Whitewater State Park Camping
August 9, 2009

Another solid camping outing – described in captions below.

Dude – don’t run with marshmallows in your mouth.

We got site 63 on the west side of the main campground. The sandstone cliff face you see in the background is bank at river-left. We could hear the river very well, which made for particularly good sleeping.

The evening featured a couple highlights: a visit from Winona Fly Factory for dinner, and some fog that hung over the river as darkness came. We followed WFF around while he fished a bit – hopper pattern with a beadhead trailer. We caught up on some fishing-related items, and I think he got a good look at camping with kids. He offered some thoughts and pics here.


Danny woke up at 4:50 I think. We went down to the river some time after that and fished as a duo. Kind of bugged me that (I believe) the neighbors (party guys) heard me rig up my rod and one of them raced down to the hole to beat me there. He walked up ~10 seconds after my feet touched the water. If he’d been there first I would moved. I didn’t move though; rather I proceeded to catch fish with a #22 dry fly and a kid on my back. Nothing too amazing but pretty remarkable to have dry fly fishing ~50 yards from your tent.

James woke up a bit later. He came down to the river and we did a bit of the hook ‘em and hand off deal. He played a few brown trout to the bank… unhooked, released and smiled. In his pajamas.

This odd-shaped fish was feeding in a rhythm a rod-length out from where I was standing. I watched him come up to eat… Put the fly in the lane and watched him rise to take it. Nice. I don’t remember catching a trout shaped like that, but I think I’ve seen pics of similar geometry.




Cowboy Coffee Components:

Climbing to the top of Chimney Rock – sign says 1.1 kilometers, estimated 1 hour – probably took us ~40 minutes. Some steep slopes.



A line from a sappy song or story: at the highest point of the climb, the tallest oak tree held a singing bird up near the top of its crown. Looking out over the valley and rejoicing I’d say. It did not spook or seem concerned at all as we stood underneath and listened. I knew there was no way to get a decent pic with the Pentax, but I messed with the light situation a bit just to get an image to depict the general nature of the creature. I know of only a couple blue birds, and I believe this one is an indigo bunting… but a positive ID would be cool.

James usually notes sandstone whenever he sees it –usually driving by it in a car. On this day though he got to touch it and understand its composition. Fuel for The Explainer.


Returned home to find things in good order: growing and ripening.