Thursday, July 02, 2009 We rolled out of the tents about 7am, had a breakfast of hot oatmeal and broke down camp. Some clouds remained but the rain was gone and temps were reaching the mid 70’s so shorts were in order. Our goal today was to head over to Hustler for a single night stay. Maureen and Raleigh decided to switch spots and put Raleigh in the stern. I was hoping that they might make this change as Maureen was having some challenges keeping the canoe in a straight line due to her lack of experience. This turned out to be a good decision which I am glad THEY made and benefited everyone as the trip continued.
We made the short paddle over to Little Shell and over to the portage to Lynx. This was a very short walk and Lynx was beautiful. I was a bit saddened that we were unable to spend a day or so on Lynx but I am sure we will be back. We quickly found the 265 rod portage to Ruby and headed down the trail. Raleigh and I met a father and son coming the other way on our first half trip and the older gentleman fell just as we arrived. We helped him up and made sure all was well before continuing on. The portage and a half worked great and when Raleigh and I arrived at Ruby with the canoes Maureen and Keegan had PBJ flatbread ready for a quick lunch.
Ruby looked gorgeous and we were able to paddle straight through to Hustler. We found our target site occupied so we went to plan B and found site 70 open. We made camp about 1:30p and headed out to fish. The fishing was excellent in this end of the lake as we caught many smallies and a couple of pike. Keegan and I had the opportunity to watch a beaver munch on some lilly pads before slapping his tail and disappearing down the lake. The leeches continued to work well although I took out the old faithful 5 of diamonds daredevle and found the smallies hitting hard on most of the structure in the area.
We enjoyed fish for dinner again and encountered our first bugs of the trip this evening. A thermocell worked great after the wind died down. Maureen and Raleigh went out for more fishing after dinner and had good luck with the pike. Keegan and I cleaned up a pine tree that had broken about 10 feet up and fallen down across the shore at the waterline and was obscuring the beautiful view from camp. After about an hour’s work we had our beautiful view back not to mention some firewood cut for the next occupant of the site. Everyone enjoyed the wonderful night sky before hitting the sack late.