Wednesday, September 03, 2008 We wake at 6:30AM and have rye bagels and coffee for breakfast. It is still very windy and overcast. It looks like it could rain at any time. It’s also relatively cold…probably around 45 degrees. We try to head out onto the main lake, but it’s way too windy. There’s a trough between two islands that we want to try, but we can’t stay in one place. We fish there for a bit, but even with the anchor down, we drift. We eventually head to the lee side of our island and fish along a sheltered shoreline. Jamie catches two small pike and a nice bass. The sun is finally shining, although clouds blow through occasionally. We move out towards the main lake and stop near a small sheltered bay and fish from shore. Jamie catches a pike that jumps clear out of the water and another bass. We notice an old dead tree on an adjacent shoreline and decide we’ll stop and collect firewood before we head back to our campsite. While collecting firewood, we hear a fish jump and turn to see the ripples. Jamie gets her rod, casts, and immediately hooks another small pike. We have more than enough firewood for the night and head back to camp for a lunch of trail mix, teriyaki jerky, power bars and Gatorade. After lunch, we head out to fish. It’s still windy, so we pull up on the shore of a nearby island to fish from shore. There is a shallow, quiet area where we pull up and as I get out of the canoe, I can see a turtle that’s almost two feet in diameter. Jamie can’t see it until she puts on her polarized sunglasses. It’s surprising how well it blends in with the sand and rocks. We try to get a picture, but even though the turtle is only in a foot or so of water, you can’t see him because of the reflection on the water . We catch nothing in a half hour of fishing and decide to move to another island. There is a fairly distinct point from this island and we fish from about 5PM until sunset. We catch about 15 bass and a couple pike. Jamie hooks a large pike and gets him all the way to shore. As she bends to pick him up, he makes a large jump and snaps the line. I think there was a bit of slack in the line, as I could hear the “snap” and her drag was set properly. She’s really upset, as this pike was probably 36” long and fat. I fillet two bass and we head back to camp. I start the campfire while Jamie gets the stove going for dinner. By the time the campfire is going, we are preparing dinner in the dark with flashlights. We eat our fish dinner, corn, mashed potatoes and wild rice soup in full dark and by flashlight. It’s a wonderful meal and as we finish, the mice come out to help us clean up. They are VERY bold and before our clean up is done, they have not only found a few kernels of corn, I find one taking one of them taking kernels of corn straight from Jamie’s hand. We do a quick clean of our dishes, bury our leftovers, hang our food pack and flip our canoe. There are at least a billion stars in the sky, so we watch the fire burn down a bit before extinguishing it and retreating to the tent. We debate what to do for our last 3 days. The original plan was to leave Iron Lake on Friday, spend Friday night on Agnes Lake and exit on Saturday. We decide to leave Iron Lake on Thursday, because we are concerned about traveling straight in to the heavy winds that we’ve experienced that last few days. However, we really want to see Curtain Falls. Now the question becomes whether we pack up and paddle to Curtain Falls with all of our gear or if we visit the falls and return afterwards to break down camp. After a bit of debate, we decide to break camp in the morning, paddle to the falls and the paddle to either Tiger or Boulder Bay on LLC. Breaking camp and paddling with our gear will save us a time and effort. After our decision is made, we read for a while and then fall asleep.