Camping At Big Lake

We went to Big Lake on Monday for my birthday camping trip. We arrived around noon and set up camp in the Rainbow campground. Connie, David, Larissa, and JayDee, came up too. We had a delicious dutch oven navajo taco dinner. Afterwards we took the kids to the lake to try some fishing. There were a few people catching from the shore, but we didn't have any luck. Apparently the fish were loving green power bait that day and ours was multicolored. Picky fish! We went back to camp and retired to bed. After a lovely night's rest, Jace and I got up at 5:30 and hit the lake again. After thirty minutes we went to rent a boat. We motored out to one of Uncle Derald's favorite fishing holes and sunk our poles with our new bottle of green glitter power bait. The fish began biting almost instantly! However they were very sneaky fish and kept stealing for the first ten bites we had. After that we started reeling them in. After we had caught five we noticed that the rest of the gang had arrived at the lake, so we went over to the dock to trade out with them so everyone could have a turn on the boat. James took out Kamery, Larissa, and JayDee. They didn't quite get the boat into the spot we had told them about, so they didn't have much luck. JayDee caught one but Uncle James let it slip out of his hands when he was trying to get the hook out and it flipped back into the lake and got away. James also caught a big crawdad! It started to rain at this point so we parked the boat at the dock and everyone went back to the campground. We snacked a bit on some food for lunch and hung out until the rain let up a bit. Then James and I took Kysee and Brady out on the boat for their turn. We sat for quite a while before we got any bites. We ended up catching four fish before the rain and lightening got so bad that we had to call it a day. We went back to the campground and picked up the other kids and drove into Eagar because the lightening was so bad we were afraid of getting hit. We went by Aunt Kay's but she was not home, so we drove around for a bit berfore deciding to get Arby's for dinner. We ventured back up the mountain hoping the worst of the storm had passed. No such luck. It was raining cats and dogs. Everything in our camp was completely soaked! Bedding, clothes, food, everything! We ended up having to pack up the whole camp in the pouring rain over the next couple of hours. We were soaked to the bone! We cranked the heater in the car and headed back to Snowflake, getting home at about midnight. We all fell into bed exhausted. James and the boys have been up this morning setting everything back up again in the front yard so we can dry it all out before it molds. Anyway, we had a great time until the rain started, but I don't think I will be going camping anytime soon!