I had taken the friday before August Long off, to make it an extra long weekend. I had just gotten over a horrible week of being sick so I decided not to go camping. Instead, I planned a Friday morning breakfast date and a quick trip out of the city on Saturday. By lunch I was sitting outside reading a book and soaking up the warm sun, when my friend phoned and again, asked me to go to the lake. I listed off my excuses as why I shouldn't go and as I heard myself speaking I realized how lame I was really sounding. I told her, I would think about it. One nap later followed by a few hours of picking up supplies and packing and I found myself in the passenger seat of a Pathfinder, heading off to Atton's Lake.
I wasn't too impressed with the park itself and the facilities took some getting use to. The sites are open and the nights were loud. But the beach was nice, the water was warm, and the lake bottom had no sea weeds.
After over a week sick in bed, it was nice to spend a lot of time outside.
I met some nice cows. They were one cute posse, but they kept advancing on me, eyeing me up and down, so I didn't stay long enough to find out their names.
We drove into North Battleford one afternoon and watched the chuck wagon races. I loved how the announcer yelled "Hwheel to Hwheel they race" (think Stewie saying Cool Hwhip) and "It's hotter than Arizona pavement here". I loved how the outriders held onto the chuck wagon horses and then did this quick hop which bounced them onto the backs of their horses.
Close to Atton's lake is Little Bushy Lake where my friend's significant other's brother's, father-in law lives. He knows all the good fishing spots and we spend some time catching perch as the sun drifted slowly into the horizon.
Poundmaker Reserve is also on part of Little Bushy and they have set up a Historical Centre and Teepee Village.
We got up early one morning and I discovered the joys of drinking a morning coffee while sitting out on a boat catching fish. I'm sure it helped that the fishing was insane. We caught 65 perch between the two boats in just a few hours. I found myself popping out little fish eyeballs (With my bare hands!) so we could continue using bait to fish. I did try to find the "most dead" fish (ie, the ones not flopping around) and then gave them a little rap on their little head on the side of the boat. And I did silently hope that these fish were in fact truly dead, or at least had no feelings of pain. I think I've come a loong way: from not being able to put the bait onto my own hook (lest my hands get all gooby), to popping out fish eyeballs.
I'm glad I headed out of the city, I had great weather, great company and a great time fishing.
~b~
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