Lake Chelan

I finally made it to Lake Chelan in central Washington but it was still hot. The temperature was over 100 degrees. I met up with Janice's aunt and uncle and they invited me to stay with them at their condo since they had a few family members that were not going to be able to make the trip. I took them up on their generous offer and moved my camp to the other side of the lake. The accommodations were excellent and I was happy to see everyone again. It had been many years since I had seen the family and I was amazed at how much the children had grown. We went to the lake to swim and just relax and fortunately the lake water was cold enough to actually cool me off from the extreme heat. Lake Chelan is a very big lake that stretches over 50 miles and is 1500 feet deep at its deepest. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and a family dinner and 4 of us guys went to bed to get up early for a fishing trip. We were at the dock by 5:30 the next morning and our guide took us out to search for Mackinaw or Lake Trout as hey are known. I was fishing with Doug Hopper, Mark Hopper, and Alex Hopper. Ed Hopper, Janice's uncle, had graciously paid for us to go on this trip and I am very grateful. These are a big trout that we fished for on the bottom at anywhere from 100-200 feet deep with jigs. We caught 2 fish right away that were big and thought we would have that kind of luck all day. But we soon hit a dry spell and we missed several fish. None of us had fished like this before and it was a difficult task to learn. We didn't have much more luck until the end of our time when we caught 6 more smaller but good sized fish. Everyone had landed a fish so we were content. We didn't keep any of the fish because we had no way to store them but we also did not have fishing licenses so we didn't deserve to keep them. We thought that the license was part of the trip but we were wrong. Luckily we were not caught. We headed back and each took a nice long nap. We headed for the lake again the kids rode jet skis while the rest of us relaxed in the water or on the shore. We were all having a good time and then we decided to play volleyball. We were having fun even though we were not very good and then I pulled my calf muscle trying to get to a ball. I hurt it badly but kept playing by mostly hopping on my good leg. This injury has cancelled out a hike I had planned with Doug as well as a motorcycle ride I was planning on the Northern Cascades highway. I'm hoping my leg will feel better in a few days but I have my doubts. If not, this could be a trip ending injury for me. I will stay here a couple of more days and see how I feel and then make my decision. Until then I will just enjoy the company I am with as they are a joy to be around and they make me feel like part of their family.