Thursday, June 13, 2024

We were on the water on Thursday morning by 7:30 AM and headed towards Pocket Creek with the ultimate goal of making it to Oyster Lake for the night. I decided to bring the toy soldiers with us, partly because LNT does mean LNT to me, and partly because they had become a unique little treasure and reminder of this visit to LLC.

The day started off with a light but steadily increasing breeze from the west/NW with lots of sunshine. We made quick work of most of LLC but the winds were up quite a bit by the time we reached Pocket Creek and surprisingly Ge-be-on-a-quet was a white capped mess. We had a rough crossing and it was Curt's first time in waves that big in his Magic, but both canoes handled it well and made it safely to the portage to Green. Perhaps that windy trek or the portage itself took more out of me than I thought, but I stumbled on a slippery rock and fell fully face first into the water on the Green side of that portage and banged my knee hard on a rock. It was scraped up and continued to stiffen and swell throughout the day. Thankfully it was warm enough for me not to get chilled.

There was a short burst of rain while we portaged between Green and Rocky lakes, after which the mosquitoes intensified greatly. It was almost as if each drop brought one more flying nuisance with it. We stopped on Rocky Lake to check out those pictos. Not much there but still a very cool palisade. Rocky is a very pretty lake and I wish we would have had more time to explore it.

When we got to Oyster, we could see the island pinch-point site was taken. With strong but steady SW winds funneling into that part of lake, we hugged shore along the island and checked out the other 2 island sites, neither of which were to our liking. We made the decision to cross the lake and head straight east to the site near the Oyster River portage as the winds didn't seem as bad in that portion of the lake. Less than half way into the 3/4 mile crossing, the winds shifted and nearly doubled in speed and the entire lake went instantly to 2 1/2-3 foot waves. After a very tense 10-15 minutes of riding the waves and tacking through the troughs, we got to shore safely. It was the most worried I've ever been in a canoe but everyone handled it well and stayed calm. We agreed afterwards that while what happened was not predictable, we would do our best to not allow ourselves to get into that type of predicament in the future.

After landing at the open site, catching our breath and starting to unload, Curt’s canoe flipped up into the wind and went flying off the rocks back into the lake. The waves luckily pushed it into shore not far from camp and we had to wade in to retrieve it. Yet another lesson learned- under the right (or wrong) circumstance, canoes can indeed fly. The canoe got some new scratches but other than that and some wet clothes, things were all ok. Heavy rains mixed with bouts of wind came and went, but most of those cloudbursts thankfully stayed to our south.

With the winds they way they were, we didn't have an option to go out fishing or do much of anything. The sun came back out in the later afternoon and we quickly noticed that the large uprooted tree near the water's edge was a garter snake sunning spot. Multiple snakes were there warming back up after the rain and wind from earlier. Curt and I explored a trail leading from camp to the portage. He found an old weather beaten set of antlers near that portage, a nice surprise for what had been a day full of bad ones to that point.

The winds did die down enough for late evening into dark that we fished for about 90 minutes, but no luck once again. The skies completely cleared by dark and the star watching was perfect. Temps dropped quickly after the clearing and ended up in the upper 40's overnight, but we were all well-tucked in and sleeping by that time.