Little Mountain Fork

Ron, Tyler and I set out after work one day last week, to enjoy the outdoors in Oklahoma for a few days.  Most of the way there, we played "Bingo", fighting for each and every yellow vehicle we saw.  By the time we arrived, we just had time to check out the river and watch some locals float and fish.

The itinerary for the trip was that there was none.  We slept in each morning and made our plans as we went.   For me, that's hard, because I like to have things planned out pretty well, filling each moment with all that an area has to offer.  I had to remind myself several times throughout the week that there was no need to rush anywhere for anything, but, as I took a deep breath and just let things go, I found it to be quite relaxing!

Thursday morning, after sleeping in, we headed to the river.

and staked it out just as the first group of river rats were passing through.

Before we had our things set up completely, Ron and Tyler had to go rescue a group whose canoe had tipped and filled with water.


They weren't in any danger, but they couldn't get it turned and dumped on their own.

Just as they started back down the river, they crashed again, this time lodging the canoe between rocks.


Tyler and Ron came to the rescue again.

It actually happened one more time before they got completely past us.

And I guess they finally just gave up, because we saw this come over the falls a short time later.


We tubed the river once together, but stopped at our "beach" so that my broken leg didn't have to experience the falls.  Instead, I headed down there with my camera as the guys came downstream. Ron came first

but, crashed and burned (like I did last year).

Next came Tyler.

Smart boy---after watching his dad crash, he stopped to find the best place to go over.

He made it look easy (except for that look on his face just before he went over the edge).

Next, we dragged one of the kayaks down and they each tried it in that---

much easier!
if

The next day, inspired by a few anglers we'd watched the evening before, we headed to Wal-Mart to purchase fishing licenses and fishing poles before going to the river.  It took forever to get the licenses and it wasn't until we were getting into the truck that Ron exclaimed "Oh no!!!".  Tyler and I had no idea what was wrong.  "We just bought Arkansas licenses and the river is in Oklahoma!", he cried.  Oh. my. goodness.    We laughed so hard!!    After driving across the state line to purchase yet another fishing license, this time in OK, we headed back to the river.   Along the way, I talked Ron into pulling over so that I could get a few pictures of the Queen Anne's Lace that were dotting the roadside.



Tyler looked on, probably wondering about his new step-mom's sanity as lumber trucks sped by us, honking their horns.

At the river, Ron gave Tyler a lesson in how to tie a swivel.


Then, we spent the next few hours on kayaks and wading in the water to fish.



We caught a bunch--mostly small, but a few that were a pretty nice size.   Finally, Ron pulled in this Gasper Gou---pretty big!!


Tyler, however, had a little bit harder time bringing in the big ones.

The flies started biting as evening rolled in, so we headed back to the hotel, but not before posing for a few pictures---and clowning for some.