When Blue Boats Retire

So I know you have been wondering, "what happens to the legendary, handcrafted, Ross Lake Resort Blue Boats when they retire?"

Well, if you are a good, hard working, trustworthy, loyal, friendly, courteous boat like hull number 78, you are selected to join the working staff and spend many graceful years moving cabins, delivering firewood, shuttling back and forth between the various shops and serving the community of Ross Lake Resort with style and dignity.

Legendary hull #78 with Adam Bloom at the helm.

But!

If you are shifty, fast, always looking for a party, never checking in with the office until the wee hours, always looking for a wake to jump or a doughnut to perform - there may be only a dismal and glum future for you!

Like hull number ............. 101!

Hull # 101 - the Hunter S. Thompson of hulls! 
Notice that diabolical, grinning, pumpkin

 in the background! What stories is it holding back?

What path will you follow young hulls?

The choice is yours!

Freshly Painted Blue Boats

A new season and another batch of freshly painted boats await the guests arrival.

Ross Lake Resort Announcement

Ross Lake Resort is pleased to announce that they have begun transitioning to new 4 stroke, 9.9 horsepower Yamaha outboard motors.

Over the next two years the goal is to complete the transition of Ross Lake Resort boats to the new motors.

Daily Chores - Boat cleaning.

© Paul Anderson

All it takes is a little teamwork, willpower, muscle, leverage, and a water source.

Meet Our Staff

Will Shields is a craftsman.

He builds boats.

He builds Adirondack chairs.

He builds just about anything around the resort.

On average, with no interruptions, Will can build one of the blue boats in about 1 1/2 weeks during the winter months.

Using jigs that Tom had built years ago, and patterns from the original resort boats, Will and Tom build about 2 -3 boats over the winter.

A gentle and steady hand is required to shape and fare in the ribs and stringers with the side panels. Piles of wood shavings are generated with each build.

Tom and Will take a lot of pride in this mostly hand build process.

It is part of the character of the resort.........

........ and the history of Ross Lake.

Waiting for Summer

© Paul Anderson

© Paul Anderson

The staff has been busy over the winter repainting our experienced boats and building a few new ones.

Photo Technique - Graduated Neutral Density Filter

© Paul K. Anderson
Here is a tip for quickly improving your photographs of the landscape.

More than with any other tool, (except perhaps my tripod) my photographs improved significantly and dramatically when I acquired my first graduated neutral density filter!

I'm not talking about the kind that "screws" onto the end of your lens like your round skylight or polarizing filter, but rather a rectangular piece of "glass" that slides into a holder that "screws" to the end of your lens.

By being rectangular it can slide up and down in the holder so you can adjust where the darkest/lightest part of the filter is located relative to the horizon or other features in your image.

Why?  Well, the camera/film/chip can handle only so much of a range in light values.  To keep it simple, that means usually one part of the image is either too light and the other too dark or vice-versa in difficult light situations! 

The graduated neutral density filter "compresses" the extremes of light to what the camera/film/chip can handle and more closely approximates what your eyes and mind see.  

Depending on which filter you buy, the "top" end of the filter is one, two or three "stops" darker than the clear, untinted  "bottom". The darker portion transitions gradually to clear glass.

In my photograph, the sky was almost totally white when I correctly exposed for the boat, dock and lake.  By adding a two stop GND filter, the sky darkened enough that the true  or more realistic texture and color of the dawn clouds emerged.

The modern digital camera has a solution but you want to use a tripod. 

You take a photo exposing for the darker areas and another for the brighter areas.  Then, when you process the images in your computer, you take the best image from both exposures and seamlessly meld them together using the proper photo software.

It's an effective way of accomplishing the same thing.

But I prefer using the graduated neutral density filter. That's just me.

Here is a link to one type I use:  Singh-Ray Filters.

Mom and Son Returning from Fishing Near Cougar Island

If you want to photograph your friends, family or group, one location I highly recommend is the waters around Cougar Island shortly after the sun comes over the mountains to the east.  Depending on the direction you are shooting you can have mountains front lit, side lit, or flylines backlit like those shots of Doug Horton and his red line.

The photo "Morning Fishing Below Jack Mountain" also was shot from Cougar Island.  

Please remember if you go on Cougar Island to respect the privacy of the campers who have taken the time to obtain a permit to camp.

© Paul Anderson

Graveyard

Stacked on a float in the cove beyond the bunkhouse, are the remains of the resort's hand built boats. After years of service, still clutching the memories of kids catching their first fish, generations of families exploring up and down the lake, and old cronies embellishing their fishing stories, the boats are destined to be dismantled. 

And each winter, as the snow settles in against Sourdough, Jack, Colonial, Desolation, Hozomeen, Ruby and the other peaks surrounding Ross Lake, Will and Tom enter the wood shop, stoke the old stove and begin the process of building the next generation's boats.