Tuesday, June 19, 2012

On our second full day, morning breaks with the rising sun illuminating just the tops of the trees as we look across the lake.

I like this one since it shows "eagle tree" top half in sun, bottom half still in morning darkness. Unfortunately the sun lasts for about several minutes, and then it is gone for the rest of the day.

In the morning my brother catches a decent smallmouth, with our campsite visible in the background.

Right after lunch we head out for the afternoon of fishing, this time heading for the northern part of Disappointment lake. I am looking forward to inspecting the northern island campsite. About 25 years before this we had stopped on that island for a lunch break before heading out to the lakes above and beyond that for a loop that would eventually lead us to a take out at Moose lake. I was wondering if anything at that campsite would trigger any 25 year old memories. Shortly after leaving our campsite the rain starts. At first I'm actually kind of happy about that, since I'm hoping that the rain will trigger the fish to start biting. Unfortunately this photo here is pretty typical of the afternoon's results.

We work our way up north, fishing the entire shoreline up to the island campsite, but unfortunately it is occupied so we are not able to land and check it out for old memories. We continue to fish our way north to the portage to Ahsub lake, noticing that the northernmost campsite by the portage is also occupied. During this whole time the rain has alternated between downpour and sprinkles, and I for one am starting to let it affect my mood. Especially since the fishing has been if anything, even worse than when it wasn't raining. In the pre-trip planning stages I had visions of daytripping to a couple of the lakes above Disappointment for old time's sake, but now that we are here and feeling like a couple of drowned rats neither one of us is much interested in the prospect of portaging to a couple of other lakes that will no doubt look as drab and gray as the one we are currently on. So we head back south, fishing as we go but catching nothing worth talking about, except a large sea creature that had my brother pretty excited till he realized he had hooked a turtle.

Up till now the afternoon had been merely dismal, but now we start to hear thunder, and see lighting that doesn't seem all that far away. So a knot of fear is added to the afternoon, especially since we are in an aluminum canoe. We haul ass back to camp, and make it without incident, glad to be safely on shore. We prepare dinner under the tarp as the rain has not let up one bit, lounge there a while, then go to bed with the rain still coming down. Prior to our trip I had sprayed my rainfly with a can of waterproofing my brother had given me, and am very thankful that I did since it will keep rain entry into my tent to a steady drip, rather than a steady pour. Normally I sleep like a baby, but maybe because of the constant rain I spend most of this night just lying there awake, or sleeping in tiny increments till the morning comes. Not once does the rain come to a complete stop.