Sunday, February 05, 2012

Departure day.

Slowly the wheels were set in motion and we began ripping down & packing up. I got my stuff packed fairly quickly as I wanted to go on a search & rescue mission for my water bottle without holding the rest of the guys up. I found said water bottle on the top of the hill to Gogebic where I must've set it down to help with the tobaggon yesterday. I made it back to our trail and waited for the rest of the gang to round the point.

The spots where there had been slush had frozen up nicely making travel exceedingly easy. Though the portage was considerably more difficult going this way due to the prolonged gradual climb up out of West Pike. Once again there were fresh wolf tracks along the trail as we proceeded on.

Shawn had the foresight to make the trail a little more user friendly on our first trip across (a couple days earlier) by building up a snow berm on the slanted tricky section of the trail. It had also firmed up nicely and made for a much easier passage. Past that point the trail was mostly flat and straight.

On the north side of the trail just before you reach the landing for Clearwater lake is a tremendous white pine tree. Most impressive. The landing also had some nice trees and was rather idyllic as I found a dry spot to cool off and wait for the rest of the crew to make it across.

Just as on West Pike our trail on Clearwater had firmed up nicely. Yet again it was another sunfilled day with little or no wind. Really made things all the more enjoyable.

Though he was not holding out hope? Mark thought we should make the obligatory stop at our campsite from the first night to see if we would run across his lost camera battery. I don't know if we'd even been there 30 seconds when Shawn exclaimed, "Here it is!" If I hadn't of been there I would've never believed it.

Needless to say, Mark was euphoric as he no longer had to explain to his wife how he had lost her camera battery. With that accomplished we figured this was as good a spot as any to dig out some snacks and have a trail lunch.

Once we got going again we ran across some bobcat tracks out on the lake.

There was a fork in the trail as well. When coming in we had come down the south shoreline. Chad had cut straight across to his campsite, which is where we hoped to stay tonight. So I decided to follow his tracks which essentially ran right down the barrel of the lake. The sun was at the peak of it's powers & the wind had picked up some. So I pulled out my balaclava more as protection from sun/wind burn than any great need for warmth. This trail wasn't as well packed as ours had been, (I postholed occasionally), but still travel was quite easy.

As we neared our prospective camp, I noticed 3 other people heading towards it from the west. By this time Shawn had caught up to me and we figured we'd miss out on that site again. As they were closer & on skis. But once we got closer we learned they were camped back around the bend and were just coming there to do some fishing. In fact 2 of them kept right on moving as they were headed for Mountain lake.

With that settled, and the weather being what it had been, Shawn determined that we should sleep right out on the lake. Thus saving us considerable time in having to rip camp down in the morning. So after we hung our bags out to dry for awhile we started piling snow up for our "ice beds".

While waiting for the snow to sinter, Shawn began making supper. I don't remember the exact ingredients....But, I believe it had instant mashed potatoes, cheese, onions, & bacon. A high caloric, stick to your ribs, kinda meal. There was a nice rock wall along the shoreline that offered protection from the wind here as well.

After some time we went back to form our beds. It was really quite an easy process and they wound up being very comfortable.

Before supper Mark & I also tried our hand at fishing. I had a couple of follows that I'd seen on my vexilar but never got anything more that that. The people who had come over to fish didn't have any luck either. Supper was ready as the sun was falling so I packed the gear away for a quicker exit tomorrow morning.

After supper we spent the remainder of our waking hours huddled around the campfire haphazzardly drying our boots & socks while drinking some of Shawns' homemade raspberry tea. Once again the moon & stars were a spectacle to behold while providing incredible illumination as well.

West Pike Lake, Clearwater Lake