Little Indian Sioux River north
by Bannock
It’s 7:00 a.m., I’m awake, and it’s raining. It doesn’t last long, though. We wait for it to stop before having a quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and tea. Still, we are on the water by 9:30 backtracking through the portages we have done previously.
We run into 9 girl scouts on the 280-rod portage from Ruby to Lynx. They were very nice, with a great attitude, but slow. We gave them plenty of time to get ahead of us, but we caught up with them at the end of the portage. They were taking a break and congratulating each other on completing the portage. When we arrived they congratulated us, too. I guess that we did an “awesome job” on the portage. I told you they were nice.
Our plan was to spend our next night on Shell. We passed a couple of sites that were filled and decided to head to Con Island to see if anything was available. Oh, the lake was looking full already. There were people at the southern most site, so we decided to circumnavigate the island counterclockwise. The next site was occupied. We rounded the northern point, and that site, too, was taken. We decide to continue around the island and head for the southern shore of the lake to check out those sites. When we reached to the southern end of Con Island again we noticed the people there before were gone. Either they had just stopped for lunch or had just pulled out. We claimed the site.
We were lucky. Within 10 minutes we had two groups stop by to ask if we were leaving. Nope. Over the next few hours we had several groups come by looking for an open site. I think it safe to say that Shell had no vacancies that night. In fact I’m sure it was filled well before 2:00.
By 1:00 p.m. we were setting up our home. It is a huge site! It is very pretty, open, and spread out. You could probably set up six, state-park-family-size tents at this site. Julie and I each had our tents pitched well away from one another in grassy areas under huge pine trees.
The kitchen/fire pit area is on an open spot on the point. Our “living room” is on the point with a view. We have both sunny and shady areas and a great breeze. The stuff we packed up wet in the morning dries quickly. Our home also has the best swimming pool ever. On Emerald Lake we were king and queen, here on Shell Lake we are simply filthy rich. I actually feel guilty having this entire site for just the two of us.
Supper tonight is Lipton Chicken Rice Side dish and foil chicken. Dessert is another Jim Balow idea – a “lunchbox” cup of chocolate pudding. Good stuff. I also made bannock in the reflector over. Previously on this trip we’ve also made garlic cheese biscuits, and brownies. The reflector oven is getting good use.
The sky tonight is fairly clear and the moon is out. We stay up “late” to watch it a bit. I’m not in bed until 10:30.
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