Turtle Tales
by straighthairedcurly
Up early today and on the water by 9 or 9:30 after a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. The first portage was the long one for the day (225 rods), but we single portaged it. Morgan and I each took one rest break, her with a pack on a rock and me with the canoe bridged in some trees. Much of the path was flat so I could trot or fast walk. The next portage had a rougher, boulder strewn landing at the start, but was okay after that. Just rockier than the 1st portage. The 3rd portage was super short and made a nice lunch spot even though it was only 11am. Joey really burns through the calories! This portage was super crowded with day trippers and overnight folks passing through, but there were rock slopes overlooking the creek that kept us out of everyone's way.
As we came out of the narrows leading to Jack Lake, we noticed a canoe well ahead of us had stopped and put their hands up to signal us to stop. We floated quietly trying to figure out what they were watching. Then we floated around the corner and spotted the momma moose with 2 calves feeding in the shallows by shore. They were munching away close to a campsite, but those people had no idea. We contentedly watched for quite awhile, especially since these were the 1st moose Morgan had ever seen. We were all thrilled, but her most of all!
As we paddled on toward the 72 rod portage at the south end of Jack Lake, Morgan's back started to have spasms. I gave her some ibuprofen and magnesium. Then I rubbed some Biofreeze on it. She said the "Biofreeze feels like mint tastes." On the portage, we had her just walk and Joey doubled back for her pack. We decided to camp asap so when the site right after the portage was open, we took it. Kind of a crummy site without much shade on this hot afternoon. We set up the tent without the fly or stakes. Then we just moved it around to find the shadiest spots as the sun moved across the sky.
There was a nice path over to a nearby creek that was good for swimming...until Joey got a leech on his back. I took Stew out fishing but it was very shallow. As we started prepping dinner, Morgan suddenly shrieked, "A turtle! A baby turtle!" Sure enough there were 2 baby turtles in a hollow spot in the dirt with a hole just big enough for them to poke up their little faces. Then as our mac and cheese noodles finished cooking, a female painted turtle strolled out of the lake and into the middle of our campsite. She proceeded to dig a nest and lay her eggs over the course of 60+ minutes. We sat mesmerized, afraid to move and scare her off in the midst of her labors. We managed to eat and clean up without crossing the campsite. Bt now the sun was getting low and we needed to get things picked up. Fortunately, she was unconcerned by our slow careful movements around the campsite. The turtle watching has been AMAZING this trip!
After dark, I got up to see if the baby turtles were digging out to make a break for it, but I didn't get very far when I noticed another painted turtle digging a nest. By the time we got up in the morning there were no fewer than 6 nests dug all over our campsite. It was definitely an ideal nesting area for them! BTW, the babies were still in place in the morning. Not sure what their deal was.
Travel time: 3.5 hours, Distance: 4.5 miles, Portages: 364 rods,
~South Temperance Lake, Weird Lake, Jack Lake, Kelly Lake
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