June 11 - We got up for breakfast, and Peter had already caught a nice Smallmouth (we don’t eat bass, especially bass as large as the one pictured). After breaking camp, we paddled toward Peterson Bay and the Island site was open, so I checked it out while Peter fished the bay. I got many pictures of the campsite and the island and was getting ready to join Peter and work toward Curtain Falls to stay on Crooked that night, when I got careless and my Nikon D7200 fell into the water, drowned, and would never take another picture. I was wet and trying to dry my camera out, so Peter agreed to spend the night on the island. After spending time drying everything out and hoping my camera would come back to life, I accepted its loss and made plans to paddle over to Curtain Falls with my Lumix. Peter caught just enough to fill us for the night, so we ate, cleaned up, and I went to Curtain Falls.
My first time to Curtain Falls was amazing, as the water was extremely high and fast moving. Amazing to see the power of the water flowing from Crooked into Iron. This is turning into a wonderful trip with excellent adventures and seeing things I doubted I would ever be able to, knowing that I have to take care of myself and maintain my strength as I grow older if I want to continue having adventures like this. Words cannot describe the beauty and wonder of Curtain Falls, at least the way I put words together cannot express my reactions to these wonderful areas, so I will let my pictures speak.
Time goes by so fast and civilization beckons our return just as we get into the rhythm of the wilderness. Knowing the paddle back to the island would take quite a while, I left before I wanted to, knowing I would return in the morning as we moved onto Crooked for a day or two. The saddest part of the day was realizing I would be limited in the quality of pictures for the rest of the trip. I was not upset about the camera, more upset that I had gotten careless and not following my protocol of putting the camera in a waterproof bag for all entry and exit of the canoe. However, I was not going to let the loss affect the remainder of my trip, as this was a dream trip, and each year it seemed like we had a better, more epic trip in the BWCA.
I had a nice paddle back to the campsite, meeting Peter by Three Island on the east point. Upon arrival, we turned in for the night in preparation for the move to Crooked.