I got up not in time to go out fishing with anyone, so I had fun with Sierra some more, and Erin and folks too. Eventually I stumbled out and found Mom and Dad on the porch, which was a bit puzzling because what I didn’t mention is that I fished off the dock for about an hour and they didn’t come in. But then I realized they must’ve been in the bedroom the whole time. Dad asked if I still wanted to go to the falls, and I said if he was feeling up to it. See, the way to the Falls is really shallow, and this year since it’s been so dry the water is down about two feet from last year, maybe one or more from usual, so Dan was giving us stories about how they had to have a spotter on the bow, and even then the engine sometimes hit rocks. Well, Dad was feeling up to it, so we went. It was windy and sort of choppy, and a long ride. And then the narrow channel was very shallow. But the engine never hit any rocks, only maybe sand once or twice. We got to the far-end-of-the-lake dock without incident.

We had heard it was really the Crowduck Trickle this year, and that was to some extent true. It was still obviously several magnitudes more majestic than anything back home, but there wasn’t a whole lot slipping down, and I could easily jump over it, at most places. I like Crowduck Falls, because the water doesn’t fall, but rather slides down a steep slope and dashes itself senseless against rocks. Dad and I were able to walk to the bottom and look up to the top. Then I noticed things swimming around at the bottom, lots of them. At first I thought they might be fry, but they proved to be tailfins of a whole bunch of idiot walleye that had fallen over the Falls. Only walleye, too. They were trapped in a trough lined with big rocks on all sides. [There were also two that had ended up on top of rocks and died. It was really eerie, because they had been dead there for so long that they had dried up into desiccated eyeless husks of fish.]

Well, Dad picked one up [with his hat], and tossed it downstream. He did that for three of them, and then we got the net. There were probably about 25 in that little 5-square-foot trough. It was hard to find them because the Falls constantly renewed our supply of foam atop the water. But eventually we got most of them, and I created an outlet so any newcomers could get out. The [two that were left after I did that] were pretty stupid, and we ended up netting one of them out. But one found its way!

We brought the boat to North Bay for two pike, one for each of us, and then back to camp and cleaned it out. There was horseshoes: Maria and I finally put an end to Dan and Tracy’s 7-0 record! And then dinner. There was too much food, especially baked beans. If everyone had eaten four helpings of beans, we’d probably still have plenty left over. I had a good blueberry muffin courtesy of Tracy.

After dinner I played bedtime with Sierra: I go to sleep with an imaginary tooth under my pillow and wake up with money, and then I buy something from Sierra. I started the imaginary money at a quarter and I was up to $16 when I decided to let Sierra decide the amounts. (They were $100 and $80.) I bought a new car with $4.

Then there was poker. Grandpa was in for only one pot, all-in blind. Three people called and Erin won with an Ace-high. Grandpa had 6-2 off-suit. Dave left after one more hand, with no money. So Dan, Micah, Maria, Erin, and I battled it out. Micah bought out soon. I was getting hands! I took Dan for a huge pot where I flopped an eight to triple my pocket eights and then two sixes came up and Dan thought I hit them and thought I had trip sixes with a bad kicker (he had 6-A). That was the high point, though it was early. My streak didn’t last long at all, though, because everyone left.

Also tonight we had the Pretzel Inquisition. After he got out, Micah came in with some pretzels and Dan asked where he got them, and Micah said from (Tracy’s famous) Chex Mix. Dan got all mad and asked why Micah had to be told so many times not to just pick stuff out of the Chex Mix, and ended up asking the witnesses if Micah had picked out pretzels, or, as he claimed, taken an indiscriminate handful and eaten the pretzels last. Grandpa said next year he was going to eat whatever he wanted out of the Chex Mix and Dan and Tracy said fine, they wouldn’t bring any. I later found out that after a while Tracy went to her bedroom and then came out in a snit and dumped all the Chex Mix in the trash. So now Dan is the Chex Mix Nazi, thanks to Mom, who came up with that.

We all cooled down and went to bed. Departure at 0600 tomorrow.