Spring Camping for Two...

It's been a busy time. There was a couple of gigs and we played for a Mass in addition to the usual babysitting and what not. We decided to slip off down the road about 15 miles to Hanks Creek, our favorite fishing launch on Lake Sam Rayburn. The decision was made to travel light carrying the canoe instead of the big boat. 

It was also a bit of an experiment to see if we could haul camper and canoe and it was successful. An added hitch extension with a horizonal mounted receiver allowed my bed extender that supports the canoe when hauled in he pickup bed to be reconfigured to over the truck with plenty of room for camping gear. I have hauled the canoe on top before but never had this capability to haul a boat or camper also.  

Here's another new piece of gear that we spent a couple of Christmas gift cards on. It's Ukiah Tailgater propane camp fire. Ukiah makes a lot of products like this that have a bluetooth speaker so you can connect up the phone but we did not get that feature since being in the woods is kind of getting away from all that. We also got the cast iron cooktop so we have heat on cool nights and something to cook on when we get hungry. This was a splurge on our part as we generally cook on an old gas grill or propane stove but probably no more expensive that a top of the line camping griddle. 

Note the water line on these trees around our camp site. That's how high the lake was in 2021. This park was closed and one camping loop that was totally flooded is still closed with repairs progressing slowly. Seems that when a park floods and we saw this on Lake Sommerville during a camping trip a few years ago anything sitting on a concrete slab such as picnic tables, bathrooms or water and sewer pumping stations is not treated kindly by the high water. That concrete that seems so solid is undermined and breaks up.   

One reason we brought the canoe was that just feeding the two of us we figure we could catch enough fish close at hand. I think final total was about 15 fish composed of a mix of bream, largemouth bass, crappie and catfish. We ate about seven of the fish we caught.  

Here's the cooktop in action. That's bass and crappie fillets and three whole bream with a side of grilled squash. Our other big meal was steak and cheesy eggplant. I wouldn't try to cook for a large group but for two to four people it does great.  

An osprey watches the nest. The next day a bit cooler they were very busy adding to this structure.  

Great blue heron right outside our camp. Remember this if nothing else: fish the birds.  

I think I may have hit on a good summer pattern. Reserve the campsites after the weekend into the early part of the week. It's quieter, easy to get a good spot and seemed to be nothing but fishermen around.  

Our next trip is not fishing but we will stay at McKinny Falls State Park outside Austin and go into the city for HonkTx a free festival of community street bands.