Which Way to Loon Lake?

Got a blessed opportunity to go fishing today, Friday, 6/17.  Left my home at 7 AM with 6 children, 4 of my own and two on loan.  I met up with WizTech at a McDonald's in Placerville to treat the kids to breakfast.  I decided to visit Loon Lake, which was another hour drive away.  The last time I was there was probably more than a decade ago when I did not own a Garmin and relied on hard copy of a map to get to my destination :-)

WizTech and his two friends finished breakfast first, so I said to go to the right hand side of the boat ramp at Loon Lake and I will follow after the children finished with their breakfast.  I left McDonald's around 9 AM confident that I would get to the designated location by 10 AM.  On the way to Loon Lake, as I drove past familiar territory such as Ice House Reservoir, my Garmin was excellent.  However, beyond that, it went crazy and directed to go to all sorts of roadways.  I stopped twice and got directions from strangers and finally arrived at the Loon Lake dam by 10 AM.   I knew it was not the designated meeting place, but the view was fantastic and I had not been here before, so it was a photo op place and to give the children a break from the windy road.

Pardon me, sir.  How do we get to the boat ramp?

Boys will be be boys

It is a little colder @ 6,000 feet up.

View from Loon Lake dam.

Let's go fishing now.

I got information from a camper that the boat ramp that I was looking for was only half a mile away, but in the opposite direction of my travel :-)  So back down the mountain I went.  Once again, my Garmin was no help.  I relied on my Lord the Holy Spirit to guide me.  Yes, just like that, I found myself entering the boat ramp location within 10 minutes.  It almost threw me off that the entrance fee for day use was $8.00 per vehicle per day.  I know there was no fee a decade ago.  However, the camp host was kind enough to let me check to make sure my party was already by the boat ramp before I committed.  Yes, by then it was 11:30 AM, Wiztech and friends just limited out!!!  What a blessing!

We set up rods for the children and for the next couple of hours, they had a blast goofing around and landing fish left and right.

An extraordinary thing happened while I was there.  I threw my first cast out using the Z and it was fish on!  No, that's not the amazing thing because I was spoiled with the success of the Z.  As I turned to my left I ran into familiar faces: my fishing buddy the Pacman and another friend from my previous work!  What joy to run into friends at this leisure site.  So much to catch up on, I talked more than I fished....  And, it was all worth it.  Hope to see you again 'round the mountain in the near future.

If I am blessed, we will meet again.

As I mentioned, I had two children on loan with me: the Fishing Wonder, which already went fishing with me before and now introducing the Fishing Ninja, the fish never saw him coming.  I got Fishing Ninja to catch his first fish and brought a limit home to share with his family.  How awesome was that?!?

First Fish!

Hey, is that the Z?

Fishing Wonder

The fish tried to swim away with the stringer.

???  Right in front of the fishing zone ???

:-)

What a feeling!  I'm done with High School!

What a blessed day!

So I left the house at 7 AM and didn't get to fish until 11:30 AM and by 2 PM still managed to get the kids to land some fish, which reminded me of a saying from Kayaks with Beavers: "Results matter!"

I leave you now with a video clip of the Fishing Ninja and his first fish: it didn't see him coming.