Out & About 3-21-2020

[Bduck]

I spent yesterday driving about with my dog checking on the scenery. No matter where I went I found it to be populated as folks were leaving the confines of their homes. As I'm traveling traffic was not heavy at all but one can tell quite a few were out & about like me.

My first stop was E Canyon, I found open water and a few taking advantage of where they can drop a line in. As water appears along the edges its still aways from ice off but next storm/s should start pounding the lake.


Next I ventured to Rockport, the lake is about half ice off but at the eastern end. The launch ramp still capped. It won't be long before this will be open to boating. Fishermen are also taking advantage of the open water along shores here all around the lake. Fly fishermen hitting the in flow river as well.

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Continuing on towards Peoia & Oakley. I really like this area for a country drive with its backdrop beauty and its going to get better as spring starts taking over. As I was passing thru Oakley I came upon a childrens petting farm. How neat this is but no one is taking advantage of farm animals, chickens turkeys ducks and others coraled together, donkeys & Llamas in the background. I even found Limu Emu with his mate but Doug was missing in action. Across the street from this farm is a fenced in pasture for horses large & small. I didn't know I was going to a carrot to feed the horses. They were friendly and came right up to the fence to greet me. Then I drove up to see how far I could get into Smith & Moorehouse Res. I got as far as I could but came upon a full population of trucks trailers bringing their snowmobiles parked everywhere at the final turnoff to the reservoir. It was so crammed with parked vehicles it was hard to turn around. There was no way I was going to travel final 3mi in not knowing road conditions as snow was still deep in this territory.


On my return trip home I stopped off at Echo State park and didn't realize there was construction going on with new camping facilities. This is my first trip into this area and I have never fished Echo after what I heard of entrance fees before the state got possession of the area. This lake is close to being ice off any day now as more are fishing the shore in open water.
 

One final note, I noticed next to all roadways/hiways wherever there was a river there were numerous fishermen getting access to fish. All rivers had a good flow with slight to no stain that I could see and lake levels are on the rise with nearing full pool capicity.