20 July - Boat Day on the Lake

20 July
Half price day on the lake, so regular price for an 18 ft pontoon $60/hr or $240/day on Monday and Thursday is $30/hr or $120/day.  First come, first served so was at the marina at 0755 hrs and got in line with three other boat renters.  After a bit of paperwork and watching a short video, we loaded up the dog, the fishing gear, the cooler, the snacks and the sunscreen,  and away we go.

 We were on the water by about 0900 hrs.  We've had very little wind all week here at the campground, but of course now that we rented a pontoon the wind she did blow!  So much so the anchor would not hold so we headed back to the marina and got a second anchor which did help.  Still quite a challenge keeping that big pontoon stationary for fishing with all the wind.

The scenery around Clear Lake is beautiful, and viewing it from a boat was great..  Most of the lake shore is natural but there are other areas that have been built, including the military RV park, at least two resorts and several what appear to be private homes.  Here are a few pictures:

Our campground from the boat

Rocky shoreline

Beautiful!

Much of the shoreline is steep and rocky

We stayed out until about 1330 hrs and came back in to pee the dog, grab some lunch and leave the dog in the RV for the afternoon.  About 1415 hrs we headed back out and fished the afternoon until about 1700 hrs when the fish bites were few and far between.

Go back and find your daddy!

A little bigger, but still not a keeper.

This guy built a building around his RV and apparently calls it home!  Here you can see the rear of the RV circled in red.

We had worked our way back towards the marina, so it just took a few minutes to pull the pontoon back into the slip and unload.  Doreen took an arm full back to the RV and I headed into the marina to settle up.  As advertised, the boat was $120 and we burned two whole gallons of fuel in 7 hours for cruising (some of that time was sitting too).   Oh ya, and $20 for the one day non-resident fishing license!!  Was a fun day.   We did not get any swimming or floating in, but both agreed probably not the best idea jumping off the pontoon with the wind and waves.  We can do that at the beach another day.

Tomorrow we will go back to Coeur d'Alene and visiting Doreen's aunt and uncle including lunch, plus we are dropping Liberty off at Petsmart for a haircut.