Friday, September 16, 2005

The lake was glassy calm this morning, a warm and sunny day. We had a big breakfast of flapjacks and fish.

We had used the “BWCAW Ziploc food storage system” for our fish fillets the night before. This consisted of placing the cleaned fish in a Ziploc bag with a rock in it. A string ran from the bag to an empty pop bottle for a float. We placed it in about 20 feet of water (the fridge) for overnight storage. It sure works well for those fish caught after supper. The fillets were cold and firm for breakfast frying! After breakfast we went for a swim; bobbing around in life jackets.

Dave and Jesse in one canoe, Billy and I in another, we set out to do some exploring. We paddled over to the tall cliffs across from campsite # 5 and climbed up. One can get a great view up and down the lake from here – very pretty!

Next we went south to a boggy area on the lower west side of Boot. There is a small creek coming in from the bog that you can paddle up a short ways. There you can get out and walk on a literally floating grassy bog. There are holes of open water and out of curiosity we stuck a 12’ dead spruce stick into the water. We couldn’t touch bottom! It is awesome – I can only imagine what it would be like under the bog with lights and scuba gear. Well preserved carcasses of unlucky moose and ancient Americans? It’s fun to let the imagination run!

Back at camp we had a late lunch and did some fishing around shore. Dave and Jesse paddled just across the small bay we were on and fished from shore. Just back in the trees they found an old but apparently never used campsite toilet. It looked like it had never been placed on a pit. How it got there is a mystery.

Evening brought a clear sky. The moon was full and oh so bright - and very aptly, we heard the wolves howling again. We fell asleep to the sound of the otters in front of the campsite.