It rained most of the evening and although the sun has now risen, the air temperature remains cool (that’s about as charitable as it can be stated). Hot drinks are savored under the CCS tarp as irresolutely the wheels of breakfast preparation are set in motion. It’s a slow-moving morning as light showers and gusts of wind sporadically accentuate the already unseasonable miserably cold weather.

It’s early August but I don’t know if we broke 50 degrees today! Couple that with the intermittent showers & wind that persisted throughout, and it’s easy to understand that everyone just stayed in/near camp all day. Lots of nap time and the kids made LT. a “healthy” natural meal with whatever plants they could scrounge up around camp. FYI: He wasn’t impressed. Still, this is the first trip I’d done with Lt. Dan & Jodi in several years, so we had fun reminiscing about some of our past adventures. And since nothing much happened here today, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the sordid details of one of those ‘not to be forgotten’ past trips when we camped on Disappointment Lake.

We (LT. Dan, his kids John & Jodi, his cousin Charlie, and my buddy Kelly & myself) were fortunate to have grabbed the SE most site on Disappointment Lake on that windy day. Apparently, the last open site on the lake as several parties came by shortly after (and throughout the day) asking if/when we planned on leaving and said all other sites were full.

I believe this may have been one of the very first trips with my Hilleberg tent. As we were all getting set up LT. Dan quipped, “So, how much did you spend on that tent?” I don’t remember the exact cost, but I believe I said something to the effect of, “Several hundred dollars.” LT Dan then exclaimed, “Holy shit! I got mine at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. Sure, it doesn’t have the factory poles, but how big a deal is that anyway? It’ll keep us dry. Why would you spend so #%^*ing much money on a tent?!” I absorbed his verbal assault without commenting.

We had a great time fishing and exploring throughout the trip. On the day before we would be leaving, we paddled back to see Cattyman Falls. After getting across the portage to Jitterbug Lake, John was trying to hop into my canoe and instantly sunk up to his equator, Charlie grabbed him before we lost him altogether! After paddling across the lake, we proceeded to take the next portage into Adventure Lake. John was walking ahead of everyone else and as he walked the trail; a couple of long, mud caked pinecones fell out of his pants' legs. Since it literally looked exactly like that, Charlie was quick to quip, “That sinkhole must’ve literally scared the shit out of you John!”

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the waterfall; John was mercifully able to rinse off, and then we had a much less memorable trip back to Disappointment Lake. However, once we put back in on Disappointment it was evident that the wind was really blowing out of the east. As we were about to round the last corner before camp, I told John to paddle with everything he had on the right side otherwise we wouldn’t make the turn once we started coming around the big point. We struggled mightily but made it. Kelly & Charlie paddled like mad-men and made it as well. Lastly, Lt., Dan & Jodi come out from behind the point and just got blown to the other side of the lake. They joined us in camp a couple hours later after circumventing the better percentage of the southern lakeshore!

Those winds were crazy, and they only intensified as evening fell. Per my usual routine, I inevitably had to crawl out of my tent to relieve myself at 0’dark thirty. The winds were really howling but, I took satisfying solace in the fact that my Hilleberg tent was rock solid. There also wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the moonlight was stunning. It also served to illumine LT. Dan’s tent across the way. I couldn’t help but notice that every time the wind blew, (since it had the wrong poles) his tent would go ‘flat’, and I could clearly discern 4 heads getting incessantly slapped in the face by the exceedingly loose tent wall.

Early the next morning, I inquisitively questioned LT. Dan about how he had slept, adding that the cherry red coloring on his forehead didn’t look like sunburn. After he wearily admitted it didn’t go so well last night, I then inquired, “How much would you have paid for a decent tent last night?!”

Below I've attached some old photos I unearthed from that fateful trip.

Ultimately, while it was cold today, we had a great time sharing these old stories and the communal belly laughs helped ensure that no one froze. Still, the way Lt. Dan was walking around barefoot all day; you'd never know that it only reached about 50 degrees for a high temperature!

~Perent Lake