Donald and Braxton went fishing for catfish while we were there and caught about 10 total – many of which were of good size. We cookied hot dogs and ribs and enjoyed a nice fire both nights we were there. The second night was a bit nervewracking as we had some major weather come through the area. I was afraid we were going to see a tornado or two, but we just got about an hour of rain and some really strong wind through the night. Of course, that makes for a long night when you’re sleeping in a tent.

I think Jackie and I will go back to that lake. The campgrounds are really nice, and it’s not far from the house which makes it really convenient. Especially when gas is $3.70 a gallon. Sheesh…

Below are the pictures we took of the lake and the river on the other side of the dam.

 

The trail we took wasn’t too busy, and we our time for the most part so we could just enjoy being outdoors and in the sunshine. I didn’t realize how tall Petit Jean is until we started descending back and forth down the trail in order to get down to the bottom of the valley. All of us kept thinking about the fact that we were going to have to hike back up eventually, and that was going to be a bit tough.

We made it to the waterfall and had lunch and just sat and talked for a while. There’s a huge pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall and a stream leading from it that runs through the valley. There were more people at this point, but it still wasn’t crowded.

After the waterfall we headed up back up the trail and put our game faces on. It actually wasn’t too bad for 3 people who aren’t really used to any strenuous hiking. We stopped a couple of times to rest along the way, but so did everyone else we saw. It felt good to get outside and do something physical after being couped up in the cold for so long.

You can see our home video of the waterfall and all the photos we took below.

 

All four of us caught a fish right off the bat.  We then started moving our way down the river, and Jackie didn’t like that at all. There’s a lot of weeds in places that make it like walking blind since you just don’t know what’s in there.  The rocks are also extremely large and very slippery so it’s easy to trip over one.  Our friends kept moving on down the river, and we stopped and fished in a hole we thought looked good.  That turned out to be a great move as we caught a lot of fish there and actually kept six of them to bring back to camp.  We planned on having a fish fry on Saturday night so we were off to a good start.

On Saturday my friend and I went fishing again, but I wasn’t nearly as successful.  I only brought one back to camp that morning although I think he kept four.  After lunch we went to the campground store and rented one of the large rafts that carries four people.  We always get canoes but decided to try the raft this time since we always see so many people riding them.  That turned out to be a lot of fun as all four of us could just float together down the river and really not worry about too much.

The trip was 8 miles, and we decided to pull over right before we made it to the end so we could watch people go over “the triple” which is basically a set of 3 falls that everyone tends to wipe out on when they try to go down.  Here’s where my trip took a turn for the worse.

I waited until everyone was out of the raft and then started to get out myself.  I had my left leg out of the raft and my right leg still in when the raft starting moving with the current (it was really swift right there below the falls).  It was either hop out quickly or do the splits.  Unfortunately I didn’t find a good foothold with my left foot and crashed down on a rock with my shin.  I stood up immediately and noticed I was bleeding PROFUSELY into the river from two very deep puncture wounds.  Jackie poured Dr Pepper on the wound (helps with clotting) and grabbed one of her tank tops and wrapped it around my leg to try and stem the bleeding.  She then sat me in the cold river so the water would help to further clot the cuts.  After a little while, we got up and paddled our way to the pickup point where we boarded a bus that took us back to camp.  Jackie went and bought bandages and washed me up real good.  We had neosporin, but I was really wishing we had some alcohol or peroxide.

We made it back home the next day, and I was feeling really bad.  I had a low grade fever, and my leg felt like it was on fire.  I made it through Sunday and went to the doctor on Monday.  I hadn’t gone to the doctor for a cut since I was about 5 so I had to get a tetanus shot.  She also prescribed antibiotic pills and cream and told me to keep my leg elevated for the next several days and see how it goes.  It was obvious that a bit of an infection was starting to set in.

This morning I’m a bit better although it still hurts to walk on my left leg.  The wounds like look terrible, but I’m hopeful they will heal up soon as I’m trying to be diligent about taking my medication and staying off my leg.  I think it’s going to be a while before I go rafting on the river.