Thursday, September 23, 2010

Today I would be celebrating my 29th birthday for the 14th time! At first light I got a, "Good mornin' old man" outta Vickie. I tell ya I get no respect. Apparently the weatherman wasn't aware of the situation either as it was cold, windy, gray & cloudy right from the get go. At least it wasn't raining.......yet, but there was a light mist in the air.

Of course breakfast was my favorite. Pancakes (unfortunately no fresh blueberries) and, as an added bonus, bacon on the side. As we finished breakfast the mist turned to a light drizzle then eventually sporadic rain & gusts of wind. The pre-launch weather report had accurately forecast this day as windy & rainy. So, somewhat reluctantly the decision was made to stick close to camp this day. The consequence of this decision meant that 1 of our 2 planned exploratory excursions from our Horseshoe base would be aborted. A northern loop through Caribou, Meeds, & Pillsbury. Where pre-trip planning intelligence had confirmed that highly decorated BWCA.com luminary, code name mooseplums, would indeed commence being haunted by the waters in the Caribou/Horseshoe area. A high probability of crossing paths would be likely. Also on the itenarary was a southerly jaunt to Little Trout. Where we hoped to do some trout fishing.

Things being as they were, the bulk of the day was spent finding, sawing, & splitting firewood. We both put rather large dents in the books we'd brought. I also managed to doze off for a time as well.
Eventually restlessness crept up on us. The rain had stopped & the wind had let up as well. Donning our raingear, we took the Black Pearl out for a spin around Horsehoe. Perhaps we would run across mooseplums? First we paddled north. The northern most site was actually open. It would be the only one. Most people seemed to be hunkering down at their sites. As canoes were seen on shore overturned & not alot of noticeable activity going on. We had brought our fishing poles along. The wind was coming out of the east. So true to the saying, fishing was the least. Naturally once we gotten to the extreme north end of Horseshoe the rain picked up again accompanied by reinvigorated gusts of wind. We tried to tough it out for awhile, but eventually we succumbed to mother natures outburst & headed back to camp.
As evening neared the rain relented. Can't say that for the wind. Though it had rained for the better part of the day I was able to get a fire going. No doubt motivated by the desire to have birthday ribeyes for dinner? They sure helped make the cold wet day a bit more tolerable. Vickie made me a neat birthday card out of birch bark & also baked me a birthday cake. We tried something new (for us). Cornbread, where you only need to add water. Maybe we got a bad brand? It was baked properly but, we both agreed, it was quite tasteless. Never the less it was a nice gesture & much appreciated. We enjoyed a couple of cocktails & played some cribbage before calling it an early night.
Horseshoe Lake