Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Skipper to Cross Bay
by onajourney

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/13/2009
Entry Point: Skipper and Portage Lakes (EP 49)
Exit Point: Cross Bay Lake (EP 50)  
Number of Days: 6
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 6
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Temps High 63 Low 45. Woke up early to a beautiful, calm morning. Nothing is better than a good cup of coffee in the quiet of the wilderness! Ate breakfast and got the canoe out for a paddle around the area. Tried some fishing - no luck except one small northern (but we didn't try very hard). Clouds started forming by late morning, but we expected this. Ate an early dinner as rain looked likely. Some rain about 4:30. Spent most of evening in tent - cribbage, reading, map reading. Our plan was to head out to Long Island Lake in the morning. Typical to bed early as the evening was damp. By 9:30 wind was really picking up and the rain was heavier so we were laying in the tent awake and listening to everything. We had joked about the "talking tree" during the day because it seemed like the tree was talking every time the wind came up. Well by 1030 - the wind was howling and the talking tree was getting louder. Checked the tarp and the wind had pulled out all the stakes - everything was soaked. Crawled back in the tent and about 15 minutes later we heard branches cracking. Pulled on our rain suits and exited the tent in a hurry as we heard branches falling. Ran out to the rocks by the lake where we spent the next couple of hours. Gusts were incredible and we could hear trees falling. When we got back to out tent notice large branch by the door of the tent and a large part of the talking tree about 5 feet away...quite a day!