Sunday, May 21, 2021

The temp dropped precipitously overnight. We woke to a chilly 40 degrees and strong east winds blowing straight down the narrow lake in front of our campsite. Fog swept down the lake like an unrelenting fog machine was stuck on overdrive at the end of the lake. Josef noted how warm the water felt against the cold biting wind.

We got the Zoleo out and sent an automated “I’m okay” check-in message home to let our peeps at home know we were doing okay.

We heated water on the cookstove and enjoyed a breakfast of cocoa, coffee, instant apple cinnamon oatmeal, and more bacon (mmmmm….). As we finished our breakfast, the winds kept coming and the cold remained bitter. Josef asked to snuggle in the tent to warm up – who am I to say no? We snuggled up together in our sleeping bags and eventually started an epic day-long cribbage tourney, with a little canoe exploration and fishing thrown in when conditions allowed.

Winds topped out at about 10-12 mph, maybe a little stronger, throughout the day, which limited our canoe fishing. But we gave it a try when winds dipped a bit, paddling into the wind and trolling as the wind blew us back toward camp. We thought of letting the wind blow us all the way to the pinch point in the lake past the other eastside campsite, under the theory that walleyes might be following the bait fish downwind. But we were concerned about winds potentially picking up beyond our ability to comfortably paddle back to camp. So we made a couple more paddles upwind and trolled back to camp without catching anything. We spent way more time managing snags in strong winds than actually fishing, but I have to say we had whole lot of fun trying. We eventually switched gears, had lunch and went back to the tent to warm up and play more cribbage.

We knew we wanted a fire for supper and smores. And we were still a bit chilly. So we set off to prove true the old maxim that "a campfire warms you twice” and went to find and process some fire wood. We found a downed tree outside of camp and I went to work with the saw and hatchet while Josef harvested various sizes of small dry sticks for kindling, somehow finding some that were protected from yesterday’s rain. There was a definite sense of accomplishment after we organized our stacks of kindling and firewood next to the fire grate. And we were warm! There’s truth to be found in the ol' saws.

All that work got us hungry, too, and Josef was anxious to try the dehydrated hash browns we picked up at Johnson’s Foods. So we decided on an early supper and got the fire going and the spuds hydrating. This was my first time using our new BWJ cast-aluminum fry pan and it worked great with the hashbrowns. Was hoping we’d be frying a bunch of fish on this trip, but that would have to wait for another trip. Instead, we crumbled our remaining bacon into the frying hashbrowns and added seasoning. So fun to see Josef’s eyes go wide open with approval with his first bite. We supplemented the hashbrowns with slices of summer sausage and other yummies and then Josef was ready to dive into the smores, passing up another opportunity to eat the ramen he spent months planning to eat in the woods.

I got a head start organizing packs and gear for breaking camp the next morning and we fished from shore a bit more (without success) until the wind and cold again motivated Josef to suggest more cribbage in the tent. The Epic Cribbage Throwdown was back on.

We were getting pretty cold again as daylight waned, so we bundled up in pretty much all of our layers (think Joey Tribbiani) and snuggled into our sleeping bags. I was feeling particularly tired after getting little to no sleep our first night (I reeeeally missed my hammock). And, almost deliriously tired, I turned in early as Josef played more cribbage on my phone and reread some of the book he finished the previous day.