Tenmile Lake Trip October 11-14, 2007
The start of October had a lot of excitement for the Risch household. After attending the Corvallis fall festival and hearing about a sick Chihuahua/Boston Terrier mix that was abandoned and in the local animal hospital, we decided to consider adoption. After seeing the little dog, which we now call Lillie, we knew that we had another addition to our household. Lilly was released from the animal hospital to us on October 5th. She apparently had a stomach disorder that required antibiotic treatments that her previous owner did not want to pay for. She then picked up ringworm from her foster family. She came to us a healthy 6# puppy. She will probably be about the same size as Sadie when she is full grown.
I had reserved an RV spot at Lakeshore Lodge and RV Park, on Tenmile Lake from October 11- October 14, so this would be the perfect opportunity to see how Sadie and Lillie would get along on a camping trip. It would also be a great opportunity to see if I could catch some fish. We drove up on the morning of October 11 on the scenic Territorial highway route, and arrived at our spot in the afternoon. Both Sadie and Lillie were little angels during the whole drive.
I lucked out and someone cancelled their reservation, so Holly and I were able to get our favorite lake view spot. I had the rig leveled and the connections done in a matter of minutes, and Holly put out the slide-out. After this, I unloaded and launched my boat while Holly made the inside of the trailer cozy. It had been raining for about the last week straight, but the weather had started to clear, and the forecast was for a nice Friday and Saturday, so we were hoping to be able to enjoy some outdoor time over the weekend. Holly and I had a nice dinner at the Lodge before spending the evening relaxing in the trailer. Lillie and Sadie were both excited for us to come home from dinner, and managed not to get into any trouble when we were out. They both seemed to love the cozy atmosphere of the trailer. The first night Lillie curled up in a ball on her bed while Sadie did her normal trick of crawling into bed with Holly and me in the middle of the night. On Friday and Saturday night, Lillie figured this trick out, as well.
I went fishing on Friday morning and caught a couple of perch that were big enough to fillet. I probably caught at least ten that I had to throw back for every one I kept, but this kept me entertained. While I was out fishing, Holly spent some time lounging out in the sun with the puppies. When Holly was outside, one of our neighbors came by to say hello with her 4 Boston terriers that seemed to really like little Lillie. Lillie didn’t seem to mind the other dogs, probably because she is part Boston Terrier herself, but Holly said that Sadie was protective of her new little sister. All the people at the resort seemed interested in our little dogs and very friendly.
I came back at about 1PM and Holly and I brought Sadie and Lillie for a drive to nearby Winchester bay and Netarts. We drove along the dunes, the bay front, and state parks in the area, enjoyed the many beautiful views and nice weather, and had a nice lunch. Lillie and Sadie snuggled up next to each other during our little drive. I went out fishing again in the evening for a little bit and caught another perch that I kept and many more that I threw back. I cooked up some venison tenderloins on the grill for dinner with some garden grown vegetables.
Although Nathan had Thursday and Friday off of school, he had a couple of projects that he needed to finish before he joined us camping. He joined us on Saturday afternoon, and I brought him out fishing again. I was getting plenty of nibbles from those little perch, but they just didn’t seem to be biting as hard as the day before and Nathan hadn’t caught a thing. I brought Nathan to another spot, and after a couple of minutes he caught a nice rainbow trout which made his day. For dinner we all went to the restaurant instead of eating the fish we had since Nathan was really in the mood for a burger, and we wanted him to experience the good food at the lodge. Just as we came in for dinner, we were able to watch the exciting conclusion of the Oregon Beavers’ victory against the Cal Bears.
On Sunday Nathan and I went out fishing again in the morning when we got to our fishing spot, there was a nice Blacktail buck right on the shore staring at us. He seemed to know that even though it is deer season in Oregon, I was fishing that weekend and didn’t have my rifle. Later on, several ducks came within about 6 feet from the boat. I told Nathan to get the with the net if they got any closer since it is duck season too. It’s funny how things go in that manner for sportsmen sometimes.
Besides the game sightings on the lake, I was keeping entertained by catching a perch on almost every cast. I was just using a weight and a worm while he was trying to bobber fish. After I caught about 30 fish, Nathan decided to switch up his rig to what I had. On his first cast, he hooked into a really nice bass that was about twice the size of the trout he got the day before. He was able to bring it right up next to the boat after a couple of minutes of fighting. Just as I grabbed the landing net, the fish got off. Apparently, Nathan had forgotten to check one of his knots, and it came unraveled. We continued to fish for another hour or so, but we didn’t get any more bass, and couldn’t fish anymore since we were out of bait. I guess the “big one” will be there for us next time. We ended up the weekend with a nice catch of fish that we had for dinner on Tuesday.
