Mancation 2011

It's that venerated time of year again. The sacrosanct time that the Anderson boys like to call the "Mancation." Ah, the mancation—where we leave the comforts and luxuries of home and make the pilgrimage to central Utah's beautiful Fish Lake National Forest for four days and three nights of machismo, bravado and unmitigated manly activities. What could be better? This is the third year of our masculine-fueled vacation so the art of "manliness" is becoming second nature to us now. My dad came along again this year and we welcomed my brother, Tyler (for the last couple of days) for his first foray into the red-blooded fun. Check it out below, if you think you're man enough.

Here we see Skutumpah Reservoir in the Fishlake National Forest. One of our fishing holes.

We did a lot of fishing.

More fishing.

Adam ended up catching a whopper of a fish (the fish you see in the first photo of this post). But there's a story behind his catch. He was becoming impatient with the boredom that sometimes accompanies waiting for fish to bite. So he started complaining. After several minutes of kicking up a fuss, I made a deal with him. I told him that if he would walk the trail all the way around the pond, return to his fishing pole and reel it in—if there wasn't a fish on his line by that time, we would load up the gear and go. He accepted the deal and struck out on his walk. He threw a few rocks in the water on the far edge of the pond for good measure. It took him about 15 minutes to get back to his pole but when he started to reel in his line he quickly realized that he had a pretty big fish on the other end (the fish in the first photo). After catching that fish he became a completely different fisherman. He was having fun now. But he decided that the strategy of walking around the pond was the catalyst for catching fish. So he walked around the pond three more times after that. And surprisingly, we caught three more fish.

Each time he would walk around the pond, he would stop and talk to everyone he passed. He would talk to some of them for several minutes. We started to wonder what he was talking to them about. When he returned, we found out that he was telling them the secret to catching fish.

1. Use the green, glittery Power Bait.

2. Complain a lot.

3. Walk around the pond.

4. Reel in your fish.

It's as simple as that.

I included this photo not so much to show the caterpillar climbing on Adam's forehead, but so you can appreciate what Adam's face looked like as he was socializing with the other fishermen and women as he was walking around the pond. Washing one's face is very low on the list of priorities when you're on a mancation.

Our hut that we started constructing last year had weathered the winter relatively well, so we climbed inside for a photo.

You can't have a mancation without tools and what tool says "Man" better than a chainsaw.

We went on several 4-wheeler excursions.

One morning, the fire was giving off quite a bit of smoke and with the sun shining through the trees it looked like this. I'm sure it was the mancation angels smiling down in approval of our manful activities.

We took a day trip into Emery County to restock the ice in our cooler and on the way back we found a natural playground similar to Goblin Valley complete with the same weird and other-worldly looking terrain.

We saw lizards there...

...so, of course we caught them.

We cooked and ate a dutch oven meal that was delicious, but the crowning jewel of the meal was a peach cobbler with whipped cream topping. We ate very well that night. Conner ate so much that he actually thought he might not be able to keep it all down. Fortunately for all of us, he did.

We constructed this swing several years ago.

Adam learned to drive the 4-wheeler this year.

And he's learning necessary "man" activities like how to wield an axe.

And proper whittling techniques.

See that? All this man activity is making him look pretty content, not to mention filthy.

We played a little Frisbee.

Here we are reading scriptures by the fire under the glow of a flashlight—one of my favorite times of the day.

These were the sleeping quarters—probably the least manly thing about the whole trip. We slept in comfort on beds complete with mattresses within my Dad's camping trailer. I know, I know, real men would sleep on the ground outside without mosquito repellant but hey, it's only our third year. We'll get there.

Oh, and Conner did a lot of driving in my Dad's Jeep CJ5. It's hard to imagine that it's time for him to learn how to drive already, but what better place to do it than on the dirt roads of central Utah. It's a manual transmission. Clutches were popped. Starts were jerky. Hilarity ensued. But I must say, he's a pretty good driver.

We also went flying in my Dad's airplane.
Here's Adam doing his best Macgyver impression.

Not to be outdone by Adam (or Macgyver) we all struck a pose.

And here's my hometown from the air.

And what mancation would be complete without weaponry.

We had a fine array of armaments to pass the time on Saturday afternoon.

All good things must come to an end and mancations are no exception. We take solace knowing that a mere 365 days from now, we'll be back out there again. But until then, we must get back to civilization—if it will have us in our freshly unrefined state.