We camped, hiked, and fished. Seven of the nine participants took fishing poles (including myself). Over the course of the week, those seven fishermen caught a cumulative total of more than 400 (yes, that's four hundred) fish. Guess how many of those I caught? I wopping 4 (that is 1% of the total). I was using the same lure as everyone else, and fishing in the same lakes, but for some reason I did not have much luck.
I did, however, have one good catch on Wednesday at Bob's Lake. One of the priests, Robert Howlett, was fishing a short distance away from me. Somehow, on one of his casts, his fishing pole came apart and his line broke. Lo and behold, the top half of his pole was floating precariously about fifteen feet from shore. One of the other priets tried to snag it with his hook, but succeeded only in dragging Robert's pole under the water (so it was no longer visible). Not wanting to miss the rest of the week of fishing, Robert decided to go in after his pole. He jumped into the water ... and quickly discovered that alpine lakes at 10,000 feet above sea level contain very cold water (even in July). The temperature of the water and his inability to see his pole thwarted his rescue effort. Since I was not having any luck catching fish, I decided that I would try fishing for his pole. I stood on the same rock he had been casting from and started casting and reeling. I aimed each cast just beyond the spot we last spotted his pole and then reeled slowly so as to allow my lure to sink near the bottom (hopefully without catching a snag myself). To our surprise, my endeavors were successful - I somehow hooked his pole and was able to reel it to shore. He was able to reassemble the pole and continue fishing. So, while I did not catch many fish that week, I was pleased that I caught his pole :).
With all of our hiking, we figured that each of us hiked over 60 (sixty) miles that week. If you multiply that by nine people, that was over 500 miles hiked! There were times that I wondered if I would make it home, but I prayed for strength and was blessed accordingly. On Friday morning, we broke camp and headed back to the trail head. The same 14-mile that took us over 6 hours on Monday was traversed in 3.5 hours. We averaged over 4 mph all the way back.
Despite my initial apprehension, I did enjoy the trip. I enjoyed being with the boys and getting to know them better. I enjoyed the beautiful wilderness. I am glad that I went.
