Friday, July 10, 2009

70’s Winds continue to be strong out of the NE

Sunrise: 5:13, Sunset: 8:59

Base Camped

I woke up to the biggest surprise I have encountered in the BWCA to date. I got out of my tent and discovered a large snapping turtle staring back at me!

She was 24” long from head to toe and 13” wide. She didn’t budge either that’s when I saw her digging a hole with her back legs. It was amazing I knew she was laying a nest. I wake the others up and grab Brian’s disposable camera to snap some shots. I grabbed my camera and hoped it was just the view finder that was fuzzy when I realized what the problem was. I just needed to adjust the diopter (little knob that adjusts the view finder). I couldn’t believe that was the problem the whole time.

I took a bunch of shots of the turtle then made my breakfast of blueberry pancakes while we watched her lay her eggs (5 from what I could see).

After about 2 hours she covered the nest and began her slow march back to the water. Brian and I cleaned up and tried our luck at some fishing while fighting the wind on the lake with no success after 2 hours we gave up. Saw 4 other canoes in the area. We went back to camp and relaxed for a bit, caught up on my journal and reading. We headed back for some more fishing in the afternoon on the northern side of the lake, same results, zip. We came back to camp in time for Bill’s dinner of cheese stuffed ravioli with bacon and pesto mixed in; rather tasty. After dinner I took down the tarp and packed up a good portion of our gear so we can move quickly in the morning. We all caught up on some reading, I wrote in my journal and took some picutres of the sun seting for the last time on this trip.