I love everything about camping. Yes, I said EVERYTHING! Nothing's a chore when you're with good friends in the great outdoors. I'm so glad and fortunate to have been invited on the annual Bishop fishing trip of my dear friend, Dominic and his best friend, Paul =) The 5+ hour drive up north and the unloading of the truck and setting up of the tents and campsite in pitch black and in the RAIN was totally worth it to wake up to THIS gorgeous view and set up. Hey, not bad, right? We're not first time campers ;)
Each morning we woke up much later than planned, but we still managed to get plenty of fishing in the day...and instructing. It was my first time fishing so Dominic patiently (at first, ha) tried to teach me. Paul put in his two cents, too. I did learn how to tie a hook onto the line, but had no luck catching anything worth keeping. I only caught a tiny one and had to release it.
By the end of the trip I had a hard time accepting my fishing failure and was becoming really frustrated, so Dom picked some flowers nearby and put them in a beer bottle vase for me to cheer me up. Aw it was sweet ;) Paul ended up catching one fatty fish and Dominic hit the jackpot and caught 5 keepers.
He demonstrated how to gut a fish later that night and we ate it as an appetizer before dinner. Of course, campfire and s'mores were part of our camping experience. And so was holding crickets and worms which was a first for me. I wasn't comfortable at all with putting those little guys on my hook so I mostly used fish eggs.
I felt too bad for them, stabbing them and then drowning them in the water, and then feeding them to the fish! Death x 3 :( It was pretty cool though wearing Dom's waders so that I could chill a few feet into the water and walk through the mud to get to better fishing holes (although they were too big and I had to clip them to my jeans and hold them up most of the time). Overall, I had a great time! I can now cross fishing off my life list. I've always wanted to do it. Sometime I'd
like to fish in a little row boat or canoe in the middle of a giant lake. Anyways, Dom and Paul are great camping companions. There wasn't a dull moment between all the cooking, fishing, cleaning, raining, dishwashing (me), pine needle tea making (Dom), catching escape artist crickets (Paul), cocktail making, iPod shuffling, drying off the walky talky (only Dom, twice), shivering during the freezing nights (just me), driving around Bishop, playing with Roxi, trying to bathe in the bathroom's sink, admiring the gorgeous scenery and LAUGHING! Paul's a crack up, full of impressions, movie quotes and random bursts of song :) And so is watching Dominic try to set up a hammock that holds him up about an inch off the ground. I guess it doesn't matter how high you get it, it's a success as long as it's "up." He was still able to take a nap in it. It was a... "I'll show this hammock who's boss" moment :)
I can't wait for the next trip!!!
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