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I’m sitting at a Flaming Gorge launch ramp waiting for the 50 mile gust to subside so I can launch the canoe.  Hopefully I’ll get to float the damned up Green River for around 5 days, my longest float yet.  Currently I’m enjoying some sun from behind the windshield trying to motivate myself  to write about Redfish Lake.   My time there was incredible.  For four straight days we lived in the canoe amongst giant jagged peaks while the Eagles hunted Sockeye Salmon in the headwaters of the prettiest lake you can drive to, maybe the prettiest I’ve ever seen.  More than likely I would of felt different about the lake if I was there in the middle of summer, with water skiers and boy scouts being the only sites around.  But, I arrived on the Lodges closing day.  The guys tearing down the docks for winter helped launch the canoe.  This time I ate brunch at the Lodge before getting on the water.  I overheard the girls serving the buffet talking about last nights low, 10 degrees.  As I launched, Art drove up in his van and asked what I was doing.  He kept asking if I had a buddy, I think maybe he was seeing Nora, but he was concerned for my safety.  Thankfully he offered to be my arrival party four days later.  Atleast one person knew what I was up to, and was waiting for me to get back.  The only reason I came back was because I ran out of food, or maybe it was the 15 degrees mornings.  Although, sleeping in the van around the lake felt a lot colder than sleeping in the canoe on the water.  Probably the lakes higher temp making the nights bearable.  On my last night I caught a giant trout with some line tied to a floating stick.  Way better than fishing with a pole. My pole is lying about 15 feet of water after the damned thing went overboard.  I ate the trout.  Before catching this delicious and overdue dinner I caught an even bigger bull trout.  Both fish were longer than the stick I caught them on.  Shoving off in the canoe to chase a floating stick as it runs off across the lake is fantastic stuff.  Pulling them up by hand is way better than a reel.  The eagles would fly to my floating camp in the mornings.  Early one day I saw a juvenile eagle take off after an adult, young chasing old in one grand path around the lake.  My first night out I tied off to some federal docks that claimed “No Overnight Mooring”.  The docks froze over that night and some kids came the next morning. They threw rocks for Nora then helped their leader pull up the docks.  Each morning we’d wake up with the top layer of the canoe frozen over.  Day two, or so, I rowed out early to photograph the sunrise on the mountains.  I set my canoe paddle down, took a few shots, then noticed the drip on my paddles end had frozen within minutes.  On the last night, after chasing giant trout, I decided not to reset the anchor.  We spent an entire night adrift in the middle of the lake, I actually slept.  The next morning I rowed back around the point to where the mountains started to fade and the van started to appear.  Art was waiting for me at the lodge.  He and a friend where putting antifreeze in the pipes. There’s was a couple from Tennessee claiming the only occupied campsite on the lake.  We chatted about paddling the Inside Passage to Alaska.  Art and friend threw the canoe on top of the van, we all smiled and talked of my late season canoe trip.  I’m guessing Redfish Lake will be the highlight of this trip.

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