Sunday, August 23, 2026 Day 3
We woke up at the beginning of our first full day on Tuscarora.
It was a chilly morning, so we got right to boiling water for hot coffee. For Christmas, my parents had gotten me a Stanley pour-over camping coffee set. When I first got it, I was adamant that I would never pack something like that into the BWCA. It was a luxury item. Extra weight. Extra space. More stuff to carry over those miserable portages. But honestly, it makes really good coffee. And for this trip, I wanted to bring it. Beka loves coffee, and I wanted to provide all the comforts I could for her first trip, even if that meant hauling a few extra ounces over the Tuscarora Portage. So we had our fancy camping coffee and some delicious oatmeal to go with it.
After breakfast, we packed a day bag, changed into our canoe clothes, and hopped in the boat for our first adventure of the day. The morning was overcast and windy as we set off across Tuscarora toward the bay where I had caught the giant northern a few years earlier. As we crossed the lake, the wind was hitting us from the side, sending small rollers toward the canoe. Nothing too serious, but enough to make us work a little harder. We muscled our way across and eventually made it into the bay, where the water immediately calmed down. It was a completely different experience. The wind that had been pushing us around on the open lake barely seemed to exist once we were tucked back into the bay. We paddled around exploring, and Beka graciously allowed me to soak a fishing line while she did the actual work of paddling us around. No luck with the fish. To be fair, I wasn't trying particularly hard either.
After circling the bay, we made our way back toward the entrance. Unfortunately, the wind from the northwest was waiting for us. Right in the face. We still wanted to keep exploring, so we locked in and paddled hard toward the protection of the island in the middle of the lake. It's amazing how quickly things can change on a big lake. One minute you're fighting the wind and waves, and a few minutes later you're behind an island and the water becomes almost completely calm. We rested for a bit in the middle of the lake before continuing toward one of the bays in the northwest part of Tuscarora. We found a nice spot to pull over and stopped for lunch. The menu was an assortment of dried meats, pepper and original beef jerky, and pistachios. It was a good lunch. It was also extremely salty. We polished off both of our waters pretty quickly. By this point, the wind was starting to pick up again, but something else was changing too. The sun was coming out. What happened next was one of those little pieces of magic that are hard to plan for. The morning had started completely overcast, with clouds packed tightly across the sky. But now they were beginning to break apart. At first, there were just a few small openings, little patches of blue appearing between the clouds. Then the openings grew. And grew. And grew. Before long, the clouds were becoming the exception rather than the rule. The gray morning had turned into a bluebird day.
We rounded the island and headed back toward camp, mostly because we needed to refill our water. The wind was still blowing pretty hard, but the sunshine had completely changed the feel of the day. While our water was filling, we decided to explore around camp a little more. We hiked in all directions for quite a while, following the man- and game-made trails to see what was around us. Eventually, on the north side of the campsite, we discovered something we hadn't noticed before: a really nice sandy, shallow beach area.
It looked perfect for swimming, with the exception that it wasn't protected from the wind. By the time we made our way back to camp, the clouds were almost completely gone and the temperature had climbed enough that swimming suddenly seemed like a very good idea. We changed into our swimsuits and walked out into the crystal-clear water. It was cold. Very cold. Tuscarora is a deep lake, so the water never really gets to what I would consider a comfortable temperature. But there is something about getting into cold water where, if you can just convince yourself to go all the way in, it eventually becomes bearable. I ventured out far enough to dunk my head. This was a lengthy process. There was a lot of squealing. Eventually, I made it under. I hurried back toward shore and joined Beka on a lightly submerged rock shelf that had warmed nicely in the afternoon sun. The rock was almost perfect, just enough of it above the water to sit comfortably, with the lake gently lapping around us. And we stayed there for more than two hours. We lounged on the rocks, laughed, talked, and enjoyed simply being there together. No schedule. No meetings. No errands. No daycare pickup. No packing. No driving. Just us, the water, the trees, the rocks, and the sound of the wilderness around us.
How can you not get a little romantic about nature in a moment like that? It's moments like these that make it impossible for me not to think spiritually. Sitting there in the middle of all that beauty, it was hard not to feel grateful for the opportunity to experience it. What a gift of God's greatness, to be able to step away from the busyness of regular life and find something this beautiful right at our fingertips.
Eventually, the sun had passed its peak and started its slow journey back toward the horizon. We reluctantly made our way back to camp and started thinking about dinner. Tonight's menu was chicken and dumplings and beef stroganoff. Served in bags. Now, I am not a fan of freeze-dried meals. They're convenient, sure, but one of the things I love about camping is cooking over a fire for the group. It's an experience I look forward to on every trip. Unfortunately, with the fire ban in place, that wasn't an option. Luckily, over the years, I've talked so much trash about bagged meals that they apparently had nowhere to go but up. And they did. The meals far exceeded Beka's expectations, and she actually loved them. I still think they are ho-hum...
But, I guess some things are worth complaining about.
After dinner, we cleaned everything up, set up the bear hang, and headed back toward the large rock surface near the water. We brought out the cribbage and dominoes and settled in for the evening. The sun continued dropping lower and lower, and we eventually said goodnight to it. As we sat there watching the sunset, something caught our attention. A line of what looked like loons was swimming toward us from the north side of camp. Then another. And another. We started counting. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Eventually, we counted more than 40 of them. I'm pretty sure they weren't actually loons, because if they were, that would have to be some kind of BWCA loon convention. Whatever they were, watching that many birds moving together across the lake during sunset was pretty incredible. The setting sun was throwing warm light across the water as they slowly made their way past our campsite, occasionally diving beneath the surface to feed. We just sat there and watched them go, trying to take in the whole scene at once.
As the last light disappeared, the moon began to take over the sky. We were blessed with a big, bright, beautiful moon hanging over the lake. The moon was so bright that we didn't get the full experience of the stars that night. Normally, that's one of my favorite parts of being in the BWCA. The darkness out here can be incredible, and on a clear night the sky feels almost impossibly big. But I wasn't disappointed. There was something pretty special about sitting on those rocks with the moon lighting up the lake, reflecting across the water and making the shoreline just visible enough to see. By this point, it was getting late. But neither of us really wanted to go to bed.
It had been a perfect day, and we knew tomorrow wouldn't be quite the same. We would be packing up, leaving Tuscarora, and heading back toward the real world. So we stayed there a little longer. We wanted to soak in every last moment we could.
Eventually, common sense won out. With no fire to keep us warm and a long day ahead of us, we decided it was time to get some sleep. We both slept really well that night.