Monday, September 10, 2012 Today was a much better day. The goal was to make it back to Insula, snag an island site, and lounge the rest of the day. We woke up right at dawn and immediately broke down camp and loaded the canoe. The food bag was out for a quick breakfast of granola bars and dried fruit. I was about halfway through my bar and my Mom was just finishing packing her bag when Dad told her to be quiet. He thought he heard something in the bay. Just then, the most horrible sound reached my ears: a low moaning bellow. It was much too close for comfort and our immediate thought was “That’s not a beaver!” I threw my food back in the bag and punted it into the canoe while my dad dragged it to the lake. I ran over to my Mom and grabbed her bag out of her hands and shoo-ed her to the canoe too. We shoved off and I immediately began booking it to the portage while my dad tried to see what it was. We never saw it, but we are 99% sure it was a moose that was struggling through the large amounts of blow down surrounding the site.

Fraser Lake was fairly calm this morning, which was great because it took a while to reach the other side. We met some other early morning paddlers with the same idea as us. Finally back into a smaller lake: Kiana. The fall colors are really popping now. The blueberry and diervilla turned plum purple and the maples yellow and scarlet. When we finally reached Insula again, there was only a short diagonal trek between us and “home.” We set up camp on Williamson Island, a small rocky island only inhabited by mice and a red squirrel. A welcome change from Shepo. We relaxed on the rocky front porch with oatmeal and coffee in hand because we had missed breakfast that morning. The wind picked up again but our site was well protected. After a very short tour of the island, we took our appointed baths and had a nice afternoon tea on the rocks. The only thing to watch out for on this site was the abundance of mice rummaging all around. Heard wolves again in the distance. Not too many loons on this trip, though. Watched shooting stars under the chilly clear sky until the fire dwindled. A much more relaxing evening. I think I’ll sleep well tonight. ~Shepo Lake, Fraser Lake, Thomas Lake, Kiana Lake, Insula, Lake