A Fishing Trip to Remember

This is is the view of Lake Chelan looking uplake toward Stehekin from the first promontory on the trail to Domke Lake. It was to be a trip to Domke to fish the lake for rainbow trout.

The day itself was beautiful, but there was an ominous forecast for temperatures to fall to the as-yet-unexperienced-this-fall-season mark of 20 degrees. Knowing that it was the last chance to get any fishing done before the winter set in, we went anyway.

The prize...a stringer of rainbow trout to be cooked and eaten just out of the lake.

Part of the way up the trail, we replenished our water bottles with water from a spring.

The fall colors (here the very unique colors of a dogwood tree) were still very much in evidence along the trail and served to cheer us on.

The trail to Domke Lake is 3 (long) miles. Going there, the gradient is relentlessly up, up, up. What is worse, on the return, the journey is made by going down, down, down. (For those of us no longer in their prime, and for those of us with bad knees, the descent is excruciating.)

Once you are at the lake itself...Oh, my goodness! It is beautiful, quiet and peaceful. A lovely piece of the wilderness.

As soon as we had rowed across the lake to a campground and set up the tent and stowed the gear, we rowed out into the lake to fish for our supper. Here Terry holds up the string of fish we caught before calling it a day for the fishing.

As we rowed back to camp to cook our fish, this was the late afternoon view from the place we were camped.

Darkness came quickly, but a blazing fire with a skillet of fish cooking over it cheered us on. Temperatures were falling rapidly and little did we know that the night ahead would be one of the most miserable on record. To say that we nearly froze to death is putting it mildly and making a long story short.

As daylight came and it became abundantly clear that we had survived the night in spite of the cold, we took the boat out on the lake to fish again. Terry is holding the stringer of fish we would take back to Holden to share with anyone wanting fresh rainbow trout for breakfast. It is a tradition that the kitchen will cook your fish for you and have them ready to eat at the time you specify. They were delicious and were enjoyed by many.

Returning down the trail to Domke Lake, this was the view of Lake Chelan stretching into the distance far below...a beautiful end to a wonderful camping and fishing trip.