Is This The Last Gasp Of Gasps?
Alex Watson setting the kids free with there 25 Sportsman.
The last gasps are trickling in. Maybe we last gasped to late this year? I am sure that the good folks in Northeast are all done with Gasps? But thanks to Dennis Mykols, Brian Toye and Alex Watson we can still pretend to enjoy a good gasp!
Here is Brian’s kinda last gasp!
OK, this didn’t need any photoshop to look cold!
Last year my kids went tubing avoiding the leaves that Mayer was throwing all over the place for our last gasp event.
This year there is no last gasp. The patient – the boating season – is dead.
This is our Odell Lake (known as Skeeter Lake for the month of June) where we tube, relax and fish for Kokanee. We gather around this
communal fire pit to chat with the folks taking a break on the Pacific Crest hiking trail – they start at the Mexican border and hike to Canada. We didn’t see any hikers.
And this one in from Dennis Mykols!
Pretty little Woodies ,all in a row, head’n home for a long winters nap.”This picture was taken on the Water Wonderland Chapter’s Hardy Dam Rendezvous
They can fish for beer? I’m moving to Canada!
COLD beer!
All nice shots, but it is depressing to take photos of the last ride(s) of the season. Maybe WoodieBoater should have a “First Launch Ride” photo contest in the Spring. You may get a more enthusiastic response.
The Michigan Chapter is having its annual Fall Awards Dinner tommorow night. That is our last official chance to party for the season. We will take advantage of it.
Matt, it’s a good question. Normally I take oodles of photos all season long. Boats, kids, kids in boats, kids on boats, kids under boats… But for a number of reasons this year, the picture-taking dropped off. In our case, it’s mainly due to the kids’ extracurricular schedules, which at their ages, are starting to dig into my sacred Hessel fall weekends. We also did not have a typical Michigan Indian Summer — instead, a fine day scattered here and there — which gave us less incentive to head to Hessel. And lastly, and perhaps above all, our area’s tail-end boating suffered greatly from the low Great Lakes water levels. It dropped so steeply and quickly, it became difficult or impossible for many people, including us, to get to and from our docks. As a result, I pulled the boats much earlier this year. Fewer boats at the dock further reduced the incentive to head north. So in our case, it’s just an off year for Last Gasp. In the cases of others, Sandy must have had a real impact. So I’d give it another year if I were you.
I don’t know about other folks, but taking so many pictures in-season gives me hope during the long, long winter. Winter up here is so long, sometimes I need to be reminded I even have boats.
P.S. I’ve still got one commissioned. Motor drained, but still commissioned. I’m entertaining the hope we’ll get one of those incredible, freakishly-warm days that will make launching it simply mandatory! Hopefully, that day will come before the ice.
I hear you Alex, this fall in Michigan was a wet October, and very low water levels, that made a mess of everyones plans.
When I get the dreaded winter Cabin Fever this year, I got a safty valve plan. You see, I took Old School down to South Carolina to Greg Jackson’s place, “Carolina Classic Boats and Cars,” to list her for sale.
But if I am in need of a boat fix, bam, I head on down, and the Hacker is 15 minutes away to a nice lake near Greg’s place.
Plus if she don’t sell, she is 2/3rds the way down to Mt. Dora already!!! Pays to plan ahead…
hey Matt, nice job on croppin the header today, When I opened the site, I did not notice the picture was mine, then after I went back to the site a second time, I notice the spray, and said to Ronnie, HEY that’s my picture!!! Nice job, the spray against the black just pops.
HA, thanks, you called it on that one, It needed type to make it pop.