The 1st (Annual?) Party at the River

Summer officially ends tomorrow. Long Live Summer! It has been a very busy summer for the family with baseball lasting through June, then July, and even into August. Updating this blog has not been a top priority, although there have been several Cacapon River Adventures to write about. The adventure this post will cover is the July 12th Party at the River.

Camp

The girls weren't too sure about camp life at first...

Yep, that's my dad's 34 foot Winnebago.The recently built shower house on the right was AWESOME.

Cousins!

Movie Night

Smores

The Float Trip

The river was at normal levels for July which means that it was shallow in many places and not running very strong. We tied all the floats together, including the two beer cooler floats, and Captain Christopher hooked the entire party barge to the back of the kayak. Off we went.

Getting Situated

Note who is tethered to the beer float.

Selfie

Babes in the woods.

Floating in style!

Even grandma is having fun. And she's not at the beach!

Taking a break at Bird Poop Rock.

Somebody was probably fussing about them standing on that big slippery rock.

The party barge had to split up to navigate the rapids.

Near the end and the sun is moving behind the mountains.

Captain Christopher is still pulling us back to camp, this time via truck.

 

Watch the video of the float trip!

Fishing the Bass Hole

I've never tried fly fishing the Cacapon, but Uncle Kev was successful. He caught the largest smallmouth of the day.

The Bass Hole

Uncle Kev, getting it done!

Bass Pro has asked us to model their newest line of apparel.

The Fish Whisperer

The boys swore they would eat them. They didn't.

After everyone left, the camp was eerily quiet. Until next time!

Camping with Friends

In April, some friends were gracious enough to allow us to use their truck to pull the camper from Richmond to the river. And they were crazy enough to stay in the camper with us for a 3 day weekend. This was the first time we had friends out to the river, and it was really, really nice to have some close friends to enjoy it with and a beautiful way to end Spring Break.

We went fishing the first day. The sun was shining but it was a little chilly, which is typical for early Spring in this part of West Virginia. Our friends brought some waders for the boys, so they were back and forth, in and out of the river, just exploring and having a blast.

In the distance are the boys fishing off a small island.

On the island looking downstream.

Waders are a really nice thing to have for 12 year old boys.

They built a bridge and helped momma across.

Due to the cold Winter and late Spring, the fishing was not as good as we had hoped, but we did have some luck.

Smallmouth Bass

 

This is a Fallfish. It is actually one of the largest members of the minnow family and can grow up to 18 inches.

When the boys grew weary of fishing, they found other things to keep themselves busy.

Target practice with BB guns.

The early Spring wildflowers were everywhere during this trip. See some of the pictures of them in this post: Wildflowers of the Cacapon River. 

First Trip to the New Property

On August 2nd, a few days after closing on the property, we loaded the boys and the dog in the mini-van and headed back to the Cacapon. The weather was overcast most of the time, and it sprinkled on us at night as well as a few times during the day, but the air and river were warm.

Home on the River - 1972 Coleman Pop-up

Before we even had the pop-up set up, the boys had changed clothes and were in the river. That was exactly what we hoped would happen. One of the major reasons we wanted a place like this was so that our boys had a place to go where they could just play and be boys and learn how to be comfortable in the woods.

The Boys - Exploring an Overflow Channel

 

 

 

Exploring the Main Overflow Channel

And once we had the camp set up and had a chance to explore the area, we quickly realized how lucky we were. It turns out that our property is the absolute last outpost of civilization. Beyond it is only woods and river. Being there feels as if we have hundreds of acres to ourselves. We didn't really understand this - how private and isolated it would be - when we bought it.

Before we made an offer on the property, I did a fair amount of research on the area. One of the Cacapon River's claim to fame is that it is the cleanest river in West Virginia. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that the river is still surrounded by forested land without a lot of development. This means that the runoff entering the river is not carrying large amounts of silt and sediments. We expected the river to be clean, but what we found was water that was sparkling, almost crystal clear.

And the fishing... I have never before caught so many fish on the first cast. The first Smallmouth I hooked jumped out of the water three or four times before I landed it, putting on quite a show for my boys.

My First Cacapon Smallmouth

 

Exploring the Islands in the Stream

A little farther upstream we found a nice slow-moving pool. The sunfish were hungry for the little green beetlespin, and my son was able to catch a few of them.

 

Every evening we gathered around the campfire to dry things off and warm up. After cooking marshmallows, the boys poked at the fire as much as they wanted to. 

 

 

 Even after three days with no hot water or flushing toilet, we didn't want to leave. Although the fun was ending, it made the packing up a little easier when we remembered that this place was ours, and we could come back anytime we want! And we did, three weeks later...