The Platte River

Today is a rainy day, which reminds me of the day the family went kayaking down the Platte River while we were on vacation. Riverside Canoe thought we were a little crazy for going out in the bad weather, but rented us some kayaks anyway.

We bundled up with all our fleeces, rain gear and fishing gear and headed into the river. It was really cold and POURED rain the entire 4 hours that we were out there - but that didn't stop us!

About 1/3 of the way to Lake Michigan we stopped in Loon Lake to try to catch some fish. Even though the salmon were running under our boats, we didn't have much luck with the fishing...

...EXCEPT FOR RYAN! Look at this awesome bass he caught! It was incredible. First he caught this tiny minnow, so he decided to use it as bait, casted it back in and within a minute he had this bass on the line! I'm so proud. The water was pretty shallow at some parts...this is me, beached on the sand bar, and Ryan coming to the rescue.

1/2 way down the river we had to portage at the fish weir. I don't really understand how it works, all I know is they close the gates and all these salmon are swimming up steam to get back to the place they were born, so they use the fish weir to count all the salmon or something. It was so cool to see these huge king salmon whiz by in the clear, shallow water. We probably saw 80-100 pass under us while we were out there. It was amazing!

As soon as we got to the end, we all ran to the car to try to get warm. Everyone was so soaking wet and drenched to the bone that we all shivered the whole way back to the cabin where the men promptly built a GIGANTIC fire in the fireplace.