Thursday, January 31, 2013

It was a cold morning but, I really enjoyed watching the sun climb up over the tree tops across the lake while I set about bringing some water to a boil.

John & Shawn had a boy scout dinner they wanted to attend later this evening in Grand Rapids. So, shortly after breakfast, they grabbed a few essentials and made their way back to Tuscarora Lodge.

This left Mark & I at camp alone until they returned tomorrow. (We also expected Greg (SevenofNine) and his buddy Scott to show up at some point tomorrow as well.) One undeniably attractive feature of Missing Link lake is that it is surrounded with many great potential day trip options. Tuscarora, Snipe, Mavis were all potential destinations on the agenda. We even talked about trying to get back to Blue Snow lake. And, if it hadn't been so windy we may have headed off towards one of them. As it was, we felt it was more prudent to stay close to camp today and finish getting camp organized and bolster our firewood reserves.

Being located on a main travel route, the low hanging fruit near camp had been virtually picked clean. My search to the south the previous day had provided enough to get us started, but the steep shoreline made it a difficult process. So we headed north and found a nice cache of downed wood a few hundred yards up the western shoreline. Some were a little larger than what we were ideally after but, I set about sawing them to a more manageable length while Mark went back to camp to retrieve a toboggan to haul our bounty.

Once back in camp we begin alternating between processing our firewood, fishing, finishing setting up camp & snacking on the various sausages & cheeses we'd brought along. Fishing was slow so, eventually, Mark started piling up snow for a quinzhee but, the lack of powder brought this project to a premature impasse. Never the less, our efforts around camp today meant life would be that much easier for the next few days.

Supper is a tasty teriyaki marinaded venison wrap. We enjoy a quiet evening gazing at the star filled sky. Which, while beautiful, is a clear indication that it is going to be a cold evening/morning.

Missing Link Lake