Thursday, July 12, 2007

Smoothrock Lake -- Day Two

This, like most of the days at Smoothrock, had no special agenda, no special plans. Our first full day at the lake, we started our exploring in earnest, and made it all the way to Goathead Bay. Goathead Bay promised to be a large hot-spot for walleye, but proved to be less than fruitful for us. Nevertheless, we did manage to catch quite a bit of food, enough that we couldn't finish it all for dinner. Dinner this night was pecan-crusted walleye with buttered noodles and corn.

A perfect sunrise to start a perfect day.


Our earliest visitors included several common mergansers.


Nothing, and I mean nothing, tastes better than an early morning cup of camp coffee.


Navigating the lake today to make our way to Goathead Bay (circled).


Enjoying the view and fresh air.


We did get a few spotty showers, so lucky we had our rain gear handy.


Mike from Pipestone came by in the early afternoon to make sure everything was alright. (He caught us conspicuously not fishing! We were playing cards just after lunch.)


Dale with one of his fish. A very respectable northern pike.


We saw lots and lots of bald eagles.


Later that evening, we set up a campfire, and I stood around in the smoke avoiding mosquitoes.


A little froggie I almost stepped on.


By midnight, I was finally able to get a dark enough sky to try some starry night photos. The first one is facing north. Notice the dusky light still prevalent at near midnight? With no moon, it was still bright enough to see by.


Venus



Ursa major


Cassiopeia



Finally, tipsy on whisky, and inspired by Gaz, I tried some long exposure flashlight art. My father was watching me in dumb wonderment as I would fiddle with the camera on the tripod, then walk in front of the camera a few paces, wave my arms madly about, and then return to fidget with the camera. The first was a rather successful Scottish saltire. The second, a pretty sorry (or perhaps, just more abstract) Canadian maple leaf, in honor of our host country.

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