Camping at Magic Lake Idaho with Grandkids/GoFunMe Page is working great

My GoFunMe page was paying dividends, you should try one.

We had time, and had a lake we wanted to visit having heard about it from neighbors. With a few days off and twin Granddaughters in tow we headed for the hills, after stopping for lunch.

The lake wasn't far from home mile-wise but the 30 miles of dirt road were steep and windy, those 30 miles taking over an hour to make. That was a windy road, not a windy road, ah the English language.

The road brought us in to the south side of the lake and a campground. Having never been there before we wanted to check out the CG to see if we'd like it there. A guy with a huge trailer was blocking the main road whilst trying to back his trailer into a very small camp spot. The guys at the boat ramp said he'd been trying for several hours so we left, never seeing the campground. After driving around and below the damn dam and back up to the lake we came to a turn-off and holy Christmas it was the camp spot from Heaven. Lake front, no fees, dogs could run off the leash and no-one was there. The guy with the trailer had driven right by it to get where he was, what a knucklehead. "Thank you God" whispered the surly GrandPa.

What follows are too many pics of the same place along with too many pics of sweet twin Granddaughters Zoe and Parker. They are a hoot and so much fun. It's mine and Lynn's second go-around with two girls, having had so much fun with our two daughters Jess and the twins Mother, Jen. But what the hey, it's my trip report and when I'm old I can look back at these TRs. Yeah like I'm doing now as I write, re-enjoying the trip thru 65 year old eyes. And I am really enjoying this picture, something about it relaxes me,,,

Yes, I need to raise that hammock a bit. At least I won't have far to fall.


A little fishing from shore started the week.

First and third generation, times does fly yes?!



Zoe started us off with a beerbouquet. We had many beautiful flowers close by, and one blooming idiot taking pictures.



Zoe's first boyfriend Wilson came with us. Zoe had a ball with him.



When Zoe put him down he started balling. Boo, hiss...



The girls always have bandaids on their knees. It comes with the territory.









F/22 baby! Works for water sparkles too.






What a great campsite



A new Olympic sport was born, the Canoe Balance Beam

She's a goofball like her Mom. And her Grand Ma. Wait, what?



Right next to the truck, Camp Whataview



There I was, dog tired. Ah, you knew that was coming didn't you?






What? Does someone look bored?!



I hear a song in my head, You Are My Sunshine...both



Let's get a fire going Baba, chop chop.



It was a Kodachrome evening






Ice cream cones and a fire beside the lake on a summer eve. Ain't nothing better in my book, the Book Of Baba. (short for Grand Pa from their two year old mouths. I love it, and don't feel sheepish at all.)









The Old Man And The See, not staring Baba Tracy



Baba two-hats






One morning we woke up to the sound of an Eagle. The girls had their binoculars with and took a look.



I didn't have a long lens with me so I zoomed in and then did a crop on the computer to get closer yet. It was in a tree just across the way, welcoming us to it's home turf, er, air space.



Then it was time to hit the water, first time for the four of us all together.



The girls had been in the canoe once before but of course couldn't remember, they were too young back in Phoenix when I took them for a spin in the backyard lake, Parker swore she saw a fish...



My new Armstrong motor was working great. It's a bow drive.



The lady can cast a line too...

Hell, she caught me didn't she?
Hook, line and sinker. Again I say, wait, what? It had to be those Rapala earrings she used to wear when she was 18 years old hah. Rapala=fish lure. Hey those shiny things work for fish and guys too.


I dunno, it looks like she's about to catch a dogfish.



I gotta hand it to them, five times over, they were looking good on the lake.



"Look" said Lynn...

another eagle.

As it flew right over us I said "Duck!"





"Let's see" said Lynn, "It should take Duke about 4 seconds" to catch a trout. You believe that? If so I have a fish farm to sell you in the Mojave Desert.

Ah, love is Grand, yes Mother?



These two girls are very handy at posing for pictures.



