Strawberry Reservoir Ice Fishing

As you know, my work goes on fun activities now and then. Ron decided it was time for another team activity so he called up our old co-worker (Les) and asked him if he would take us ice fishing. Les was more than happy to take us. I miss working with him, so I was excited to get to hang out with him again.

We all met at the mouth of Provo Canyon early on Wednesday morning to make the drive to Strawberry Reservoir for our ice fishing adventure. The drive there and back was stunning. I hate being cold, but there is no doubt that the snow is beautiful.

We got there and were shocked to see (and feel) that the temperature was -20. I didn't even know Utah got that cold. I had never sat outside when it was that cold before. I was hoping that I had enough layers on... My hands would have for sure frozen had my co-worker Paul not had extra gloves. Mine are just no good. With all of my layers and my hand warmers... I was actually at a comfortable enough temperature to sit outside for the 2 hours that we did in -20 weather. All except for my toes... they were frozen. All of our feet were frozen though, so at least I wasn't the only one. At one point I breathed on my hair and my hair froze. That was a first for me.

Besides Les, we all had no idea what we were doing. Never done this before. However... we came prepared with breakfast snacks and hot chocolate. Hot chocolate was such a good idea. Warms you from the inside.

Almost the entire team went. Stirling is in China, or else he would have been all over this activity. Paula chickened out because she didn't want to sit out in the cold. Besides that, we were all there plus Les which was so fun.

Les even brought a couple of his sons. And Ron also brought his youngest daughter... on a sled.

We all sat around for a couple of hours around a couple of holes in the ice with a couple of poles... waiting for a fish to bite while we ate muffins, drank hot chocolate and chatted while we enjoyed not being at work.

We didn't catch anything and all had to go back to work (well not after stopping at Cafe Rio for lunch on Novell). It was a bummer to sit out in -20 temperatures without catching anything, but we still had fun. And hey... you can't really complain when you are getting paid to be outside and hang out instead of work. We all had a good time. Thanks Novell for another fun outing.