41-52-2013: Happy Thanksgiving!

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Napping in the sunshine, outside the Waldorf Hotel

October 12, 2013 – I’ll probably feel like this later this evening. Mainly because we are doing our Thanksgiving turkey dinner tonight instead of Sunday or Monday.

Why?

Because the forecast for the next week is simply fabulous and we both have Monday off. So we plan on making the most of another weather gift. I am going to roll that odometer over the 10,000km mark after only six months of riding it. Not shabby, and apparently we have decided that we like each other.

Shiny and clean, all ready for bed.

A tiny little bit of bike bling

Today was also gorgeous, but I needed a rest day. It’s been a crazy busy week and my body needed a bit of recovery. Sunday we did get out on the bikes for the afternoon and connected up with a ton of friends and acquaintances at Squamish, then we washed and polished the motorcycles and put them to bed, not expecting to get any further good days, but we were wrong! Fall is giving us a nice show so far.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was out in Port Alberni at Robertson Creek Hatchery where I was helping out with two days of Chinook egg takes. Mornings were foggy, but the days cleared up and the weather was stellar. We’ve been lucky so far this fall.

Foggy morning on the Somass River

I’ve been out both of the past two years, but this year the fish were monsters! For a lark we put a couple on the scale Tuesday afternoon and they weighed in at 53 and 55 lbs respectively. Wednesday we weighed a 64 lb buck. The does were ranging from a guesstimate of 30 – 50 lbs on average. After two days of battling, lifting, and lugging those around, I was wiped.

 Cole and his treasure – a 64lb buck. It was a handful to spawn.

We had a number of black bears hanging around, and the bear bangers were being shot off at regular intervals. One boar charged a staff member, so the Conservation Officer was called to see if he could run them off. He smacked a couple of them with some rubber bullets and we didn’t see them the rest of the day, but they were back in greater numbers the following day.

 Black bears hoping for an easy meal, they were disappointed.

At the end of the day Wednesday I headed back across the Island and just made the 5:20 ferry. The drive home I felt like little better than a vegetable.

I had one day in the office and was asked if I could come out to another hatchery yesterday to help, they were short staffed and really needed another pair of hands. It was supposed to be my day off, but I decided to flip it over and take Tuesday off instead and headed out to Chehalis River to help them spawn pink salmon. I figure I bonked about 300 fish on the head yesterday, and handled a darn sight more than that. But it wasn’t as body beating as Chinook. Pinks are so tiny in comparison, just a couple of pounds each. They do still wear you out though, sorting through a couple of thousand fish to find the ripe ones, and hanging onto those narrow tails does take a toll on your hands.

So today was a sleep in day, a grocery shopping day, a cooking day, and a lazy day.

And tonight after we eat our turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, maple glazed carrots, sausage and pecan dressing, and apple cranberry cobbler, I will probably fall into a food coma and feel like those two fellows in the top photo, outside the Waldorf Hotel, napping in the sunshine.

Happy Thanksgiving all!