My Fall Break Adventure
Hooray! After symphony, Andrew, Brent and I grabbed a few groceries from Wal-Mart ("uhm, will we need that? I don't know... let's get it... ok"), drove to Andrew's house ("you know, three guys with Mexican glass Cokes crammed into a tiny truck reminds me of CANADA... and we'd look real funny if we got pulled over"), spent the night at the Spencer's house ("uhm, so yeah... symphony was good" ::uncontrolled laughter::), got up and went to the lake.
The western end of Caddo Lake is very swamp-like, with lots of lily pads, "sea weed," Spanish moss and cypress trees.
Gotta stop for the necessary picture at 41.
We arrive at our campsite on Big Sandy Island, a little wooded thing just inside the Louisiana border near the lake's north shore.
Andrew found some old forgotten chair and gives it a try.
Defeat the dark side, yo.
Andrew pulls alongside us under a bridge, in his sleek and speedy one-man canoe.
Brent and I exploring a mid-lake oil pump. Note the whitecaps on the waves... it was pretty choppy on that part of that lake. Brent said on a river, they'd be the equivalent of class-2 rapids. The larger canoe had her prow underneath a wave lots of times, yet made it through alright. Wish we could say the same of Andrew's little canoe...
Yup, he tipped over in all the waves. We got aboard ours and tried emptying his out but it was too heavy for us to do it safely without risking everyone going overboard. The waves were just too bad. This is the only good pic we got of the whole thing because all three of us were laughing so hard we likely couldn't have had much hope for the little boat anyway...
So we let it go and tied it onto the big canoe, hoping we could tow it back to shore. It quickly filled and flipped over; as we pulled we noted it looked like...
A dead whale. Hooray
Pull hard, me scalliwags! We've blubber to be had! Arrrrr....
Ahhh, fire.
A very sus-Spence-full picture.
Andrew and Brent preparing dinner.
Our campsite looks much spookier here than it actually was. There were lots of random noises on the island from the creatures living on it, so we explained them all away by saying an ax murderer lived on the island.
Pretty pretty sunrise on the island shore.
The Caddo Lake drawbridge. We passed beneath it (although it didn't raise for us, meh) on our way to the dam at the eastern end of the lake.
Brent and I near... A 17.
Mmmmm.... foooooood
The happy Spork picture.
Andrew trying to carve up the sausage with a Kukri, the official knife of the Philippine military. It's a big curved thing designed for whacking small trees or butchering large animals, not cutting sausages...
The Caddo Lake dam. Here begins the Sabine River, which is where we were eating on the previous picture.
On the way back, we pulled in to rest where the shore was nice -- very nice. Warm sand beneath the feet. :)
So on Monday we did the entire length of the lake, western to eastern shore, 1.5 times. We were exhausted and very sunburnt when the affair was over, and Brent even gave it his official Spork Certified Pansy-Free approval, signifying it was a sufficiently excruciating wilderness experience. Much fun with good pals.
The western end of Caddo Lake is very swamp-like, with lots of lily pads, "sea weed," Spanish moss and cypress trees.
Gotta stop for the necessary picture at 41.
We arrive at our campsite on Big Sandy Island, a little wooded thing just inside the Louisiana border near the lake's north shore.
Andrew found some old forgotten chair and gives it a try.
Defeat the dark side, yo.
Andrew pulls alongside us under a bridge, in his sleek and speedy one-man canoe.
Brent and I exploring a mid-lake oil pump. Note the whitecaps on the waves... it was pretty choppy on that part of that lake. Brent said on a river, they'd be the equivalent of class-2 rapids. The larger canoe had her prow underneath a wave lots of times, yet made it through alright. Wish we could say the same of Andrew's little canoe...
Yup, he tipped over in all the waves. We got aboard ours and tried emptying his out but it was too heavy for us to do it safely without risking everyone going overboard. The waves were just too bad. This is the only good pic we got of the whole thing because all three of us were laughing so hard we likely couldn't have had much hope for the little boat anyway...
So we let it go and tied it onto the big canoe, hoping we could tow it back to shore. It quickly filled and flipped over; as we pulled we noted it looked like...
A dead whale. Hooray
Pull hard, me scalliwags! We've blubber to be had! Arrrrr....
Ahhh, fire.
A very sus-Spence-full picture.
Andrew and Brent preparing dinner.
Our campsite looks much spookier here than it actually was. There were lots of random noises on the island from the creatures living on it, so we explained them all away by saying an ax murderer lived on the island.
Pretty pretty sunrise on the island shore.
The Caddo Lake drawbridge. We passed beneath it (although it didn't raise for us, meh) on our way to the dam at the eastern end of the lake.
Brent and I near... A 17.
Mmmmm.... foooooood
The happy Spork picture.
Andrew trying to carve up the sausage with a Kukri, the official knife of the Philippine military. It's a big curved thing designed for whacking small trees or butchering large animals, not cutting sausages...
The Caddo Lake dam. Here begins the Sabine River, which is where we were eating on the previous picture.
On the way back, we pulled in to rest where the shore was nice -- very nice. Warm sand beneath the feet. :)
So on Monday we did the entire length of the lake, western to eastern shore, 1.5 times. We were exhausted and very sunburnt when the affair was over, and Brent even gave it his official Spork Certified Pansy-Free approval, signifying it was a sufficiently excruciating wilderness experience. Much fun with good pals.
And glad to know no that one had to become seriously injured or die for it to be rated Pansy-Free.
Why can't gals do things like that?
Oh yeah, they know that a ripping cappuccino is really a wilderness experience in itself.