Zoe can be quite the goose, or is that a sandhill crane?

I'll go on record to say that there's more personality in these two than I've seen in thirty-four years, when their Mother was born.








Zoe, pointing out the moon to Parker



One evening I brought out the Benjamin pump pellet gun to start teaching them to shoot. What? You've never watched the Walking Dead? Kids need to know how to shoot when the Zombie Apocalypse happens.



Now what Baba?

If you ask me, these girls walk on water.






Caution, do not lay in the hammock without insect repellant. Skeeters!






The next morning I discovered a tiger wandering on the beach. If it was Christmas I'd say it had Sandy Claws. Another...boo and hiss. Ok, I get it...



Canoe time, and hopefully some fish. Zoe had wrist pains from reeling in 200 yards of line. Ok I don't reely know why she was holding her hand, nobody uses 200 yards of line. Maybe because I made her row so I could fish.



My wife captioned this picture. Girls Gone Fishing, hah.

Particularrily funny. I had a fish on and one of the girls had one also. Usually everyone reels in except the one catching the fish. Young girls couldn't reel in fast enough so the net I used on one fish got tangled and yanked back out in the lake by the other fish. Something like that anyway. I had to cut all 3 lines and one fish got away, sadly.  It was a hot mess for sure, but a fun time and great picture.


Pulling in to shore in a Magic Cove we saw pollywogs for their first time.



There's not much to them Zoe noticed and wouldn't make good pets. yet battered and deep fried are quite tasty and don't jump out of the pan like frog legs.



It was a great place for lunch,



And to show off the nice sized trout that Zoe had reeled in, while Parker made fish lips. In the back of my head I heard the song Fish heads fish heads, roly-poly fish heads...Google it



Parker hooked one and Lynn had to hold the rod so she could reel it in.



Meanwhile, back at the shore, fun happened.






More shooting lessons as Zoe figured out how to sight the pellet gun.






Lynn had bought me a Tenkara fly rod for my birthday and the lake was a good place to try it out. Without a reel it's a small stream/river fishing system from Japan and used as a most basic and simple way to fish. She needs one of her own now and we can't wait to hit the Idaho streams.






Looks like Trouble, the game.












After the pool party it was time for a little T-ball.









Ok so T-ball was tiring for an old man so a nap was needed, but a picture of an old man taking a nap was not needed. It was a cozy nap though, I had company.



It was a short nap, I had girls waiting for me...



And more shooting as Parker became a budding Annie Oakley






And dinner. You can call me any name you like, but don't ever call me late for dinner.



I was noticing a blurry effect and thought a filter was on the phone-camera. It was a while before I thought to wipe the lens off, thought I kinda liked the effect.



It was another to-die-for-evening on Magic Lake






When it got dark we took a nature walk and found a toad, I'm sure it was a Toad of the Short Forest. (ala Frank Zappa) The girls had never seen a tadpole being toad before.



In the morning I noticed the beerbouquet had died, meaning it was time to leave..



The girls waved goodbye from our special spot on Magic Lake.









We stopped at the dam for dam pictures. The girls were dam impressed, hot dam.









Gee Baba, that's a cool truck. Yes well I did add a rear cargo rack and boxes. When you take girls fishing you need a lot more stuff. Life jackets, fish gear, more stuffed animals, you know...



Definitely not my best picture as I tried to see if the remote trigger was working on the camera. "Why ain't this thingamajig workin."



Getting home we had the girls stay for a sleepover and Traegerd the trout. We had forgotten to take the fixins for trout whilst camping so did them up right, at home. The hot dogs were in case the girls didn't take to the trout right off. Traegerd, surely a new high value Scrabble word hah. Lynn does a great job putting stuff inside the fish, I just don't know what stuff that is. It's shore tasty though, and yes I did.



There it is, trout and hush puppies, one of my favorite meals.



Hey thanks a lot for looking. Dave, Lynn and somebody else's kids...Parker and Zoe(y)