Homecoming October 5-7, 2007 Blue Lakes, Hope Valley, Ca. Highway 88

Hi there...

We had an adventure last weekend. 18 men and boys were trying to get to Tioga Lake to catch a late season lunker trout.

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We never made it to Tioga. It snowed 6 inches. Tioga Pass closed. Sonora Pass closed. Ebbetts Pass closed. We kept moving north trying to get over to the other side to 395 and down to Tioga from the back side. All to no avail.

Since we were the advanced party, with the tents, we had to make camp and set up camp. We looked at the GPS and it said Tioga Lake 4 hours and 37 minutes. That made 0ur decision for us.

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The Lord led us to Blue Lakes off of highway 88 near Hope Valley. It was snowy and went down to 17 degrees. As it turned out 2 out of the 3 of us in the car had been to Blue Lakes and it was a sort of a homecoming for guys in the group that had run cross country in and had come up to Blue Lakes in their high school days for training.

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As we saw each vehicle pull up, we were relieved, because the change was made on the fly and the conditions had worsened with some cars spinning out do to drifting snow at lower elevations.

But alas, the tents were set up and a white hot fire was inviting chilly ones to draw near.

Boots melted, but guys didn't care, their toes were toasty.

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Around the campfire we sang and acknowledged to the Lord and to one another that Jesus is with us through all of our lives. This truth rang true in our worship together and was evident.

We had the lake to ourselves and the frigid temps gave way to 2 glorious days of fishing together. For more pics please go to www. marinerscc.org and go to picture gallery so you can experience our trip for yourselves.

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You will want to be sure to be there next year.

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Love,

Jon and Dev.