Eagle Nest

Yesterday we did swimming and park lunch while dad worked on getting us ready for a trip to Eagle Nest. We made the three hour drive North, passing a burning car on the way which was exciting, and arrived around 4:00 pm. The Reese’s had already grabbed a site at the Blackjack campground about 15 minutes from the dock, so we went straight to the lake and met them for an hour or so of fishing. We would have stayed longer, but a large group of Latinos invaded the bit of shore we were occupying. They were casting over our lines, wading into the water in front of us, and stepping on our poles. We were the only ones there and there was plenty of space for them to be not right on top of us, so the lack of etiquette was truly baffling. When confronted, they pretended to only speak Spanish (though we could hear them speaking English to each other). There really was nothing to be done, so in the end they succeeded in driving us away. Though no one caught anything on their lines, Matthew snagged a sucker with his net, which we roasted over the fire and ate with our dinner. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging around camp. Our kids were all ready and excited to go to bed right around dark. Hyrum got to spend his first night out in the hammock tent he got for Christmas, Abraham slept alone in the two man spring-bar, and Mercy slept with Matthew and me in our Trek tent. 

We were all awake and starting to pack up by 7:00 this morning. We weren’t in a hurry, but had no inclination to dawdle, so we ate breakfast, broke camp, and headed to some ponds further up the road. It was a perfectly beautiful morning and the trout were biting like crazy. We caught 8 and the Reese’s caught 11. To our great consternation, the same group of Latins from the night before showed up not long after we did. We spread out and stood our ground, and they behaved a bit better, so no more bad feelings were had. We stayed there until nearly 11:00, then packed up and headed to the big lake to meet up with Jeb and Hannah and the girls. We ate lunch at a picnic table above the shore, then bushwacked our way to where Jeff was stationed on a somewhat remote bit of shore. It was weedy and mucky and the fishing was not great, but that’s where we were. Jeb, Jeff, and Cora went out on Jeb’s boat while the rest of us settled in on the shore. Matt, Matthew, and I did some fishing, but Hannah, Nicole, and the combined seven kids visited and played. We were there about four hours and Matthew and I managed to get two decent sized, beautiful trout. Jeb and Cora caught their limit and came in just as a storm began brewing and the water became quite choppy. We couldn’t tell what the weather was going to do, so we decided to call it quits for the day.

The drive home was uneventful, and we arrived back at the house in time for the kids to make an appearance at the neighbor girl Maritza’s giant Mexican birthday party. There was face painting, and a bounce house, and a band, and all kinds of treats. It made for a lot of sugar and excitement right before bed, but it sure was fun!