pam wanted to get it done again, as her first one was when she was very young and was done in the Mormon faith. Her sister, Roberta and husband Vic came down for the blessed event. I am sure she will write more about it.

Speaking of Mormons... Last week, I had to go to town and got caught in my first real traffic jam here in DaHo. They had the major road to get around downtown blocked off and I had to take the detour through the side streets by the the new Mormon Temple they are building. Boy, what a mistake. Everybody was just stopping their cars in the middle of the street and running out into this field. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. They were putting up the 14' golden Idol, Angel Maroni or something, on top of the 150 foot steeple and every Mormon in DaHo was there taking movies and pics. I had to wait until it was all over and people started leaving to get out of there. It ended up taking me about ½ hr to go 3 blocks.


They didn't have enough people to play the Tuesday 9-ball tournament last week, but I did play in the Wednesday handicap 8-ball one. I came in third after having to spot a lot of points and some general good luck on the parts of the players I played. I was playing well, but not well enough, I guess. My friend, Jeremy, won it which was good. He is a good player, but is his own worst enemy sometimes, and it was good to see him do well.

I have spent a couple of days fishing. I have been venturing out from my favorite spot, DaHole, as you can only have soo much fun not catching any fish and I just don't know where they took off to lately. So, the first day, I went below the dam in Hagerman. I ended up catching a really healthy 4' to 5'er that was very big around. Probably in the 60# to 80# range. It put up quite a fight and was big fun. I also caught the smallest sturgeon I have ever seen - about 2' long. It was a real cutie.

Then, yesterday, I went down to Bliss Dam. I haven't been down there since last year when I ended up breaking my rod after I hooked up with a large fish and it came toward me and then looped back around, at high speed, and when the line tightened, BAM - as Emeril would say.

I saw quite a bunch of wildlife on the trip. On the way there, by a railroad crossing, I saw these two antelope running across the road very close to me. I stopped and they stopped and walked back toward the car. They were about 20 feet away when they stopped. I watched them for a minute or so and then I reached back for the camera bag and they took off back across the road, in front of the car, and across the field and were gone. Pretty amazing. Then, when I got to the dam area, I was checking it out and reading these signs there, and looked down to the river and saw a whole family of red foxes drinking the river water and playing around. They were real cute and playful. Then, later on I saw a family of Geese and a whole cliff of these mud bird houses with all sorts of little birds that live there at the dam. Also, lots of larger water birds, cranes and the such, fishing the area.

Anyway, its a 'challenging' place with all the rocks and steep cliffs. I talked to a worker there at the dam and he said to fish right off of the road about 50 yards down from the dam. They had these makeshift rod holders there and it was all good working out of the Jeep. The only problem was that the water was about 30 feed straight down from the road. And, to get to the water required going down the road about 50 yards and then down a slippery rock and sand covered 'path'. So, if one was to hookup with a large fish, you would have to fight it to submission and then maneuver yourself, with your rod, and the fish, down the road 50 yards, then down the path, to get to the water to release the fish... This place definitely screams for having more than one person, and I was there alone as usual. But, I didn't really have to 'worry' about all that stuff unless I caught a large fish - right?

Well, after about 2 hours or so, BAM, I get this really large fish hooked up on my heavy duty casting rid. I hooked it up in the fighting belt and back brace and was starting a big fight. These two trucks full of Idaho Power guys came by from the dam and stopped and watched the action for a while. I was fighting it for about 30 minutes or so. This was a big fish. You could feel each tail movement it made and each time the rod would dive and the heavy drag on the reel would scream with line being taken out. When, I could, I would bring line back in but the fish was winning as it was out over 200 yards at that point. Then, it turned and came back toward me fast - just like before. I tried to bring the line in fast, but couldn't keep up with the fish. Then, it was gone. I kept reeling line in expecting the fish to still be on there and looping around, but then I saw my weight and hooks on the water surface.

So, it was probably good that it got off as I really don't know what I would have done if it didn't - without help. The dam guys had all left after a few minutes as these fights can go on for a while. I would have loved to have seen the fish as it was way larger than the 8'er I caught last year. And, with the fighting belt and back brace and all the heavy equipment I now have, I could have fought it effectively and won. It would have been quite an event in my fishing history here in DaHo...