Thursday, July 03, 2008  Sarah Lake to Lost Bay

Slept in late, and woke up to a beautiful morning. Pulled that big Small-mouth bass out of the fish corral and made him part of a delicious breakfast menu.

We were making it to the open waters of Sarah Lake when Laura realized she couldn’t find the “little Camera thingy”. It was the tiny battery clip for the memory part of the camera, she said she hasn’t been using that function and didn’t need it. There was no telling where it must have fallen out her pocket, and she could just get a new one for a couple bucks when we get back, she said. Twice I asked if she was sure, we could still turn back. She insisted, not to turn back. It sounded logical, so we kept on going, this would be my first mistake of the trip!

Sarah is a deep cold Lake and I had a plastic bottle of beer that I was saving for a day like this. A small net sack, just big enough for a bottle of beer and a small stone, tied to a 50’ ultra-thin nylon rope. The rope and sack were small enough to keep the drag to a minimum, so bottle drifted along in the frigid depths almost directly below us. Masterful! How could such a simple act bring so much satisfaction?

We were headed to Lost Bay, the wind was to our back, Laura and I had really working well as a team, and now everything seemed to be going our way. The warm sunshine, the immaculate scenery, everything was falling into place. It was right there on that day, I felt a genuine oneness with Nature. I had an epiphany, ‘ this is what God intended for us’. I realized that we are truly living in the Garden of Eden, and there was nothing to get so uptight about, I felt my heartbeat slow down. This would be good for the soul. I thought… Wait, Laura had something to say. …could she be having the same feelings as me? Not quite, “HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE THINKING YOUR STUPID F#^&ING BEER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MY CAMERA?” …I tried to make sense, …but baby, you said… “DON’T YOU, BUT BABY ME”! Do you want to turn arou….”NO”! Her rant continued for way too long, it seemed this was to be the focus of our trip. I started to turn around, “DON’T YOU”, “DON’T YOU TURN AROUND”! “I JUST WANTED YOU TO GET THE POINT”! “Oh, I got the point, ‘NO’ means ‘YES”, I said, and I made a b-line back to our little island camp.

I looked back to see my beer water skiing behind, in the warmer surface waters, undoing all my work. In mid-stroke I tied the rope to my empty water bottle and threw it over, to act as a buoy for my cold beer, to be found on the return. As we arrived at our island paradise, it somehow didn’t look big enough for the two of us anymore. Laura jumped from the canoe about ten feet too soon, and landed in the water. I choose to remain in the safety of the canoe while she scoured the island. She used a zig-zag pattern, no, it was a criss-cross pattern, no, I’m not sure, but, what I do know is this, that “little camera thingy” was about ¼ the size of a paper clip and she found it! Thank God! A good bird dog would have been envious. Now we would both be Happy. Well, happier.

Finally, on our way again I tried to recapture my epiphany. I was thinking about the Garden of Eden again, but this time I was thinking how at one point Adam must have looked to the heavens and addressed God. Arms raised, he must have said something like, (Jewish accent) “…And for This, I should be Grateful, that I gave up a Rib?” I wondered if Adam tried to negotiate to upgrade for a woman that makes sense. I mean, how bad do we really need, say, a little toe? I figured if he did try, the response would have been something like “Adam! Deal with it! You are not perfect either!” No upgrades, instead, this must have been when God sent down Beer. I think Ben Franklin said it best “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”. Just beer, and my beer was floating beneath my water bottle somewhere in the open waters of Sarah Lake. If old Ben were right, I would find it easily. And there it was, perfectly dead ahead. A Beacon of Refreshment, and Gods Love! …What more could I ask for?

The ‘Heart-stop hill’ that we avoided on the way in during the rain lie ahead, it wasn’t so bad in the dry conditions, I thought, until we got to the recently fallen giant birch tree that completely blocked the portage. I had sawed through branches the size of my arm and relocated them for nearly an hour before we could resume travel.

We planned to break up the numerous rough terrain portages that seem to come one right after the next in this area, and camp at Isabella Lake. The good one was taken by another large group of college age girls, who seemed very content. As we slowly passed them we discussed our options, paddle back a mile and camp or keep going, the next camp was a few miles and a couple more portages ahead, and it was starting to get late. Then here comes yet another group of girls, only this time they needed advice, finally. They were looking for a place to camp and they were visibly tired. I directed them to the girls ahead, but they were not together, I then explained to them a mile ahead we passed an open site, neither site would be found on the map. The choice was made, we were moving on. As we continued paddling I thought how odd it was to run into three separate groups of all girls in this area, and how I might have wasted the years of my youth by not being right here!

Next stop Lost Bay, we arrived with a just a couple hours of sunlight. What a great campsite, and another fish coral. It was a lucky find and the fishing was fantastic, some paddling before dark, I caught a couple big ones and the camera was kind working now.

This was the first night of the mayflies, and the fish were jumping all across the lake all night long.