Thursday, May 21, 2009

We woke up around 10AM and it was a nice morning the lake was somewhat calm so we decided that we would break camp and leave. I wanted to give us an extra day just in case we ended up with wind again. But I spoke too soon. This day was as bad as it was all week. The wind was out of the southwest and we had whitecaps as we started out around noon. Rob and Ryan had no trouble paddling across Agnes. Jen and I fought the waves. We really had trouble keeping the canoe on track. We ended up getting turned around so many times. We finally decided it would be better to hug the shoreline. That seemed to help until we were almost drove into the rocks from the wind and waves. We finally made it to Nina-Moose River and the boys were waiting at the rock landing near the mouth of the river. I don't think I ever saw the waves that bad on Lake Agnes on any trip I ever took up.

We met some guys coming out of Oyster that was fishing on the Nina-Moose River at the end of the portage. They were catching smallies and northerns left and right. I think Ryan wished he could have stayed and fished.
We hit Nina-Moose Lake and the wind had died down a bit and was not an issue. We finished our last portage around 7PM and made it to Ely just in time for our traditional stop at Pizza Hut.
It was a trip unlike any other I have taken up. Rarely do you see front after front come in. We later found out it had been in the upper 90's in the Twin Cites and Snow in Minot. I can understand why we had the high winds with that kind of contrast in weather patterns.