I did make it up to Fairy Lake last Friday, but I didn't have my camera. I was working in an office for a friend most of the day, but had agreed for my son's birthday to drive him and a friend up to Fairy Lake and drop them off to fish. I worked the rest of the afternoon, then came out of the windowless office to see a pouring cold rainstorm, in the midst of smoky fire skies, and headed immediately back up the mountain to pick up the boys at the lake. It was about 7pm by the time I got there, and the air was chilly. The weather has been hot and dry for weeks, so mist was rising from the earth to meet the chill air. The rain had stopped, but I could tell that it had been intense. I had warned the boys to take their coats, and as they loaded the car, I said, "Now you're sure you have everything..., yeah, yeah, mom." Well, they had left their coats on Ryan's bed back home. They were frozen... it had hailed and rained, and the only shelter there was the outhouse, back up the trail from the lake at the campground.

One family had parked in the campground, and as Ryan was singing Weird Al Yankovich songs at the top of his lungs in the outhouse, the guy came up and asked them if they were just hanging out in there... he let them get into his truck to warm up. Oh, and no fish caught.