Sunday, August 12, 2012

We woke up to a warmer, slightly cloudy sky today. It felt great to sleep in and then we made some hot breakfast and had extra coffee. I was very glad that I had gone with Melitta cones for making real Caribou drip coffee instead of Starbucks via instant. My wife offered to go fishing for a while, and we trolled around the lake exploring the islands. Just before heading in for lunch we both snagged a smallmouth, with mine being just big enough to keep and provide something towards lunch. We headed towards Grace Lake, where we were much more confident of getting a campsite on now that it was Sunday night and after how deserted Phoebe was. My wife loved the small waterfalls on the first bigger portage, and we made good time going through the small waterway and portages around the rapids over to Grace.

Much to our delight, Grace was also completely deserted and studded with beautiful rocky islands. We spent a good hour or so just exploring the campsites to pick the perfect one, which we never found. The campsites all left something to be desired, but still were nice, except for the absolute pooper of a site farthest to the southwest that had absolutely no tent pads and was just bizarrely laid out. The islands on the southwest part of Grace are beautiful, so we went with a campsite that faced both the islands and the big open side of the lake. The fire grate overlooked the open water so it was a nice campfire opportunity if the rain held off. I wasn’t expecting a great sunset tonight, but after our beef stroganoff dinner the clouds broke up a bit and a gorgeous sunset lit up. Since we were camped facing east, I talked my wife into a sunset paddle around the beautiful islands and glassy water, taking lots of great pictures. We spotted a beaver that smacked its tail when we got too close, and two huge loons swam by. We made a great campfire using the plentiful spruce and cedar that was down all around the campsite, and we heard the best loon serenade of the trip as the sky completely cleared up. Our campfire was quite a healthy size (but not excessive), so my wife thought the loons were going crazy because there were actually people at their lake having a bright campfire which maybe they weren’t that used to. After my wife had her fill of playing with the campfire and we finished the wine, we called it a night.   

Lakes Traveled:   Grace Lake,