Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Today our goal was to move camp somewhere near Indian portage on Birch lake. In that way we would only have one very short portage tomorrow on our way out. With the way the weather had played out so far & the miserable condition of our current site. I think everyone would've been happy just taking our chances with most any other site regardless of location.

Of course it was still overcast this morning. Initially, at least, it wasn't raining. That came as we started to tear down camp! Motivation was easy to come by as everyone had grown tired of this site & were eager to move. [paragraph break]

Knife lake was still slumbering, so we had an easy paddle over to Big Knife portage. Here we met the only 2 people we would cross paths with on portages today. A couple of fishermen headed for Knife. The portages were even wetter this time through but, they went by quickly.

Soon we were back at Birch lake. Since Hannah & Morgan were our weakest paddling tandem, we had been making a point to get them loaded up & on their way before the rest of us. There was some chop developing on Birch lake, so we gave them instructions to stay fairly close to shore in case things suddenly worsened.

Ross & Megan were off at essentially the same time, while Vickie, Aurora & I finished loading up the Black Pearl. Once out on the water, as we neared the eastern point of the large SW orientated bay, we had to deal with something of an emergency.

A ways off I noticed that neither Hannah or Morgan were even attempting to paddle. They were about 30-40 feet out from shore. They had gotten stuck on a large log just under the surface. Of course it started raining as we pulled up alongside. I tried tugging them free. To no avail. In something of a risky move. We positioned ourselves so Morgan could hop over to our canoe on top of our Duluth Packs. Then, Hannah was able to easily back paddle off the log. We both drifted into shore so Morgan could reverse the process.

It was just one of those flukey things. I believe it would've happened to anyone paddling that line. Being overcast, windy & rainy made it very difficult to see anything below the surface. Fortunately we were behind them & were able to give them a hand.

As we continued west down the lake, every so often there was a tantalizing glimpse of better weather.

Alas, that would be about as good as it got today.

We paddled to the sites just south of the large islands before deciding to pull off for a short break.

Got out, stretched our legs & had a snack.

After our brief respite we were back on the water. But, not for long! As we came around the point just past the last (western most) campsite south of the large island, Birch lake opened up and revealed that she had whipped herself up into a tempestuous froth.

It appeared there was a decent landing & trail on the shore. I surmised it must be the backside of the campsite we recently paddled past. Vickie got out & confirmed my suspicion. We hadn't traveled quite as far as we had hoped. But, not knowing how long it would take for the wind to die down, It was determined that this would be home for the night.

We ended up having to portage our packs a short distance back to the actual campsite. Vickie then pulled some "real" snacks out of the barrel.

Having recharged our batteries, we proceeded to get camp setup.[paragraph break]

Compared to our last site, this is the Taj Mahal! In reality, I'd say it was above average (3.5 stars) Most importantly, the tent pads, though a bit rocky, were dry. The wind continued with frequent gusts out of the north which made getting the tarp setup more of a chore than it needed to be. Also, the wind had more bite to it than previous nights. Apparently things were cooling down even more? (Vickie later verified that Ely reported it's overnight low as 35) We were just happy not to be sloshing around everywhere we walked. Cold, without the rain, was easier to deal with.

Buffalo chicken & rice wraps for supper. Spent a good deal of time gathered around the fire. Ross was relieved to find out that the sizable animal he had heard thrashing around in the woods while he was setting up their tent, turned out to be just a rabbit. As we monitored the evening sky there was the unmistakable hue of crimson present. We hoped the old sailors tale would hold true. "Red at night sailors delight."

Seed Lake, Melon Lake, Carp Lake, Birch Lake