When I was a kid, maybe in my teens, my family went fishing at Au Gres, Michigan, "The Perch Capital". The Au Gres river runs right through the middle of the city west of the thumb into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. We were fishing along with a bunch of other people in a ditch connected to the bay. I was standing there drowning worms while a lot of other people, including the rest of my family, were literally pulling out one fish after another. They'd take the fish off the hook and get a new worm if they needed one, toss it in, catch another fish and repeat. Being the only one around not catching anything while dozens of perch were caught was very discouraging. I'm not sure if I ever went fishing with my family as an adult. Several years ago I went ice fishing twice with some guys from work. I never caught anything but the other guys caught a few fish. I would have given away anything I caught because I don't like fish, and I haven't been fishing since.

Riding around in a boat can be fun. Until your idiot older brother circles around and tries to jump his own wake, that is. Nearly getting swamped isn't so much fun, especially when you're too far from shore to swim to it. Being two miles out in a 15' boat when a storm suddenly whips up is no fun either. Not when the waves are getting bigger and you can't go fast enough to outrun it. But other times boats can be fun. Canoeing can be entertaining when you have a cooler full of beer with you. My only boat was a "2-person" inflatable raft. I played around with it in a reservoir a couple miles from home. When I got bored with it I gave it to one of my brothers. He liked to float in the raft in his inflatable swimming pool while smoking a joint. It's not how I got ready to work the night shift, but to each his own.

 

I like trout. I've even had it for breakfast while camping. Not my favorite breakfast but novel nonetheless. I even had a family of otters following me around. They were nice and didn't take my fish.

 

Love my boat but...thinking about getting rid of it. Getting to old, to hard for me to get it on the trailer, with my bad shoulders, cranking the winch is more than I can handle anymore. Had a boat since I was 10 yrs old and enjoyed every one of them. Harder to find people to go along as well and cant go by myself. Guess it is time to spend more time in the motorhome and doing some trail riding and go with my neighbor in his boat. Fun while it has lasted but age is dictating everything now...

 

I don't think I ever saw an otter IRL. Too bad because I would like watching them for awhile. My dad used to walk downhill from the hunting shack and catch rainbow trout in the creek. I can't remember how long they had to be to be legal but most of them were keepers. My older brother used to fish the creek and probably still does. I can't remember if trout tasted better than any other fish we ate.

 

Kind of a mossy taste. Not greasy like some fish. We had a few trips where we caught rainbow trout and had it with steak that night. Mmm...

 

Went for another ride yesterday back out in the San Rafael Swell. This area is about 100 miles east from me.



6 machines. 4 Can Am Max, 3-650s and 1 850. The 850 gets way better gas mileage than my pig does.
And 1 Polaris Touring.



There's some horses way out there. This is a great area to see them. We saw a total of 17 yesterday.





There was even a yearling.



There were a few more horses a few miles down the trail.







The San Rafael Swell has layers. I learned that from Shrek.



The End

 

Great pics and videos, Specta.

Still hoping to get out there again next year. Without some kind of miracle it's just not happening this year.

Would love to go ride the Swell again. I hope the idiots in Washington, DC don't close it down. I get aggravated every time I think about it. My federal Senator and Representative basically ignored what I had to say in emails I sent them about how much these areas mean to the local economies and to people like me who can't hike much anymore. They more or less replied, "It is our duty to protect these natural areas...... Blah, blah, blah...." I'm convinced the Democratic Party wants to take away our lands, machines, money, businesses, and guns. After all, they know better than we do..... At least that seems to be how they feel about us. Sorry for the rant. Other than a little bit of trash I don't see that we could destroy the San Rafael Swell if we tried.

 

We lost, they won. We lost over 800,000 acres and i believe that this area was some of what we lost.

 

I hope you're wrong. Maybe if it gets to Trump's desk it will get vetoed. I get so tired of someone thousands or miles away legislating what can and can't be done in your own area.

That would be sad to lose it and I can't imagine how much that would hurt the local towns...

 

The Emery County Council wanted t closed down because it enabled them to sell other land for big money. ********.
They are convinced that backpackers and bicyclist will bring in more money to the area than motorized recreational will.