Our last day of relaxing was anything but relaxing.

The day dawned calm & nice. We took off at leisurely pace on Hudson, & bounced down into Lake Four. The wind started to pick up a little, & my buddy John decided he needed to do some adjusting. We stopped behind an island on Lake Four & I took a couple of casts with the spinnerbait. The swirling wind pushed us a little, little more, until the wind caught us & started us towards shore quickly. I rifled my spinnerbait back as fast as I could, & just as it cleared the water a pike, at least ten pounds, shot out of the water within arm’s reach, missing the airborne spinner. Scared the crap out of me. Repeated casts in the area proved the pike wasn’t dumb & we moved on. I might have cursed a little.

Coming to the expanse of Lake Three, we saw only a little wave action & chose to shoot across the lake rather than cling to the shore. Mistake! The wind rose like an awakened banshee & we found ourselves in the middle of the lake with waves suddenly over the sides. We gave up & turned north, riding the wind towards shore. Ruddering slowed us to a 5MPH clip, no paddling. That was some wind!

We turned & fought across the next open stretch. Waves were smashing the shoreline rocks & sending spray six feet in the air. There was a split second, just before the opening to Lake Two, where I thought we were gonna get slapped on the rocks too. We slipped through. Waiting on the other side were a canoe & kayak, looking out at the wild lake & evidently waiting to see if we survived. The balance of the paddle was relatively tame & we pulled into the well-used landing happy to be out of the wind & headed for a clean shirt & dry feet.