Saturday, February 02, 2013

Groundhog day! I think he seen his shadow? We linger in the warmth of the hot tent once again this morning before braving the elements. The consensus is to head for Snipe lake once we get going.

Scott noticed an interesting consequence of the condensation from Shawn's stove pipe. Fortunately it causes us no problems on our trip, and is just a fascinating ice formation.

Soon we are retracing our route from yesterday. Eventually we cut off and head east towards the Snipe lake portage. It is a glorious bluebird day with no wind to hinder our progress. It appears that someone has already traversed this portage with a toboggan as well. But, curiously, the toboggan tracks do not continue all the way to Snipe. We surmise that whoever made these tracks must've been looking for the Mavis lake portage and erroneously started down this trail.

Once we past the toboggan trail, we follow the animal tracks down to Snipe lake. Fox, fisher, rabbit & wolf tracks are all seen. In fact, I break trail across Snipe lake following the remnants of a wind blown wolf tracks all the way to campsite #554 were we take a break.

In the midst of re-hydrating & snacking, Shawn & Mark regale the rest of the riff-raff with their mastery of fire starting. Our patrol leader Mark shows why he has earned that title by out dueling Shawn.

While all the lakes we visited on this trip were beautiful in their own right, everyone agreed that Snipe was definitely the pick of the litter. The view of the narrows just south of this campsite was particularly scenic. Unsure of the ice conditions through the narrows, we avoided closer inspection and admired the scene from afar.

After our short break we pushed eastwards through the narrow pinch of the peninsula and gazed upon that section of the lake for awhile before eventually retracing our trail back towards camp.

Once back on Missing Link, Shawn wanted to see what the Mavis lake portage was all about. So, I volunteered to go with him while the rest of the gang headed back to camp. On our hike back to Mavis lake Shawn was impressed that we were able to get a loaded toboggan back here. Shawn also pointed out a spot where a grouse had dove into the snow just off the trail & spent the night.

Back at camp Mark & Shawn continued their fire starting competition.

Well, if you haven't figured out by now? Mark is our principal menu planner & chef. Tonight he would achieve his zenith of wilderness cooking. He worked his way backwards. Starting with the apple pie for dessert.

As anyone who has ever cooked anything in a dutch oven knows, it is a time consuming process. Especially in the winter. Fortunately for us, John did a masterful job of coal maintenance and stove rotation. The rest of us kept up the conversation around the fire & Shawn even snuck off to do some reading & keep the apple pie warm while waiting for supper.

The main course was a venison & wild rice stew. The recipe even called for 2 cups of sauvingnan blanc wine which Mark had along. After the stew was nearly finished, a layer of biscuits was added to the top to bake. This was certainly a highly sophisticated, dare I say cultured, recipe that my gruff, red neck palate had never seen the likes of.

Well, I'm going on record to say that, to date, this was easily the best meal I've ever had the pleasure of consuming in a wilderness setting. Regardless of season. Looking back, this meal was certainly one of, if not THE, highlights of the trip.

Shawn pulled out his homemade raspberry tea as our final night cap. I'm not sure how it actually got started? But, eventually everyone was croaking out the Don McClean anthem "American Pie". It was a something of a serendipitous moment when I realized that tonight actually was the anniversary of the day the music died. I think it's safe to say we all went to bed with satisfyingly full bellies. Since we were heading out tomorrow, it was really a grand culmination to the trip.

Missing Link Lake, Snipe Lake, Mavis Lake