Fish Tales

Talk about some tall tales...

Or long ones as this vacation tale is becoming.  But here I go, pulling out the slides again for our company.

On our second full day of vacation we decided to go fishing.  Mike talked with someone in the visitor center who told her that the best fishing between the parks (there are several in the area) was Mic Mac Lake in Tettegouche Park which is about 25 minutes from Gooseberry.  We headed out early in the morning bringing not only our fishing gear, but our lunch and dishes as well. 

We got to our destination and pulled everything out.  We had been told that it was going to be a 1.5 mile walk into the actual lake but not that big of a deal.  Everyone carried something with Mike hauling the giant backpack filled with all our dishes and food.

This was the longest 1.5 miles we've ever tackled.  Because I didn't take pictures of the actual walk up, I have taken the liberty to draw a map for you:

No joke.  This wasn't a casual 1.5 mile hike.  It was steeply uphill.  And when we got to one point Maddie saw a sign that said, "Congratulations!  It's all downhill from here!"  On the way down Mike said, "I'm not even excited that we are heading downhill.  I know on the way back I just have to climb up it."

40 minutes later we got to our destination.

There are cabins in this area that people can hike their gear into and stay at.  Cute cabins.  I'd have to permanently live there to make that hike worth all the camping gear.  But we found these two docks.

While Mike baited the lines, the kids tried to find the fish.  They were slightly discouraged when all they found was minnows.

But we started fishing and not much was happening.  Mike and Maddie headed around the bend to look for a second dock we'd heard about.  Jake and I kept fishing and hoping.

Pretty soon Maddie came running onto the dock yelling, "I caught a fish!  I caught a fish!" and Mike followed to tell us to follow them back to the other dock where it was a little easier to get everyone on the dock.

Jake announced that we were not allowed to leave until all of us had caught at least one fish.  I didn't think I'd ever see home again.

But, the morning and afternoon sailed by and we each caught our fish.

Perch.  Mostly Perch.  Tiny fish, but a fish none-the-less and everyone was excited when their lines started pulling.

Maddie still refused to touch the fish.  She loved catching it, but once it was out of the water, she wanted no part of it.

And finally I knew that we were all allowed to go home...at some point.

We cooked our soup and fished only a little longer before deciding we wanted/needed to start our hike back.  It looked like this:

It felt worse.

Maddie and Mike walked a lot of this together.  He whistled and she had to guess the tune.  Or they talked.  Either way it was a good view from where I stood and I couldn't help think that I hope she knows how lucky she is to have him by her side!

Yes.  I get sappy on ridiculous hikes.

This was the view from near the top.  Near.  We'd already passed the summit and still had a ways to go.

Kudos to Jake.  Mike and I hadn't realized that his shoe had a giant hole in it.  So did his sock.  He only had to stop a couple times for the rocks in his feet.

And honestly, both kids did pretty awesome on this hike.  Mike said this is going to be one of "those stories" that goes down in history in this family. 

"Remember when we went fishing...and we had to hike uphill...both ways?" 

Sadly that won't be an exaggeration.